Where's the D&D Mass Combat System?

I get asked a lot, "Why doesn't the DMG have a mass combat system?" Good question. Unfortunately, the answer is, "We weren't allowed to put one in." Why? Because Chainmail was coming, and Chainmail was going to be the D&D mass combat system. Now, not only did Wizards of the Coast drop Chainmail like a hot potato, but by the time it finally came out, it was no longer a mass combat game.

Sigh.

So last year, I approached Skip Williams and said, "Wouldn't it be cool to put together the mass combat system that we would have put in the core rules?" He agreed. And make no bones about it, if the D&D core rulebooks had had a mass combat system, Skip would have written it.

We sat down and had a few concept sessions. We wanted to make it more than just a tacked-on wargame -- it had to really feel like D&D. And it couldn't just be a medieval combat simulation. It had to integrate magic and monsters from the ground up. Again, to make it feel like the game we love.

It had to be able to resolve a whole war quickly, managing the resources of different kingdoms and pitting them against one another. It had to be able to resolve a whole battle quickly, no matter how many combatants were involved. However, it had to give the DM the option to handle things more slowly. The system had to incorporate player characters, whether they were in the middle of a battlefield on their own, as a part of a unit, as commanders, or if the party formed itself into a battlefield unit all its own. The characters involved had to be able to do whatever they could normally do in the same amount of time as in a regular fight.

A tall order.

Then Skip went off and worked very hard. He sent it out to playtesters and got feedback. He brought over the rules and we playtested it here. Skip got more feedback.

Cry Havoc is the result.

To put it succinctly, this really is the way to handle big battles in your D&D game. It meets all the goals we set out for it and more. And it offers extensive material describing how to incorporate a war in your campaign setting and explaining the effects it will have.

Cry Havoc is the mass combat system the core rules would have had if we could have put one in.