Swarm Tactics

Mechanics for fighting and creating Swarms in Under the Fourth Kingdom (or any ttrpg).

As I venture into number 4 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen novels, I couldn’t help but be inspired to adjust one of the new Scourges that PCs can face in the upcoming Zine Two add-on for Under the Fourth Kingdom.

Originally I was planning for a rat infestation that would have many different kinds of rats: giant, poisonous, undead etc. that might culminate in a final showdown with an insane pied piper mastermind.

However, I decided to go with something, hopefully, much more interesting and cinematic that will make your dreg become a legend in victory - or death.

In the Malazan series, there are creatures called D’ivers that are made up of many smaller creatures with a single controlling mind (these beings are WAY more complicated in the novels of course and I highly suggest checking out the Malazan series).

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I have been tinkering with mechanics to offer a fun way to combat swarms of various types and sizes; from low level encounters (such as a puddle size group of Flesh Eating Beetles) all the way up to a full on swarm deluge (Massive pack of miniscule Crazed Lizards).

Testing is going well and I thought I would share the mechanics so far:

The Trait for the foe is called Swarm X, where X represents the size of the swarm. Each Swarm Level has a Vigour (Hit Point) Pool that denotes overall size rather than individual numbers. Each level also has a number of attacks with larger swarms giving a penalty to your defense roll.

Swarm Level  Vigour   Attacks  Defense Modifier  Attack Modifier   
1            10        1       -                 -    
2            25        2       -                 -    
3            50        3       -1                +1
4            80        4       -2                +2
5            120       5       Disadvantage      Advantage

As damage to the swarm reduces Vigour, the Swarm reduces in size, level and efficacy. A Swarm 4 would become Swarm 3 when its Vigour is reduced to 50 and so on.

Massive Swarms are very powerful and hard to defend against - overwhelming.

All Swarms are Weak to Blast Damage, with differing types having other weaknesses or resistances.

I like how it allows for creating low level encounters of various swarm creature types all the way up legendary type encounters with massive deadly sized swarms.

I am know I am not inventing the wheel by any means - but this feels like a good balance of crunch and simplified for mechanics.

I feel like unprepared PCs may be easily overwhelmed, but those that prepare well can overcome great foes such as Resneb the Boundless (Swarm 10). Yes, this is a direct homage to a specific D’vers creature from the Malazan Novels.

Zine Two will be the second free add-on for Under the Fourth Kingdom - a dungeon delving solo ttrpg. Check it out on my itch page: Under the Fourth Kingdom.

What else am I working on?

I have enough material for Zine Three for Under the Fourth Kingdom.

Guilds of Mourneth: A mission based game where you can create a roster and take missions in groups of 1-3 depending on character expertise.

Ghelador Campaign setting will be larger overall project tying everything together. I have a sub-setting in mind called The Fall of Velholm that centers on the area where the Arcane Arts are studied and developed.

I’ll be moving on to finishing art over the next few weeks and am looking forward to adding the new backgrounds, depth levels and Scourges in Zine Two!

Happy gaming!