The Combat Codex: A Game-Changer

Mass Combat in TTRPGs

Mass combat in tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) can be both thrilling and challenging. However, it’s no secret that large-scale battles often risk pulling focus away from the players. These epic moments, while spectacular, can quickly become unwieldy for GMs (Game Masters) to manage, especially when trying to balance hundreds of combatants and still ensure the adventurers remain central to the story.

Enter the Combat Codex, featured in the upcoming release of the Skinny Complete. This tool offers a fresh approach to running large-scale battles by pre-determining combat results before the game, all while keeping your players as the heroes driving the story. Here’s how and why the Combat Codex can revolutionize your TTRPG sessions.

Why Pre-Determine Mass Combat Results?

Mass combat outcomes can feel overwhelming for both the GM and the players. It’s more than just rolling dice; it’s about logic, strategy, and flow. Pre-determining the result of large-scale battles allows the GM to start the session with the “big picture” already resolved. This means the players’ efforts don’t vanish into chaos but actively shape the narrative within a directed and purposeful framework.

The Players Are the Heroes (And Should Feel Like It!)

At its heart, every TTRPG is about the players. They are the main characters, the crux of the story. If their actions don’t influence the outcome of a battle, then why are they even there? Using the Combat Codex allows the GM to map out the overall result of a conflict but still leave space for the players to impact how it happens.

For example, while you might establish beforehand that the opposing army is victorious, it’s up to the party to derail a supply line, assassinate the enemy general, or lead a hail-mary defense to stall the advance. These micro-objectives directly affect the broader narrative, giving your players agency and making their decisions the driving engine of success or failure.

GMs can build these modular player-influenced events into the combat, knowing exactly what needs to change for the larger outcome to shift. This creates a dynamic experience where the players’ choices genuinely matter without overloading anyone with bookkeeping.

How the Combat Codex Works

The Combat Codex draws inspiration from historical strategies like Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to create outcomes grounded in logic and believability. The system analyzes key advantages (or disadvantages) of each faction, breaking these down into simple, actionable categories such as resources, morale, terrain, leadership, and strategy.

Instead of resolving an enormous number of rolls in-play, the GM uses the Combat Codex to determine factors like:

• Which side has the stronger position?
• How do environmental conditions influence the battle?
• What critical turning points exist that players can exploit?

The Codex applies these variables to produce a realistic, story-driven result. For instance, if one side controls the high ground, has a disciplined army, and outperforms their opponent’s supply chain, the odds tilt in their favor. However, with this pre-framed outcome, the GM can plant specific player-driven opportunities for unexpected shifts. Maybe the high ground becomes irrelevant if the players collapse a cliff or draw the enemy into a trap.

This system doesn’t just work for medieval high fantasy. Since the principles in The Art of War are universal, the Combat Codex works perfectly across genres—for sci-fi battles onboard star cruisers, cyberpunk gang wars, or Napoleonic-era skirmishes. Scale the framework to match your game’s specific tone, and it seamlessly guides the combat narrative.

The GM’s Secret Weapon

By resolving the “macro” outcome of a battle in advance, GMs gain several strategic advantages:

• Clear Story Goals: Pre-determined results help guide adventure design. If the players must steal war plans to ensure their army emerges victorious, that mission becomes both engaging and urgent.
• Logical Consistency: The Combat Codex ensures battles feel realistic and reflective of the setting. Your players will trust the results because they’re based on understandable in-game reasoning.
• Focus on Roleplay: Remove the burden of tracking every troop movement in real time and return the focus to character decisions, clever planning, and heroic deeds.

Take, for example, a siege scenario. Using the Codex, the GM determines that the attacking army will breach the city walls unless the adventurers disable the battering ram and demoralize the troops. Boom, there’s your adventure! The large-scale result becomes a backdrop, while the party takes center stage as the critical agents of change.

For All Genres, For Every Game

While the Combat Codex is debuting in Skinny Complete, its principles are so flexible that they can be applied to any genre. Whether you’re commanding fleets in a galaxy-spanning space opera or mustering orc tribes across a fantasy battlefield, the Codex ensures every combat runs smoothly.

By breaking down huge battles in advance, determining key factors, and framing the players’ influence points, you’ll transform mass conflicts from logistical nightmares into dramatic, smoothly executed storytelling moments. The end result is a harmonious experience where scale and narrative align, and the players shine as the main characters they were always meant to be.

Final Thoughts

The Combat Codex isn’t just a tool for the GM. It’s a philosophy for running large-scale combat with dramatic impact and player agency. By knowing the outcomes beforehand and focusing on what can change, you empower your players to steer the story without getting lost in the complications of mass-battle mechanics. After all, TTRPGs are about them.

When the Skinny Complete launches, don’t hesitate to incorporate the Combat Codex into your toolkit. It’s a small change that paves the way for monumentally epic storytelling in any setting.

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