Tactic Node Mechanics

The tactic node system is a way to show the importance of time passage, regional conflict, and give the player's a larger sense of scale over the course of a campaign. It uses "Adventure Nodes" to create a sense of "open world choice" as well as presenting a tug of war tactics with each adventure. The tactic node mechanic is used when you want to show the progress and strength of an enemy group that the party is getting pitted against, such as a cult, or enemy nation. Each of these nodes represents a location, such as a city or village, once "occupied" its respective sub-nodes can be pursued. It's also recommended that travel "between" major nodes is limited to certain paths, or at least the most optimal option, as to oppose random Node rushing. This could be explained through environmental, troop mobilization, or any other factor you desire. Additionally, the players may not start out as "commanders" of the group they are fighting with, this serves as a manner to show them how the system works without making major blunders.

Tactic Cycles

One of the major features of the Tactic node system is the concrete time system, it ties the concept of travel time, downtime, and adventuring time to a central resource and provides reason to care. Additionally it is crucial to adding the "breathing room" for the Tactics phase where the party makes choices at the beginning of a tactic cycle. It allows the party to choose downtime to improve themselves with measurable ramifications, it adds real conflict between the speed of different modes of travel, and with an enemy working against them, it creates urgency in which adventures they choose to pursue.

Each cycle is made up of X amount of adventures, these "adventure" slots can also be exchanged for downtime(which is sometimes needed to rest), travel or other activities. During the cycle, the party gets to designate their next "nodes" and time spent, as well as interact with the commander side of things such as allotting troops, scouting areas, and shifting resources. During this time, the "enemy" also chooses where to move, where to push challenges, where to "scout" and where to push board events.

Finally, there may be subnodes, or adventure hooks that only appear for certain periods of time, or last certain cycles providing buffs and rewards if completed.

Tactic Phase Flow

During each "Tactic Cycle", the players scope out to the regional map to determine the next course of actions of what will happen in the next cycle.

1) Enemy Mobilization Phase: In this phase, after the enemy decides where to allocate troops, moving their resources to nodes, or choosing to attack nodes and occupy nodes.

2) Scouting Phase: In this phase, if the player have "scouts" they may allocate any number of their scouts to nodes of their choice, doing so causes each scout to make a "perception" group check, which is buffed by the number of scouts allotted. Successful checks can reveal if enemy movement is coming into the Node, going out, and higher checks reveal other factors such as troop/settlement buffs or even identifying generals.

The enemy can attempt to "Stealthily" Mobilize, doing so opposes the check, increasing the DC based on how much influence the Enemy is moving Stealthily.

3) Player Mobilization Phase: In this phase, the players respond to their scouting phase (if any), choosing where they want to allot soldiers, generals, and other resources. Until the players unlock "Generals" they can only choose to move soldiers between occupied nodes.

Once they acquire generals, they can lead a "siege" on occupied nodes(based on influence). Troops and generals can only traverse one path to another linked "Settlement" per cycle, unless another effect such as a Sub-Node, or General Buff specifies otherwise.

This is also when they would move "specialty agents" such as troops from troop nodes, or builder's from armory nodes. These agents use their own ruleset for move distance, node travel, and the like than standard troops.

4) Adventure Designation Phase: Finally, the players declare how they will spend their adventure & travel actions, such as which node(s) they intend on adventuring to, or alternate methods of spending "adventure actions" such as travel or Downtime.

Normally, Players get 3 "Adventure Actions", and one "Travel Action". Players spend action points adventuring in nodes that they can reach, some Settlements may take 2 Adventure Actions to attempt. Alternatively, Players may also choose to spend their Adventure Actions to take additional travel Actions (See travel below) or to gain a day of "Downtime Activities" (downtime activities may be used for a long rest in some campaigns).

Occupation and Influence

The focus of the "tactics" map is for the players to see and interact with their and the enemies "Occupation" in the contested areas. Some enemies may gain intrinsic strength based on their overall Influence level, Influence can also serve to provide additional options for the enemy the players are fighting based on how much territory they occupy. Regardless, each Node occupied, and its subsequent subnodes completed provides their own benefits which assist in the overall mechanics of the tactics battlefield such as more troops, expanded armaments, or even powerful NPCs known as "generals" who provide node buffs and are more likely to hold a node during a siege (see below). In some of the more brutal games, the party can only Long rest in nodes they have "Occupation of" creating a hard timeline to establish a home base. In Brutal games, it may take a "downtime Activity" to long rest, effectively costing an adventure point.

A "Settlement" is occupied, either by the players completing its initial adventure, or through the players/their troops leading a successful siege on an enemy Occupied Settlement. The players then can spend adventure points to attempt any attached "Sub-Nodes" without additional cost or risk( see uncharted paths above). Attempting to attack a subnode directly (whether the Attached settlement is occupied or not) is a costly endeavor. adding additional challenges such as off trail travel (Terrain hazards, and endurance/survival mechanics) as well as a stronger challenge if the main node is occupied).

The occupation level of an enemy node represents how many troops are present in the specific node. Players attempting an enemy occupied node will either encounter the enemy in addition to the nodes base mission, or be directly confronting the enemy as the main mission based on the strength. While attacking a non occupied node may be seen as "easy", it only increases their presence, whereas attacking an occupied node lowers the enemies influence and potentially removes buffs from sub-nodes.

At laters levels, players can even move troops to attack, nodes, as opposed to simply reinforcing occupied nodes, once they get access to their own generals.

Specialty Agents

Special agents are more of a utility that allows you to improve sieges or aspects of your different Nodes. A list of potential specialty nodes, and their origin is below:
-Builders: Builders are gained from Armory nodes, allowing the players to construct implements of sieges to give them advantages. While occupying a Settlement, a Builder can create a "fortification" in that settlement which buffs its ability to defend against an enemy siege. If multiple Builders are in one Settlement, multiple different fortifications can be created, only stacking if their description specifies as such. Whenever a build leaves the settlement, one of its "fortifications" falls into disrepair and no longer provides its benefits. If the builder is a part of a mobilization from a Settlement they occupy, they can construct a "Siege Engine" which modifies the player's ability to siege a settlement. Multiple Builders can be mobilized as a part of an army, regardless all "Siege Engines" are destroyed at the conclusion of the siege. A Builder can only create "Fortifications" and "Siege Engines" that you control the Armory nodes for.
-Medics: Medics are gained from some Resource nodes, improving their occupied settlement's casualty recovery rate. While occupying a settlement, the Temple rate of its stat block is increased by an amount equal to the parties influence. Medic agents must be moved from one occupied settlement to another only, and can be moved up to once per mobilization phase.
-Troops: Troops are gained from Troop nodes, and bolster the players forces. They function as normal soldiers, however instead of becoming casualties, they are "destroyed" and respawn at a random "Troop Node". If one of the player's troop nodes are captured, the "capacity" it provided is removed from the available troop platoons on the field.

Travel

Player's (and soldiers) normally travel between Settlements and nodes through pre set "paths" shown on the tactics Map. Major Paths link Settlements to other nearby settlements, and Minor Paths link Settlements to their respective sub nodes. Moving along Major paths uses a "travel" action (usually characters get one free travel per cycle), while minor paths are an included part of spending an adventure action on a subnode. Unless specified otherwise, Generals, and troops can only be "Mobilized" along Major Paths and must be connected to the "target" settlement by a major path that is also connected to an occupied Settlement.

Unusual Travel. There are a few outlier scenarios that can come into play with moving between nodes, these only are options for players not mobilization of troops unless specified otherwise.
1) Multiple Movements - While the tactic Node map is supposed to simulate the slow movements of a war, on occasion players may want (or need) to get to a node more than one away from their current one. Players may spend their Adventure points in order to move along an additional "Major Path" for each adventure point they spend
2) Wilderness Travel - When players want to go directly from a settlement to a settlement or Sub-node that is not linked through a path(within reason), they can choose to "Navigate" their way to the location with risk of wasted time. When players choose to navigate, they must make a Navigators/Cartographer's Group Check as a part of taking the Travel Action. On failure, they become "lost" and must spend an adventure point to remake the check in order to arrive at the Node.
3) Cross Region Travel - In larger scale tactics campaigns, the players may be managing multiple different nearby regions, each with different "terrain hazards", enemy types and passive mechanics. In order to "cross" between regions, the players must be at a settlement that borders the other region. As a part of the travel action expended to cross regions, the players must make a check to determine how efficiently they cross over, costing an adventure point on failure. Failing the check does not cause the players to get lost however.
4) Vehicle Travel - If players have access to land or water vehicles, it can potentially boost efficiency of their travel. At least one player must have proficiency in a vehicle to use it, or players must have an NPC capable of controlling the vehicle. Some terrain is considered "hazardous" causing vehicle travel through this area to provoke a vehicle handling check against whoever is "Controlling" it. While using certain vehicles, players not in control of the vehicle may get downtime, or other benefits. Additionally, some vehicles (such as ships) provide "Shortcut" paths to move between farther than normal nodes using the Travel action.

Settlements (Main Nodes)

Settlements are the "Main Nodes" on the maps, they are connected to other nearby settlements through "Major Paths" and have attached "Sub-nodes" which serve as the adventure hooks of the area. Settlements that aren't simple villages, such as cities or guild towns usually have perks for when they are occupied, or even when the players reside in the Settlement.

Home Settlements are representative of the main base of each group, and often un-attackable unless strenuous circumstances arise. Often signalling the end of a campaign, or a strong shift in power. In multi region tactics campaigns, often times the enemies home capital is also the "Capital" of the region.

Capital Settlements on the other hand are "Empowered" challenges that take two "adventure actions" to complete, however they provide buffed versions of the normal subnodes to complete and benefit from the rewards of. Usually a region has one capital, and on tactics campaigns with multiple regions there is a capital in region.

Over the course of a tactics campaign, you will occupy and capture main nodes in order to progress and rest. Once a Settlement is "Occupied", whether it is captured by the players or an NPC siege, The Node initially generates "Soldiers" based on the number of occupants willing to join the cause. This is determined by a persuasion group check made by the party; For every increment of (6-town attitude) that the party exceeds 10, they gain a soldier, Those troops are then available at the next cycle to be moved and allocated if the players so choose.

Often times the "Occupation" of a Settlement is accomplished when the "Town Attitude" of the party becomes the "Friendly" threshold. Liberating a town that is occupied by the enemy force automatically "increases" this attitude, however sometimes factors that would normally lower the parties attitude score in an area can force them to continue gaining favor even after defeating an occupation. Alternatively, a settlement may be "Infiltrated" Meaning that the townsfolk are willing participants and allies of the enemy force, and are much further "resistant" to the Parties occupation, even if the town was originally "unoccupied".

Settlement Stat Blocks:
Each Village node has 3 "Bars" and a few other states
- Population: represents the amount of villagers able to be used as soldiers, vs the amount currently "active" as soldiers, this can be increased through the rouse downtime
- Occupation: Represents how many soldiers are stationed at the village, this is not related to the population as soldiers can be moved amongst villages. For simplicity of tracking, the Tactics map has a running total of all "available" Soldiers that are active on the map (including Casualties).
- Casualties: How many "Wounded" Soldiers are at that village, this number decreases by the village's "temple Rate" at the end of the cycle, adding the removed casualties to the Occupation bar. Casualties cannot be moved to other settlements unless specified otherwise.
- Temple Rate: This is a "dice roll" unique to each settlement, which is done at the start of each tactic cycle, to determine how many casualties are "Healed" and transferred back to the occupation bar.

Settlements can have "Node Effects" that are unique to them, representing a special environment or advanced building within the settlement. These can be learned through scouting, and range from modifications to attack rolls and damage taken in a siege protection for defending soldiers, to Better recovery or "healing" from casualties and buffs to players while in the settlement.

Adventure Hook (Sub-Node) Types:

The different Sub-nodes or "Adventure Hooks" a settlement can have are as follows, each has a unique "marker" on the map to designate it as such. Unless otherwise specified, a Sub-node can only be controlled (and providing benefit to) the side which is occupying its linked settlement (links are shown through the Minor paths).

-Troop Nodes: This node gives a "generated" source of troops, which are lost, instead of "casualties" during node attacks. They are often summons, constructs, undead, or elementals which are simply for the purpose of allotment.

-Armory Nodes: This node provides additional equipment, such as weapons, armor, or even siege engines and vehicles to empower you and your troops when attacking and defending main Nodes. They often take the form of Factories, or Trade towns.

-Forge Nodes: This Node is a way for the players to upgrade their items, it may range from temporary blessing, to permanent magic item blessing based on the campaign. It can also use a cooldown system, providing a buff for one adventure and being unavailable for x cycles. unlike the Armory node, this is more likely to be a structure like the temple of the Forge.

-Boost Nodes: These nodes function as a party wide "option" while occupied, in a prior campaign these where "constellation altars" providing new constellations to the stars druid, and astronomer wizard for example. They usually take the form of an additional "option" that makes sense with the party

-Tower Nodes: These nodes give access to a "General" NPC, each tower has a specific associated general, and lore wise determines why control of the tower switched out the control. Usually a puzzle based mini-boss must be defeated, however they are "merciful" allowing a party kill ending to simply be a wasted effort, as opposed to an ended campaign. While occupied, they can use the General NPC in many ways, such as leading an attack without the players, Defending a Node, or Providing a buff for an adventure. It is wise for Generals to have a "cooldown" period when working with players to limit the buff.

-Jail Nodes: In campaigns where the enemy generals cannot be un summoned by capturing their summon node, Jail nodes function as a "Lockout" option where the General is kept until the node is captured by the corresponding side.

-Resource Nodes: This node functions as a buff to one of the tactical Node mechanics, often times this could be additional scouts, or easier troop mobilization. Things that buff purely the tactics side of the campaign.

-Vault Nodes: These provide a "minor" item or character reward such as spell masteries, martial masteries, ect. They persist as long as the node is occupied.

Event Nodes

Depending on how you choose to run "reaching" these special nodes, a timeframe may be recommended to give the players an opportunity to prepare. With event nodes, they are often available after a certain number of cycles, and can disappear after a period of time has passed. They function as "Main nodes" without subnodes that can be explored, and they do not provide a rest upon completion. They do however provide special rewards to those who control them, and potentially one time buffs for the "Early Bird" who defeats it first. Some reward nodes may provide major benefits such as Travel or action economy buffs, Tactical or scouting buffs, or even insight into enemy abilities and weaknesses, as well as the standard rewards such as items, powers, or other buffs.

NPC Sieges

In the case that one of your defended towns is attacked, or you dispatch a general with troops to attack an enemy controlled Node, you initiate a "siege". A siege boils down to rounds of "Group Attacks" made by both the attacking and defending sides, once one side's troops are reduced below a certain threshold, it represents the node being captured or defended.

Each "group attack" is determined by a simple formula; "for every x soldiers allotted to group, increase attack roll by 1 to a maximum of y". Y in this scenario is the "influence" of the controller, which is usually a scaling cap that increases as the players or enemy capture nodes. The group attack is made against an AC which is determined by the equipment of either side, such as fortification of walls, Shield formations, Ect. Some nodes may unlock "siege engines" which add unique mechanics to the attacking or defending team. As the siege goes on, the diminishing troops on either side is reflected by the "bonus" also lowering (similar to swarm or minion monsters).

These attacks can be modified by things such as Node Effects, Passive General Buffs, and Armaments such as high quality weapons or siege engines. "Troops" always are removed first (functioning almost as temp hp equivalent, after which all the damage "taken" by your troops are converted to casualties at the end of each siege round.

Casualties represent troops which are currently out of commision, and cannot be alloted to nodes until "healed" through the passage of time, or node buffs. Each village node has a set "temple" rate, which determines how many casualties are healed at the end of a cycle.

Participated Sieges

In the case that you are accompanied by troops to another node, or you are attempting to repel a siege from the enemy force while actively being in the settlement, you instead participate in an encounter to decide control of the village. While similar to an NPC siege in concept, some mechanics, and the aftermath, there are benefits are objectives while participating in a siege encounter. If both the players and the opposing force choose to siege a Node, an opposed initiative is rolled using the highest initiative bonus from the players to see who gains "first" control of the settlement. If one side exceeds the other by 5 or more, they gain one "downtime" activity that can be used to fortify the settlement, or raise "Town Attitude" of the force.

As opposed to traded group attacks, Siege encounters use a standard battle map with normal tokens for troops and enemies. Players can command "platoons" as an action on their turn that consist of NPC's that are friendly to them. Fortifications such as standard walls, gates, and towers are on the map, as well as fortifications added through armory nodes. These may need player interaction in order to function. Any Minions reduced to 0 become "casualties" as normal, however the players can intervene, potentially increasing AC or hit points of a troop or fortification. Player's can also attempt to "repair" fortifications, or reposition themselves and NPCs to protect vulnerabilities.

Once the players have successfully defended a settlement or won a siege encounter attacking an occupied settlement, they make the roll for the soldier generation. However it is modified by what type of Siege that was commenced as below:
1) Players defend a settlement They occupied -> Take the "Rouse" downtime activity as a part of the victory (no time consumed).
2) Players defend a settlement they did not occupy (both sides attempt one neutral settlement during a cycle and players win initiative) -> Roll the standard occupation
3) Players win against a settlement they did not occupy (both sides attempt one neutral settlement during a cycle and players win lost initiative or the other force is "hostilly" occupying the settlement) -> Roll the standard occupation add the "Town attitude" regarding the party to the soldiers generated.
4) Players win against a settlement loyal to the other side (Settlement is "Occupied" by the enemy with a Friendly Town Attitude) -> Player's remove the towns attitude towards them from the soldiers generated from gaining occupation.

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Miscellaneous Rules

Downtime

Characters gain the additional "activities" they can use their downtime on:

Rouse:
Players attempt to raise support and troops in the Village node which they are staying in. Doing so Causes the instigating player to roll a Charisma(Persuasion) check, creating additional "troops" based on the degree of success.

While only one player can take this action, other players can expend their down time activity to "help". Characters with a proficiency in Persuasion add their Charisma modifier (min 1) to the Instigators' Check, Non proficient Players simple provide advantage to the check.

The check result has scaled success that determines "what dice" they use to roll and recruit soldiers.
5 : 1 soldier
10 : 1d4 soldiers
15: 2d4 Soldiers
20: 3d4 Soldiers
25: 3d4+4 Soldiers
30+: 3d6+4 Soldiers

Strategize:
Players attempt to Organize defences in the Village node which they are staying in. Doing so Causes the instigating player to roll a Intelligence/Wis(Martial) check, Creating fortifications based on the degrees of success.

While only one player can take this action, other players can expend their down time activity to "help". Characters with a proficiency in Martial checks add their Intelligence modifier (min 1) to the Instigators' Check, Non proficient Players simple provide advantage to the check.

When a player takes the strategize action, the following benefits are provided to the "group attack" based on the result of your check.
5: Group attack bonus cannot be negative
10: Group attack bonus cannot be lower than your pb
15: Group attack bonus gains a +1
20: Group attack bonus gains a +2
25: Group attack bonus gains a +3
30: Group attack Bonus gains a +3, and gains advantage

Triage:
Players attempt to accelerate the recovery in the Village node which they are staying in. Doing so Causes the instigating player to roll a Wisdom(Medicine) check, Healing a number of "casualties" based on the degree of success.

While only one player can take this action, other players can expend their down time activity to "help". Characters with a proficiency in Medicine add their Wisdom modifier (min 1) to the Instigators' Check, Non proficient Players simple provide advantage to the check.

When a player takes the Triage action, the following benefits are provided to the Settlement's Temple Rate
10: The lowest that can be rolled is a 1
20: Dice size increases by 1
30: Dice size increases by 1, and add your wisdom modifier to the result

Additional "Tactics"

As enemy(or player) influence grows, generals are recruited, or certain nodes are occupied new "Tactics" mechanics may come into play, some of these options are:

Blockade:
Allot X number of troops to a nearby, but not linked subnode of an enemy occupied Settlement. This "blocks/disables" the benefit the enemy received from occupying the sub-node, until troops are mobilized to break the Blockade.

Enemy "Actions"

Often times the enemy "force" has less adventure points to begin with, and is limited to what they can do. However as their "Influence" grows, they can take more actions, and have different options they can do. Regardless, they have a unique "downtime" of "Propaganda" which they can take as an action point, either raising the Town attitude of a settlement in regards to them (Max 2) or lowering the town attitude towards the party/their forces (max -3).

Later influence levels may shift these maxes, or provide additional options.