Automatic combat software for Pendragon?

[Matteo]

Next week I'll master the battle of Badon Hill. I would like making the important NPC to combat as well but they are too many. There is any software where you can put the stats of the contendants and make it to run the combat?

[Mugen]

My solution would be to learn how to use Excel scripts, but it may not be ok if you have no programmation skills.

[Morien]

On 1/15/2021 at 7:57 PM, Matteo said:

Next week I'll master the battle of Badon Hill. I would like making the important NPC to combat as well but they are too many. There is any software where you can put the stats of the contendants and make it to run the combat?

It is possible to do this easily enough with Python, if you know how to write for and if -loops with it, but frankly, why bother? Are the NPCs literally side by side with the PKs so that their actions influence the PKs' success or failure? How many NPCs do you have, anyway? I'd simply go ahead and make a simple matrix:

   A  Crit   Win  Partial   Fail   Fumble
B
Crit
Win
Partial
Fail
Fumble

That gives you 25 possible outcomes, although probably closer to 10 (most doubled, of course, since you will get the mirrored results flipped and equal results on the diagonal), which should still be enough outcomes for all NPC needs. Just roll once at the start of the Battle and then get a suitably dramatic result, with the PKs possibly having a chance to save the guy if he is doing poorly, or vice versa, if he is doing great. Although I would be leery about doing the latter, since Badon is supposed to be a bloodbath, and it is hard enough to die in normal KAP battle as it is, without adding a 'GM character save' into the mix.

Here are some suggested results for Badon Hill (A is the friendly, B is the hardest foe he is likely to face; we don't care about the mooks):

All draws: A and B kill one another, the actual roll saying how legendary/silly it is. (I.e. crit-v-crit is a legendary duel after the A has left fields of corpses behind him, dying against a Saxon Badass of Note. Fumble-v-fumble, might mean skulking at the back and then dying against the first Saxon he comes across, although he gets the Saxon, too. Or maybe he fumbles the first charge and ends up thrown from his horse into the middle of the Saxon shieldwall, but manages to kill the Saxon he was lancing.
A crit, B does anything other than crits: A survives, with some minor wounds and with a kill tally that depends how badly B rolled.
A succeeds: partial, A gets a major wound; fail, A gets away with minor wounds; fumble, A kills plenty of Saxons
A partial: Against a crit, he dead. Against a Win, he dead unless a PK saves him, and in which case he gets a major wound. In either case, he did OK. His descendants don't have to hang their heads in shame.
A fails against a success or a crit: He dead. Easily so against a crit.
A fumbles against anything but a fumble: He dead. He might die at the onset of the battle with a stray arrow hitting him in the eye, while he is scoffing that "the Saxon archers can't possibly hit even the barn door at this dist-" THUNK.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Morien