The Mercenary Campaign

Hello

I've been wondering if it's possible to do a campaign about a mercenary company - as opposed to a tiny band of sell-sword (ie a typical D&D party) operating independently, the PCs are part of a company of sorts, a unit with hundreds or more members, one that wins as much as by their wits as by their skill with the blade (nothing but pitched battles would be boring I think).

There has been a number of good books written wholly or in part about such units - The Black Company or the Mazalan Book of the Fallen are outstanding examples in the genre.

But I'm wondering... how to run such a campaign? The system matters - it has to be gritty, the PCs can't be all powerful. Perhaps warhammer frpg would do, or the GLOG. There might be powerful wizards in the world, but the wizards in the company help not by chucking fireballs but by fooling the foes with illusions, or using spirits to scout ahead. There has to be room (and a need) for the ordinary soldiers.

There are logistical challenges here, story and pacing issues. The PCs have to be given a chance to shine, to do things - perhaps they are advanced scouts? Assigned special jobs? - but at the same time they aren't the people in charge. I must admit I'm not 100% what is the best way to run such a campaign.

The challenge, if the PCs are not in charge, is keeping it from being a series of "Here's another mission - do this". Which is fine, if the player's are happy with that - but to my mind you lose some of the appeal of the mercenary campaign.

If pcs are not in charge, perhaps make them involved in the senior leadership. A mercenary company doesn't have to run exactly like a regular army with a strict chain of command - it could be that certain decisions are voted on by important members such as whether to accept a commission - whether to take a payment and change sides etc (who gets to be the next captain if the current one bites it). This gives the PC's some input into the decisions of the company without having to shoulder all the burden for the logistics of the company (which can get tedious). It also means the PCs need to interact with the NPCs a lot (which helps flesh out the company and make it feel real) and allows for some political wrangling and backstabbing.

Another way to do this would be to use a bit of troupe style. Have PCs create ordinary soldiers and captains and lieutenants and switch between a group of PCs and another, with perhaps a bit of mix and matching. You could even do this within the same session - the first group of PCs decide it would be a good idea to send some scouts into enemy territory - and then cut to the second group of PCs who are the much put upon squad of soldiers who get given all the most dangerous jobs. This also has the advantage that it would make character death a lot less of an issue (and probably PC death should be reasonably common among a group of mercenaries).

Don Durito said:

. A mercenary company doesn't have to run exactly like a regular army with a strict chain of command - it could be that certain decisions are voted on by important members such as whether to accept a commission - whether to take a payment and change sides etc (who gets to be the next captain if the current one bites it). This gives the PC's some input into the decisions of the company without having to shoulder all the burden for the logistics of the company (which can get tedious). It also means the PCs need to interact with the NPCs a lot (which helps flesh out the company and make it feel real) and allows for some political wrangling and backstabbing.

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This is very true. Initially the PCs would have next to no say, but once they've proven their worth - and esp if there is a spellcaster in the group - their input would count for something...

Another way to do this would be to use a bit of troupe style. Have PCs create ordinary soldiers and captains and lieutenants and switch between a group of PCs and another, with perhaps a bit of mix and matching. You could even do this within the same session - the first group of PCs decide it would be a good idea to send some scouts into enemy territory - and then cut to the second group of PCs who are the much put upon squad of soldiers who get given all the most dangerous jobs. This also has the advantage that it would make character death a lot less of an issue (and probably PC death should be reasonably common among a group of mercenaries).

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I'm thinking of doing this with the GLOG - a system that allows for fast character creation, but also doesn't lead to very powerful PCs. It creates a grittier feel, and makes even higher level PCs wary of battle. While most of the classes in the GLOG would work well in a mercenary campaign, some have... limitations that would make them useful only some of the time - the cannoneer being a prime example. In mission A (go take that tower) a cannoneer is extremely useful. In mission B (infiltrate that city and scout ahead) the cannoneer is quite the liability, unless he's willing to leave his cannon behind. So allowing PC switching would be good indeed.

Traveller Book 4: Mercenaries might help you with organizing the unit and some plot hooks. Of course it's a whole 'nother game system.

Ancalagon said:

Hello

I've been wondering if it's possible to do a campaign about a mercenary company - as opposed to a tiny band of sell-sword (ie a typical D&D party) operating independently, the PCs are part of a company of sorts, a unit with hundreds or more members, one that wins as much as by their wits as by their skill with the blade (nothing but pitched battles would be boring I think).

There has been a number of good books written wholly or in part about such units - The Black Company or the Mazalan Book of the Fallen are outstanding examples in the genre.

But I'm wondering... how to run such a campaign? The system matters - it has to be gritty, the PCs can't be all powerful. Perhaps warhammer frpg would do, or the GLOG. There might be powerful wizards in the world, but the wizards in the company help not by chucking fireballs but by fooling the foes with illusions, or using spirits to scout ahead. There has to be room (and a need) for the ordinary soldiers.

There are logistical challenges here, story and pacing issues. The PCs have to be given a chance to shine, to do things - perhaps they are advanced scouts? Assigned special jobs? - but at the same time they aren't the people in charge. I must admit I'm not 100% what is the best way to run such a campaign.

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I can think of a few more 'mercenary company' stories in a fantasy setting. One that actually covers a situation where adventurers join an existing mercenary company that you might like to read is the second volume of Mercedes Lackey's Tarma and Kethry stories (Oathbreakers is the name, though there's an omnibus edition coming out) with a pair of quite experienced adventurers doing just that, or the first volume of Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion trilogy, which has a real novice joining a company. And Mary Gentle's Ash is at least as good as Cook or Erikson.

For the system and how to run it, there are a number of games with supplements that discuss exactly that. I'm most familiar with Traveller's various attempts, but there's Tattered Banners for Savage Worlds and a lot of Battlemech material would be useful. And of course Planet Mercenary/Schlock MErcenary shows another way to handle things.

Ancalagon said:

I've been wondering if it's possible to do a campaign about a mercenary company - as opposed to a tiny band of sell-sword (ie a typical D&D party) operating independently, the PCs are part of a company of sorts, a unit with hundreds or more members, one that wins as much as by their wits as by their skill with the blade (nothing but pitched battles would be boring I think).

Click to expand...

Sure, I've done that. We used WFRP, and it worked just fine.

There are logistical challenges here, story and pacing issues. The PCs have to be given a chance to shine, to do things - perhaps they are advanced scouts? Assigned special jobs? - but at the same time they aren't the people in charge. I must admit I'm not 100% what is the best way to run such a campaign.

Click to expand...

I would recommend having the PCs spend a lot of their time on special assignments - they're given a set of goals, but the means are basically up to them.

Over time, do consider having the PCs rise through the ranks of the company, until by the end (or even the mid-point) they're calling the shots.

Also: I would strongly recommend not giving any one PC a higher rank than the others. That tends to cause problems, and I've yet to see any positives from it. If you do give them ranks, have them level those up together.

While not D&D, Classic Traveller Book 4: Mercenary is an excellent coverage of unit organization of the 1970's and 1980's. Mechwarrior 2nd Edition has the Mercenary's Handbook (1E), which is equally as good. Both have minigame modes, as well, where the unit is the key thing. Neither, however, focuses on low-tech units.

Pendragon's mass combat rules are excellent for "No S***, there I was..." generation, but player impacts on the outcomes are minimal. It also has discussion of realistic early medieval unit types - Lance, Company, Battaille, Army. (A Battaille is 1 or more companies. It's roughly 1/3 of the battle forces in a battle from a given side.) A company is a baron's troops, under either the baron or his marshal, with their lances. (Remember, lexically, Barons, Viscounts, Counts/Earls, Marquis, and Dukes are all barons.)

L5R 1E-4E likewise have a battle system, with the same caveat. It also has the Clan War minis game... which is readily converted to/from. I've resolved PC involved battles by converting them to CW, and by using their damage vs a fixed HP target; I prefer the conversion.

AD&D 1E and 2E have Battlesystem - which allows you to resolve mass combats quickly. (I won't say easily, because I found battlesystem clumsy.)

D&D 5E has a playtest set of mass combat rules which work pretty well. (I've used them. Not terribly fast, but easily used - once the prep is done.)

Warhammer FRP 1E easily links into WFB 1E-4E... so you can resolve the mass combats with the minis game, but the PC's get damaged by the PC rules. (One WFB hit is 1d6+aS-(tT+Location Armor). Every 4 points of damage after T+A by the PC is 1 hit to WFB models. 6+ save is 1 AV, 5+ is 2 AV, 4+ Save is 3 AV, etc.). Or, you can convert the PC's to minis rules stats. (Note that WFB 1-4 has 2 fewer stats than WFRP 1 - Fellowship and Dex; later drop more.)

WFRP 2E is less direct, but use 1d10 and 6 points, instead of 1d6 and 4 points, and it's going to work ok. Converting to minis rules stats isn't as easy, since they aren't the same stats as WFB.

BECMI/Cyclopedia D&D, GURPS, Hero System, and CORPS all have quick resolution mass combat mechanics that abstract it out. Finding them for GURPS and Hero is the problem. GURPS, IIRC, 3E Compendium or Compendium 2, and Hero in 4E's Fantasy Hero Companion or FH companion 2. (My books are unavailable for the lookup.)

The Black Company setting is/was published as a d20 campaign setting by Green Ronin. It talks about running such games, obviously.

We did with AD&D back in the 1990s when we had a slightly larger pool of players (lots of us were just getting done with college and/or high school). We all had fighter-types in some manner - either single class or multiclass. We all signed up to be in the Border Rats company and, thanks to being tougher than your average rank and file soldier (we were all 6th level or so), we rose through the ranks fairly well until we were largely in charge of the company. We had small groups of mounted cavalry, mobile infantry (we hand horses, but would get off them to fight), and archers. And we ended up being well-decorated for the Defense of Fort Caul and the Battle of Tunwilly Downs before we moved on.

We didn't rely on Battlesystem. The larger scale fights were determined by narration based on how well we were doing in the smaller units. It was great fun. And I think it could be reasonably easily done with most editions of D&D including 5e and Pathfinder. Just set a requirement that a PC has to be martial-focused and set the challenges accordingly.