Doomed Slayers - A campaign framework justifying roving bands of adventurers

[Jürgen Hubert]

I came up with this idea one week ago on RPGNet, and now I am seriously considering writing this up as a systemless miniature setting and selling it on DriveThruRPG as an ebook. But until then, I'd like to get some feedback on the basic ideas and concept. Basically, I wanted to come up with an in-setting justification for why all those armed bands of adventurers are running around in a typical fantasy RPG setting...


Terrible dangers lurk in the world. Monsters lurk everywhere. From hordes of orcs and goblins hiding just behind the next hills, ratmen and serpent people lurking in city sewers to dragons, demons and worse dwelling in remote areas and under the mountains, all of them could suddenly emerge destroy a village, a town, even an entire nation. Civilization hangs by a thread, always. Sure the nobles maintain their armies and the cities have their militias, but while they can deal well enough with the occasional goblin menace, they are often unprepared for when years of deceptive calm erupt into bloody and devastating violence.

No, somebody has to go out there and stop the monsters before they destroy innocent lives - or at least contain an outbreak before it gets worse. These somebodies are the Slayers - and they are usually called the Doomed Slayers because their life expectancies are so short.

People choose the lifestyle of a Slayer for all sorts of reasons. Often, especially among the more impressionable youths, it's a desire for adventure. Sometimes it's to avenge themselves against specific types of monsters that killed relatives and lost ones. Sometimes it is simply to get away from everything - a broken heart, a slandered reputation, or a criminal past are all reasons why someone would become a Slayer. Regardless of who and what they used to be, upon becoming a Slayer they stand outside the normal structure of society and operate by a different code of behavior. In fact, many communities ritually pronounce newly-proclaimed Slayers to be among the honored dead, thus severing all ties with them. This generally makes it easier for everyone involved, and some Slayers even take on new names during such rituals.


Regardless of how they came to become Slayers, these are the rules they all live by:


Go where you are needed, help where you can. Slayers have far more freedoms than just about anyone else in their societies. This is justified by their heavy duties - they are expected to slay monsters so terrible that they could slaughter entire villages with ease. While Slayers can refuse to help others, they are only expected to do so either when those asking for help could easily accomplish the task on their own - or when the threat is so terrible that the Slayers would be overwhelmed, in which case they are often asked to find someone who can deal with it. Obviously, few Slayers like to admit that they cannot deal with a challenge...

Don't tarry where you are not needed. Slayers are a rowdy lot whose mere presence disturbs peaceful communities. Thus, whenever Slayers have dealt with any threats to a community, they are expected to move on. Certainly they can stay long enough to recuperate from injuries and to partake in any celebrations in their honor, but after that they will hit the road again. The only locations where adventurers tend to stay for longer periods are monster-infested frontier regions or communities located next to a really big dungeon.

Own only what you can take with you. Slayers are forbidden from owning any land, houses, or other non-mobile property. All they can own is what they (and a pack horse or two) carry with them. While in the case of some really successful Slayers this still makes them fantastically wealthy, this and the other rules prevent them from becoming threatening to nobles, merchants, and other members of the local power structures, and their disruption tends to remain purely temporary.

Fight the Monsters, not thy kin. Slayers are supposed to fight the enemies of civilization, not nobles, merchants, and other members of the local power structures, ensuring their political neutrality. However, in reality this part of the code often gets blurred, as Slayers are often too useful not to use in political machinations, and thus they get swept up in politics regardless of their intentions and wishes. Furthermore, many ambitious nobles and others with grand aspirations resort to using monsters and fell magics in their schemes, which do make them legitimate targets according to the code, for consorting with the enemies of civilization - although proving that might get tricky.

If you stop living by these rules, then you are no longer considered a Slayer by society, and thus the rest of society will no longer allow you your freedoms and privileges. So, how does the rest of society treat Slayers?


Pay them what you can, appropriate to what you ask of them. Slayers deserve generous rewards for their deeds, which benefit all. Of course, not everyone can give equal rewards - if a poor, remote village can only give free food and a place to stay, Slayers will still be obligated to help them by their rules. However, if you are a noble or a rich merchant and need a Slayer's help, you are expected to give generously - and the more dangerous the task, the higher the reward should be. There is a pragmatic reason for this - if you develop a reputation for stinginess, Slayers will come up with all sorts of reasons to avoid you, and that will be very bad for you and everyone around you when you really need them.

Do not bar their way. Unlike many members of society, Slayers can go where they will and visit any village, city, noble fief, or even a war zone (though some specific areas might still be restricted - they don't have to be admitted to the King's Castle just because they want to see it!). What's more, the property they carry with them may not be taxed or confiscated on a whim of the authorities - again, such actions would make other Slayers very reluctant to visit such a place, to its ultimate detriment when it faces the next monster attack. Of course, this doesn't prevent innkeepers, craftsmen, merchants and the like from suddenly raising their prices drastically when their customer is a Slayer, but at least in theory nobody forces the Slayer to accept those prices.

What they find, they keep. Many monsters amass considerable treasures in their lairs, and if the Slayers manage to kill those monsters, the treasure is theirs, no matter how much you claim that the treasure originally belonged to you or an ancestor. If it really did belong to you originally - especially if it's an important heirloom - you may offer them a "reward" for its safe return, which Slayers are generally expected to accept (smart people will negotiate this in advance - it might even be sufficient to tell them about the location of the lair...). Again, trying to stiff Slayers over this is unwise. After all, they managed to retrieve the item in question despite dangers that you were too afraid to deal with.


I will leave it at this for the moment. Any comments, suggestions, addendums?

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Do you envision "Slayer" as a badge anyone can fix to his breast or are the Slayers a somewhat organised group?

If they are independent adventuring parties subscribing to the code you have outlined, the will probably duped a lot. Some schemer will feed such a group false information to have the Slayers fight his enemies. "Yea, those guys are humans, but there's a band of mind flayers in the background who run the show! " And soon your rival's supporters bite the dust. "Gee, those elusive mind flayers have escaped again? Too bad."

It probably works better if you introduce Slayers as an organisation which coordinates such activities and screens the tasks handed over to members.

I've formulated a similar framework for a home campaign which sadly never took place. This framework had a wealthy group of retired adventurers who had noticed the resurgence of evil in their world. Everywhere there were dungeons full of evil creatures. There had to be some agency in the background responsible for this. The best they could do was to send adventuring groups to those dungeons to exterminate the evil. This framework was planned as connecting Goodman Game's DCC adventures; PCs would just be send via teleport to the next dungeon, after being outfitted with Lord Perringtals resources.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some nice potential!

You might want to look into things like DC Comic's Suicide Squad for ideas to develop this further.

Whatever marks them as slayers should be easy to recognize but hard to fake. Perhaps a magical tattoo? (Esp. a facial one, or something on the palm of the hand.)

Just a thought..."Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" is a Latin phrase sometimes rendered as "Who watches the watchmen?"

When Slayers go rogue...who stops them?

Perhaps there is a secret brotherhood of former Slayers who, while not as powerful as they once were, are still quite powerful, especially with surprise and/or numbers. And they took their roles as Slayers VERY seriously...to the point that they hunt those who demean their office.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Do you envision "Slayer" as a badge anyone can fix to his breast or are the Slayers a somewhat organised group?

Largely the former - it's a social class, not an organization like a guild.

If they are independent adventuring parties subscribing to the code you have outlined, the will probably duped a lot. Some schemer will feed such a group false information to have the Slayers fight his enemies. "Yea, those guys are humans, but there's a band of mind flayers in the background who run the show! " And soon your rival's supporters bite the dust. "Gee, those elusive mind flayers have escaped again? Too bad."

This will certainly happen, but it's not without risks. In such a setting, the "My enemy is in league with monsters/dark forces! Really!" ploy will be one of the older tricks in the book, and experienced Slayers will be careful with such claims. Furthermore, if your ruse is discovered, you will have annoyed a number of potentially very dangerous people... and Slayers (like most player characters) tend to be a vengeful lot. Finally, if words get out to other Slayers, you might be in even more trouble - for starters, you will have a lot of trouble finding help if you get problems with real monsters, and some Slayers might take a personal interest in people "disrespecting us". This might not be limited to mere violence - experienced Slayers might be owed a lot of favors by rich and politically influential people, who could certainly make your life "interesting" in various ways.

Again, this doesn't mean that such schemes won't happen, but the schemer had better be careful about covering his trail.

It probably works better if you introduce Slayers as an organisation which coordinates such activities and screens the tasks handed over to members.

I wanted to stay away from that for thematic reasons - I wanted to justify the lifestyle of typical "adventuring parties", not change it into something else. And how many typical groups of player characters do you know who would play along with some superiors telling them what they could or could not do?

Whatever marks them as slayers should be easy to recognize but hard to fake. Perhaps a magical tattoo? (Esp. a facial one, or something on the palm of the hand.)

Some Slayers do that, but not all. In general, as long as you look like a Slayer and act like a Slayer, people will assume that you are a Slayer and treat you accordingly.

Note that "acting like a Slayer" means helping people by fighting very dangerous monsters according to the Code, which means that you had be very careful about pretending to be a Slayer unless you are actually good at fighting. Furthermore, other Slayers might take an interest in someone who only pretends to be one for base reasons, as that kind of thing "ruins it for everyone" if it occurs too often - Slayers have a nice set of privileges, but the rest of society might not put up with them if they refuse to play their part.

Just a thought..."Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" is a Latin phrase sometimes rendered as "Who watches the watchmen?"

When Slayers go rogue...who stops them?

The legal authorities of the local domains, if they can... and other Slayers, if necessary. Again, few Slayers want the rogues to blacken the reputation of all Slayers, since that might endanger their own privileges.

 

[hopeless]

Slaying and beyond

Then there's the possibility that your slayers are looking to settle down, marry and raise a family of their own.

How does the code deal with that?

Nice idea mind you, but lets assume the organisation in charge have their own ideas of who they marry or have relationships with.

What if their very best slayer lineage has no interest in the advantages of being a slayer and unlike others who like nothing more than to party throughout the nights they're on leave between missions you have the odd one who prefers a normal life to be treated no different than anyone who isn't a slayer.

How do their fellows deal with the possibility that they don't want their true identity revealed if say that would endanger their family and even the possibility of a relationship with someone that wouldn't look twice at someone in such a dangerous occupation?

Would the Slayer hierarchy act against a slayer who just wants a normal life?

How would they react if they don't know or refuse to accept the notion that not every slayer is a powder keg ready to ignite?

What if the reason that Slayer cannot retire is because they ARE that skilled and too vital perhaps even their children are too important to be left to grow up as anything other than another slayer?

So who watches the watchers?

And who decides what limits there are?

And how do you avoid these rules being abused because the people in charge have their own agendas and the rulers of the kingdoms these people work in have their own ideas of what they'll allow?

Still I do like this idea!

I came up with this idea one week ago on RPGNet

Any chance of a link?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Then there's the possibility that your slayers are looking to settle down, marry and raise a family of their own.

How does the code deal with that?

They can do that, but then they are not legally considered Slayers any more - with all the advantages (being allowed to own land and settle down, no longer needing to help out with monster problems) and disadvantages (taxation, being beholden to feudal overlords) that entails.

(Also, saying "I changed my mind!" frequently on this issue tends to be frowned upon, and might well be used to declare some of your privileges invalid in court...)

Any chance of a link?

Here.

 

[Hand of Evil]

May want to look to Warhammer's Slayers - Dwarves that have "done something" that has got them thrown out of their clan. Their only hope of being let into the forefathers halls in the afterlife is to die a glorious death.

The books of Gotrek and Felix by Nathan Long has a lot of great stuff on them. Plus, the WFRP game. Zombie Slayer is out now and is dealing with what happens when a slayer "forgets" his sin that made him a slayer and also deals with what other slayers see and say when a slayer just does not seem to die no matter what he has fought!

• Glorious does not equal foolish.
• Someone needs to see your death, you die without someone to speak of it does not mean glorius, it is wasteful.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

May want to look to Warhammer's Slayers - Dwarves that have "done something" that has got them thrown out of their clan. Their only hope of being let into the forefathers halls in the afterlife is to die a glorious death.

Some element of the Warhammer Slayers (with which I am familiar) is certainly in there - though ultimately, most Slayers in this setting would rather prefer a glorious life (or at least a profitable one) over a glorious death.

Not that there aren't exceptions to this, of course - there is probably no shortage of Slayers with a tragic past, and they might be sufficiently depressive and/or guilt-ridden enough to seek such an absolution in death...

 

[Stormonu]

Interesting idea, I would think that becoming a Slayer would be something best described as requiring a ritual, pact or other magical oath that openly and readily marks an individual as a Slayer.

Also, it might be something that is somehow only available to certain races, otherwise, the "monsters" might develop their own versions of Slayers. In fact, the pact or ritual might explain why only the common PC races exist - only elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, humans and half-human races were included in the pact/bargain/whatever.

(There could be additional side effects as well - perhaps Slayerrs are the only individuals who can be resurrected - called back from the dead to serve civilization once again. Other magics might only work for or against them as well)

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Interesting idea, I would think that becoming a Slayer would be something best described as requiring a ritual, pact or other magical oath that openly and readily marks an individual as a Slayer.

Some Slayers will certainly go for something like that (and in D&D terms, this could be represented by feats or paragon paths), but I want to keep that optional. I want most of the classical adventuring careers and origin stories to work with this framework, and the farmer's lad who picks up an old sword to avenge his village after it was destroyed in a monster attack should be just as justified in calling himself a Slayer as someone who agreed to a lengthy magical ritual to establish his status.