Getting a party away from allies

[RangerWickett]

You ever had one of those campaigns where the PCs get involved in world-shaking events, and they save someone like a king or an emperor, and then (rightfully) expect some sort of reward? What do you do when the PCs have plans that match the king's, and they offer to help (and request a few hundred soldiers to assist them)?

I really don't feel like crafting my plots to include armies on the PCs' side. I don't like bringing armies into adventures much at all, really. The current major badguys are a) using a giant star-destroyer-esque airship to wreak havoc, b) trying to create an artifact that will let him teleport his armies across the world so he can conquer it, or c) dead. Plot A I'm pretty sure the party will have to deal with on their own. Plot B, I just hope they don't decide to go take an army to the guy's front door and try to bash it down.

What do you do when the group gets far too large?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Reward: I use the feat system. I let my players know that their actions will qualify them for a feat (e.g. "Hero of the Realm"). These feats are always a little unbalanced and powerful. So, if they save the kingdom, I let them qualify for a feat that, say, gives a +1 generic bonus to Fort, Ref, and Will saves, as well as a +2 bonus to their choice of Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate when talking to a citizen of the kingdom. That's a pretty nice feat.

Armies: Armies are for generals. I ask the players how many skill ranks they have in Knowledge (War) or if they have the Leadership skill. If they do, then I try to give them a few soldiers. After all, they paid for the skill/feat. Such soldiers tend to get treated like red-shirts from the original "Star Trek". But, hey, that can be good drama!

 

[jmucchiello]

You ever had one of those campaigns where the PCs get involved in world-shaking events, and they save someone like a king or an emperor, and then (rightfully) expect some sort of reward? What do you do when the PCs have plans that match the king's, and they offer to help (and request a few hundred soldiers to assist them)?

What King in his right mind would give soldiers over to a group of adventurers? The king at least should understand that there is a difference between asking a man to die (the soldiers are cannon fodder for whoever leads them) for his king and asking him to die for a band of mercenaries. Knowing they would never respect the adventurers as much as they would respect the king (or his duke/count general), he should not turn soldiers over to them.

Of course, it just takes one (or two) jittery neighbor(s) to make the King respond "while I would love to give a few hundred knights to go deal with would-be-emperor baddude, there are stirrings in neighboring-kingdom that requires I keep my troops close that border in case of incursion."

Also, adventurers looking for soldiers are going about their tasks the wrong way. The main benefit to being in an adventure party is high mobility. One week into caring for troops (3 more men are down with an ailment, sire. The cook's complaining about the lack of salt, sire. There's only one day left of ale, sire.) should have the group pining for a good run in with a beholder or two.

The current major badguys are a) using a giant star-destroyer-esque airship to wreak havoc, b) trying to create an artifact that will let him teleport his armies across the world so he can conquer it, or c) dead.

Sound like another villain needs to crawl out of the woodwork to me. Gives them something new to ponder and it'll be something unfamiliar.

Plot B, I just hope they don't decide to go take an army to the guy's front door and try to bash it down.

Sounds like they need more than a couple hundred troops to defeat this guy head on.