Hiring the PCs?
- Thread starter Ferret
- Start date
Crothian
First Post
What doesn't work? I just start the session with the summons. I let the PCs react to it as they want and then when they answer the summons they get the information and adventure hook. But I also am ready for if the PCs decide to not answer the summons or just refuse the adventure.
Do you have a problem with the PCs not answering a summons?
In my game world, there is a tradition of adventuring, so the PCs are by no means unique. Also means that if the PCs havent done anything blatantly illegal, generally a lord who wants to give a job will just send a messenger down to the tavern with an invitation. Should the lord be insistant that the players show up immediately, the messenger will have enough guards with him to make fighting impractical. Should the players be too high a level for force to work, the lord will send someone important to the PCs to invite them to dinner. It also means that lords dont generally mess with adventurers (unless the adventurers do something they shouldnt), and definitely wont invite adventurers into the lords castle to mess with them. Lords use adventurers for all sorts of grey/black ops and getting a rep as someone who treats adventurers badly is a good way to end up at the wrong end of a group of pissed off adventurers.
Admittedly, I have the opposite problem that most have. I have to be careful with describing my backgrounds cause my players will bite on anything that even remotely looks like an adventuring hook.
In my game world, there is a tradition of adventuring, so the PCs are by no means unique. Also means that if the PCs havent done anything blatantly illegal, generally a lord who wants to give a job will just send a messenger down to the tavern with an invitation. Should the lord be insistant that the players show up immediately, the messenger will have enough guards with him to make fighting impractical. Should the players be too high a level for force to work, the lord will send someone important to the PCs to invite them to dinner. It also means that lords dont generally mess with adventurers (unless the adventurers do something they shouldnt), and definitely wont invite adventurers into the lords castle to mess with them. Lords use adventurers for all sorts of grey/black ops and getting a rep as someone who treats adventurers badly is a good way to end up at the wrong end of a group of pissed off adventurers.
Admittedly, I have the opposite problem that most have. I have to be careful with describing my backgrounds cause my players will bite on anything that even remotely looks like an adventuring hook.
SnowleopardVK
First Post
Hmm, I've done professionals and non-professionals as the PCs before. It's admittedly quite a bit easier to dangle a plot hook in front of a group of trained professionals who have a shared history.
As for non-professionals who don't know each other... Hm, how about something along the lines of "We've selected you all for this job because each of you has shown great promise at what you do..."
As for non-professionals who don't know each other... Hm, how about something along the lines of "We've selected you all for this job because each of you has shown great promise at what you do..."
Squire James
Explorer
You don't have to come up with a logical reason the lord/merchant/whatever is hiring the PC's instead of higher-level people or a "specialized team"! Just hire them. They will either go on without questioning the issue, or they will speculate on the issue. Encourage that speculation, and secretly choose one of their speculations. Add a twist so that speculation is mostly, but not entirely correct.
If they're the kind that want to be led around everywhere, at least at first, then you might need to resort to something more forceful than hiring them. Perhaps the higher-level people DID get hired, and they decide to use less-than-decent means to acquire a crew for their ship. The campaign starts with the PC's on a ship chained to an oar, on the way to the hired mission. Let them do what they want with regards to recovering their gear, leading a mutiny, or whatever then send a Giant Squid to kill off the ship and the higher-level people, leaving the PC's on the shore with their gear recoverable from a nearby crate or the remains of the ship. There can be a city nearby if you want... just get them to the darned adventure!
If they're the kind that want to be led around everywhere, at least at first, then you might need to resort to something more forceful than hiring them. Perhaps the higher-level people DID get hired, and they decide to use less-than-decent means to acquire a crew for their ship. The campaign starts with the PC's on a ship chained to an oar, on the way to the hired mission. Let them do what they want with regards to recovering their gear, leading a mutiny, or whatever then send a Giant Squid to kill off the ship and the higher-level people, leaving the PC's on the shore with their gear recoverable from a nearby crate or the remains of the ship. There can be a city nearby if you want... just get them to the darned adventure!
The Shaman
First Post
That grinding sound you hear is me wearing down my molars.
(I really don't like this advice.)
Now, to the original post.
Why does a lord choose less experienced adventurers over more experienced adventurers?
Because the lord's rival badmouths him so that only inexperienced adventurers will heed his call.
Because he's a cheap spiv who doesn't want to pay the top-dollar more experienced adventurers demand.
Because he has no eye for quality and takes the first bunch of sword'n'spell slingers who show up.
Because time is pressing and the first to arrive are pressed into service immediately.
Because he wants them to fail in furtherance of his other plans.
Jack7
First Post
The way we do it in my setting is that the group officially works for the government, but in an undercover fashion. Their mandate states that they must undertake certain assignments for the government of an investigative nature, but if they happen to discover something on their own they are free to investigate or explore it as long as they do not conceal their findings from the government (the Byzantine empire, and sometimes they are jointly employed by both the Byzantine Emperor and/or military, and the Orthodox Church) or their employers.
In their free time they can work for whomever they wish as long as they keep the government apprised of their activities, and those activities do not counter the interests of the government (such as, they cannot be employed by the Persian or Bulgarian kingdoms, unless they are covertly working as espionage agents against those kingdoms - as double agents).
They are all professional and trained at government expense, and paid at government expense for government work, and they have earned things like tax free estates, and titles, and they are often equipped at government expense, and can keep a percentage of all goods recovered from any mission/adventure they are sent on by their employers, in addition to their pay. What they recover is considered their hazard bonus. They can keep all they recover from outside employers, or freelance contract work, as long as they catalog and report it to the emperor and/or Church.
However their actual work for the government is secret and they are not publicly connected to it. Rather they are granted minor nobility titles and other privileges as well as cover stories as a public identity.
This arrangement allows them to work together (on an ongoing basis), to have a shared backstory, even though they are originally of very different backgrounds, and yet still allows them to work freelance or as independent agents when not on official assignment. It also allows them to maintain their secrecy and escape scrutiny from much of the public. They are often employed 6 to 9 months out of the year for the Byzantines and/or Church. Depends on what is going on. Works very well for my party, although there are also other parties operating differently. Promotes group and unit cohesion and morale, but alos allows them to be able to work independently when necessary or they so desire.
But if they are on assignment or are operating outside the Byzantine empire then they are effectively on their own.
Don't know if that helps ya or gives ya any ideas, but it's what we do.
In their free time they can work for whomever they wish as long as they keep the government apprised of their activities, and those activities do not counter the interests of the government (such as, they cannot be employed by the Persian or Bulgarian kingdoms, unless they are covertly working as espionage agents against those kingdoms - as double agents).
They are all professional and trained at government expense, and paid at government expense for government work, and they have earned things like tax free estates, and titles, and they are often equipped at government expense, and can keep a percentage of all goods recovered from any mission/adventure they are sent on by their employers, in addition to their pay. What they recover is considered their hazard bonus. They can keep all they recover from outside employers, or freelance contract work, as long as they catalog and report it to the emperor and/or Church.
However their actual work for the government is secret and they are not publicly connected to it. Rather they are granted minor nobility titles and other privileges as well as cover stories as a public identity.
This arrangement allows them to work together (on an ongoing basis), to have a shared backstory, even though they are originally of very different backgrounds, and yet still allows them to work freelance or as independent agents when not on official assignment. It also allows them to maintain their secrecy and escape scrutiny from much of the public. They are often employed 6 to 9 months out of the year for the Byzantines and/or Church. Depends on what is going on. Works very well for my party, although there are also other parties operating differently. Promotes group and unit cohesion and morale, but alos allows them to be able to work independently when necessary or they so desire.
But if they are on assignment or are operating outside the Byzantine empire then they are effectively on their own.
Don't know if that helps ya or gives ya any ideas, but it's what we do.
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