D&D General How common are adventurers?

[Doug McCrae]

How common is voluntary homelessness and putting onesself in constant danger? Depends; how irrational are your peasants?

Sounds like a medieval crusade. Knights did indeed sell their lands, becoming homeless, to fund them. Peasants, and even children, also went on crusade at times. Crusades to the Middle East were frequently unsuccessful (Europe was a better bet), so it was a foolhardy venture, and yet tens of thousands did it.

Outside of a few exceptionally driven folk (clerics, paladins, evangelical sorts)

That does sound about right!

 

[Umbran]

With all the folks on here saying their PCs are not adventurers, I wonder why they bother getting into any trouble. I mean, if they aren't motivated by fortune or glory, why aren't they just town guardsmen or temple priests?

That's how things start. You're a guardsman, or a temple priest. Then, some yutz gets eaten by a giant frog, and you get sent out to kill it, and then you find the moathouse and the sigil of an ancient evil, and then the brigands camping under the moathouse... and the undead that are just below them... And eventually you are just wrapped up in plots.

 

[Reynard]

That's how things start. You're a guardsman, or a temple priest. Then, some yutz gets eaten by a giant frog, and you get sent out to kill it, and then you find the moathouse and the sigil of an ancient evil, and then the brigands camping under the moathouse... and the undead that are just below them... And eventually you are just wrapped up in plots.

That point where you find the moathouse and decide, yeah, I'm going in there? That's when you become an adventurer.

 

[5ekyu]

I see them in every DnD game I gave seen.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

With all the folks on here saying their PCs are not adventurers, I wonder why they bother getting into any trouble. I mean, if they aren't motivated by fortune or glory, why aren't they just town guardsmen or temple priests? Are they all a bunch of Frodo's caught up in events way out of their pay grade?

Because there is stuff out there folks need protecting from. My characters tend to be motivated by helping people, stopping supernatural terrors, etc.
fortune and fame is at most a fringe benefit of succeeding in that.

That point where you find the moathouse and decide, yeah, I'm going in there? That's when you become an adventurer.

Not by your own definition.

My current rogues are both non adventurers by your definition.

Finnan left home to get a job in the city and send some money back home, then he became a thief, and somewhere along the way got angrier and angrier at Netherese influence in Sembia, and started sabotaging them. Him and his mates became a shadow cell within a thieves guild dedicated to sabotaging Netheril and its Serbian collaborators. Then stuff happened and he was in a shadow Demi-plane for most of a hundred years, and now Netheril all but owns Sembia, and is expanding. Finnan has new allies, but his cause is the same, and it has nothing to do with fame or fortune.

He is much more motivated to “adventure” than someone who is just looking for fame and fortune.

Dresden actually was an adventurer under your definition. He sailed because it gave him opportunities to see new places and people. Then a necromancer killed his crew, and now he, with his companions, is on the trail of that necromancer’s cult and a criminal cabal that is helping them. They just discovered that there are dragons involved.

Both are adventurers by the normal dnd definition, but not by yours.

 

[Reynard]

Because there is stuff out there folks need protecting from. My characters tend to be motivated by helping people, stopping supernatural terrors, etc.
fortune and fame is at most a fringe benefit of succeeding in that.


Not by your own definition.

My current rogues are both non adventurers by your definition.

Finnan left home to get a job in the city and send some money back home, then he became a thief, and somewhere along the way got angrier and angrier at Netherese influence in Sembia, and started sabotaging them. Him and his mates became a shadow cell within a thieves guild dedicated to sabotaging Netheril and its Serbian collaborators. Then stuff happened and he was in a shadow Demi-plane for most of a hundred years, and now Netheril all but owns Sembia, and is expanding. Finnan has new allies, but his cause is the same, and it has nothing to do with fame or fortune.

He is much more motivated to “adventure” than someone who is just looking for fame and fortune.

Dresden actually was an adventurer under your definition. He sailed because it gave him opportunities to see new places and people. Then a necromancer killed his crew, and now he, with his companions, is on the trail of that necromancer’s cult and a criminal cabal that is helping them. They just discovered that there are dragons involved.

Both are adventurers by the normal dnd definition, but not by yours.

Sure. I'm using a specific definition because I am interested in the answer as it relates to that definition. In a given D&D world there are going be lots of individuals and factions operating with which the PCs are likely to cross paths and have conflicts. The one I'm curious about though is other motley crews of treasure hunters going for the same rumored cache the PCs are after.

I did not mean to suggest that other motivations don't exist or are somehow inferior. I'm just asking about a specific thing.