Is there any real world analogue to the Adventurer?

[Prince of Happiness]

They're like similar to adventurers, they travel long distances .. but there's no dungeon at the end of that distance! Where's the loot?

Book and movie deals. You think Reinhold Messner got all those Italian villas and museums from thin air?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Teddy Roosevelt: debutante who overcame ill-health as a child to become an amateur boxer, a rancher/cowboy, big game hunter, soldier, governer, Secretary of the Navy, Vice-President, President, & Nobel laureate.

High level, but not necessarily an adventurer. (Not a PC, anyway. NPCs have more flexibility.)

Along the same lines would be William "Intrepid" Stephenson, who was a genius (Smart Hero!), pilot, boxer (after overcoming ill health due to a gas attack in WWI), inventor, cryptographer, and spymaster. Churchill is similarly impressive, but I don't really think either of these three people would be adventurers the same way player characters are often adventurers. They'd have made great villain leaders except for the whole "allegiance to good" thing - you could certainly make villain leaders sharing certain character traits.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I think one thing that sets the D&D Adventurer apart is his capacity and willingness to do violence. Adventurers are killers.

And in my mind there's an even further distinction to be made on the sheer scale of killing that adventurers do that might set them apart from a few of the examples given. I'm not talking about the modern adventurer's willingness to kill someone who gets in his way. Adventurers often engage in spectacularly unsubtle slaughter-- dozens and dozens of "evil humanoids" in one go.

I try to avoid this when I'm DMing and when I'm playing as well. Not all DMs I know like to bring this kind of morality issue to their gaming tables, but I believe that the assumption that good, neutral, or even some evil characters will do the amount of killing that we see in a typical D&D adventure takes a lot of the verisimilitude out of the game.

As a player, my main objective entering a combat scene is making prisoners, not raising my death count. As a DM, I usually try to make the players question the need of killing the enemies instead of just subduing them.

Going on topic, I believe history brings us various examples of people who would very well fit the concept of adventurers, such as the first explorers of America (there's even a Brazilian RPG on this theme) and the Crusaders. Nowadays I believe the field to be narrow; I'd say archeologists, bounty hunters and field scientists fit very well in my concept of adventurer.

If we accept that adventurers may work to huge organizations or directly serve their nations, the field is broader. If that’s the case, I believe even a soldier in an elite troop would fit well in my concept of adventurer.

Cheers,

 

[el-remmen]

So in that respect we draw a distinction between an extreme athlete and a military contractor, as well as between the military contractor and the conquistadores.

The conquistadores also had the backing of the King or Queen-- not to mention GOD Himself, as far as they were concerned-- which makes them an even more suitable analogue to the way I envision the typical Adventurer.

Check out: The Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Diaz del Castillo. . . Always read like an adventurer's memoirs to me.

 

[mmadsen]

Anyone interested in real-life adventurers who resemble D&D adventurers should read The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico by Bernal Diaz Del Castillo, one of Cortes's soldiers.

Our party lands on the coast of an unexplored empire, marches on its capital, a city of stone pyramids built on a lake in an extinct volcano, where evil priests, their hair matted with blood, rip the hearts out of sacrificial victims -- all in the search for gold.

 

[I'm A Banana]

my own generalization is someone motivated by a desire to "do good," "be heroic," and "make a fortune."

Well, since you're not defining it by superheroic power or the like, I'd say there's a LOT of people out there who fit that generalization. Think of officers of the law, firefighters, or soldiers (though Make a Fortune isn't often high on the list, I know a bunch of people who joined the military for monetary reasons). Think of the bounty hunters (you've seen the series Dog the Bounty Hunter, right?). Think of people developing space exploration (going to unknown lands to perhaps gain wealth and knowledge! Though they mostly do it through robots, I suppose...).

Everyday Heroes, man. The're out there.

 

[Tonguez]

Go Here for the complete text of Sir John Hawkwood: Story of a Condottiere published 1889

John Hawkwood was an English condottiere (Mercenary in Italy) during the 14th Century and Captain of the 'White Company' who fought for pay and changed allegiance at a whim...

 

[S'mon]

"I think one thing that sets the D&D Adventurer apart is his capacity and willingness to do violence. Adventurers are killers."

I think that the modern prohibition on extreme violence has ended the classic era of the European adventurer, which was from roughly the early 16th century (conquistadors, Elizabethan privateers et al) through to 1914, or at a stretch 1940. Post-WW2 Earth and our 'universal human rights' era severely limits acceptable adventuring. Sure you can still explore, but you're not supposed to kill people & take their stuff, or even loot their ancient tombs, unless you're a government-sanctioned soldier (govt approved killing ok, looting bad) or archaologist (looting only with local govt permission, killing bad).

 

[el-remmen]

Anyone interested in real-life adventurers who resemble D&D adventurers should read The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico by Bernal Diaz Del Castillo, one of Cortes's soldiers.

Our party lands on the coast of an unexplored empire, marches on its capital, a city of stone pyramids built on a lake in an extinct volcano, where evil priests, their hair matted with blood, rip the hearts out of sacrificial victims -- all in the search for gold.

Ahem. . . Look at the post immediately above yours. . .

 

[Turjan]

I think one thing that sets the D&D Adventurer apart is his capacity and willingness to do violence. Adventurers are killers.

This reminds me of one of the more memorable scenes from "Knights of the Old Republic II". In one of the conversations you were reminded that, on your alleged path to the greater good, you had killed hundreds of people by that time. And robbed every location blank.