Making a Formal Party Charter

[Nevvur]

Oooh I have some obscure but helpful information!

I once read a book about the westward travel of gold rush seekers, who grouped together into formal parties with just such charters, which were essentially real life adventuring parties. Members would all sign the charter and pledge things like, "We hereby pledge ourselves, to support and protect each other in case of emergency and sickness, and in all cases to stand by each other as a band of brothers, to elect officers and vote to determine company actions, to work together under and agreed-upon division of labor, etc.." They would include morality and ethics clauses about gambling and cursing and drinking, rules for splitting found minerals, rules for differing roles in the company, etc..

You get XP once you tell us the name of the book.

 

[77IM]

Another great reference point from Real Life are the charters that pirate crews would draw up. Wikipedia actually has a number of examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_code

 

[Umbran]

Another great reference point from Real Life are the charters that pirate crews would draw up. Wikipedia actually has a number of examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_code

It is... more of a guideline, really.

 

[Lanefan]

A few years back a group I was DMing decided they were going to do a party charter. As the PCs were on a multi-day journey across the desert they had all kinds of in-character time to sort this out, and the real-life discussions went on for two sessions and a pub night; then a second pub night a while later to put through a raft of amendments once they'd been using it for a while.

Of course, nothing ever gets done by half round here and so they dialled this thing up to eleven. It had some ridiculous clauses in it (e.g. I think there was one that laid down stern guidelines for the degree of fashion and fine dress the party members were to don while in town), some solid clauses in it (e.g. to deal with what would happen to a member's wealth and possessions should that member die without leaving a will), and some argument-causing ones (e.g. to be in the party you had to know Common as a language even though some existing characters didn't, and while those who didn't were grandfathered in at the time they were still made unwelcome as time went on, and ended up leaving).

The charter didn't touch treasury division at all, though; as that was already working fine.

It lasted for about three or four adventures then fizzled out when that party split up as various PCs either jumped to different parties or retired.

Now that I think about it, there was another much earlier attempt at a charter in an entirely different party in the same campaign. This one's focus was preventing in-party firefights, which continued regardless as the charter really only had solid support from a few characters out of a party of 8 or 9; and it (and the idea) kind of sank beneath the waves during the next adventure.

 

[Li Shenron]

Never needed one.

For us it's very intuitive:

- split the treasure more or less evenly
- pool together more or less equal funds for resurrection when needed
- stealing among PC is disallowed by default

 

[smbakeresq]

Yes, especially in the days when I was young and D&D was new. Even made the paper look like parchment by pouring tea on it and putting it in oven, that’s what we did before craft stores.

The money couldn’t just be divided evenly, that was too easy and it wasn’t that way in the books. It went by total party levels divided by each PC level, with henchmen counting has half their levels. Magic items were paid for, if you wanted an item you bid on it, with the money getting spilt among the others.

It sounds crazy to do that now, but that’s how the books suggested it and we listened.

 

[Mistwell]

You get XP once you tell us the name of the book.

Yes, I am looking, I am looking....

 

[TarionzCousin]

I've played in a game that had a formally written party charter: original Hackmaster. I think it was required, actually.

If I recall correctly, the charter's main purpose was to allow the DM to screw us over. The secondary purpose was to allow party members to screw each other over. A distant third purpose was to impose some semblance of fairness onto everything.

 

[guachi]

Last campaign the charter was like this:

Let the DM track all party treasure and items. We are lazy.

 

[abirdcall]

We play with set players who only have 1 character each so we haven't needed to have one.

We don't want to die and decisions come from that. Everyone gets what would be most beneficial to the party. You're only going to see intra-party fighting/competition if there are no real outside threats. If the party is assumed to win every fight/objective then they seek challenge from within.

In a game where characters come and go it is a good idea to decide ahead of time who gets paid what.