Mercenaries and Marauders Throughout The Land

[SHARK]

Greetings!

In my own campaigns, I have in various areas, elaborate mercenary companies and regiments--some with long, distinguished and very colorful histories. Some of these mercenary regiments have been commanded by player characters, while others have been founded and led by important NPC's. They have taken part in many famous battles, sieges, and campaigns from across the continent. Some are greatly respected by various kingdoms, while other mercenary regiments are seen as nothing more than brutal marauders that march to war for the highest bidder, and serve with little honor or trust.

Mercnearies and Marauders serve important plot, social, and military functions throughout the campaign. How do mercenaries and marauders effect or influence your campaigns?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Corinth]

With a little editing, that post would make great back cover copy.

 

[arwink]

In a very similar way to yours.

I blame it on, I think, Gold and Glory - the mercenary company book that came out for the FR. I got my hands on a copy of that, and started getting really into the idea.

There are more than a few kingdoms that are ruled when a mercenary company has gotten tired of the lifestyle and just headed into the wildlands to settle down (and one or two that happened when forging their own kingdom seemed like too much effort. There are nine religious orders devoted to the god of Mercantile Warfare, that sail the earth in intelligent ships serving as elite, freelance forces. There are the generic sellswords, wanding alone but trying to find a place in the more organised comapnies. Player characters have come up against them as commanders, members, grunts and enemies.

 

[Tonguez]

With a little editing, that post would make great back cover copy.

Thats becuase it was written by the SHARK

btw Greetings SHARK haven't seen you for a long while and have missed your posts - and how is the publishing deal going?

As to the Question in campaigns I have done in the past PCs have been the Mecenary Companies selling their skills to the highest bidder and then running missions and occasionally fighting their wars and I've used the concept of Letters of Marque to licence the 'raiding' activities of PC owned ships.

IMHO the best way to rationalise a group of wandering adventurers without apparent loyalties outside the group (ie the 'standard' DnD party) is for them to be a mecenary company who raid dungeons and get hired by mysterious PCs in the lull between wars.

 

[Gizzard]

What sort of laws do you think cities have about Mercenary Guilds?

The Freeport modules feature some mercenary action, but I was debating how small mercenary groups might be regulated. Particularly, in Freeport, they seem to be hired on to do a wide range of stuff; from guarding trade meetings, to guarding private residences, to assassination and more. Is there any historical analogue to this sort of arrangement, and if so, what were the rules that governed it?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Not too long ago, I started reading Black Company and checking out Berserk on DVD. Great ideas for Mercenary companies.

However, there are some problems with mercs in a standard D20 campaign.

1. D20 campaigns aren't meant for large scale action while mercenary campaigns typically are. NOTE: I understand in both examples I noted that individual actions are extremely important but in the context of an RPG, there are not that many 'dull' periods.

2. Adventurers in many ways, already are mercenaries and resent any attempts to have someone rule over there.

Having said that, I've seen several mercenary classes and PrCs. Bluffiside has a great enhancement on their website about 'em, and there's always AEG's Mercnearies book which has some actual mercenary material in there with the other goodies.

 

[Fenes 2]

In one of my campaigns the party is based in Mulhorand/Unther, and the mercenaries of Chessenta play a rather important role. All of the house guards of the party are mercenaries, and during the last adventure the party had to foil a red wizard's plan to raise a crack unit of Chessentan Mercenaries and use a recently rediscovered portal to transport them behind the enemy lines. I have not yet used many famous mercenary companies, but that may change in the future.

 

[arwink]

When using it as the basis of a campaign, I found that the mercenary thing needed to be brought up in advance for those two reasons.

Mostly, players were interested in the idea and the change of pace, and weren't really bothered by the fact they had a commanding officer. It was understood that when they started, even at 1st, they inhabited a strange space between the 1st level warriors that made up the rank and file of the company, and the higher level characters that commanded their force. It also helps to give the PC's some respect as well - they may be part of the grunt force, but both their superiors and their fellow soldiers knew they were troops worth having, so they were given a bit of leeway.

The pacing between full scale war and typical adventuring is also just a level of adjustment. There are a lot of small things that happen in when the troop moves from place to place. They need scouts, they send forward a small advance force, they leave behind a rear guard. I used stuff like the black company books and Robert Jordans Conan books that featured Conan leading a free company as the inspiration for adventure design.

The battle themselves are a matter of taste. There's a lot of mass combat systems out there that can be adapted, and it is possible to make your own if you need too. Personally, I just think of an battle as a flowchart - looking at the events that may happen to the characters over the course of the battle, and calculating how things may turn out for either side dependent on PC actions. The rest is filled in with general description, and the battle adventure equivelent of random encounters.

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

What sort of laws do you think cities have about Mercenary Guilds?

The Freeport modules feature some mercenary action, but I was debating how small mercenary groups might be regulated. Particularly, in Freeport, they seem to be hired on to do a wide range of stuff; from guarding trade meetings, to guarding private residences, to assassination and more. Is there any historical analogue to this sort of arrangement, and if so, what were the rules that governed it?

My campaign features a series of city states which supplement their income (and influence and military might) by selling letters of marque, in effect licencing mercenary (and adventuring) companies. If you want to go about armed you'd better be a marqued company or the authorities come down hard.

 

[Carnifex]

My campaign includes a number of mercenary companies such as the Blood Ravens, but the importance of these companies as free-ranging merc bands is currently diminishing. This is because many of the nations are just now finally emerging from being very weak and always on the defensive into quite powerful states with the resources to do some conquering and become imperialistic powers. They're massively expanding their national forces and mercenary companies are being swept up and hired on a permanent basis to work for a particular nation; few new mercenaries are emerging because anyone can get military employment with their own nation except for in a few places, and the opportunities are looking pretty good for people thus employed.