Mercenaries and Missions

[The Shaman]

"You're mercenaries and your mission is a commando raid on the Temple of Hextor..."

It seems that I see this more and more as the motivations for adventurers regardless of genre. Back in Ye Goode Olde Daze, our D&D characters were knights and mages on quests for the common weal, or occasionally thieves in the mold of Conan or the Mouser. "Commando missions" were reserved for games like Top Secret or occasionally Traveller.

When did the jargon of modern military action become common parlance in Dungeons and Dragons? Or has it always been this way, and in my decrepitude I've just forgotten to take off the rose-colored glasses again?

 

[D_Sinclair]

I'd say it was inevitable, given the number of military personnel that pick up the hobby while they're doing their time. After all, they need something to do when they've got time to relax and can't get off base or worse, off the ship.

I game with about 20 people regularly in various groups, 17 of them served in the military. 6 of the 9 ex-navy guys served on the USS Independence alone, 1 was a SEAL, one was a quartermaster and one was Pentagon staff. Of the 6 Army guys, my boss was an artillerist and chemical weapons expert, 1 was airborne, 1 was a ranger, 2 were tankers and the last was a blackhawk pilot. The two marines were a rifleman and LAV driver in a recon unit. The air force guy was an aircraft mechanic and the last guy is still "in", working in the coast guard.

If this issue is something you're encountering in the games you're playing in, rather than in game books you're reading, you might want to examine the group composition (or just the DM composition) to see if there is an overall trend to past military experience.

Another issue to examine as an influencing factor is video games. I know modern military and technothriller first person shooters by far outnumber fantasy genre video games. If those types of games are popular with the group, that could be an influencing factor as well.

 

[The Shaman]

If this issue is something you're encountering in the games you're playing in, rather than in game books you're reading, you might want to examine the group composition (or just the DM composition) to see if there is an overall trend to past military experience.

I see it fairly often in the adventure descriptions posted on different bulletin boards, as well as some published adventures.

I'd buy the ex-military idea if not for the fact that it seems to be as common among the 12-19 crowd as the 22-33 crowd.

 

[D_Sinclair]

I see it fairly often in the adventure descriptions posted on different bulletin boards, as well as some published adventures.

I'd buy the ex-military idea if not for the fact that it seems to be as common among the 12-19 crowd as the 22-33 crowd.

Then I'd say the issue is most likely a video game influence, now that you've clarified where you were witnessing the trend. Now I wonder how many of those militaristic adventures could actually be connected in some fashion to any particular video game.

 

[The Shaman]

Then I'd say the issue is most likely a video game influence, now that you've clarified where you were witnessing the trend.

Ahhhhhh...veddy interestink.

Hadn't thought of that.

Now I wonder how many of those militaristic adventures could actually be connected in some fashion to any particular video game.

Good question, one which I'm totally unequipped to answer. (Uh, Sim City anyone?)

 

[Tonguez]

Actually I reckon its more to do with the drive towards 'grittiness' amd the 'more realistic view' of medieval life (ie it wasn't chivalrous Knights and Powerful mages poncing about fighting evil ala LOTR) it was desperate hungry men-at-arms fighting for their lives against desperate hungry men-at-arms who just happened to be foreigners...

 

[Reynard]

Personally, I think it has more to due with the fact that -- fantasy aside -- D&D is really part of the action-drama genre with a big cast. Looking at other froms of entertainmnet found in this genre, you see squad tactics video games, technothriller films, and spy/military/cop shows. So -- again, dragons and wizards aside -- our primary references for stories involving a bunch of protagonists -- all of whom fit into a niche -- engaging in tense derring do comes from these kinds of sources. Really, it is no surprise, considering that most of the fatasy fiction, from Burroughs to Vance, that D&D is based on only makes room for one or two protagonists. Tolkien is really ther only one with a broad represnetation of main characters, and most of those were fighters.

I like the impact it has on the game, because it means everyone has something to do. If everyone, including the DM, realizes this going in, then two good things (in relationship to niche protection) occur: 1) The DM sets up an adventure in which every character's specialty is useful and necessary, and 2) players know to let the specialists handle a given situation, thus allowing everyoen to shine. It is part of the reason i dislike broad classes and other mods that reduce the use of niches, the D&D genre anyway.

 

[fusangite]

I think the increasing mercenary impulse I've seen in D20 of late is linked to the fact that the system has rationalized risk and reward in terms of gp, xp and possessions too much. Because the system is too "fair," and resembles an idealized modern capitalism more and more, I think it is seeping into people's player and character motivations. The penny dropped for me during a discussion of the old 1E undead at GenCon; from a risk-reward standpoint, 1E undead were always bad news. Not so for present-day undead. Too much concern about quantitative balance and fairness in the rules produces too much concern about it in the players, in my view.