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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jürgen Hubert" data-source="post: 1437489" data-attributes="member: 7177">A basic rule of military discipline is: "Do whatever a superior officer tells you or else."The average party being an unruly lot, they will likely initially having a hard time swallowing that, but it's a good idea to reinforce that from the start. Disobeying a superior officer is mutiny or insubordination, and historically was usually a hanging offence. Let them witness an NPC get hanged for this, and it will help them get in the mood...If you use historical armies as a model, they will have an officer as a superior. This is usually a noble who has bought his commission. Note that actual competence is entirely optional - especially since there wasn't any real war in the last 50 years. You might want to pick a PC as the officer, but it's probably more fun to use a green leutnant as an NPC who gives out all sorts of ill thought out commands.The trick for the PCs here is to give him all sorts of sensible suggestions on how to proceed - while making him think that they were his own ideas in the first place. Let them watch him get promoted for his "heroic deeds" while they do the hard work...   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />After this, you have the non-commissioned officers - these are ordinary (non-noble) troopers who have been promoted for competence. These include seargeants and corporals. Make sure you pick a player for this role who has displayed leadership qualities at the gaming table at the past. Some basic diplomacy and skill in "officer handling" is very useful here, too - they want simple, straightforward commands from their officers, like "take that hill", that allow them to work out the details themselves. This is a good thing - they are usually far more competent at tactics than junior officers (and many senior officers, too!). What a seargeant dreads the most is an officer who can't make up his mind!Below that you have the rank-and-file soldiers, usually privates. They fight to survive and protect the life of their buddies. They aren't supposed to worry about the bigger picture - just do what they are told.You might want to give clerics, wizards, and other people with extraordinary powers special ranks to show their status - "chaplain" for clerics, "specialists" or "warmage" for wizards and sorcerers, and so on. They are still supposed to do what a superior officer tells them, but a good officer listens to things that they know a lot about (a bad officer, naturally, ignores everything they say). Oh, and they usually get paid more, too...Incidentally, you might want to buy the latest Discworld novel, "Monstrous Regiment", which offers you some great insights into historical military life!</blockquote>

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