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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ratskinner" data-source="post: 6082953" data-attributes="member: 6688937">Sorry for the Delayed reply, but I just caught this.I'm going to have to call foul here, Hussar. (The rest of your argument is fine, I'm just defending my beloved Black Company.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />) Far from Big Damn Heroes, the Black Company are specifically and pointedly about grungy murder-hobos. Croaker often worries that he cleans it up too much in his annals, and that he may be too sympathetic to his brothers who are rapists, murderers, and thieves. They explicitly spend a lot of time planning things especially when they get down South. Murgen, during his time as annalist, repeatedly complains that Croaker (as Captain) seems obsessed with planning and deception, and in fact that campaign turns on a strategy that Croaker was working on for over a year. The company witch-men spend month after month on planning and prep, Goblin goes on a mission to the Shindai-kush (or whatever its called) and One-Eye spends almost a yearbuilding, staffing, and running what amounts to a Magic Item Factory which is produces hundreds of Fireball launchers of various sizes that they need to fight the Shadows (not to mention his spear!). Don't forget poor old Smoke. Riding that little wizard's ghost around to gather intelligence becomes an obsession for Murgen and Croaker (central to the narrative of Bleak Seasons. If they had access to Teleport, you can bet they that a lot of the stranglers would have died from Scry-and-Fry missions. (Which makes an interesting argument for removing a select few spells from 3e, and changing a few others, but that's another issue.)Sorry man, but if ever there was a poster-child for fiction that reflects things 3.x sensibilities its the Black Company. (Honestly, the whole "Combat As War" thing seems the central focus of that aspect of the series.) If you only read the first book or two, you might be forgiven, as their mega-wizard bosses are fond of yanking them around. But if you read carefully, part of the reason SoulCatcher hires them at the start of the series is because she's not as good at that kind of thinking, and needs it for the politicking and backstabbing amongst the Taken. (Like most of the Taken, she would prefer to just level the district and sort though the remains.) You can watch (second-hand, through Croaker) during the first couple books as the Captain and the Lieutenant basically teach SoulCatcher the Art of War. The only moment when I can see that series getting close to Big Damn Heroes is the battle at the Barrowlands, and even that scene was the culmination of a lot of planning and research.Heck. In the words of the immortal LeVar Burton "Don't take my word for it":::Ratskinner takes a breath and recovers his composure::...ahem. There are also many moments that I must refrain from mentioning as they would be the most profound and insidious spoilers.TL/DR: I'm a big fan of the Black Company, and Big Damn Heroes or Sword and Sorcery, they are not. It defines what a "gritty" campaign looks like for me. From my own direct experience, 4e is (so far) the single hardest edition to bend to that end. (Although I'm interested in trying again. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />) As always, play what you like.......but read the Black Company, really.</blockquote>

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