D&D General Ranger, Why Do You Guard the Frontier?

Rangers are warriors who roam the wilds defending civilization against monsters. Determining why your ranger lives such a rough life may open up new roleplaying opportunities for you to explore and offer new ideas for your GM to incorporate into her world.

Image courtesy of Deviant Art Creative Commons​

Rangers hail from a variety of backgrounds. They share in a common a willingness to both survive in the wilds away from civilization and to fight the enemies that prowl the frontier. Here are d12 reasons your ranger might prowl the wilderness.

1. Angry all the time. You have a temper. And you are skilled in killing people. It hasn’t been a safe combination in crowded settlements. So you roam the wilds and kill the enemies who threaten the settlements and the people you’ve chosen to avoid.
2. Falsely accused. They say you killed a man in cold blood. You were going to hang, no question. So you fled into the wilds. Whether you dream of trying to clear your name or not, you help greenhorns who stumble into your home and need help while you avoid the noose.
3. Forgotten nobility. You believe you are descended from an ancient line of nobility whose realm has fallen and whose people have been scattered. You guard the kingdoms of other people since yours has fallen.
4. Good at killing. You have a knack for killing people. You may not like it or you might actually enjoy it. Either way, you’ve decided working in the wilds makes it easier to find enemies that need to be killed and in larger numbers. You’ve never been happier.
5. Just a job. Guarding the frontier means you are in charge most of the time. Your success and survival are tied to just you and your decisions and that suits you just fine. Anything to avoid haughty nobles, corrupt watch, and drunken louts.
6. Loner. You don’t like many people or you don’t like crowds of people. There are less people in the wilds and your enemies are usually easier to spot and kill. You avoid going into settlements whenever possible.
7. Lost it all. Whatever you once had is now gone. Plague may have taken your family, a fire your home, or war your homeland. When in settlements you tend to get angry while off in the wilds you are simply quiet and melancholy so you try to avoid civilization.
8. Loves the wilds. You love the sound of the wind through trees, the crashing noise of waterfalls, the moon and stars on a dark night, and fresh air to breathe. You’re willing to fight for your small piece of the wilderness.
9. Running from the past. Something haunts you. Maybe you left behind your family, deserted from an army, refused a noble’s order, or risked a forbidden romance. Now you run and you cannot go back. If the bounty hunters close in it is time to move on.
10. Thrill of adventure. You love canoeing through rapids, scaling cliffs, traversing overgrown forests, swimming in oceans, exploring underground caves, and treading where no civilized person has walked before. You likely enjoy a good scrap too.
11. Trying to forget. Maybe you fought in wars and have memories you want to forget. You might have been an assassin for the realm and you tired of killing. You might have served on the watch and burned out while carting off knifed drunks from taverns and slain prostitutes killed by violent men. The wilderness is much quieter and the monsters here make more sense to you and are easier to deal with.
12. Wanderlust. You must see what is over the next hill, around the next river bend, and over the next mountain. If you stay in one place too long you become agitated and unsettled until you set out for somewhere new.

Some of these ideas will work better if you work with your GM to incorporate them into adventures. Your ranger will need at times to accompany his adventuring companions into settlements, but he will always be eager to leave civilization behind and return to the wilderness he calls home.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Faramir was also a ranger, and he doesn't really fit with any of those.

22. You are part of an elite unit of a nation's army assigned to fight a guerrilla war in no-mans-land.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

23. You are a frontiersperson, building your own home and living off the land.
24. You lead people from settlements into the wilds to teach them wildscraft and to appreciate nature.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

21. Sauron

saw you in a seeing stone. You are in the woods avoiding him while looking for hobbits and plotting to use their tiny courage to overthrow him and usher in a new age.

 

[MarkB]

Faramir was also a ranger, and he doesn't really fit with any of those.

22. You are part of an elite unit of a nation's army assigned to fight a guerrilla war in no-mans-land.

Likewise Aragorn's people. Literally the primary origin of the Ranger character is large military organisations which happen to operate in wilderness areas. Aragorn is perceived by many of the folks he protects as being a dangerous, antisocial loner, when in fact he's a highly cultured scholar and leader.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

25. You trap varmints for their pelts with your small but vicious dog.
26. You sleep all day and drink and fish when the sun goes down.
27. You have a small bar you run at a crossroads in the woods. Travellers come from miles around for your home-brewed moonshine (the Werewolf), beer (the Bear), and whiskey (the Whistle).
28. You are a highly cultured scholar and leader of a military band in the wilds.
29. You grow herbs and mushrooms and sell them in settlements.
30. You travel around with a pot on your head planting apple trees.
31. You carefully cut down trees, replant trees, and sell the logs to settlements. You are beholden to a local treant named Leafherder and must help him out whenever he asks to keep your logging operation going.

 

[Dioltach]

32. You like LARPing as an Ent.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

33. You are rancher fighting off cattle rustlers and land barons who want your land.
34. You are a native person, nomadic, moving from place to place following the herds.
35. You are a native person living in the frozen north, hunting seals, and traveling by dog sled and canoe when the ice thaws.
36. You are a former greenhorn covered in dirt and brambles who someone manages to thriive in the wilds. You believe Ehlonna smiles upon you.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

32. You like LARPing as an Ent.

The wood elves dress up as orcs. You pretend to fight and eventually mock drown them in battle.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Now we have too much positivity. Time to bring back the bad:

37. You are trying to keep them City Slickers (favored enemy) and their Erastil-damned fourin foods (like that exotic spice, pepper) out of your neighborhood.
38. Your deadbeat dad was a ranger, at least according to your mother, and you are hunting him down.
39. That kid's mom in #38 was right about you.
40 Your wolf companion is actually the ranger, and you are just someone he pays to hang around to talk to those speciest other party members.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

41. You grow pipeleaf, assemble flint and steel in pouches, and carve beautiful and elaborate pipes to sell in settlements.
42. You are a cartographer, traveling the wilds making accurate and ornate maps.
43. You practice origami,, paint, or write poetry and live in the wilds to be inspired in your work.