So, I'm contemplating kicking off another Campaign, using a pre-published campaign world - Faerûn - in the standard setting ( the latter two being a real departure for me ).
Since I have Players which aren't really that diligent about creating detailed backstories, I've decided to pitch a pre-generated Adventuring/Mercenary Company to them, and present them with a double handful of pre-generated Characters ( 2+ pregen options per Player ) with complete backstories, that they can select from to populate their "team" within the larger Adventuring/Mercenary Company - with the provisio that they're free to alter their Character's backstory up until the point they use that Character.
The idea here is a to allow Player creative freedom, but give them a default fallback if they're not feeling like fleshing out aspects of their Character.
I'm think of starting them at level 6, and giving each Character a "major" magic item appropriate to their class & level, and 2-3 consumable minor items ( or 1 non-consumable ), right off the bat - this representing spoils of their adventures before the campaign starts.
I'm considering giving the larger Company a Keep as base of operations, complete with support personnel, training officers, barracks, local Shrines/ Cleric(s), etc.
Initially I can feed them the Campaign story arcs simply as Company contracts to which their team has been assigned, but I'll start weaving threads of each contract into a larger story arc, which the Party will eventually deal with - possibly having left their Company at some point - or maybe assuming control of the entire Company.
I'd like the set this in Faerûn, on the sword coast, in the far North, with their larger Company being involved in Protection/Mercenary/Trouble-Shooting contracts in the region, in and around the Waterdeep/Neverwinter/Luskan/Mirabar trade road region. This feels like a bit of homecoming for me - as I used to Play in the Forgotten Realms, but not for nearly 30 years now.
So ... I'm looking for some feedback and ideas of a few fronts:
What would be in the internal regulations/code-of-conduct be for such a company? I have some initial ideas around pay, commissions, how to deal with retrieved magical items ( if any ) from contracts, etc. - but I haven't found any examples of Adventuring Company charters online, nor any examples of an applicable "uniform code of justice".
Where would be good place to drop their Keep? I'm thinking of placing it near an existing ( or invented ) town of about 1K-2K people, with the relationship between the Town and Keep/Company being a mutually beneficial one ( the Town provides/sells goods and services to the Company; the Company contracts out for "external security " for the Town).
I have the Sword Coast Adventures Guide - but what earlier edition source-books for Faerûn are still relevant for 5e?
Any "cool suggestions" at all for the Company, their Keep, or the Region would be appreciated.
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For internal regulations: perhaps there are 2 two types of ranks, one based on your character level and another based on how much you have done for "the company". Similar to a seargant, master seargent etc. Early contracts could stipulate where magic items go, though as the group gains more rep within the company perhaps that's subject to negotiation. Respecting the higher up chain of command is probably critical, the company may have a way of enforcing, or being aware when folks deviate.
Just south of Luskan along the coast is a town called Port LLast, that could be a good location relatively central to Mirabar, Neverwinter and Luskan (as well as being pretty far north).
Cheers
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
I'm definitely thinking of this more as a military organization, than a loose affiliation of adventurers.
The Party, however, would be the "special talents team" - which is dispatched when the situation is a bit odd, and a regular Scout, Infantry, or Guard unit won't quite meet the needs. But regular military units would be part of White Bear Company . This also means that if the needs of the adventure arc require some serious military force to be brought to bear, they Party has a source for that ( provided they can convince Colonel Alrofla Stormswift to commit forces - she's a hard military commander of the "old school" ).
What I was thinking for magical items/loot runs kind of like this: Members of White Bear Company are provided with room & board, equipment, training, medical care, and a salary. For salary, I'm leveraging the pay structure of an actual military for this purpose ( see here). For "liberated items" and other "salvage", I'm think the team that brings it back gets a commission ( say ... 30%? ), to offset the fact that all their personal and professional needs are being met by The Company. Magic Items would be dispensed on a "best use" basis, by the Company command structure - but if the item in question was not issued back to the team that discovered it, their commission would reflect the assessed value of the item.
This essentially allows the Party to not worry about living expenses, allows them to "sell" magic items they don't need/can't use, and allows the DM to issue needed magic items as "special mission equipment" if needs be.
I hadn't considering the Character Level to be tied to their Organization Rank at all - although clearly a higher level member is more effective, and more likely to get promoted.
But I like your implied idea of promotion by merit being tied to their "contract commission level". It would also tie to the amount of resources that the Team is likely to be afforded, if they've risen through the ranks.
As for location, I think Port LLastis a very good candidate, thanks! I was considering something likeLongsaddle- but the port/sea connection gives the Party more flexibility.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
All of that sounds like a solid plan. Depending on RP, Colonel Alrofla Stormswift may sometimes need convincing to "call in the big guns" and could end up with an interesting relationship with the group, sometimes an ally, sometimes more adversarial.
Something that could be interesting is for the party to only have 1 magic item of "their own" at the start, then between sessions get things requisitioned to them via the company store etc. This way you can have a lot of disposable magic items. The party could then even remember some things returned from earlier adventures that could help with whatever their current commission is.
For your thought, how does the company decide on missions? IE, do they only accept some from "trusted sources", or are some really just based on how much money a group offers. This could lead to some interesting grey areas. I could see how a few different sets of missions could ultimately lead to some conflict between the party and the company.
Dang, now I want to build a new campaign world :)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
If you really want a feel for how I'm picturing this, I'd recommend checking out the works ofDavid's Drake's stories aboutHammer's Slammers ( Rolling Hot, if you had to pick just one ) - although I don't want this to become super focused on the Military aspect of White Bear Company. The Campaign will be adventure based, focused on the Party, and their "special assignments".
To that end, White Bear Company would be primarily mercenaric - selling their services to the highest bidder - but being tied to Port LLast( thanks for that! ), they can't be totally above the geo-political concerns of the region. They would need to maintain a cordial relationship withThe Lords Alliance- in fact I can see the founding charter for White Bear Company being drawn up in Waterdeep. White Bear Company would have a wary, or even antagonistic, relationship with High Captains of Luskan, and possibly have been involved repelling attempts at Luskan to control the Port LLast harbor. White Bear Company would essentially be displacing the 80-or-so troops from Neverwinter and The Lords' Alliance, in the canonical history of Faerûn.
But this raises an interesting question - when does this all take place, in the canonical historical timeline?!?
I must admit, I'm really rather drawn to the period before the Spellplague, but if I go too far back in canonical history, I lose a lot of the world event details. Perhaps somewhere around 1355 DR, a good 30 years before the Spellplague?
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
But this raises an interesting question - when does this all take place, in the canonical historical timeline?!?
While you already know this, you can just use that era as a basis for your campaign, then diverge after. There can also be other factions, opposed to the "lords alliance" who may have some missions for "the company".
You aren't locked in to the timeline, so you could have this "just before" the spellplague, if you want to work that in as a forcing function, or just after, if you want to work that in as a "lets help people" function.
I have a bias in that I like describing some crazy spellplague-esque scenes and there forebears and aftermath.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
You might spend some time glancing through company employee handbooks; there's lots of examples available with a quick Google search (just found one for Netflix after about 2 minutes searching). I work in HR, and organizations place a lot of importance on their handbooks. They come up in almost any case that may involve disciplinary action, so that could be a good source of material to adapt for the company's code.
As for the company itself, I always make sure there's a meticulous bean counter working the numbers side of things. That would be a good personality for the party to go up against at some point. "You need what?! Who authorized this? Does he even know the proper procedure for issuing--oh, goodness, out! All of you! Out! Out!”
I am currently running a campaign set in the Sword Coast where the party are memebers of a adventurer's guild. That will produce party's for everything from a simple escort and body guard to full mercenary companies for battle. They have offices in all the major and most of the minor cities. They are currently on the Island of Moray investigating what happened to a smaller team that has gone missing. The Company is known for their rigid adherence to the contracts they enter into and their practice of hunting down contract breakers. The concept does allow for a great deal of flexibility in the types of adventures you create they all can be contract missions including hunting down contract breakers. It does allow for new character drop ins fairly easily. The Company assigned them to the mission, need a specific magic item ? Mission essentials provided by the Company. I have each major office is a small complex with inns and quartermasters for the members to stay at and equip themselves. The Company will act as broker for excess items ect. They also have ledgers that are magically linked to the master ledger so all entries are recorded.
So, I'm contemplating kicking off another Campaign, using a pre-published campaign world - Faerûn - in the standard setting ( the latter two being a real departure for me ).
Since I have Players which aren't really that diligent about creating detailed backstories, I've decided to pitch a pre-generated Adventuring/Mercenary Company to them, and present them with a double handful of pre-generated Characters ( 2+ pregen options per Player ) with complete backstories, that they can select from to populate their "team" within the larger Adventuring/Mercenary Company - with the provisio that they're free to alter their Character's backstory up until the point they use that Character.
The idea here is a to allow Player creative freedom, but give them a default fallback if they're not feeling like fleshing out aspects of their Character.
I'm think of starting them at level 6, and giving each Character a "major" magic item appropriate to their class & level, and 2-3 consumable minor items ( or 1 non-consumable ), right off the bat - this representing spoils of their adventures before the campaign starts.
I'm considering giving the larger Company a Keep as base of operations, complete with support personnel, training officers, barracks, local Shrines/ Cleric(s), etc.
Initially I can feed them the Campaign story arcs simply as Company contracts to which their team has been assigned, but I'll start weaving threads of each contract into a larger story arc, which the Party will eventually deal with - possibly having left their Company at some point - or maybe assuming control of the entire Company.
I'd like the set this in Faerûn, on the sword coast, in the far North, with their larger Company being involved in Protection/Mercenary/Trouble-Shooting contracts in the region, in and around the Waterdeep/Neverwinter/Luskan/Mirabar trade road region. This feels like a bit of homecoming for me - as I used to Play in the Forgotten Realms, but not for nearly 30 years now.
So ... I'm looking for some feedback and ideas of a few fronts:
Thanks! :)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Hey Vedex,
I have a couple of thoughts :)
For internal regulations: perhaps there are 2 two types of ranks, one based on your character level and another based on how much you have done for "the company". Similar to a seargant, master seargent etc. Early contracts could stipulate where magic items go, though as the group gains more rep within the company perhaps that's subject to negotiation. Respecting the higher up chain of command is probably critical, the company may have a way of enforcing, or being aware when folks deviate.
For a location, check out this:
https://www.aidedd.org/atlas/index.php?map=R&l=1
Just south of Luskan along the coast is a town called Port LLast, that could be a good location relatively central to Mirabar, Neverwinter and Luskan (as well as being pretty far north).
Cheers
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Thanks! :)
I'm definitely thinking of this more as a military organization, than a loose affiliation of adventurers.
The Party, however, would be the "special talents team" - which is dispatched when the situation is a bit odd, and a regular Scout, Infantry, or Guard unit won't quite meet the needs. But regular military units would be part of White Bear Company . This also means that if the needs of the adventure arc require some serious military force to be brought to bear, they Party has a source for that ( provided they can convince Colonel Alrofla Stormswift to commit forces - she's a hard military commander of the "old school" ).
What I was thinking for magical items/loot runs kind of like this: Members of White Bear Company are provided with room & board, equipment, training, medical care, and a salary. For salary, I'm leveraging the pay structure of an actual military for this purpose ( see here ). For "liberated items" and other "salvage", I'm think the team that brings it back gets a commission ( say ... 30%? ), to offset the fact that all their personal and professional needs are being met by The Company. Magic Items would be dispensed on a "best use" basis, by the Company command structure - but if the item in question was not issued back to the team that discovered it, their commission would reflect the assessed value of the item.
This essentially allows the Party to not worry about living expenses, allows them to "sell" magic items they don't need/can't use, and allows the DM to issue needed magic items as "special mission equipment" if needs be.
I hadn't considering the Character Level to be tied to their Organization Rank at all - although clearly a higher level member is more effective, and more likely to get promoted.
But I like your implied idea of promotion by merit being tied to their "contract commission level". It would also tie to the amount of resources that the Team is likely to be afforded, if they've risen through the ranks.
As for location, I think Port LLast is a very good candidate, thanks! I was considering something like Longsaddle - but the port/sea connection gives the Party more flexibility.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
All of that sounds like a solid plan. Depending on RP, Colonel Alrofla Stormswift may sometimes need convincing to "call in the big guns" and could end up with an interesting relationship with the group, sometimes an ally, sometimes more adversarial.
Something that could be interesting is for the party to only have 1 magic item of "their own" at the start, then between sessions get things requisitioned to them via the company store etc. This way you can have a lot of disposable magic items. The party could then even remember some things returned from earlier adventures that could help with whatever their current commission is.
For your thought, how does the company decide on missions? IE, do they only accept some from "trusted sources", or are some really just based on how much money a group offers. This could lead to some interesting grey areas. I could see how a few different sets of missions could ultimately lead to some conflict between the party and the company.
Dang, now I want to build a new campaign world :)
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
If you really want a feel for how I'm picturing this, I'd recommend checking out the works of David's Drake's stories about Hammer's Slammers ( Rolling Hot, if you had to pick just one ) - although I don't want this to become super focused on the Military aspect of White Bear Company. The Campaign will be adventure based, focused on the Party, and their "special assignments".
To that end, White Bear Company would be primarily mercenaric - selling their services to the highest bidder - but being tied to Port LLast ( thanks for that! ), they can't be totally above the geo-political concerns of the region. They would need to maintain a cordial relationship with The Lords Alliance - in fact I can see the founding charter for White Bear Company being drawn up in Waterdeep. White Bear Company would have a wary, or even antagonistic, relationship with High Captains of Luskan, and possibly have been involved repelling attempts at Luskan to control the Port LLast harbor. White Bear Company would essentially be displacing the 80-or-so troops from Neverwinter and The Lords' Alliance, in the canonical history of Faerûn.
But this raises an interesting question - when does this all take place, in the canonical historical timeline?!?
I must admit, I'm really rather drawn to the period before the Spellplague, but if I go too far back in canonical history, I lose a lot of the world event details. Perhaps somewhere around 1355 DR, a good 30 years before the Spellplague?
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
While you already know this, you can just use that era as a basis for your campaign, then diverge after. There can also be other factions, opposed to the "lords alliance" who may have some missions for "the company".
You aren't locked in to the timeline, so you could have this "just before" the spellplague, if you want to work that in as a forcing function, or just after, if you want to work that in as a "lets help people" function.
I have a bias in that I like describing some crazy spellplague-esque scenes and there forebears and aftermath.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
You might spend some time glancing through company employee handbooks; there's lots of examples available with a quick Google search (just found one for Netflix after about 2 minutes searching). I work in HR, and organizations place a lot of importance on their handbooks. They come up in almost any case that may involve disciplinary action, so that could be a good source of material to adapt for the company's code.
As for the company itself, I always make sure there's a meticulous bean counter working the numbers side of things. That would be a good personality for the party to go up against at some point. "You need what?! Who authorized this? Does he even know the proper procedure for issuing--oh, goodness, out! All of you! Out! Out!”
I am currently running a campaign set in the Sword Coast where the party are memebers of a adventurer's guild. That will produce party's for everything from a simple escort and body guard to full mercenary companies for battle. They have offices in all the major and most of the minor cities. They are currently on the Island of Moray investigating what happened to a smaller team that has gone missing. The Company is known for their rigid adherence to the contracts they enter into and their practice of hunting down contract breakers. The concept does allow for a great deal of flexibility in the types of adventures you create they all can be contract missions including hunting down contract breakers. It does allow for new character drop ins fairly easily. The Company assigned them to the mission, need a specific magic item ? Mission essentials provided by the Company. I have each major office is a small complex with inns and quartermasters for the members to stay at and equip themselves. The Company will act as broker for excess items ect. They also have ledgers that are magically linked to the master ledger so all entries are recorded.