the area is a small town by some hills it is some 20 mile till the nearest town with any kind of magic or army. The bandit are a small clan that raids wagons and has a contact that sells them food. Could they be helpful in any way?
Maybe the bandits are just a bunch of kids from the small town trying to help their parents get by? Maybe it's what passes for a militia, and they function as a deterrent for real thieves? The idea of a group of local marauders who are in the robbery business for benevolent, if morally skewed, reasons intrigues me.
If you have an unusually poor mayor or something that gets into too much mischief in town, a small band of bandits could keep his 'troops' too busy to make much mischief in the town, and if the noble in charge is getting annoyed by the bandit problem the mayor is forced to use his troops this way.
Bandits might be a handy distraction for some nefarious behavior by an NPC in the town, say a wizard that doesn't wish to be bothered, or noticed.
They can also be a handy distraction for the mayor to send some stupid rat catchers away so they don't bother him and snoop into what he is up to in town.
They might bump into a band of undead monsters sounding an alarm well before the trouble arrives in the town.
Think of the food chain ... sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
The bandits are a small clan, right? So they must have women and children among them.
Maybe the bandit chief wants to marry his son to the mayor/village headman's daughter? Such an alliance could be mutually beneficial. While working on this plan, the chief has forbidden his men from attacking villagers and raiding their flocks and fields.
Besides, the village is an important food provider, so driving off the people living there would be stupid.
Well, my bandits are typically deserters from the army or former prisoners from nearby nations that escaped or completed their sentence and then moved on. If the bandits stay in one place for long, I might add one female for every four males, and they stay back at a camp when the bandits run off to do their thing. Banditry can be a tricky thing, because at some point you cause enough mischief that someone gets serious about taking you out of action. Many bandit leaders are not wise enough to understand that and it is their downfall.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I like deserters as a source of bandits. Very realistic and fun.
The OP's mention of a 'small clan' suggested to me that these bandits are a family of robbers. Maybe they were once farmers in the lowlands but lost their homes to high taxation, warfare, monsters, etc. and moved into the hills, taking up banditry to survive and perhaps pay back their old enemies.
For one thing that will keep other bandit groups away. And from the way you're framing this they don't operate out of the town proper so they have a base somewhere and likely a certain amount of pest control, monsters, large predators, or other such threats.
And if they have to "Buy" food then it's likely that they need to get their hands on other things. That means they have a relationship with the town. And that relationship may sway them to inform people in the town of eminent and overwhelming threats.
Sounds like Robin Hood and his Merry Men to me...although I think a better option would be to direct you to the tv show "Robin of Sherwood" from the 1980's..
Maybe the bandits raid trade caravans and then sell their stolen loot to townsfolk on the black market at significantly cheaper prices. The town governance looks the other way because either they themselves get kickbacks from the bandits, they buy from them, or they recognize that the cheaper costs for goods helps the town. Especially if there are any trade embargoes on certain items or items from certain places in the country, that the bandits can ignore.
Maybe this mutually beneficial relationship between the bandits and the town would even cause the bandits to protect the town when threatened, if only to preserve their source of income.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Funny enough this kind of reminds of a Bible story. I recommend 1 Samuel 25 where David, who at this time was essentially a bandit who gathered a group of men and watched over the shepherds of the flock of a rich man named Nabal. David thought that he would get a reward for protecting flock sent a messenger to Nabal who flat out rejected offering anything to him. This angered David and gathered up his men to sack and kill Nabal and his whole household. Abigail the wife of Nabal went out to meet David and offered to him food and this appeased David's anger who promised not to kill them. Nabal then died and then David married Abigail. My short version is ignoring a lot of additional cultural context going on in this account but I recommend giving it a read.
Funny enough this kind of reminds of a Bible story. I recommend 1 Samuel 25 where David, who at this time was essentially a bandit who gathered a group of men and watched over the shepherds of the flock of a rich man named Nabal. David thought that he would get a reward for protecting flock sent a messenger to Nabal who flat out rejected offering anything to him. This angered David and gathered up his men to sack and kill Nabal and his whole household. Abigail the wife of Nabal went out to meet David and offered to him food and this appeased David's anger who promised not to kill them. Nabal then died and then David married Abigail. My short version is ignoring a lot of additional cultural context going on in this account but I recommend giving it a read.
This reads and sounds like extortion to me, but then I am an atheist so am a more than a little biased.
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the area is a small town by some hills it is some 20 mile till the nearest town with any kind of magic or army. The bandit are a small clan that raids wagons and has a contact that sells them food. Could they be helpful in any way?
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Maybe the bandits are just a bunch of kids from the small town trying to help their parents get by? Maybe it's what passes for a militia, and they function as a deterrent for real thieves? The idea of a group of local marauders who are in the robbery business for benevolent, if morally skewed, reasons intrigues me.
Of course. If that is the closest the town has to a militia, this is what keeps other predators at bay.
Meaning either other bandits or monsters.
The townspeople may just have gotten used to giving up a share of their work/harvest to the bandits in exchange for 'protection'.
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If you have an unusually poor mayor or something that gets into too much mischief in town, a small band of bandits could keep his 'troops' too busy to make much mischief in the town, and if the noble in charge is getting annoyed by the bandit problem the mayor is forced to use his troops this way.
Bandits might be a handy distraction for some nefarious behavior by an NPC in the town, say a wizard that doesn't wish to be bothered, or noticed.
They can also be a handy distraction for the mayor to send some stupid rat catchers away so they don't bother him and snoop into what he is up to in town.
They might bump into a band of undead monsters sounding an alarm well before the trouble arrives in the town.
Think of the food chain ... sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
The bandits are a small clan, right? So they must have women and children among them.
Maybe the bandit chief wants to marry his son to the mayor/village headman's daughter? Such an alliance could be mutually beneficial. While working on this plan, the chief has forbidden his men from attacking villagers and raiding their flocks and fields.
Besides, the village is an important food provider, so driving off the people living there would be stupid.
Well, my bandits are typically deserters from the army or former prisoners from nearby nations that escaped or completed their sentence and then moved on. If the bandits stay in one place for long, I might add one female for every four males, and they stay back at a camp when the bandits run off to do their thing. Banditry can be a tricky thing, because at some point you cause enough mischief that someone gets serious about taking you out of action. Many bandit leaders are not wise enough to understand that and it is their downfall.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I like deserters as a source of bandits. Very realistic and fun.
The OP's mention of a 'small clan' suggested to me that these bandits are a family of robbers. Maybe they were once farmers in the lowlands but lost their homes to high taxation, warfare, monsters, etc. and moved into the hills, taking up banditry to survive and perhaps pay back their old enemies.
For one thing that will keep other bandit groups away. And from the way you're framing this they don't operate out of the town proper so they have a base somewhere and likely a certain amount of pest control, monsters, large predators, or other such threats.
And if they have to "Buy" food then it's likely that they need to get their hands on other things. That means they have a relationship with the town. And that relationship may sway them to inform people in the town of eminent and overwhelming threats.
Sounds like Robin Hood and his Merry Men to me...although I think a better option would be to direct you to the tv show "Robin of Sherwood" from the 1980's..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3U1YkhwrOA
Maybe the bandits raid trade caravans and then sell their stolen loot to townsfolk on the black market at significantly cheaper prices. The town governance looks the other way because either they themselves get kickbacks from the bandits, they buy from them, or they recognize that the cheaper costs for goods helps the town. Especially if there are any trade embargoes on certain items or items from certain places in the country, that the bandits can ignore.
Maybe this mutually beneficial relationship between the bandits and the town would even cause the bandits to protect the town when threatened, if only to preserve their source of income.
Robin Hood is what comes to mind immediately.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
one town's bandits are another town's heroes.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Funny enough this kind of reminds of a Bible story. I recommend 1 Samuel 25 where David, who at this time was essentially a bandit who gathered a group of men and watched over the shepherds of the flock of a rich man named Nabal. David thought that he would get a reward for protecting flock sent a messenger to Nabal who flat out rejected offering anything to him. This angered David and gathered up his men to sack and kill Nabal and his whole household. Abigail the wife of Nabal went out to meet David and offered to him food and this appeased David's anger who promised not to kill them. Nabal then died and then David married Abigail. My short version is ignoring a lot of additional cultural context going on in this account but I recommend giving it a read.
This reads and sounds like extortion to me, but then I am an atheist so am a more than a little biased.
Could be a Robin Hood type deal.