tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post1002496112968833980..comments2024-03-29T06:16:21.012+08:00Comments on Monsters and Manuals: Remaining SoldiersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-90336543926616155112018-11-29T02:14:59.566+08:002018-11-29T02:14:59.566+08:00In Medieval France there was a persistent issue wi...In Medieval France there was a persistent issue with 'Routiers' plundering the countryside whenever they were demobbed in The Hundred Years War - a large impetus for organising a crusade was giving these men something - anything - to do. I imagine the Papacy and French monarchy as quest-givers in this scenario, and have tried to replicate this when my party steams into town. The main reason the local Sheriff wants you to go and batter some Ogres in the woods is it gets you and your sticky fingers and your short tempers out of town. Adventurers and mercenaries are trouble for law-abiding folk and the status quo. <br /><br />It's also a good explanation for how the 'domain game' works in D&D. <br /><br />The Catalan Grand Company were crusaders, pirates and mercenaries who briefly established themselves as rulers of large parts of Greece in the Middle Ages. The Jormsvikings also played the domain-game, holding several fortresses in the Baltic. Harald Hardradr was a mercenary for years until he gained sufficient prestige and support to come back and make himself King of Norway. <br /><br />I'd love to run a game inspired by such a band: you're foreigners dumped in this fractious land to fight a war that has already ended for reasons you don't understand and noone has paid you in two months. Go!Rocinantehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15775746608769762225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-13436933485341282922018-11-13T18:44:32.660+08:002018-11-13T18:44:32.660+08:00"in a strange historical twist, a lot of the ..."in a strange historical twist, a lot of the French Foreign Legionnaires in that conflict were also actually German mercenaries fresh from the war in Europe."<br /><br />I recall reading that most of the 'French' Foreign Legion soldiers at Dien Bien Phu were German former Waffen-SS.<br /><br />'Brigand' of course meant 'soldier', and Brigandine meant 'soldier's armour'. IRL there was rarely much line between 'mercenary' and 'brigand'. The RPG trope of brigands as lightly armed and poorly skilled trash mobs hanging out in caves to be killed by 'adventurers' does not make much sense. 'Brigands' were a lot closer to the 'adventurers' of their day!Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01173759805310975320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-48771198104987409442018-11-01T22:29:15.477+08:002018-11-01T22:29:15.477+08:00This post reminded me of that scene in Moorcock...This post reminded me of that scene in Moorcock's Stormbringer in which Elric and various survivors of a battle are holed up in a cave. At least one is dying of his wounds. It's always struck me as an excellent starting point for an adventure: "Everyone knows that the war is over/Everybody knows that the good guys lost", as Leonard Cohen put it.<br /><br />One thing I mean to try shortly is to play out a battle using the Hordes of the Things wargames rules, but with terribly mismatched sides, so that the good guys will inevitably lose. When they do, we'll switch to D&D: "You're holed up in a cave in the hills over here, listening to the distant sounds of looting. YOU were with the light horse; YOU were in the phalanx broken by the orc warbands; YOU were among the archers who slew the great beasts but were broken by the lizard cavalry ....".<br /><br />It's a more extreme version of the "war is over" scenario you describe above, but having routed soldiers stranded in hostile territory strikes me as an excellent way of starting a sandbox game. I'm also fairly confident I could run this with players on both sides of the initial wargame not knowing what's at stake, so that some of them are playing the baddies - and plyaing to win.JChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17964744140140515737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-52428263477961162552018-10-31T03:43:37.284+08:002018-10-31T03:43:37.284+08:00Yep. Another example of how disbanded soldiers wit...Yep. Another example of how disbanded soldiers with nothing much to do can fuel further conflict - I suspect that kind of explanation is frowned upon by historians but I think sometimes conflict almost has a momentum of its own. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-35002839174206408632018-10-31T00:21:51.942+08:002018-10-31T00:21:51.942+08:00The actions of soldiers from disbanded units are a...The actions of soldiers from disbanded units are a major theme of A Distant Mirror. I think you've written about that book before.maimed autarchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01519668649420482914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-23156755331884099492018-10-30T14:35:08.099+08:002018-10-30T14:35:08.099+08:00Bit of a tangent, but one interpretation I once pu...Bit of a tangent, but one interpretation I once put on Othello was that it was about a soldier who reaches the front line and finds there is nothing to do.Solomon VKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11763252777153908412noreply@blogger.com