PbP Troupe-style Game Recruitment (Closed)

Main Character's ability scores!

Frontier style game, perhaps - either a "New World" (lost world?) sort of thing, or more Western-style, new frontier or gold rush sort of situation. As businessmen, prospectors, land-grant-holders...all of the above.

Yes, and possibly, depending on the troupe and how you see your character “fitting in”.

First, you need to agree on the nature of your troupe: the reason your Adventurers find yourselves in the company of one another, likely the motivation for the activities you will pursue together, and perhaps influencing how you interact with the campaign world.

The suggestions you’ve made so far are (in physical order of posting):

o A Silk Road campaign, in a caravan, trading our own accounts

o Like the Black Company, our own mercenary band at the platoon level

o A ruffians troupe

o The denizens of a small keep (on the borderlands?)

o A circus troupe that puts on performances as a cover for larceny/espionage.

o Decadent sons and daughters of aristocrats looking for adventures to relieve their boredom.

o Heretics of the state religion one step ahead of the religious authorities.

o Guardians of a sacred artifact trying to protect it from the many groups that want it.

o A frontier style game, either a “New World” (lost world?) sort of thing, or a more Western-style, new frontier or gold rush sort of situation.

You can continue to make suggestions to one another, or highlight the opportunities you see for a particular troupe concept.

Then, perhaps you can each list your first three preferences, so we can look for intersections of interests and make a selection.

That looks right.

Yes, now you can swap the positions of any 2, and remove any 1, or vice versa. You are not required to swap, but obviously you must drop 1.

The order of your rolls is as presented in ACKS:

Str
Int
Wis
Dex
Con
Cha

Unless I’m missing something, you get a 7th roll, then choose one to drop, etc.

Oh, the danger of putting the inmates in charge :slight_smile:

I was looking at the suggestions, and trying to come up with a way to blend a few…

How about something combining these concepts? We’re the leaders of a troupe of ruffians trying to establish/hold onto a small fortress on the edge of the frontier.

Some military stuff, some finance stuff (can we trade with the natives or is it all war?) Maybe there are rumors of the equivalent to the fountain of youth (or whatever) to go questing after, too.

[quote="DrPete"] How about something combining these concepts? We're the leaders of a troupe of ruffians trying to establish/hold onto a small fortress on the edge of the frontier. Some military stuff, some finance stuff (can we trade with the natives or is it all war?) Maybe there are rumors of the equivalent to the fountain of youth (or whatever) to go questing after, too. [/quote]

A fortress, somewhat dilapidated, reclaimed from a previously failed attempt at settlement (war, winter, drought, disease...) on a new shore; the sunset lands beyond said to be chock full of the ruins of an unknown empire, full of indescribable treasures, now ruled by beasts and beastmen; the children of that empire lost in disparate and desperate tribes.

Interest again begins to stir in the known kingdoms; can a small group of like-minded mercenaries make their fortunes before the old crowns set anchor to lay their claims and their taxes?

 

 

Wait, didn't you just describe standard ACKS?

[quote="bobloblah"]

Wait, didn't you just describe standard ACKS?

[/quote]

Yea..well..erm...standard ACKS is just that good it subsumes and supplants all thematic elements of a campaign.

....wanders off muttering....

A secondary element, but if we’re talking about the ruins of an ancient empire, what flavor of that do we like? The ruins of ancient Rome, ancient Egypt, Indian, Thailand, Africa, Mayan…? A million flavors of ancient empire :slight_smile:

Of all those ideas, I like the keep idea the best.

Maybe it could be on the borderlands!

To summarize the latest discussion, your troupe is an expeditionary group of opportunistic adventurers seeking a base from which to expand your operations, ideally a keep (on the borderlands).

If this is your choice, the final step in discussing your troupe is considering any initial purchases of a “household”. Excerpted from my original post:

“… each player may contribute as much of her starting budget as desired to the Company, or the reason that brings the players’ troupes together. This combined budget may be used for a one-time initial purchase of the Company “household” at half the normal price.”

Your desired household would seem to be a “keep” or similar. I see two obvious possibilities:

  1. One or more of you price out a “keep” (dilapidated/incomplete or otherwise) you can afford with contributions from each Adventurer’s budget.

  2. Your troupe’s first adventure will be to secure a keep, an expedition likely requiring your troupe’s full complement.

I'd vote for securing the keep for our first adventure.  It would mean more if we had to pay the iron price to get it.

Nice. I always liked that phrase.

That's an interesting dichotomy - on one hand, you're spending your money on an already owned keep, and you can stat up the rest of the troupe as a group ready to begin operations - exploration, diplomacy, trade.

On the other, you may be spending that starting money on troops and creating a troupe that is more fixed towards the initial goal of taking a stronghold, which I think may skew the party composition away from the softer skills & spells. (not discounting the possibility of taking the keep via diplomacy, but, worst case)

 

 

I dunno...once you take the keep, you're gonna need and/or want all that other soft stuff.

Off the cuff, excuse mathematicals...

So, if we're shooting for a keep that can secure at least a 6-mile hex, we're looking at a value between 22500-30000 GP, depending on if we're in a borderlands or wilderness hex - or we're looking for a keep that's fallen beind on upkeep, and has a remaining value of at least that.

    Per Player        
    4 5 6 7 8
Wilderness 30000 7500 6000 5000 4286 3750
Borderlands 22500 5625 4500 3750 3214 2813
    % of Starting GP        
Wilderness 30000 20.8% 16.7% 13.9% 11.9% 10.4%
Borderlands 22500 15.6% 12.5% 10.4% 8.9% 7.8%
    Ruined Percentage        
    10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Wilderness 30000 33000 36000 39000 42000 45000
Borderlands 22500 24750 27000 29250 31500 33750

Obvs. the keep can be valued much higher than that.

I think we can combine the "have a keep" idea with the "silk road" idea with judicious keep placement by the Judge and an interest in providing the specialists needed to find/collect resources by the troupe - there could be some set of the troupe doing the work of the mercantile ventures back to civilization at the same time another part is exploring the area around the keep.

Or if the keep is in the wilderness betwixt two civilized areas, we can be a stop on the silk road as well, and trade in both directions.

The above keep sizes are sitting around a unit capacity of 1 to 1.6 (or less, depending on state), or, at platoon scale perhaps, 4 to 6.4 platoon units. Depending on the actual state of the keep and it's defensive posture, and how much of the wages for units we'd need to prepay, if we can gather enough troops at the start and maybe a catapult for laughs that may be an initially cheaper option at the cost of putting more into the keep at the start - 2 platoons of heavies, a platoon of lights and bowmen would be...1170 on the month?

I kind of like that idea though - there's a keep that would be a great stopping point for various caravans, and would stand to profit itself from trade, but it's currently held by some sort of raubritter who needs eviction.

I speak German, and I had to look up "Raubritter."

I expect the group may post lightly through the New Year. At your convenience, let’s take a roll call to see who’s still in, and please vote “Gold” or “Iron” for the Company’s keep. Then, I’ll request forums be set-up for our game!

With a Gold vote, you begin with a keep you can afford. There will be dangers around the keep, but it’s yours, home sweet home.

With an Iron vote, you begin by acquiring a keep. As Adventurers, I see this as an adventure to clear squatters from “your” keep. However, I’m all ears if you have a plan to Conquer an occupied keep, or use Kingly diplomacy to convince someone to give you a nice keep.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

I'm still in, and I vote iron.  We do not sew! (Or something like that)