Help me Design a Mercenary Company?

[Aholibamah]

I need to throw a mercenary company into my game. I'd like to break up the usual patterns I use--my players aren't complaining but I'm gathering that they expect certain stock patterns of NPCs from me by now. What I'd like would be a company well suited to rough country and a few npcs to be involved with it--ideas about how corrupt/honorable they are, where they might come from, where their strengths and weaknesses lie and so on. If I could have help brainstorming this I would be most appreciative.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Yonks ago I had a homebrew setting where mercenary bands were the latest thing. The setup was a little different: most of the continent was ruled by an empire, and one portion of this empire was made up of a bunch of city-states, who had to make a certain number of troops available to the sovereign. Since they didn't want to draft their own citizens, they instead levied a tax from which they hired mercenary bands, each of which developed their distinct style.

There was a common conception that mercs were disloyal, but in fact they were more reliable than drafted recruits and well worth their money.
Each band was typically named after one weapon type, because they had started out as a single company of this type. Over time added additional companies with complementary weapons (like Pike companies reinforcing an Archer batallion), but the original name remains. Most mercenary bands consist of about 10 companies of 100 soldiers each, except mounted bands where a company is only 30-40 riders strong.

Exemplary Mercenary Bands and their signature weapons:
- Yellowjacket Archers, black and yellow uniform, hornet banner
- Scorpion Tail Archers, black and green uniform, scorpion banner
- Steel Eye Archers, blue and white uniform, bow-and-arrow banner
- Iron Hand Chevaliers, black and silver uniform, gauntlet banner
- Rolling Thunder Cavalry, red and silver uniform, lightning banner
- Sting and Slash Infantry, red and white uniform, weapon banner
- Red Dogs Infantry, red and black uniform, dogs banner
- Ravens Infantry, black and white uniform, crow banner
- Timberwolves, brown and green uniform, wolf banner

The latter is a special case, being not a field batallion but hunters/rangers operating in small units and specializing in difficult terrain. Hence the camouflage colours. This may be suited for your needs.

I should also add that the setting I wrote this for was a much more civilized, late middle ages reflection (techlevel around 1350), so it was rather different from Conan.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

Do you have the Conan Free Companies book, plenty in there - no need to create one...

 

[Vortigern]

Brainstorming NPCs really depends on how structured you want the band to be. i.e. if they have a formal rank structure or not. And how developed of a doctrine of combat/warfare.

All that said, still:

The first few NPCs that came to mind:

(Intelligence Officer or equiv. of the band.) A business and profit minded mercenary man who views every operation both in the military ORM (Operational Risk Management) and business profit vs. expenditure methods of evaluation. So, if it is too much risk with no real achievement possible, don't do it. If it costs too much for what we are getting paid... don't do it. etc etc.

I would view this as someone ideal to hire the PCs through a subordinate, or possibly directly. Or simply manipulate them to his ends rather shamelessly if possible. Profit is the bottom line, but not totally cut-throat in manner. Not someone who typically takes the field, but is a competent soldier turned master of espionage.

( Quartermaster / Logistics Officer ) This would be the professional bean-counter of the group who is in charge of ensuring all supplies and equipment they need are where they need to be when they need to be there, in the correct ammounts. Also, and here is where they might be brought into play with the PCs, in charge of procuring new gear and selling the booty. Likely someone with a bit of a paunch, used to sitting at a table doing figures all day. Possibly formerly of an archery unit and a dead-eye shot. ( Arrows are an example of an expendable item that people need to be effective, and thus archers come to mind as being a suitable recruiting grounds for a Quartermaster. ) Irritable and doesn't like people touching his things. This guy is accountable for every little item or it's -his- butt that gets chewed. Don't touch his stuff, and everything the merc group owns is his stuff.

( Sergeant of the Infantry ) Grizzled Veteran with more than his fair share of gray hair. Been through more campaigns than most other's battles. His advice? Know when the battle is already lost. No need in dying for the other guy to prove it. This guy is all about staying alive to get paid another day. He'll teach you how to stay alive too. If you play on the right team. Having friends that are still alive tends to improve one's own odds. This is the odd looking old guy in the corner of the tavern who doesn't look like much but is the proverbial can of whoop-ass on legs.

 

[Aholibamah]

Thanks guys. I may get the Merc book today if it is recommended--somehow the reviews I read didn't really leap out at me but I could be wrong about that.

Thanks for the NPC ideas Vortigern. I think those three are types you don't often read about in the fantasy genre so that will be helpful.

 

[Prof.Dogg]

I suggest reading Glen Cook's Black Company series for inspiration. Green Ronin has an RPG conversion for the series but there's not much (mechanically-speaking) that you can use. The characters and the plots on the other hand...

 

[Jeffreywns]

The Free Companies also contains information on camp followers and projects other than combat the mercs would be involved in. Its also helpful in giving troop types, equipment and training by country for added depth. This weekend was spent fighting a Zamoran Harrier unit while trying to escape out of Zamora along the Road of Kings. I would say pick it up at least for that info alone, but Im a bona-fide fanboy.

 

[Majestic7]

I¨m usually pretty critical about RPG products, but I agree that Free Companies is one of the best books in the whole Conan series, along with Road of the Kings and Ruins of Hyboria. The mercenary motives section alone is excellent.

 

[SnowDog]

Yeah, Black Company (the book series) rule Good inspirational material for fantasy mercenary campaign although wizards in those books are a lot different from Hyborian sorcerers.

 

[Gabriel_Luna]

On the subject of fiction, Elizabeth Moon's "Deed of Paksenarrion" trilogy has a good deal of mercenary material, and is excellently written. She's one of the best underrated writers around, if you ask me. It details recruitment, training, engagements from skirmish to siege, the difference between an honorable company and the alternative, how a good company can still get hired to do bad things, etc etc. Plus it's good fantasy.

 

[Malcadon]

Reading Noble Followers form Signs & Portents PRG #44 is a good start. This article will help you with noncombatants (like camp-follower).

Having camp-followers NPCs are always a good idea. With mostly commoners (cooks, wagon drivers, entertainers), temptresses (whores), and even thieves (pickpockets, spies).

As for combatants, just sort through Gazetteer on the many military forces for classes & levels. Having forces of mixed nationalities (but not in mixed groups) in the same any can make for a fun game.

 

[Hervé]

Majestic7 wrote:

but I agree that Free Companies is one of the best books in the whole Conan series, along with Road of the Kings and Ruins of Hyboria.

Funny, I was just thinking that it was the worst (along with Tito's...). I was waiting much of this book but got pretty disapointed... I guess the usefulness of the book depends of your style of play, but even though my players were mercenaries at the start of the campaign, I didn't use the book much...

 

[Majestic7]

Majestic7 wrote:

but I agree that Free Companies is one of the best books in the whole Conan series, along with Road of the Kings and Ruins of Hyboria.

Funny, I was just thinking that it was the worst (along with Tito's...). I was waiting much of this book but got pretty disapointed... I guess the usefulness of the book depends of your style of play, but even though my players were mercenaries at the start of the campaign, I didn't use the book much...

Interesting, why didn't you like the book? The part of the book I liked least was the section about variant multiclasses - I have found those to be useless in all Conan books. Other than that, I liked it.

 

[Hervé]

OK Majestic7, I'll try to explain, chapter by chapter.
-p4-16:"Mercenaries of Hyboria" focuses on the most famous mercenaries companies. My players were working for Turan, so there was little to salvage in this chapter (the Kozak part is better develloped in "CB1Conan Unchained", an old AD&D module).
-p17-48:"Traditions of Force" detail the various hyborian armies and their organisation. OK, there some information in this chapter, but still I was not too satisfied (What? Turan managed to conquer the world without infantry save archers?).
-p49-53: "The Secrets of War". THe usual list of new skills and feats. boring, but not too long...
-p54-65: "Rewards of Blood" describe the life of the mercenary (motives, duties, contracts, camps, entertainment). This is problably the part of the book I like the most. This is where I got the better feeling about what hyborian soldiers of fortune should look like (despite the traditional-and always boring-D20 crunch).
p66-76: "Tools of Warfare"(looting, equipment and machines). There's a paragraph or two worth reading there, the rest is D20 stuff I don't use.
p77-86: "Shadows of Darkness" is the usual magic chapter, with some new spells, items and powders). Like the Feat chapter, I guess this one was unavoidable (though it's better)...
p87-94: "Narrative Battles" introduce a new mass combat system, lighter and more character oriented than the one downloadable on Mongoose site.
I don't use either of them.
p95-104: "Mercenaries of Note". Here we have the familiar NPC roster, both famous and generic. I don't really care about it, but I guess it's useful, considering the time taken to generate a complete D20 NPC!
p105-112: "Mercenaries Adventure". GM advice and adventure seeds. I genarally like this part in Conan sourcebooks. Worth reading, but rather short
p113-127: Multiclassing. I guess you'll find easily what I think about it, period.

Overall, I found the book rather plain and dull, partly because it doesn't reflect my style of play and also because I really think it's full of wind...
This book could have been a wonderful S&P article.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

I found the book rather informative as to the way each country deals with its forces. Personally, I am a skill and feat geek. The more the better...

It has a lot of facets that I like, more than what I do not like.

Makes for good reading too....

But that is my HUMBLE oppinion...

Although I use the word "Humble" Loosely!

 

[Hervé]

You got a point here, Koski.
It is not because I didn't like "Free Companies" that I'd disregard anyone actually liking the book. Every gaming group has its own habits and style of play. The people at Mongoose know it and try to find the balance between fluff and crunch, background and rules. I'm an old 42 years old gamer and I pretty much bored with rules but that's MY vision of the game. For instance, the Hyboria's series have been a complete waste of money for me, but there's many people on this forum that rate it among the best Conan books.
It's only a matter of how you play the game.

 

[Aholibamah]

Hm....interesting. A lot of opinions here.

I'm definitely going to take a serious look at the sourcebook when I go to the gaming store this Friday and see what I can see. However Daubet Herve's points versus Koski's will be weighed carefully, of that I can assure you.

 

[Axerules]

And feel free to use that French quote from the Dogs of War movie with C. Walken.


"Vive la mort, vive la guerre, vive le sacré mercenaire ! "

Roughly translated: "Long live/hail death, long live war, long live the cursed mercenary ! "

(As a marching cadence or as a toast).