Questions about Mercenaries

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Ser_Pointy_Face
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Questions about Mercenaries

Post by Ser_Pointy_Face »

Hello all!

Long time 3.5/Pathfinder player here, recently tried out BFRPG and absolutely loved it. Players and I both had a blast going through a couple of the AA adventures.

Just had a couple questions about mercenaries. How do you handle it when the pc's start getting rich enough to have a large amount of them? I know they won't go into dungeons with them, but what about wilderness encounters?

For example, my players are pretty rich now after the two adventures they finished from the AA's. They could easily afford 100 or so light footsoldiers for a month or two. Should I as the GM just say they don't find that many? I'd really rather this not turn into a war game and keep the pc's in the focus

Thanks in advance!
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SmootRK
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Re: Questions about Mercenaries

Post by SmootRK »

Ser_Pointy_Face wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 7:06 pm Hello all!

Long time 3.5/Pathfinder player here, recently tried out BFRPG and absolutely loved it. Players and I both had a blast going through a couple of the AA adventures.

Just had a couple questions about mercenaries. How do you handle it when the pc's start getting rich enough to have a large amount of them? I know they won't go into dungeons with them, but what about wilderness encounters?

For example, my players are pretty rich now after the two adventures they finished from the AA's. They could easily afford 100 or so light footsoldiers for a month or two. Should I as the GM just say they don't find that many? I'd really rather this not turn into a war game and keep the pc's in the focus

Thanks in advance!
If the players start building armies, the nobles/warlords/whatever will take notice. They might be attacked out of nowhere for various reasons, even if just because they seemed to be building up as a threat.

Then there are easy wipe out methods... for instance, even a small dragon could carve out a swath of zero levels.

Basically what I am saying, is that the encounters will morph to fit the capabilities of the characters. If they are army building, then they start to encounter army sort of problems. If they are building a fortress, they will start to encounter population issues, feeding, providing security, etc. If that is their thing, so be it, but if they dread the tedium of managing lowbies, then they ought not to devote their resources that way. I adapt to how the players deal with their resources.
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PresGas
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Re: Questions about Mercenaries

Post by PresGas »

It could also be a good opportunity to play out a kind of murder mystery among the foot-soldiers. Nothing like a good old wolf in sheep's clothing...or maybe a werewolf in army clothing, as it were, to stir up the PC's to solve what is going on.
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Dimirag
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Re: Questions about Mercenaries

Post by Dimirag »

Mercenaries could require more than gold: reputation and an objective could be important to them.
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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Ser_Pointy_Face
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Re: Questions about Mercenaries

Post by Ser_Pointy_Face »

This is all solid advice everyone, thanks! I'm honestly probably stressing over nothing. I don't think my players have actually expressed interest in raising an army. Just wanted to be prepared incase they do.
Seven
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Re: Questions about Mercenaries

Post by Seven »

Mercenaries comes in bands of various sizes.
These bands don't just appear and disappear and they don't usually get along that well.
Previously employed mercenaries/henchmen makes interesting NPCs.

What you are looking for might be ways to separate players from their money.
One is a stronghold, which has lots of maintenance costs on the top of the acquisition/construction cost.
An other is the temple fees required for healing, recovering levels, raising the dead, etc.
There are also merchants who sell nice looking things that are usually not as good as they look. Horses, fake magic items, jewels, clothes, etc..
Then you have taxes.
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