Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes!

9 (90%)

No!

0 (0%)

I really don't care!

1 (10%)

Total Members Voted: 10

[Worldmaster27]

Promoting survivors from mercenaries to..mercenaries with PTSD?

Promoting them probably means they just get to pick from the loot sooner than the others, not to mention all our guys seem happy with the combat.

burying dead honorably meaning what exactly? It's kinda metagamy to just put "..We buried our dead remembering there sacrifices". We don't even know any rituals or have any priests or chaplains that come with us
Real mercenary companies just don't care, they want to get paid, and have a steady income.

"Oh, my best friend just got brutally killed and we're leaving him to be eaten by wild animals and rot. That's fine, as long as I get paid."
I don't think that would go well. Especially if the guys know we are capable of burying them.

Double rations not sure if we have the food for that plus since were a very young group we need to know how far we can march and having not enough food can hurt us even worse.

Valid point.

Money we don't have to blow

We will, once we get paid by the Duke and sell our spare caravan loot. And we won't be permanently giving them a raise. Just a 'job well done' bonus, probably just an extra crown.

[Stonecutters]

Promoting survivors from mercenaries to..mercenaries with PTSD?

Promoting them probably means they just get to pick from the loot sooner than the others, not to mention all our guys seem happy with the combat.

burying dead honorably meaning what exactly? It's kinda metagamy to just put "..We buried our dead remembering there sacrifices". We don't even know any rituals or have any priests or chaplains that come with us
Real mercenary companies just don't care, they want to get paid, and have a steady income.

"Oh, my best friend just got brutally killed and we're leaving him to be eaten by wild animals and rot. That's fine, as long as I get paid."
I don't think that would go well. Especially if the guys know we are capable of burying them.

Double rations not sure if we have the food for that plus since were a very young group we need to know how far we can march and having not enough food can hurt us even worse.

Valid point.

Money we don't have to blow

We will, once we get paid by the Duke and sell our spare caravan loot. And we won't be permanently giving them a raise. Just a 'job well done' bonus, probably just an extra crown.

I would like to hold off on giving promotions and bonus pay after every engagement. It seems extreme in the amount of money being given, and it shouldn't become commonplace else our men will expect it. Personally I would like to turn our company into a brotherhood of sorts, where members see the Company as home. I'm not sure how old our company is so we probably don't have much in the way of tradition or history to fall back on to achieve this brotherhood. Fostering a distrust of our employers and outsiders is important to staying alive. We already had one employer try to screw us and have us do most of the dieing. Others may try to renege on their agreements or use us as cannon fodder. Now I'm not saying that we should be paranoid, but most employers will probably see us as second rate or expendable because of what we are.

[3man75]

Promoting survivors from mercenaries to..mercenaries with PTSD?

Promoting them probably means they just get to pick from the loot sooner than the others, not to mention all our guys seem happy with the combat.

burying dead honorably meaning what exactly? It's kinda metagamy to just put "..We buried our dead remembering there sacrifices". We don't even know any rituals or have any priests or chaplains that come with us
Real mercenary companies just don't care, they want to get paid, and have a steady income.

"Oh, my best friend just got brutally killed and we're leaving him to be eaten by wild animals and rot. That's fine, as long as I get paid."
I don't think that would go well. Especially if the guys know we are capable of burying them.

Double rations not sure if we have the food for that plus since were a very young group we need to know how far we can march and having not enough food can hurt us even worse.

Valid point.

Money we don't have to blow

We will, once we get paid by the Duke and sell our spare caravan loot. And we won't be permanently giving them a raise. Just a 'job well done' bonus, probably just an extra crown.

I would like to hold off on giving promotions and bonus pay after every engagement. It seems extreme in the amount of money being given, and it shouldn't become commonplace else our men will expect it. Personally I would like to turn our company into a brotherhood of sorts, where members see the Company as home. I'm not sure how old our company is so we probably don't have much in the way of tradition or history to fall back on to achieve this brotherhood. Fostering a distrust of our employers and outsiders is important to staying alive. We already had one employer try to screw us and have us do most of the dieing. Others may try to renege on their agreements or use us as cannon fodder. Now I'm not saying that we should be paranoid, but most employers will probably see us as second rate or expendable because of what we are.

This.

We can create an organization like the templar only minus religion.

Knights of the Bleeding Forests could be a name considering the random name generator we have in DF.

[Patrick Hunt]

The pay is past. We rewarded the company who found the camp. Promotion was the first mission. We promoted the 2 survivors to officers.
Double rations we already did as well.

As for the burial, it's just that. A burial or cremation or whatever the local ceremony is with the whole company in attendance. Just the surviving men showing respect for the men who died and honoring that sacrifice.


Were not giving more now the pay and promotions are examples of past actions to earn loyalty.
 Right now the suggestions are 2 days free time since the men are tired and need rest and to meet with the duke to hand over the prisoners and phrase and use it to bargain for a discound on shields and mail armor for the spearmen.

[Stonecutters]

The pay is past. We rewarded the company who found the camp. Promotion was the first mission. We promoted the 2 survivors to officers.
Double rations we already did as well.

As for the burial, it's just that. A burial or cremation or whatever the local ceremony is with the whole company in attendance. Just the surviving men showing respect for the men who died and honoring that sacrifice.


Were not giving more now the pay and promotions are examples of past actions to earn loyalty.
 Right now the suggestions are 2 days free time since the men are tired and need rest and to meet with the duke to hand over the prisoners and phrase and use it to bargain for a discound on shields and mail armor for the spearmen.

This plan is sensible. +1

We should return to town, do what Patrick suggested, and prepare for an extensive guerrilla campaign against the forest bandits.

[3man75]

The pay is past. We rewarded the company who found the camp. Promotion was the first mission. We promoted the 2 survivors to officers.
Double rations we already did as well.

As for the burial, it's just that. A burial or cremation or whatever the local ceremony is with the whole company in attendance. Just the surviving men showing respect for the men who died and honoring that sacrifice.


Were not giving more now the pay and promotions are examples of past actions to earn loyalty.
 Right now the suggestions are 2 days free time since the men are tired and need rest and to meet with the duke to hand over the prisoners and phrase and use it to bargain for a discound on shields and mail armor for the spearmen.

This plan is sensible. +1

We should return to town, do what Patrick suggested, and prepare for an extensive guerrilla campaign against the forest bandits.

An not pay unless they do something IMPORTANT!

[Stonecutters]

Looking back at the first few posts, I didn't see anything about where we actually are. I think we were just kinda plopped down outside the castle under seige. I'm curious as to what nation we are in, how old the world is, recent history, surrounding nations, and other stuff.

While im on this topic, whats the history of our band? Are we, Cedric, its founder?

If this stuff was already explained, could you link me to it? I've already skimmed through some posts but I could've missed it.

[Beneviento]

Unfortunately, this is not a regular update. Instead, I think it's time to do some worldbuilding. Secondly, This is going to be the last update for about ten days, as I'm going to Japan tomorrow!

As I really did not expect this to get off the ground, I didn't think up too much worldbuilding, so other than the few things below, I'm going to say, you guys build the world!

Here's what I've set down

1: Cedric joined the band when it was founded, and rose to become it's captain after the previous one died.

2: We're from Aldornia, a heavily wooded principality that is known for producing crossbowmen. It's got one big city, Aldorn.

3: We're currently in Doria, a kingdom  that is much larger than Aldornia (Think France vs. Portugal), but was ravaged by a civil war that ended recently-ish. It's got a few big cities and a whole lot of farmlands

Other than that, if you guys want to, let's collaborate to create the world Cedric and the Foresters live in, by thinking up ideas for countries, history, etc. posting them, debating them, et cetera. Hopefully it'll keep the thread alive, and if I can, I'll definitely post while I'm in Japan.

[3man75]

Reserved

Hope the locals are nice to you!

We could also say that those trade cities of Jevoy had a certain group of merchants called  "The Silver Roads Circle" accidentally inflated the prices for horse and mule feedings causing other merchants to raise there prices in order to cover expenses. This caused alot of anger among poor peasants and it led to active disobedience against tax collectors. It is said a traveling nobles son was mistaken for a tax collector and hung with the threads of his clothing. In retaliation his father sent troops to kill all of the villagers and burn the village..which did not go well with the other nobles of that realm, sparking a conflict that would reach all the way up to the highest parts of the kingdom of Doria.

Aldornia was more fortunate in that the King stepped in and payed to shut everyone up with lowering taxes and use of troops.

The Silver Roads Circle is said to have disbanded due to in-fighting because where some merchants thought of paying reparations others thought it was just business. No one knows who the members were or what they do now.

How's that for some background story?

[Baffler]

To the south of both is the kingdom of Jevoy. Jevoy was organized fairly recently when a famous general united the collection of city states along the coast of the Narian Sea. It's wealthy, advanced, and doesn't extend very far inland from its extensive coastline. The lords of both Aldornia and Doria keep an eye on them, but they rarely actually interact with each other beyond a trickle of overland trade. It is a fairly stratified land, with almost all of the wealth concentrated in the collection of former city-states that compose it coming in by the busy shipping routes on the Narian.

[Beneviento]

With any luck, there'll still be some interest in this. Here's a world-building post, and it will probably be followed shortly in the next few hours with an update for Cedric and co.

The general who unified Jevoy was a Torthite, from the City-State of Torth on the east coast of the Narian Sea. The Torthites are among the most widely dispersed peoples in the known world and every major city tends to have at least a small Torthite enclave. This is due to the fact that the Torthites have a peculiar set of rules for becoming a Citizen of Torth, and gaining the benefits entailed in citizenship. Citizens receive land (think something like Roman Legionaries got on retirement), and political rights in Torth.

In order to become a citizen, at least one of a candidate's grandparents must have been a citizen. Furthermore, the candidate must make a sizable payment to the High Council of Torth by the age of 30. However, the strange concepts of honor in Torth prohibit this wealth from being inherited or otherwise obtained without work. To enforce this, the payment must be made in foreign currency, which is useless in Torth for all but this purpose. Nearly all youths who are eligible for citizenship join Guilds in the city which send their members out into the world on various trading, mercenary and other missions to gain this wealth. The Guilds also tend to be powerful political entities, as the most promising members of larger Guilds tend to become very prominent in Torthite politics. They also tend to be fairly unforgiving, and members who cause shame to the Guild can expect to end up stranded in a strange land. The only hope of these exiles is to win enough glory and wealth on their own for an exception to be made, as was the case for the general who united Jevoy. The other nations tend to tolerate this diaspora into their lands, but some have closed their borders to Torthites in the past.

I was sort of going for a combination of Venice and Sparta. Is that believable, because I have some doubts about it myself and I couldn't see how to make the whole foreign currency thing seem right.

[Prophet]

((I'm still here and interested.))

[Patrick Hunt]

(( I'm still in for this. ))

[Baffler]

((Still interested as well.))

[3man75]

With any luck, there'll still be some interest in this. Here's a world-building post, and it will probably be followed shortly in the next few hours with an update for Cedric and co.

The general who unified Jevoy was a Torthite, from the City-State of Torth on the east coast of the Narian Sea. The Torthites are among the most widely dispersed peoples in the known world and every major city tends to have at least a small Torthite enclave. This is due to the fact that the Torthites have a peculiar set of rules for becoming a Citizen of Torth, and gaining the benefits entailed in citizenship. Citizens receive land (think something like Roman Legionaries got on retirement), and political rights in Torth.

In order to become a citizen, at least one of a candidate's grandparents must have been a citizen. Furthermore, the candidate must make a sizable payment to the High Council of Torth by the age of 30. However, the strange concepts of honor in Torth prohibit this wealth from being inherited or otherwise obtained without work. To enforce this, the payment must be made in foreign currency, which is useless in Torth for all but this purpose. Nearly all youths who are eligible for citizenship join Guilds in the city which send their members out into the world on various trading, mercenary and other missions to gain this wealth. The Guilds also tend to be powerful political entities, as the most promising members of larger Guilds tend to become very prominent in Torthite politics. They also tend to be fairly unforgiving, and members who cause shame to the Guild can expect to end up stranded in a strange land. The only hope of these exiles is to win enough glory and wealth on their own for an exception to be made, as was the case for the general who united Jevoy. The other nations tend to tolerate this diaspora into their lands, but some have closed their borders to Torthites in the past.

I was sort of going for a combination of Venice and Sparta. Is that believable, because I have some doubts about it myself and I couldn't see how to make the whole foreign currency thing seem right.

Still in it and Yes but let's also add:

 That competing merchants, mercenaries, nobles, and even on occasion different clergy have clashed with Torth Guild members for many reasons. For these reasons it is looked down on, although not prohibited, to do business with Torths.

You could say that the foreign currency is used to buy goods discretely since the city of torth is not very blacksmithy...or good to live on because larger than life animals tend to attack in packs.