Southland: The Rangers of the Southern Cross

THE SOUTHLAND

A Fantasy Core Setting

© Jerry Harris 2014

Published here as Open Game Content.

(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Index.)

Southland Index

Colony Index

Colonial Defense Index

The Rangers of the Southern Cross

While all of the different branches have their merits, there is only one elite corps of soldiers stationed in the Southland.  (There are “special forces” units in the Regular Army, such as the officially-doesn’t-exist Cloak unit, but they are not present in the Southland.  Yes, we are talking about psionic fighter/thief/wizard troops with magic weapons.)  The Rangers are officially scouts for the Frontier Service and not a separate unit.  Unofficially, they don’t mix, as the Rangers are always in the field when on duty, and when off duty they generally live away from their home base. 

Frontier caravans seldom move without a Ranger escort.  They serve as an early warning system for frontier towns and forts.  Often they are the first reinforcements in the event of an attack, and the ones going out to bring more.  Bounty hunters are seldom needed in the Southland as anyone who runs off into the Outback is as good as dead.  On the occasion that someone has to be recovered or there are lost and missing individuals, the Rangers are the best option.  Civil disorder on the frontier isn’t unheard of.  The Rangers are often deployed to restore it.

The Ranger Corps is a relatively late addition to colonial defense and not a standard Commonwealth military unit.  It was instituted (and approved by Governor-General Bligh) by a now retired general, who noticed that certain individuals not only seemed to intuitively understand the Outback environment, but functioned better without the regular members of their unit.  Originally a specialized scout service unit for a dangerous frontier route, after meritorious action in a battle (on their own initiative), the general awarded the entire group battlefield commissions.  The Ranger Corps was formally established.  Their duties were expanded, though left somewhat intentionally vague.  The group was allowed to choose its own members from among volunteers from any service.  Probationary members would have to earn their Ranger commission by their actions and with the consent of a Ranger Captain. 

There is no standard uniform.  Members are only identified by their distinctive Southern Cross badge.  There also isn’t a standard member of the group.  There are tough outdoorsmen (rangers and barbarians) that you’d expect.  But there are also wizards, knights, demon-hunting paladins, and some highly questionable individuals (thieves) forming squad members.  Their backgrounds, appearance, and methods all differ, but their ability to accomplish the mission is the only thing that matters. 

The typical unit doesn’t exist either.  There are loners, pairs, small parties, and even full squads (up to 11).  Unfortunately, ego is an issue between most Ranger groups.  They won’t work well together without a strong reason and strong leadership.  Smart commanders will normally assign a specific task for a group and leave all of the details up to them. 

All Rangers are technically officers, up to Captain.  The “technically” part is that they all have field commissions and are normally not Academy graduates and that their only designated subordinates are themselves.  Their rank is even questionable outside of the Southland.  (And don’t even think about pulling rank on board a Commonwealth warship, unless you feel very confident about your swimming abilities.)  Rangers may take command of any militia unit where there is no active duty officer present.  They may also take command of any Frontier or Regular Army unit where they are the ranking officer.  They must defer to any Academy trained officer of equal rank, regardless of experience. 

This causes all sorts of chain of command issues. Ranking Rangers are not compelled to take command and often won’t.  They’ll simply designate whoever seems competent to take charge and tell them to stay out of the Rangers’ way.  Further, an experienced Ranger will seldom take orders they disagree with from inexperienced equal ranking Academy officer.  (Though in fairness, there’s usually a very good reason for it.)  A Ranger unit can quietly mutiny and take command in such a situation and even make any deaths look like an accident.  Of course, there may be other considerations behind bad orders that an insular Ranger group wouldn’t know about, which can cause them problems later.   

[I’m not providing stats for a typical Rangers, because there aren’t any typical Rangers.  These individuals would be full character class NPC’s from 5^th to 8^th level.  Yeah, they’re tough.]