Ideas for Adventuring Groups

I have a personal distaste for the standard adventuring party. On a base level, they are direction-less and without motivation other than looking for ways to acquire experience points. Given that XP in Fantasy Core is awarded only for accomplishing tasks, a better-motivated group would seem necessary. What follows are just some ideas to facilitate that. Adventures should be a little easier to write, since the characters will have an actual reason for adventuring.


Ideas for Adventuring Groups

The standard adventuring group may be thought of as a ragtag group of outcasts, misfits, and deceivers are perfect for use in situations where jobs need to be done by those not respectable, down on their luck, or needing to prove themselves. Hopefully, the group will rise in status, money, and level to where they can call their own shots. Currently though, the group is likely desperate or in desperate circumstances (or dangerously obsessed). They will take any job that has a chance of fulfilling their needs.

Adventurers just by themselves should have a patron of sorts: a lord, the church, a guild, a community, a wealthy family, etc. For this, they'll need to accept a mission or some responsibility. An armed company travelling down the road by themselves is going to be thought to be a band of highwaymen at best, unless they have some sort of identification (government or church seal) or status outside of their home community (here the services of a traveling bard may be useful).


Professional Affiliation

While the standard adventuring group provides the maximum in freedom of action, it is just as limiting in a lack of motivation and goals. Presented here are some professional options for an adventuring group.

Any organization will require a variety of skills, and individuals entering them will come from disparate backgrounds. Muscle, magic, healing, charm, and stealth skills will be needed in all types of groups, so there should be plenty of room for different types of characters. The group should also allow for easy replacement of deceased group members.

In any case, the group should have a high degree of autonomy. Even if their group is subject to orders from above, they should be either very broad in goals or focusing on very specific tasks, with all the details to accomplish the missions in the players' hands.

Group membership will involve duties and obligations. The group may also be under a substantial amount of debt and expenses or must meet certain quotas. There will be an imperative, either through group mission or financial obligation, to continue adventuring. The group may be treasure seeking as they are gathering funds to buy property, such as a building, or a ship. Or for another example, they are willed a keep or ship. They must keep adventuring to pay support on the property or pay the crew.

  Warrior Order: (Knights Templar, Knights Hospitaller) Soldiers dedicated to protecting a territory and escorting travelers, surrounded by constant menace. They will have access to free gear and weapons and are often well respected. All in the Order are under strict rules of conduct.

Explorers: (Geographic Society, Explorers Guild, Professional Treasure Hunters, Prospectors, Dungeoneers Club, Conquistadors) Charting unknown lands or ruins. Cartography, contacts for trade, exploration for valuables are their goals. May be a ship's crew or an overland expedition.

Merchants: (Shipping Company, Merchant Guild, cf. Marco Polo) Procuring and protecting goods. Establishing new trade routes and maintaining them. These areas may be wild and nearly lawless, but will be somewhat charted and relations established with the natives. They will have access to business and government contacts.

Inquisitors: (Agents of the Inquisition, Professional Undead Hunters) A traveling group seeking to combat certain types of menaces plaguing communities. They may be sanctioned by a higher authority (the Pope or the king) or freelance for jobs.

Military Special Forces: (Rangers, Green Berets, Privateers, cf. Sir Francis Drake) Volunteer military group. Very mission oriented. Placed behind enemy lines or in contested space to raid and disrupt a foreign nation. They will have access to free gear and weapons, and possibly reinforcements.

Mercenary Company: (cf. Varangian Guard) Military group, but are well paid for their loyalty. They may be traveling and constantly seeking new jobs or semi-permanent. Used where the best warriors are sought, the most expendable are needed, or regular levies aren't trusted.

Foreign Diplomatic or Embassy Service: (cf. Mission Impossible) Spying and intelligence gathering scenarios. They have access to intelligence information and contacts.

Criminal Enterprise: (Bandits, pirates, thieves guild, cf. Ocean's 11) Mafia-like mob wars. They will have access to area gossip, contacts, fences, and even safe houses.

Law Enforcement: (Texas Rangers, Federal Marshals, FBI, Bounty Hunters) A government law group that is called in for special crimes or is responsible for a large geographic area. Importantly, their job will often involve capturing villains, not necessarily killing them outright. As long as they identify themselves as a member of law enforcement, they will have some legitimate authority.

Colonists: The group is part of a fledgling settlement in an unexplored foreign land. Jack of all trades are a must. Exploration, diplomacy, and internal law enforcement will involve the characters as they will be community leaders. Above all, the settlement and the colonists must be protected.

Divine Mission: Part of a missionary group. Called to a mission by a supernatural force. They may be actual emissaries from the heavens, such as Valkyries and Einheriar. Or, they may be in a human retinue of an actual demi-god or immortal.

Secret Society: As opposed to a criminal or religious group, this is a political group wanting to change or reinforce the current government. There may be a criminal or religious element to it, but in this case the ultimate goal is the power to rule. They may serve a single specific special interest or group or may more broadly defined to include many groups wanting the same goal. As the name implies, regardless of goals or sides, their existence, members, methods, and true motives are a secret to outsiders (or even lower level members). They will have access to secret knowledge, which increases with secret society status.

Wizard Council: A cabal of wizards within the Wizard Council dedicated to some goal or a specific task (such as the real power behind the throne). They may be an established faction or working in secret. There will be a need for all sorts of skills, not just magic, within the group. They will have access to libraries, books, and maps.

Quest: The catch-all group. Individuals are brought together for a specific task or job. Finding an object (the Pink Panther Diamond) or a person (the lost heir) like private detectives. A treasure map has been found, a group recruited to loot it. Or sending a magic ring to Mt. Doom.


Given the makeup of some of these groups, can anyone really join? Sure. A wizard order is going to need some muscle and stealth. A group of inquisitors would certainly have a use for a friendly or forced wizard. A warrior order would want a thief for scouting. A thieves guild may take on a paladin, who perhaps sees the guild as more lawful than an evil, oppressive government.

Monster Variation

Here's a list (in no particular order) that could be used to vary the standard monster types, especially the humanoids. Don't try using whole list at once.


Monster Variation
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- Leaders: chiefs, lieutenants, sergeants, captains, king, princes

- Magical support: wizards, shamen, witch doctors, oracles, magic items

- Servants, slaves, non-combatants

- Elites: heroes, bodyguards, special forces, assassins

- Allies: mercenaries, bounty hunters, allied races

- Creatures: pets, tamed animals, vermin, subdued or placated monsters

- Named/famous: group or individual via deeds, tactics, appearance

- Current Status: excellent/poor--health, equipment, morale, motivation, training, discipline

- Mutation: runts, giants, special attack/defense/weakness, superpowered

- Template: undead, fiendish, were, celestial, feral, demonic

- Society: civilized, savage, militaristic, poor, affluent, tribal

- Martial Tactics: frontal assault, swarm, sniper, traps, encirclement, harassment, hostage-taking, suicidal, defensive shell, subterfuge (surrender, false friendship/betrayal)

- Different motivations: defense, attack, greed, hatred, preemptive strike, revenge, misunderstanding

- Physical characteristics: prominent physical features, scars, wounds, clothing, war paint, tattoos, plumage, hairstyle

- Different weapons/armor: magic, exotic, unique

- Inanimate support: traps, tricks, illusions, wards, symbols, animated/sentient--object/force/artifact, "mine field," quicksand and other terrain hazards

- Attitude Hiding/On the run, Insane, Berserk, Controlled, Fallen/Exalted, Disguised, injured/half-dead, Drug addicted, Zealous, Enigmatic, Seeking vengeance, Hiding dark secret, Swindler/manipulator, Charismatic, Professional

- Weird Conditions: Creates spawn, Hive mind, Evolved/Devolved, Supernaturally afflicted, Time/spatially displaced, Giant-sized/Micro-sized, Adapted to foreign environment, Hyper-specialized to environment, Apparition/Ghostly/Disembodied, Half-breed/Monstrous, Raised from dead, Experimented upon, Odd Body part (brain, head, etc), Cloned, Mechanical

- Professions/Groups: Guardian/Guard, Merchant, Spy, Law/Bounty Hunter, Nobility, Prisoner, Mobster, Politician/Government official, Hunting party, Bandits/Pirates, Mercenaries/Adventurers, Press gang, Scavengers, Army/Mercenaries, Tribe/Clan, Religious pilgrims/Cult, Family, Harem, Angry Mob, Outcasts/Untouchables, Gang, Refugees, Caravan, Gladiators

Dungeon Missions

Here's a list of scenario ideas for a more directed trip into a dungeon. This would work well with Fantasy Core, in that the characters are rewarded directly for completing tasks rather than simply accumulating body count and booty. It would work as well for a short, impromptu session for any other fantasy game.


Rescue/Jailbreak: Release someone from the inside that has been captured and held.

Recovery/Robbery/Tomb Robbing: Find and bring out an item that is kept in the dungeon.

Escort: Characters are hired to guide someone through a dungeon.

Smuggling: Characters must deliver something to a certain place in the dungeon.

Treasure Map: Characters have acquired a rough map of the complex, which points out where something valuable is (and not necessarily much else).

Extermination/Exorcism: Characters sent to wipe out a certain group of occupants.

Hunt/Assassination: Characters sent after a specific creature.

Bounty/Kidnapping: Characters are sent to capture a specific creature.

Exploration/Infiltration: Complex has been recently discovered. Characters are expected to map and detail the area.

Investigation: Complex and its inhabitants are known, but their motives and strengths (or newly acquired strength) aren't.

Mystery: Characters are unraveling a mystery that leads them to the complex for the clues to solve it.

Diplomacy: Characters are sent to make an offer or even ally with inhabitants against someone else inside.

Escape: The characters are trapped inside.

Survival: Characters have to hold out or hide inside for a certain length of time.

Death Game/Tournament: Characters are willingly or unwillingly pawns in an arena.

Revenge/Retribution/Punitive Raid: Characters are sent to dungeon to commit whatever mindless violence they can before they are chased out.

Quest/Geas: Characters have an objective that doesn't involve a monetary gain. They are either being forced to complete it to end their compulsion, or have a desperate need to.

Law Enforcement: Characters are after counterfeiters, drug dealers, and arms dealers. They need to also gather evidence and take prisoners.

Test: Characters are sent to the dungeon to run the gauntlet and survive.

Challenge/Duel: Characters are summoned to the dungeon for a fight.

Death Trap: Dungeon is deserted of living and undead creatures (though there may be animated guardians), but has extensive traps, tricks, and puzzles.

Psychokiller Lair: Combines possible rescue, escape, and assassination scenarios. The killer may in fact be unkillable.

Twist: Mission starts as one type and turns into another.

Multiple Objectives: No more than two though.

Dungeon Purposes

Why is the dungeon there in the first place? Glad you asked. Here's a list of possibilities to perhaps help with design. All of these types can be mixed, like a church catacomb with a tunnel to a goblin lair, which leads to an abandoned dwarf city, at the bottom of which is a hellgate. There's no reason why every dungeon has to be Gygaxian and fill the whole the page or be a little delve lair tactical combat encounter.


Original Purpose(s)
----------------------

Underground storehouse/Survival bunker (Criminal/Business/Military/Government): Someplace hidden or easily defensible, like a mountain redoubt or beneath castles. Supply cellar, dungeon, vaults, barracks, armory, and wells.

Vault (Criminal/Government/Bank/Ancient): Beneath buildings, hidden, long lost. Filled with treasures and other valuables.

Temple/Shrine/Sanctuary/Dark Cathedral/Crematorium/Necropolis/Crypt/ Catacombs/Tomb/Mausoleum/Morgue: Often found under churches or ancient burial sites.

Prison/Dungeon/Interrogation-Torture/Maze/Deathtrap/Labyrinth: Places of confinement.

Gladiator Arena (hidden fight club)/Dojo/Martial Arts training temple/

Training Facility: People who fight that want to do so in secret.

Hidden Thieves/Assassins Guild: Obviously trying to stay hidden.

Party Hole/Pleasure or Drug Den/Harem: A word-of-mouth, hidden rave (perhaps perpetually going on). A place to do illegal drugs and indulge in prostitution. A hidden place where a monarch keeps his harem.

Academy/Hermitage/Museum/Library: Wanting to be hidden. Perhaps forbidden activities, perhaps just wanting to be left alone.

Workshop (mundane or magical)/Laboratory: Dangerous or secretive work going on.

Underworld Zoo/Menagerie of Taxidermy/Preserve of undead animals/Trophy Room: A strange collector's underground display. Things you wouldn't want on display to the public (like a serial killer's collection of body parts).

Slaughterhouse/Charnel House: Being hidden for some reason, perhaps slaughtering things that would get them in trouble.

Aqueduct/Sewer: Under large cities, bringing in water or wells and to move wastewater, narrow corridors with running water.

Mines: Strictly functional and fairly barren chambers, dangerous cave-ins.

Hospital/Sanitarium/Asylum: Housing the dangerous or the quarantined.

Underground Marketplace: Likely a black market.

Public hot bath/Hot spring: Not particularly menacing, but a place that would be highly sought after for relaxation.

Conservatory/Recital Hall/Opera House/Coliseum/Palace: Large, public structures that one would not expect underground. Why is it there?

Human Underground Settlements:
     (Petra: built into canyon side) Not very deep, living areas are near the front.
     (Crete: Maze city) In ruins or buried.
     (Pompeii: Buried city, Port Royale: Sunk) Volcanoes, mudslides, avalanches, or even sunk.
     (Cappadocia: Hidden underground city) Surface is occupied by invaders.

Dwarf City: Part of natural caverns, large chambers, vaults, living spaces, work rooms, and a deep mine. Ornate, but very functional, architecture mirrors the natural caves.

Orc/Goblin Lair: A warren dug out of the earth or part of a natural cave system. Rough hewn. Smallish rooms and corridors. Laid out like a traditional dungeon. Functional, but very ill planned and expanded haphazardly. Continually added to to make more room. Living and work areas. Also, taken over dwarf cities and sapping underneath human and elf cities.

Entrance to hell: The funhouse megadungeon. Level masters are demons or subservient creatures, becoming more powerful with increasing depth. Acrology may completely change over time, making mapping nearly impossible.


Current Purpose/Status
--------------------------

Add one of these descriptions if you really want to mix things up.

Same as original, but depleted or little used

Ruined/Sacked

Garbage Dump/Salvage yard

Abandoned of original occupants and unspoiled/Curiously deserted

Has become an extension of the Underworld

New Colony of occupants has taken over

Slums/Squatters

Bandit hideout

Creature lair

Sunken/Flooded/Fire damaged/Buried

Haunted/Infested

Defiled/Consecrated

Plagued/Quarantined

Repurposed (choose another original purpose)

Fantasy & Pulp Fantasy Core--Title Level and Pulp Adventurer Ideas 6

Previously.

The Explorers Concluded
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Sven Hedin: Swedish explorer of Central Asia. He tomb robbed a Zoroastrian temple in Iran. Entered and was later expelled from xenophobic Tibet. Discovered a 2,000 year old city in the Lop Nar Desert in China with many ancient Chinese manuscripts.

Marc Aurel Stein: Hungarian discoverer of the ancient Silk Road between China and Europe, and the “Cave of a Thousand Buddhas.” The temple was filled with artifacts, most of which got packed up and sent to European museums. Most importantly, he recovered the Diamond Sutra, the world’s oldest surviving printed book.

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt: Swiss explorer and first European to see the canyon city of Petra in Palestine. Studied ancient Egyptian temples in Nubia.

Charles Montagu Doughty: First European to see the Natotean sandstone city Mada’in Salih. His work was admired by TE Lawrence of WWI British Intelligence, who helped start an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks. Gertrude Bell was also a contemporary explorer of the area and also an intelligence officer.

Bertram Thomas: Rival of fellow Brit explorer Harry St John Philby in an effort to explore the “Empty Quarter” of Saudi Arabia first. Wilfred Thesiger was another prominent explorer of the area.

Freya Stark: Mapper of the Valleys of the Assassins in Iran. Searched for a lost city of ancient temples mentioned by Roman texts in Yemen. She also worked for British Intelligence in WWII.

Charles Darwin, Alexander Von Humboldt, Alfred Russel Wallace: All well-traveled scientific explorers, collecting plant, animal, and mineral specimens from around the world. Darwin’s five-year journey in the HMS Beagle circumnavigated the globe.

Hiram Bingham: American explorer who found the Lost City of the Incas’, Machu Picchu.

Neil Armstrong: First man to step on the moon. Every other explorer’s accomplishments look a puny by comparison. Just imagine though, Neil finds Richard Hoagland’s lost moon civilization, or Ming’s advance base for his planned invasion of earth from Mongo, or Iron Sky space Nazi’s!

I hope this list provides a few adventuring and NPC ideas.

Fantasy & Pulp Fantasy Core--Title Level and Pulp Adventurer Ideas 5

Previously.

The Explorers Continued
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Henry Hudson: Discovered the eponymous Hudson Bay in Canada. Battled ice floes and mutinous crews. He was forced to over-winter in the bay as encroaching ice closed them in. He, his son, and loyal members of the crew were set adrift in a boat by mutineers. Willem Barentsz, another Arctic explorer, also became trapped in ice and was attacked by polar bears.

Adolf Erik Nordenskiold: Made a failed attempt to walk to the North Pole. Later took a ship, Vega, across Russia’s northern border only to be trapped in ice for 10 months between Russia and Alaska.

John Franklin: British sailor that fought at Trafalgar. Survived a horrific overland attempt at finding the Northwest Passage in Canada, which included a bout of cannibalism. Became Lt. Governor in Tasmania until he was run out. Lead another expedition to find the Northwest Passage by sea. The HMS Terror and HMS Erebus became the “Lost Expedition,” after not being heard from for over two years. A large bounty was offered and 25 rescue missions would be launched to find them (at an extensive loss of life). The fate of the ships’ crews was discovered eight years later. Both ships became trapped in ice. Survivors attempted to retreat overland, but fell victim to scurvy, lead poisoning, cannibalism, and starvation.

American Charles Hall’s Polaris expedition to the North Pole met a similar, fatal ending. Ironically, one of his previous trips had found the graves of the Franklin party.

Fridtjof Nansen: Crossed Greenland overland. Attempted to get to the North Pole by allowing his ship to become trapped in an ice floe for three years. Unfortunately, it didn’t drift over the pole. From there, he attempted to go on on foot. The attempt failed, but he managed to build a catamaran from his boats to make it back to civilization.

Roald Amundsen: First to make it across the Northwest Passage. First to the South Pole, beating out explorer rival Scott. First across the North Pole in an airship. Died while doing a search and rescue for an airship downed near the Arctic. Robert Scott makes it to the pole second, finding Amundsen’s Norwegian flag there. His expedition perishes in the return attempt, leaving behind a rather grim diary.

Ernest Shackleton: His ship, Endurance, was trapped in Antarctic ice during an expedition.  It took three years and treacherous trips overland and in a small open boat to effect rescue.  Everyone in the expedition survived.  They returned home to England as heroes.  Depressingly, they also found found WWI raging across Europe at the time. 

To be concluded.

Fantasy & Pulp Fantasy Core--Title Level and Pulp Adventurer Ideas 4

Previously.

The Explorers Continued
-------------------------------

Mungo Park: Scottish explorer of the Niger River and Africa. Became ill on his second expedition and was killed by natives when his boat became stuck at Bussa Falls. His published diaries became an inspiration to later explorers and writers.

Richard Lander: English explorer of Africa who became the first European to visit the forbidden city of Timbuktu and leave it alive. During one expedition his party was attacked and captured by river pirates.

Heinrich Barth: This German explorer made it to Timbuktu going overland through the desert from Tripoli and entered in disguise as an Arab.

Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke: As part of an expedition set up by the Royal Geographic Society, these two went to Africa to search for the source of the Nile. They ended up quarrelling bitterly over their findings. Burton also translated the Kama Sutra and the Tales of the Arabian Nights. He entered Mecca, forbidden to non-Muslims, disguised as an Arab.

Mary Kingsley: Commissioned by the British Museum to visit Africa to collect wildlife samples and native artifacts.

Henry Morton Stanley: Left England for the US as a teen. Enlisted in the Confederate army, though he later fought for the Union. He then worked as a correspondent for newspapers, first to an Indian conference, and then abroad. He was given a commission to find a missing missionary in Africa. Upon finding him, Stanley would utter the words that would make him famous, “Dr. Livingston, I presume?” Lead a couple more brutal expeditions into the interior and would become a member of parliament.

David Livingston: Missionary, explorer, and merchant trader in Africa. Was the first European to see Victoria Falls. His extended search for the source of the White Nile River prompted Stanlely’s investigation. Upon his death, two natives undertook a very long overland and sea journey to deliver his body back to England (though his heart was buried in a box in Africa).

To be continued.