Sep 4, 2020, 1:05 AM
The Black Company meets Battle Brothers.
The Celebrated Company of Mongrels
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So I have a pitch and I'm looking for feedback before I start seriously investing time and effort. Feel free to make comments and suggestions!
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The Celebrated Company of Mongrels is a game in an original dark fantasy setting, and also the name of the organization the game will revolve around.
Taking place in the ancient kingdom of Goƫtika, society is extremely rigid and (on the surface) honor-based, with no upward mobility between classes and a lot of corruption in the court; this is compounded by both its relationship with the Church of the Crimson God, a fanatical religion that was elevated to the official faith of the realm by a devout king hundreds of years ago, and the subjugation of non-humans that happened nearly concurrently.
Getting denobled, defrocked/excommunicated, stripped of knighthood, etc is fairly easy in the current atmosphere of the kingdom and tensions in all corners are high given that the last king allowed his vassal lords the freedom to openly war on one another, and several small to middling conflicts have burned across the land for a generation.
All players are former nobles/knights/priests/priestesses, non-humans, or commoners who have been disenfranchised or left the service of a noble army to join the Mongrel Company, an extremely egalitarian group of independent contractors where rank is granted based on merit and the past hierarchy is largely ignored.
The themes of the game are unrest, determination in the face of despair, and uncommon or unexpected fellowship. The focus will be on how the Company as a whole will survive/thrive as the kingdom grows closer to outright civil war and other possible conflicts, including the brewing prospect of a commoner revolution in the face of an inept monarchy and religious persecution -- and the growing threat of a neighboring assortment of barbarian clans to the north waiting for a moment of weakness.
Players can take contracts on behalf of the Company, politick with local villages and nobles for support, and generally adventure -- the kingdom is full of old ruins to explore, monsters to hunt, etc.
Because we'll be using Fate, each PC starts on pretty equal ground -- the system's premise is that everyone is competent at what they do and should expect to make a difference.
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And, a peek at the org itself:
The Celebrated Company of Mongrels
Banner: Several hounds of different coats and colors, pulling a scrap of meat from different corners, on a field of yellow.
Nicknames: Nobles of the court have referred to the company disparagingly as "Nikolev's Dogs," even though the former Captain Nikolev has been dead for several years now; this is said to be due to the fact a commoner -- and rumored half-elf -- is the current Captain Lillian, so it is meant to be dismissive and insulting of her command and the Company all at once. Members of the Company, however, are proud to call themselves Mongrels or "Lillian's Dogs" interchangeably.
Organization: The Company consists of roughly a dozen regiments each under a lieutenant, every three reporting to a Commander, who then serves under the Company Captain. Founded some fifty years ago out of the surviving remnants of several other bands and smaller companies, however, new recruits are often surprised to learn that rank is a somewhat informal affair. While the Captain and then her Commanders collectively have final say in any given dispute, and can give general orders that are expected to be obeyed and/or call the entire Company to battle, each regiment is largely autonomous and free to pursue whatever contract or interest they please -- with the friendly but non-negotiable understanding that the Company will take its cut of any profits.
Culture & Law: While each regiment has a variety of expectations in regards to behavior, and many different traditions and oaths that have survived the test of time, the one consistent and unbreakable oath across the Company can be summed up in a common saying among them -- "We Do Not Harbor Rabid Hounds." This means that any member of the Company regardless of seniority, service, or rank found guilty of abhorrent crimes (especially against one another or the common folk) will be swiftly and unceremoniously put to death.
This is a point of extreme pride in the Company considering some other mercenary companies in the kingdom are hardly better than brigands, and any member who questions or tests this oath quickly learns better or dies.
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What I'm imagining with this is that while the highest ranks (the Captain and Commanders) will be NPCs, players are free to lead individual regiments as basically sub-orgs with loose internal rankings, and come up with their own cool backstories, uniforms, etc. Every regiment is assumed to have a large number of NPC troops so that players can play as leaders or grunts, whichever they please.
Thoughts? Questions? Concerns?
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@Wizz i love you and i love this
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This sounds neat.
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
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@tek said in The Celebrated Company of Mongrels:
@Wizz i love you and i love this
@Derp said in The Celebrated Company of Mongrels:
This sounds neat.
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Please let this happen.
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Intriguing!
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Yeah, this potentially looks really good. I'm interested in seeing more about how the commoner rabble/mongrel characters are able to interact with these nobles/other NPCs that are in higher levels on the social ladder.
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So, the way it's working in my mind at the moment is pretty highly variable.
Nobility are obviously not all mustache-twirling evil, but they do rule by divine right according to the Church. Many are feverishly faithful while others are basically only adherents because they're required to be, and more lax as to who they'll associate with behind closed doors.
Some nobles will refuse to hire a regiment not led by former nobility or knights, or at least be incredibly difficult to work with, and may even threaten not to honor the terms of a contract if they learn non-humans were involved -- but again, that might be entirely a public spectacle that characters have to withstand through gritted teeth until payment is delivered later in private.
Basically it will be advantageous to play a former noble or knight when contracting with nobility, but not being one is not always some enormous social barrier you can't overcome. The Company presents you as a leader and gives you the right to negotiate and for the most part, at this point nobles are desperate enough for the help.
Nobility are also not the only NPCs with authority; villages have elders or mayors or councils and the exact opposite dynamic might turn out to be in play.
ETA: SPEAKING OF THE CHURCH, have a look-see at the first draft and let me know what you think.
Also ignore the double post plz
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The Black Company meets Battle Brothers.
Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
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On that note, I call dibs on the nickname "Croaker."
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I've never actually read a Black Company novel but like, I've learned enough about it through geek osmosis and wikis that that's an accurate influence!
As for Battle Brothers, I haven't played that either, haha, but at a glance -- sure. In terms of the mood and feel of the world and a video game reference I'm actually trying for Shadow of the Horned Rat tho.
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I highly recommend the first book in The Black Company series. In my opinion it is the best of the series and is also the shortest, so it is a quick read. Very dark setting and also trigger warnings for murder, mind control, war rape involving adults and children, and every other kind of human atrocity committed in a war. Thankfully, the protagonists don't commit any of these except for murder, and they're usually murdering the ones doing the other things.
Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
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This is probably a good place to mention that if the write up didn't make it clear, rape and pillaging and other war crimes are gonna be a hard no when it comes to "things PCs can do."
I am not interested in having them explicitly on-screen as a storyteller/GM either, I think the implication of those things happening is dark enough for my dark fantasy pretendy funtimes.
Just in case that was a concern.
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@Wizz said in The Celebrated Company of Mongrels:
This is probably a good place to mention that if the write up didn't make it clear, rape and pillaging and other war crimes are gonna be a hard no when it comes to "things PCs can do."
That would make sense if they're supposed to be the good guys.
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@Wizz said in The Celebrated Company of Mongrels:
This is probably a good place to mention that if the write up didn't make it clear, rape and pillaging and other war crimes are gonna be a hard no when it comes to "things PCs can do."
I am not interested in having them explicitly on-screen as a storyteller/GM either, I think the implication of those things happening is dark enough for my dark fantasy pretendy funtimes.
Just in case that was a concern.
A romantic approach to mercenaries, the same way a lot of media romanticizes pirates. Good stuff.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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There was a thread here a couple of years back about the themes in World of Darkness games and how much any group in particular likes to dive into or approach darkness, and the general consensus at the time was that there should always be some element of light or hope, as opposed to unrelenting grim-grimdark.
That is my jam, especially lately.
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I would play the hell out of this.
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Sign me up.
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Another draft of setting documents I'm still working on slowly but surely:
Nonhumans
Overview: While what they actually call themselves (and even how accurate the more general term applied to them is) can vary pretty dramatically, the land now called Goƫtika has been home to a wide variety of sapient beings since the earliest recorded histories; some of these have come and gone, while others have changed over time, due to exposure to powerful magical forces, divine meddling, alchemical experimentation, or simple natural selection.
Humans currently outnumber the others by an order of magnitude or more, but this was not always so, and had much to do with the "Holiest Nights" purges committed by the fanatical Church of the Crimson God after it came to power.
The following are summaries of each playable "race," with more in-depth write ups to come. In terms of mechanics, players of nonhumans should work their nonhuman status into their High Concept Aspect ("Disdainful Elven Bard," "Grimly Cheerful Beastfolk") and take an additional Trouble Aspect specifically tied to their nature.
Elves: Somewhat taller than humans, with long pointed ears, skin that comes in a range of metallic colors -- from the scintillating like silver and gold, to earthy copper and bronze, or dark as iron -- and limbs that are proportioned and formed differently, the elves are perhaps the most uncanny to the average human perspective, being so close and yet so different...more so because the elves have no cultural concept of gender and find the idea alien.
While only subjugated clans remain, the elves are not native to these lands; they came to Goƫtika several thousand years ago, during a period legends say was heralded by a hundred-day eclipse of the sun, an invasion force that quickly wore itself out against the combined strength of the peoples already established there. If there are any physical records of where it was they came from, they've long since been destroyed, and the clans are notoriously tight-lipped about their fragmented oral histories to humans.
Elves and humans are capable of interbreeding, and while their offspring most strongly resemble the parent that birthed them, there are several telling signs that can give their lineage away unless they go to great lengths to "pass" as one or the other -- a necessary effort, considering the long and deeply-held antipathy between the remaining clans and the Church.
Dwarves: In the King's Court, a game often played is to find the most droll use of a common response among the wealthy and idle nobility -- "we've a dwarf for that." The reason is simple: unlike humans, born into this world without a purpose and seeking their whole lives for it, the dwarves of Goƫtika were literally made with one in mind. Originally crafted seven hundred years ago by the royal alchemists, dwarves were designed to work where and when common laborers could not, in the deepest and darkest mines and hottest smithies, from dawn until dusk in shifts that would leave even the hardiest human dead from exhaustion.
What their taskmasters did not foresee in their arrogance was that the dwarves would not stand for these conditions and rebelled in a series of conflicts known as the Workers' War. While the dwarves won their freedom to a degree and took possession of the Birthing Kilns, it was only centuries until the rise of the Church forced them back into subservient roles.
Now, new dwarves are only made by holy concession when the old finally wear down after hundreds of years of toil, and each begrudgingly takes the work available to them -- or finds a place among the mercenary companies.
Mutants: Outside the sheltering walls of castles and villages, the lands of Goƫtika are dark and wild, and to wander them alone is the deepest folly; in crumbling ruins and twisted woods, old powers still lurk, and vanishingly few could ever be considered benign. It is said that those who encounter these powers become twisted in body and mind to serve their purposes, and pass their cursed forms down to their children.
While many mutants are unique, some share a common origin and even culture. Coming out of the Elderbark -- an old forest far to the west of the capital -- is one such example in the Beastfolk, massive chimerical creatures that stride on two legs and claim to have been human generations ago. It is said there was once a small barony on the fringes of the Elderbark whose noble family gravely offended the power there, and the woods swallowed the people and the land whole overnight; the Beastfolk still live in the root-entangled ruins and thrive.
To say they are tolerated by the Church is perhaps a stretch, but the King's Court still recognizes them as citizens of the realm, permitting their strange trade caravans to travel unmolested and sending tax collectors into the Elderbark (even if they occasionally never return). Gold is gold, after all.