Maybe you have a fantasy version of the 100 Years war happening in the background? Or perhaps the adventuring party is traveling through a war torn landscape of a fantasy version of the Italian Wars? Or the adventuring party has defeated a bandit leader and now finds themselves responsible for 20 first level fighters who need a leader? While some of the following descriptions might break away from your preferred game’s pricing structure for mercenaries or their stock composition, this guide was designed to not only make different mercenary companies stand out from each other, but also inform roleplaying when encountering them.
Mercenary companies provide the extra muscle player characters might need for short term or long term employment. However, the mercenary company are considered professional soldiers and killers and crossing them isn’t wise. All companies will have a contract that both the PC party and the mercenary company leaders agree on before employment begins. It is expected that PCs maintain their end of the agreement and try to maintain a good relationship with the company.
The Mercenary Company
Mercenary Company Composition: The following are the basic compos ion of a mercenary company
Soldiers: All mercenary soldiers are considered 1st level fighters.
Captains: For every 20 mercenaries, they will be commanded by a 5th level Fighter as their captain.
Condotierro: Any company with three or more captains will have a commander known as a Condotierro. See the Condotierro generator to create a commander for a large company of mercenaries.
Sellsword Band: Small companies of 20 or less members without a captain are considered a sellsword band who vote on all decisions.
Mercenary companies come with their own supply wagons and a number of followers equal to 1 per 10 soldiers that provide specialized services as support to the company. These individuals are Normal Men hirelings that don’t partake in combat. Multiple different companies can be hired and combined to make a larger company for warfare. The maximum number of different companies willing to sign a contract at once is 4 plus any charisma modifier the hiring PC has. This also means the PC with a negative charisma will be subtracted from 4.
Generating a Mercenary Company: Use the following procedure and table to randomly determine a Mercenary Company.
Mercenary Company Size: To generate the size of a company, roll 1d10 and multiply it by 10.
Mercenary Pay: To determine the mercenary company’s pay, roll 1d4 and multiply it by the level of the soldier. This equals the amount of coins per week per soldier in the company. If the mercenary group is mounted, then multiply this amount by an additional x3. This cost reflects active duty of moving around, camping, and engaging in battles.
Captain and Condotierro Pay: These leading NPCs are paid 4 gp x double their level for Captains or triple their level for condotierro, rounded up. For example, a Captain that is 5th level is paid 4x10, or 40 gp per week while a 5th level condotierro is 4x15 or 60gp per week.
Defensive Only Pay: If the company is being housed in a stronghold or settlement for security or defense, then the rate of pay is monthly instead of weekly.
Company Morale: All companies begin with a morale score of 8.
Mercenary Specialty and Notoriety: Roll on the following table for each column to generate a mercenary company’s specialty.
*Dice Size increase is d4>d6>d8>d10>d12>2d6>2d8>2d10, etc.
Mounted: If generated with Light Crossbows, the horses don’t have barding, otherwise if they have lances, they have a 50% chance of having barding.
Pavise: Results where a company’s weapon loadout is supplied with a shield and the armor generation also comes with a shield, then the company is armed with Pavises, which are larger shields that provide +2 AC. Any Mercenary company that starts with a ranged weapon has a 25% chance of having pavises as well.
Demi-human Mercenary Companies: Demi-human companies have two listed mercenary traits in addition to their own as described below. Any demihuman company costs more than average as indicated by their listing.
Dwarven: Have the Mountaineer and engineer traits but engage in direct combat as well. Cannot use Large sized weapons. X3 cost
Elven: Have the Strider and ranger traits and have +2 to their morale but incur -3 to their morale whenever paired with dwarves or monsters. X4 cost
Halfling: Have the Sneaky and artillery mercenary traits but will engage in melee combat at -1 morale or ranged combat at +1 morale. Cannot use large sized weapons. X2 cost.
Condottiero Generation: If the company is large enough to have a condotierro leading it, then use the following table to determine the Class and Level of the NPC.
Condotierro has a 50% chance of being of noble birth but not able to inherit land. Any non-noble born condotierro are then considered coming from a common background and has achieved a ranking and respect equal to or higher than knights. This can cause friction among the noble peers and a negative opinion of the condotierro and their mercenary company. Demi-human condotierro receive negative opinions from both nobility and powerful human factions but will receive a positive opinion from other demi-humans and those sympathetic to them.
Mercenary Company Contract: Each hired company will have terms and conditions of their employment that they will follow to the letter. These contracts must include a short list of criteria that both the hiring PCs and the Mercenary companies agree on. Negotiating the contract should be done by roleplaying, with the referee using reaction rolls if they see it as necessary. The referee and PCs can determine these terms but it usually is made up of the following three Contractual Term categories:
Rate of Pay: As stated earlier, this is the generated rate of pay per week if on campaign if per month is used for defense and security only.
Use of the company: Mercenary companies only agree to be used for military campaigns in the form of battles and location defense. Mercenaries will never go into dungeons unless bribed a high amount equal to x10 their current pay per day of dungeon exploration. They are still subject to reaction rolls when asking this.
Professional Expectations and amenities provided: No fighting between mercenaries and PC party and their henchmen, No looting, additional weapons or armor provided by the PC, etc.
Managing a hired Mercenary Company: when commanding a mercenary company after employment, the PCs will only engage with the leader(s) of the company who are subject to reaction rolls modified by the terms of the contract. Each Term in the contract provides a +1 to any reaction roll when giving orders to the leader of the mercenary company to a maximum of +3.
Failure to Provide: Anytime the PCs fail to fulfill one of the contract terms, remove the bonus permanently from contract term from all further reaction rolls and the company’s morale score.
Resentful Company: Anytime there is a reaction roll of 1 or less causes the mercenary company to rob the PCs and abandon them.
Referees need to keep this normation secret, since the company will rob them at the most opportune moment but will seem to be agreeable until then. If the mercenary company fails a morale check while in combat, they retreat from the battle and regroup after the conflict is resolved.
Mercenaries as Bandits: Mercenary companies without contract or pay have a 50% chance of staying in the region and becoming brigands until their next potential contract comes along. Otherwise, the company marches back to their original area to look for new employment. ANy company that are brigands will occupy an abandoned or weakly fortified stronghold or settlement or a nearby dungeon. This is always true if the seasons are fall and winter. If the PCs disband the mercenary company or if the PCs fail to fulfill their contract and the company abandons and robs the PC, then the PCs are held responsible by the local factions for bringing the brigands to their land.
Seeking out a Mercenary Company: If the PCs are interested in hiring one or more mercenary companies, they can make an open call for recruitment. Player characters can choose to hire a caller or hire someone to place posts at various sign boards. PCs can also choose to personally seek out mercenary captains in taverns, inns and in the wilderness if they have leads on their location. Use the table below to determine how long it takes for a company to respond or for the PC to find a mercenary company on their own.
Mercenary Company Names: Use the following table to generate the name of the company. Roll a d3 to determine which descriptor column to roll on. The roll on the descriptor and the title column and combine them together to make a mercenary company name. You may also roll for two descriptors if you need an additional one to make the generated name make more sense. If you are interested in making a more authentic sounding name, roll a d10 instead of d20 for both descriptor and title. You can choose how the name is organized.
For example, Black and Company Could be The Black Company or The Company of The Black but if I rolled for an additional descriptor I might get The Company of the Black Rose or the Black Unicorn Company, etc.
*Use the following notation to help elaborate on the generated descriptors:
Colors can be described with variations of those colors. For example Red could be Crimson, Scarlet, Sanguine, Rose, etc.
Saint: Use the name of a random patron Saint. If you’d like to elaborate on what the patron saint represents, use Appendix K: Patron Saint generator in Demesnes & Dominations
Location: USe these to indicate the region of the map the company is from. Such as Strausberg, Alpine, Black Forest, Burgundian, etc.
Weapon: Use the weapon generated on the mercenary generator as the descriptor. Feel free to use weapon type name variations, such as Two-Handed Sword could be Zweihander, Bihander, Greatsword, Spadone, and more.
- Cultural: This is meant to use the religion or deity the company (or company leaders) worship. Ethnic would be used to describe if they are elven, dwarven, halfling, or monstrous. If the company isn’t any of those, use another cultural identifier to differentiate this mercenary company and how they are culturally different from their current environment. An example would be the Varangian mercenaries.
- Flower/Tree could be any flower of choice sucha s Rose, tulip, Iris, Daisy, or even Trees that are blossoming, with or without leaves, bearing fruit, or withered.
The Mercenary Company as an Adventuring Party: Player Characters can choose to expand their normal adventuring party with entourage and whomever they can recruit from their stronghold to engage in high level adventures for hire as a mercenary company. Flipping the roles, the referee can use the prior information to build a campaign where an adventuring party can choose to raise an army either from their stronghold (pg. 16 Demesnes & Domination) or from zero level henchmen and recruited followers (pg. 65 Demesnes & Domination) or even from defeated bandit party where the PCs become the leaders. There is a lot of potential to explore, exploit, and exhume when playing a campaign in a fantastic medieval mercenary company!
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