What is it?
This exciting addition for your favourite role playing game brings you specific rules for play involving chartered companies of brave explorers, cunning traders, and ruthless mercenaries.
Includes charter templates for establishing your company. Having acquired your patron's consent, you establish your circle of founders, nominate officers, and hire your companions. From there it's off to seek wealth and glory!
Greatly expands domain level play. Manage your holdings as you seek to continue to fill your company's coffers. Perils ranging from local malcontents to competing agents to hostile empires all seek to thwart your path to success.
Real history has legendary adventurers that inspire such as the Venetian merchant traveller and diplomat Marco Polo, the Chinese Admiral and explorer Zheng He, and Moroccan caravan traveller Ibn Battuta. History also has famous organised groups such as the White Company, a mercenary army consisting of thousands of men who made and broke kingdoms throughout Europe. The historic Dutch East India company was so powerful it became its own empire, managing realms and declaring war as kings would.
Popular fiction has given us fantastic versions of these real entities, starting centuries ago with Robinson Crusoe the lost sailor and Shakespeare's Prospero the Wizard Duke. This continues through to today with works such as Glen Cook's "Black Company" series, featuring hard fighting magical mercenaries, and with George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series where noble families vie for the support of mercenary groups with names like the "Golden Company", the "Second Sons", and the "Brave Companions" (these last also known as the "Bloody Mummers" to their enemies).
Why do I need this?
No matter whether your game is based in historical realism or strange fantasy, running with an adventuring company structure yields enormous benefits. It gives you an ongoing group entity that allows players to enter and leave the campaign as real world time considerations allow, without disrupting the dynamic of the group. It gives the players a sense of purpose and camaraderie. There is always a stable of characters of all levels for the characters to play. For the GM, there will always be a surplus of easy ways to introduce hooks for a new adventure that avoid the dreaded "You meet a stranger in the tavern."
Most importantly, for younger players it gives an opportunity to become better acquainted with real world financial issues, but in a fun first manner that makes sense, and that they can relate to as players in a world of adventure.
Further to this aspect, I plan to introduce an Educator version which includes specially designed sheets and forms that are tied to game play, but also encourage basic arithmetic, algebra and accounting skills in a fun first manner. Maintaining a simple balance sheet becomes a lot more entertaining when it's for your piratical company of cutthroats!
I want to know more!
I look forward to providing more information on development as it progresses. If you believe you might be interested in this product, please don't hesitate to contact me via email.
Happy adventuring!
Christopher Scott
