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View Full Version : Militia training [My party stay out, or -1000 to ALL numerical values.]



Scarey Nerd
2010-08-09, 12:11 PM
Last session, my party finished clearing out a town of undead, and the mayor (Me as DM) mentioned in passing that they would probably draw new town guards out of the small, poorly trained militia that resides in the town. One of the PCs offered to help train the militia to make them more effective, should such a problem arise again.

...I have no clue what to do from here :smalleek: The mayor told them that they might request such services at a later date, and he would send word if and when it was needed, as I didn't want to curbstomp the generous offer. However, I don't know how to go about letting them train the villagers.

Any advise would be great :smallsmile:

Aroka
2010-08-09, 12:17 PM
They train the militia for a few weeks, and instead of being Warrior 1s, they're Warrior 2s. (Or instead of being Commoner 1s, they're Warrior 1s.)

Simple enough.

Edit:
Plus, you know, play out a few "teachable moments" where the PC gets to show off and whatnot.

Kylarra
2010-08-09, 12:17 PM
Frankly, I'd just fiat some downtime, possibly subtract some gold if they offer to equip the villagers, and have some of the farmers retrain their commoner HD to fighter. Grant some exp for their troubles and move along.

Nightson
2010-08-09, 12:18 PM
Tell them they stick around for a few days and train the villagers.

WinWin
2010-08-09, 12:19 PM
You're gonna need a montage...montage

Perhaps run a mock battle or something. Subdual damage only. Tactics and strategy would be more important than feats.

Setting up chokepoints and basic traps. Barricades and fallback points. Making a few basic or improvised weapons and armour. Keep it in the theme of the village. Even digging a trench or two ans filling it with flammable objects could influence a battle. I am sure your players can come up with a few inventinve ideas once you set the theme.

Hope this helps.

Timeras
2010-08-09, 12:22 PM
Just accept the offer and see what the players do. Let them explain how they teach the militiamen, and roleplay a few situations. Maybe they plan training missions or something.

You can have some social encounters, maybe they discover a traitor. Or they can make friends there. NPCs the players care for offer opportunities.

WarKitty
2010-08-09, 12:26 PM
I might actually put it back in their hands.

"The mayor gives you the use of an empty barn and the pasture behind it. A group of peasants has arrived. They know how to use a few simple weapons (pick some proficiencies) but that is it. You don't see any weapons beyond a couple of staves and sickles. How do you wish to conduct the training?"

And yeah, once the training is finished the villagers can add a level of warrior.

Choco
2010-08-09, 01:05 PM
If you don't plan on ever coming back to this village again, just say they trained the villagers for a few weeks, looks like they improved quite a bit, and move on. Sometime in the future mention how the village fought back some invader. If the PC's choose to come back and visit later, same deal except make them look more professional. No need to stat something that will likely never see combat and the PC's can kill in 1 hit anyway (really, if the PC's are high level what's the difference between a Warrior 1 and a Warrior 2, or a Warrior 1 and a Fighter 1?). Just fluff it.

Snake-Aes
2010-08-09, 01:16 PM
There's no need to make any ruling for that, I say. It's not a common occurrence, nor will it change the final result much. Discount the time, gold(if they equip the newbies), and after the desired time convert those commoners to warriors, or add a warrior level. You can even bring together a caster or two out of the heap if your casters are involved.

WarKitty
2010-08-09, 01:29 PM
Looking over the responses:

It depends on what your players want. If they want to actually go back and RP the training session, let them come up with the plan. If they just want to gloss over it, turn several militia members into warrior 2 with maybe an adept sprinkled in and call it done.

Crafty Cultist
2010-08-09, 02:33 PM
I'd let them roleplay the training. You could decide make the new guards into warriors or fighters, depending on how good their training plan is

Umael
2010-08-09, 03:01 PM
Be prepared for nothing and everything.

To clarify, if they say, "so, we spend a few weeks training them and then we get back to the quest," then nothing has really happened. So be prepared for nothing to happen and the adventure to continue.

If they say, "okay, we made a list of everything we want to do. It's going to take a few sessions, so we want to make sure you're okay with a slight change to the venue...", then everything has happened. Your village that might be insignificant might explode with detail, and before you know it, you could be trying to think up names for the farmer's red-haired daughter's three cats, while figuring out whether she is of legal age or not because she started eyeing the party's barbarian's muscles. Just... don't put in more time into your creation than you can afford.