To Scratch an Itch: Mercenary Company Rules & Ideas

[Lacco]

I've been playing (though it's now on hiatus) a game where you play a craftsman running a shop in a D&D-esque setting. Rules here. It's not directly applicable, but I've thought of reskinning it to a mercenary company.
It's a d100 system, with three ranks of success (<50 is failure/poor, 51-100 is success, 100+ is great success).

If I have time this week, I might some thought into this.
But I could see something like it's abstracted wealth, with something for doing side jobs the PCs aren't involved with to generate income, something like morale as a major stat, and quick resolution of conflicts (with maybe a monthly roll on a table to see what conflicts, if any, arise).

Hi JeenLeen, I remember the game. You sent me the link before and I followed it for some time.

I will take a look at the ruleset and pick up whatever suits the game. It seems there are not enough games for my strange tastes, so I'll have to build something.

Something I have played with in my mind is exactly about morale & fatigue: when travelling to the dungeon, most players do not really care about travel & camping part. Sightseeing is fun, but overland travel - not so much. Especially making sure the characters sleep well, are fed, comfortable - these things can be normally skipped for most players. You would think players lead ascetic lives based on what they inflict on their characters.

I - on the other hand - like to think about such things. So how to make them important?

My solution is to base the morale & fatigue based on how your travel goes. So basically: you start well rested & fine at the beginning, but travel grinds you down and you can't just "rest before we get to the dungeon" - you start the adventure with a tired, hungry & most probably even hurt character if you do not take care about their condition.

But the exact mechanics are still not written down.

For the conflicts & events: I like giving players chance to solve some out-of-party issues, so there is either the possibility of giving the GM a lot of tools (e.g. character traits for company members - some of them automatically leading to issues, some of them requiring rolls), random tables or some kind of overall mechanic.

The mechanic I have currently in my mind is this:
Let's assume there is a status track for Morale, Condition and a secret Loyalty track for each unit in the company.

Target Number	5	6	7	8	9	10
Morale	Excellent	Good	Steady	Wavering	Demoralized	Broken
Condition	Perfect	Good	Normal	Winded	Tired	Exhausted
Loyalty	Family	Friends	Businesslike	Annoyed	Angry	Hostile

So, let's assume our fictional company has 2 units:

Rinaldo's Rangers
40 men (archers)
Led by Rinaldo (Nobleman, Leadership TN 7, traits: Hedonistic, Argumentative, ???)
Combat Strength: 60
Battle Skill: Experienced (-1)

TN	5	6	7	8	9	10
Status	C	M	(L)

Traits: ranged only (+2 TN if they get to melee; force a morale roll)

Former militia group, consists mostly of poachers, hunters and hardened woodsmen.
They have perfect condition (well rested, good provisions, no fatigue to speak of), good morale (they trust their commander, they have been paid well, they are fighting for their homeland and have no outstanding issues), but their secret morale is only businesslike - this is their first time they are actually in the field with the company.

1st Irivan Irregulars
60 men (light infantry)
Led by Arcturias (Militia Sargeant, Leadership TN 8, traits: Hard to Impress, Frugal, ???)
Combat Strength: 60
Battle Skill: Trained (+0)

TN	5	6	7	8	9	10
Status			CM	(L)

Traits: Disorganized (+1 TN to all morale rolls)

Recruits from Irivan that just went throught basic training. They were dirt cheap, looking for work and kinda desperate.
Their leader is an old militia sargeant, gruff guy, but fair. Still, they lack experience, lack cohesion and there do not really have good equipment or provisions.

Let's assume the unit gets a job - protect a small local town from bandit raid.
Assuming it's a short travel time, we get only a single roll. The GM will roll 4 dice per each unit (color coded for Condition, Morale, Loyalty and Leadership). We need to hit the target number or higher.

Unit	Condition Roll	Morale Roll	Loyalty Roll	Leadership Roll
Rinaldo's Rangers	8 (pass)	6 (pass)	10 (pass)	9 (pass)
1st Irivan Irregulars	6 (fail)	8 (pass)	4 (fail)	9 (pass)

Rinaldo's Rangers work just fine - no problems there.
1st Irivan Irregulars, however, have failed their Condition and Loyalty rolls.

In each case, players should be able to do something - but always just one single thing. And remember: loyalty stat is a secret one (but players should get a chance to guess if they passed or failed and to estimate the TN).

Now failed Condition roll means that something happens that increases fatigue or decreases fighting capabilities of the unit - in our case, some of the food goes spoiled and men are angry about it. Mechanically it means, that if players decide to ignore it or fail to fix it, the condition of the unit deteoriates (yes, setting up a nice downwards spiral).
Failed Morale roll means a the fighting spirit of the unit is endangered. If only Morale fails, this may mean internal discord - usually somebody speaks up, lets their frustration out and demoralizes the group - if the players do nothing. In our case, the units managed to pass.
Loyalty failure means desertion or mutiny. Somebody is stirring up trouble - and is aiming at the employer. If only Loyalty fails, it means somebody just doesn't like the leadership. In this case, since the Codition roll failed, it's going to snowball: if they fail to fix the Condition issue, the loyalty may go down too as there may be few irregulars that will raise ruckus because their stash of bacon got ruined.
Failed leadership roll will mean that one of the leader's traits will act up.

Now none of these should be immediate - on the contrary, if they manage to promptly solve the issue, a reroll is in order. If it fails, the condition/morale/whatever stays as it is. If it succeeds, the stat may even improve temporarily.

So, in our case - the commander and his entourage (PCs) hear about the bacon incident as they walk around the camp one evening. Men are lively discussing this, cussing and grumbling. What would you do?