Military organization in Fort Vehl

[Pen N Popper]

Once upon a time, there was the Pranzis Officer Corp.  This was a GM run organization that took a CDQ to get into.  It had some restrictions for alignment, etc. that ruled some PCs out.  I, however, really would like to find a military style organization to join.  The following is a hybrid suggestion for one.

A couple quests/CDQs are run to recruit for the Fort Vehl "minutemen" guard.  The goal of these GM quests is to recruit and assign four to six captains.  These captains would be in charge of other members and organize uniforms, training, combat missions, etc.  They would collectively determine the code of conduct, requirements, ranks, etc.  The lower ranks would be required to follow the orders of the captains.  (This would lead to IC conflict, jockeying for promotions, etc.)

So this would be a player run, but GM supported, organization.  The GM would add a sense of legitimacy to the whole thing and facilitate the recruiting and retention of players/PCs.  

Of course a WL could do the same thing, using the XP wand to encourage such a venture.  If there is one out there that is interested, I would be willing to help them OOCly set this up.

I have felt for a long time that there is a large void in terms of military hierarchy player guild that needs filling.  What are your thoughts?

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

This one gets my support.

[Acacea]

It has to be dirty and gritty and with backstabs encouraged! Maybe? Ahem. *Waves a shady flag, despite flag-waving not falling under the standard list of 'shady actions'*

[stragen]

The Knights of the Wyrm have in the past conducted their initiations at fort Vehl.    Also, behind all that shining platemail it appears that they have a darker core.    There were a number of PCs who joined this organisation (fairly) recently (in V2) through a GM based GCDQ.  

However, they are not secular organisation being closely tied to the temple in Vehl.

Perhaps this could be the 'Milita of the Wyrm' and open to secular recruits.  Thus giving it linkage to the existing Knights of the Wyrm organisation.

[Acacea]

The temple of Rofi there has some serious hardships and a lot of corruption in its past... hopefully they can walk the straight and narrow from now on.





...*snickers*

[Gulnyr]

Grr...

You have no idea how tired a lot of the players of Rofireinite characters are of the "Corrupt Priests" theme.  

Anyway, carry on.  I failed a Will check and couldn't help posting that.

[Acacea]

Hey, hey, I was just stating the fact of their past troubles. Now they struggle under the weight of perception, bravely carrying the torch despite the failings of their comrades...etc, etc...

Maybe? *Grins.*

Edit- It actually seems kind of strange that the Knights of the Wyrm would operate out of Vehl, and I had not heard that before...I know there's a temple there, but really... there are other temples...very awkward. It's not a giant temple, Rofi definitely does not rule that city, you know?

[Gulnyr]

I'm not sure that a Vehl-based organization should really have any ties to the Church of Rofirein.  I think it would be better to make sure a general military organization doesn't have ties to any church anywhere, because the faiths in Layonara are very important - so important that association with a church would make the organization practically a part of the church in the minds of players and characters.  That would narrow the field of potential candidates for recruitment because Carlton Character doesn't want anything to do with, say, the Church of Rofirein, even if he would really like to be Sergeant Character of the Vehl Militia.

[Faldred]

The denizens of Fort Vehl these days don't seem to be the type who'd want to organize, one would think...  

[Makashi]

I like this idea, but I'm agreeing with Gulnyr on the fact linking it to the knights of the wyrm is....pointless....Thats what the knighthood is, why would we need a second with a different name?

And also like Gulnyr stated, if it was the military of a town, linking it to the church will not attract much attention - Those that wanted to join the knighthood, have done so.

I'd prefer something completely separate, perhaps one that completely contrasts the knighthood.

[Acacea]

I wouldn't want it to have anything to do with the Knights, if that wasn't clear, because I think any linking of them to Vehl is just begging for a DM to come and smear them everywhere with NPC actions, when we have few enough organizations of its type to begin with. That's why I was leery to hear it being  referred to as based in Vehl at all, hehe. And similar to what both Faldred and Makashi said, if you DID link this one to Rofi in Vehl, who would join?

I still think it's a kind of weird location for a military regime because of its purpose, inhabitants, and favorite-activities, which is why I gave my shady flag a wave

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Well, there doesn't seem to be any unity among Dragoncalled, these days, but I've been thinking...

How about some sort of police/defenders organization, that basically went around keeping the peace, sorting out issues, hunting down bad guys, and the like? Something that spanned the length of Mistone...

The [Insert cool name here that incorporates "Mistone"] or something.

However, that would be a Good (well, an Any Good or LN) organization, and wouldn't work so much as a military group as a post-Civil War-era Texas Rangers sort of bunch (a la Lonesome Dove or the Gunslingers of the Dark Tower series).

What I think was requested in this thread to begin with was some sort of military organization. I'm just curious what happened to Mistone's army. That's a military organization.

[Gulnyr]

Isn't Mistone more than one kingdom now?  Each would have it's own army, probably, and any soldier from one kingdom wouldn't be likely to have any authority in another kingdom.  I think the most likely organizations to have members with authority in multiple kingdoms are churches, since the religions aren't confined by the political borders.  That doesn't mean some military group couldn't have that kind of authority; I just think it's unlikely.

Maybe that's a direction the idea could go, though, that each kingdom has an army that PCs could join.  The nature of the kingdom would determine who it attracted.  Of course, there's no telling how many characters would be interested, and if they were spread too thin it wouldn't be quite what PnP is suggesting, I think.

[Acacea]

Well, all places are split up into smaller ones, Mistone no exception and I guess yeah the individual kingdoms would be a little more grabby now, but the last I heard in game was that despite the unifying Queen fading, the duties had been slowly passed off to be more on the triumvirate etc or holding council type thing, not suddenly everything is disbanded and gone away...just released to a regency-like group or something. I don't know, just suddenly poofing and leaving everyone to fend for themselves individually is kind of weird and rather unlike the queen when she had been setting it up for a future one someday or something.

I haven't really heard anything on how the kingdoms are united though. I would be kind of bummed if it had fallen into total separation immediately

Edit - I didn't mean to imply that there had been sort of announcement stating that it had been passed in that manner. I meant that the last I had heard in-character and in-game was word that the queen had been slowly delegating the duties of state to others, so that by the end it was actually all running in hands other than hers for a smooth transition etc. But no HEAR YE HEAR YE or OOC announcement etc.

Edit again- on the PC joining any kingdom's army, I just don't know how to reconcile that with the fact that they will spend at least 75% of their time outside of that kingdom and when RP time constraints are added, unlikely to be there when danger calls, and fighting somewhere else when the big stuff comes. That kind of goes for most armies though I guess, but at least continental ones give you the excuse of being stationed anywhere on the server rather than in what may be a very limited selection of areas in game.

But as for the original suggestion! I agree that there IS a shortage of military type organizations...and...and I'll just stop typing now. Sorry for the tangent!

Last edit!! I did see the comment about religions not being bound by political borders etc! That is all.

[mixafix.]

For those military types,

There is going to be some quests run around militia based patrols raised at Fort Wayfare

So you know:)

[Pen N Popper]

I'm sorry I mentioned Fort Vehl as it seemed to have distracted from my original purpose.

What I am imagining is a player run organization with backing from GMs.  The reason I say player run is that if it is only GM quest based, then that excludes a lot of us from being part of it (due to time constraints).  It also leaves a big gap between quests when the PCs have nothing IC to do.  Finally, it also puts the burden of running it on the GMs.  All of these, I believe, would be alleviated to a large degree by making it player run on a day-to-day basis.

I know that this could be done entirely by players without any GM involvement, but I struggle to figure out how to make that happen.  Supposedly there are other organisations that already exist but it's never been clear to me how to learn about them and join them.  This would be a public group both IC and OOC to facilitate membership.

I just yearn to have my PCs actively involved in an active group.  Something official, instead of a band of merry dwarves or bowman.

The dwarves are a good example of something coming close.  They are hampered by a lack of legitimacy in their rankings, though, since NPCs fill the higher levels of the church and the players don't feel empowered (from what I've seen) to step up and assume authority.  Vorax is militant, has a good number of followers, has several WLs, etc.  Why hasn't it been taken to the next level?  That is the question I don't have the answer for.  That is what I hope to discover by this thread and idea.

[stragen]

A good post Pen and Pooper.

With regard to the dwarves I would hope this does happen.  I would like to see the organization become formalized with more player characters filling roles.  This could include something akin to the army reserves for dwarves.  *nudge, nudge, hint, hint Warlord Varka*.  I would suggest that the eventual goal should be another forum.  Or maybe just a running Thread in the Vorax forum.

The reason why I suggested the 'Knights of Wyrm' was as there are already PC's in this organization.  In other fantasy/medieval cultures, the knights represented the link between the noble army and that of the commoners.  They are the officers and generals.  Thus this would create a link between an already existing in game structure.  Why I suggest this is the need for a critical mass for these things to happen.  I suggested that the militia be secular (and not religious), to open it up to even more characters.  Again this would need to be actively lead by the world leaders (or higher ranking characters) in the game; Barion Firesteed, and certain halfling in this case.

I guess the key is you need to find the players with the characters willing to support this organisation.  Clearly leadership from respected characters is needed in game, and support by players out of game is needed for this.

I personally have characters that will join either of those two types of military organisation if the oppotunity arises.

PS:  I know there are some ex-Prantis army officers still around...

[gilshem ironstone]

A good post Pen and Pooper.

With regard to the dwarves I would hope this does happen.  I would like to see the organization become formalized with more player characters filling roles.  This could include something akin to the army reserves for dwarves.  *nudge, nudge, hint, hint Warlord Varka*.  I would suggest that the eventual goal should be another forum.  Or maybe just a running Thread in the Vorax forum.

 Oi! Nay all o' us worship da fadder o' battle!