Anyone looking for a down on his luck mercenary with a tragic past and an oddly suspicious aversion to the imperial family?
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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If I have a character of mine die, my favorite bit is to have my new character have some relation to the old character. Now, most would use this to replace a character with a stand-in. "What do you know, my character had a brother of the same stats and class!"
But I find that too boring. I prefer to go with an entirely new class when a character dies or otherwise must be replaced. My favorite bit is to have the new character be out for revenge against the old one. This has in the past resulted in a new character fighting a pitched battle with my old one.
I suddenly hanker for a campaign with the most cliche and over the top backstory for every character.
"So you're all secret royal heirs to this and the surrounding kingdoms, all secreted away at birth?"
"Yes."
"All FIVE of you?"
"Yes. We play bowling together."
Is this from something or are you making it up? Because if it's from something I need to know what it is. It's brilliant.
I've got an Indiana Jones type who picked up an idol and whoopsie poopsie that elder god had things to do and tentacles for days.
So, there's this hobby called LARP, which is pretty much this.
Been there, done that, slept on a tavern floor wearing my best attempt at period appropriate costume 😁
I once did a session 0 for a campaign at my favorite bar. Best campaign I ever ran.
I've run two campaigns. It was the second I ran. The first was in middle school. This one was in my 30s. I learned a titch in between. But still. It was a lot of fun.
I for one, would like to hear more.
it was a biergarten? and we had a lot of fun. did the individual character setups and universe intro (i may have done a lot too much for my second campaign) beforehand and then we did the "tell everyone about your characters and let's figure out how they know each other" at the bar.
The temptation to just post the address of a certain bar and a time is nearly overwhelming
Maybe the first quest is to get to the tavern in the first place.
"... Go to Mum's. Kill Phil, grab Liz, go to The Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over."
I’ve seen enough Iseki to know that I need to die and be spotted by the right god/otherworldy-being.
Honestly, we would pretty much end up like Natsuki Subaru, unless you are really strong and/or know how to wield a sword
If I got isekaid I'd go Connecticut Yankee on their ass. Yes, I am insufferable. No, I will not be changing. Your fantasy world will be industrialized. I am the evil wizard. I cast steam engine.
I guess the modern variant is going to the pub and planning a trek. But that sounds terribly dull
How about meeting at a pub and planning to destroy some Flock cameras?
...
Allegedly.
Who needs to allegedly plan that quest? You just need enough alleged liquor
ah, yes. In principle, absolutely. I would if there were any installed over here
Ah, too bad. But if you don't have any pubs, you could meet somewhere else instead.
You mean some kind of a star trek?
Nah dude. We're declaring a star war
If everyone was born predestined for a certain career path, with the latent talents and interests that will lead them to and help them excel in that path, my destined profession was "adventurer/questing"
I feel pretty ~~jipped~~ [ripped off? shorted?] that it's not a real profession...
I do this all the time. The quest is "the gang pays their bills" but the big bad is almost always unexpected expenses.
Comes with a high chance of death.
Everybody wants to go on an adventure until they find out it means being cold and hungry, carrying everything you need on your back, and sleeping outside in the rain for days.
Presumably you'd be sleeping in a tent, so the "sleeping outside in the rain for days" bit isn't too bad. Carrying everything is a pain though, particularly if it's a cold season and you'd have to carry a bunch of furs to help maintain body heat while sleeping. Only real way to do it in that case is to have an extra horse for cargo, which of course further complicates logistics
Or you could have a magical pouch that transports items to a storage closet in another dimension, and a magical servitor to set up and take down a luxury tent with all the comforts and essentials.
Unless you have the magic pouch and servitor though, yeah a pack animal is your best bet other than roughing it...
Presumably you’d be sleeping in a tent, so the “sleeping outside in the rain for days” bit isn’t too bad.
How many days have you spent living in a tent in the rain? because personally I think it's kind of fun for one night, assuming it's not a complete downpour, and then the novelty wears off and everything is damp and muddy. And that's assuming you have a reasonably good tent that you've prepped for wet conditions, and you set it up in a spot with good drainage that hasn't become a puddle. Campfires are a lot less fun in the rain too.
Carrying everything is a pain though, particularly if it’s a cold season and you’d have to carry a bunch of furs to help maintain body heat while sleeping.
Yeah, cold weather gear, or if you can't rely on water availability and you have to carry it with you. Being able to keep yourself alive while not getting overburdened with gear is pretty difficult.
Only real way to do it in that case is to have an extra horse for cargo, which of course further complicates logistics
It really does. There was this excellent video that was shared on lemmy a few weeks ago:
What Medieval People Ate When Traveling
One of the things he covers (around 9 minutes) is the cost of keeping a horse while traveling (from historic records). Really great description of traveling considerations overall.
That's why a lot of people heads to dungeons, no rain in dungeons.
Slim chance of success?
"What are we waiting for?"
A million to one chance always succeeds
Then what are we waiting for?
Look, I was already interested, you don't have to keep selling me on it.
I played a one-shot where I was just a normal guy. No tragic backstory, good relationship with my parents, just an average townsperson. The only reason he went on the quest was to get a little combat experience so he could join the city guard.
Half the party died, he almost got killed by a horrible monster, and he noped right the fuck out back to town to be a florist.
Go to a bar/pub and talk to people, you'll get into some thing
Magical adventures can be dangerous. Don't worry, I've got your back.
How are you not on the list‽‽
The list of trustworthy bathroom buddies? I know. I should be. I'm a friendly jellybean.
Not that list, and I know just how "friendly" King Jellybean was.
Someone should design a TTRPG around the intricate social interactions at the tavern, and the dungeon delve is handled with a single die roll.