That said, his post that in East Asian settings make it easier to form a party because collectivism s. individualism, really wasn't helpful. To begin with, for most of history, people in Europe were seen as part of a family first, and individuals only after that. That's not so different from Asia. Western myths and stories might be perceived to have a single protagonist, but that's not exactly how it works.
So, how to put different PCs in the same party? Well, it's not any harder than putting them together in an East Asian setting.
Let's see what examples of "natural PC parties" I can come up with.
Students of the same fencing academy/teacher that go drinking together.
Soldiers in the same regimen, assuming roughly equal rank.
A noble, his son or daughter, and their hired guards.
Members of a gang.
Extended family, especially if they have been wronged.
Members of the same Guild, who often practised together as a militia.
Knights of an order.
A Viking expedition, or just members of the same crew.
A knight, his squire, and the mercenaries and conscripts that are just necessary to keep the nobles from encirclement.
A noble and his retinue, including advisors, heirs, relatives and suitors for his daughters' hands, acrobats, jugglers and minstrels.
Members of the same occult cabal or heresy.
...just to make it clear, that's far from an exhaustive list!
There are lonely heroes, like Conan, an wandering knight, a xia, and Li Flying Dagger. There are also most other people in the setting, be it China or Europe.
OK, I get your point. There are parties in Western fiction, not only individuals. However, the knights of the Round Table are, well, all knights. The three musketeers are all musketeers, etc. They're usually all from the same background. It's still pretty uneasy for me to envision a D&D-like adventurers' party in a European setting. Inconsistent dates notwithstanding, would John Dee go about adventuring with François Villon, William of Baskerville, and a Landsknecht?
ReplyDeleteYes. It’s called “travel”, because a bigger group is safer from witches, werewolves, and robbers (all things the PCs believe in). Or the lower-class ones would be hired by the higher-ranked ones. They basically need them, because a noble without companions? It’s what they call “an impoverished noble”, and takes a sizeable hit to their reputation.
DeleteIf you’re going anywhere, and I mean 10 km away, you take 40 people if you can afford it. A jester included, in case you get bored, servants because your 40 noble friends need someone to clean for them, and a representative of the law, because the whole point is to radiate authority.
And that’s not different from what you do in China. Paying for people to escort and protect you is something a peasant can’t afford, and screams “WEALTH” to them. And if they’re armed and seem competent, they scream “TROUBLE” to highway robbers, river pirates and the like. Which is, of course, a good thing in itself.
Fair enough. They would band together to travel from point A to point B. And that's when adventure hits :)
DeleteBut I still maintain that it's easier to band together adventurers without the need for travel, etc. in an East Asian milieu, e.g., for a city-based campaign that does not involve travelling.
And I still maintain it makes little difference.
DeleteTravel was just an example I used, because I thought the question was for "travelling murderhobos". But it wasn't even the only example if you re-read the post itself!
A noble would still have (and need!) an entourage in the city. But actually, there are more people that would be welcome in a noble's house than there are people he or she would select as travelling companions!
A fencing academy is actually not really likely to move from their city. There were wandering masters, just as in China-and there were established schools, again not unlike the Chinese ones.
Occult cabals aren't travelling often, neither are extended families...in short, do you want me to re-write the examples section in that post? I could, but I thought the examples to be clear enough. If they aren't, that's another matter.
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