Thanks to John and Barry for an excellent session last night!
PLAYERS & CHARACTERS
With Josh's departure, and average session participation dropping from 3.2 in the first half of 2025 to 2.1 in the second half, we are at a bit of a low point participation-wise. However, with three new players who've expressed interest in joining, and the addition of online sessions to the game, I'm hopeful that this will surge in January.
The characters have been generally coalescing in Killarney and two have set up their bases of operations here for the time being.
I have not updated the list of The Fallen in some time, because, happily, it has been 93 days since the last PC fatality and 186 days since the last TPK. Despite this, the XP haul in the last couple of sessions has been the highest of the year, so clearly player skill at risk management has been improving.
SCHEDULE
The next scheduled session is Tuesday, December 16. This tends to be a busy time of year for people and I have low confidence that anyone will be available to play. I already have regrets from all but three players, however, I will run a session with even only one player.
Please also remember that I will run unscheduled sessions on request for one or more players, in person or online, as my schedule permits.
Thanks very much for your input on next year's calendar! I will put that out ASAP.
TIPS & TRICKS
I'm planning on an analysis of how each class might be played in the style of game we're playing here. I also have a couple of ideas for "how to referee" tips, as I'd really like to pass that duty around once in a while at least, and an analysis of territory development as detailed in the DMG. If you have requests for other topics, or a preference of which of these I post next, please let me know! For today, I'll start with the fighter. With three characters of that class in the game, it is our group's most popular.
The Fighter
This class is described in the Players Handbook in about 400 words spread over less than half a page. Perhaps some of the tightest writing in the rule books. It does, however, leave what is arguably the class's most distinguishing and valuable feature unspoken: the fighter's ability to command.
That's a tight definition! It's also incomplete. Gygax had some ideas about how to play this game that are problematic. I am all for following the rules of the game and I'd argue that if one does not follow the rules, one is no longer playing the game. If we decide in chess that it doesn't make sense for the king to only move one square while the queen may move as far as she likes, and we change that rule, we're no longer playing chess. As long as we codify that rule and always follow it, we're still playing a game, even if it's not chess. If we instead judge on a case-by-case basis how the king may move without codifying it in an immutable way, then we are not only not playing chess, we're not playing a game.
Slight tangent here, but where I'm going is that there are also words in the rule books which are not rules, and cannot be rules, and still allow us to play a game. Chief among those is Gygax's admonition in the preface:
As this book is the exclusive precinct of the DM, you must view any non-DM player possessing it as something less than worthy of honorable death. Peeping players there will undoubtedly be, but they are simply lessening their own enjoyment of the game by taking away some of the sense of wonder that otherwise arises from a game which has rules hidden from participants. It is in your interests, and in theirs, to discourage possession of this book by players. If any of your participants do read herein, it is suggested that you assess them a heavy fee for consulting "sages" and other sources of information not normally attainable by the inhabitants of your milieu. If they express knowledge which could only be garnered by consulting these pages, a magic item or two can be taken as payment - insufficient, but perhaps it will tend to discourage such actions.
Bullshit. I would never play more than one game at a table run by such an ass as this. Hiding rules from players only to spring them after they needed to be known is asinine. It is as much not playing a game as ignoring or changing the rules capriciously during play would be.
With my interest in transparent and stable rules thus established, I'll move on to the hidden ability of the fighter. It is implicit in the rules surrounding mercenaries as well as the description of the organization of human forces in the Monster Manual.
Fighters' Command Ability
Fighters of 1st through 3rd levels may command up to 10 soldiers per level. For fighters of 2nd and 3rd level, in addition to the one 1st level fighter who must act as a sergeant for every 10 soldiers in the force, the fighter may command one 1st level fighter for special duties. For example, a 3rd level fighter may command 30 troops six 1st level fighters, three of whom must be embedded in the 30 troops for proper command and control, and three additional who might take special duties or detach a number of troops for some purpose.
For 4th through 8th level fighters, the ability allows for command of 20 troops per level, one lieutenant per level, and all of the sergeants required for that number of troops and the additional troops and sergeants permitted by the reporting lieutenants' command ability.
A mere 4th level player character fighter could command 80 troops and 8 sergeants directly, as well as 4 lieutenants who could each command 30 soldiers and 3 sergeants directly and 3 additional sergeants who could command 10 soldiers each. Such a character could field a force of 320 0-level soldiers, 32 first level fighter sergeants, and 4 third level fighter lieutenants: 356 soldiers and officers in total.
At 9th level the fighter commands captains who command lieutenants below them. At this level, the fighter could command 6,542 soldiers and officers (if I didn't mess up my math)!
At the Table
The first level fighter can command as many as 10 soldiers without the expense of an officer. Provided the fighter and his or her allies can scrape together the gold to outfit them and offer hazard pay, a gang of mercenaries greatly improves the survivability and efficacy of a beginning party delving the dungeon.
Men-at-arms will only accompany characters encountered on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level of the dungeon.
That little army isn't accompanying the higher level fighter into the dungeon, so the fighter also needs allies and henchmen to go on delving expeditions to fund that force.
The 4th level fighter is already able to stand against typical humanoid tribes in the area or pillage smaller
human settlements as a raider. Serving a higher level character as a
henchman is another profitable choice at this level.
The fighter's army is the means by which he or she exerts power. Maintaining an army requires securing streams of ever increasing income. The fighter must raid more lairs, delve more dungeons, and sack more castles and cities. The fighter might find some passive forms of income to reduce the amount of active fighting required, but it takes a lot of serfs at 7 silver a month to fund an army over 6,000 strong!
Amateurs talk about tactics, professionals study logistics. -- Gen. Robert H. Barrow, USMC
The fighter’s success depends greatly on recruiting, retaining, equipping, and feeding an army in the field. Charisma is far more important for the higher level fighter than the lower level one. Even at the lower levels, with at least a little money, charisma may be more important than strength, dexterity, or constitution to the fighter.
... perhaps a war between players will be going on (with battles actually fought out on the tabletop with minature [sic] figures) one night, while on the next, characters of these two contending players are helping each other to survive somewhere in a wilderness.
It is meant for the fighter to wage war against man and monster alike, taking treasure and territory. And with territory, preserving the populace!
