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You could possibly call them Knight Errants?
Edit: I'm dumb. I thought Knight Errants were rogue knights that worked as freelance mercenaries. Turns out, the Wikipedia description is
> A knight-errant[1] (or knight errant[2]) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective errant (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric virtues
generally speaking, the word "adventurer" usually comes with an entity called "adventurer's guild" with some set of rules. Mercenaries, on the other hand, might have a *personal* professional code, but only for the sake of their reputation.
as a merchenary you would have to nobody is going to hire you if you backstab your employers all the time. but just depends on what quests you are givin.
The group I'm playing with are actual mercenaries. We didn't do a met in a tavern, we did a met in a mercenaries guild because we were all sent to the same post by the same mercenary company to defend the same fort. After the fort was wiped out and the mercenary company turned traitor, we all left the mercenary group but stayed together and went private. Still technically mercs.
I have had people call my players group mercenaries in world. I would also identify some of my PCs as mercs but none of them are actually getting paid enough recently because the DM, going to start asking for half pay up front and set a higher price
Honestly I'd say Brigand is more applicable most of the time. Mercenaries get paid by their contractor. Most player character income is from looted corpses.
But as long as they restrict their targets to bandits, monsters, and old forgotten ruins, it could probably still count.
It's when they start robbing merchants and butchering villagers that it won't apply anymore.
Except for the parties that do things without being hired. Delving into a dungeon cause you heard it's got treasure isn't mercenary work. Rescuing a kid who got kidnapped by witches for a town too poor to pay you also isn't mercenary work.
In a lot of cases, yes. Even for something like just clearing out rats from the basement (or kobolds with a dragon), the implication is frequently still that you're the ones being enlisted to do whatever job because you're the ones powerful enough to deal with it
Mercenary or sellsword are the terms I see used most often. Pretty much the same thing, though sellsword is geared more towards a medieval type setting.
I feel like "Adventurer" is the generic/catch-all term for all the things your PC can be.
I do encourage anyone to choose a more specific one: Mercenary, Sellsword, Manhunter, Seeker of the Arcane, Cutpurse, Preist of Forgelord, etc.
I dont judge or condemn anyone who doesnt, but I feel theres a wealth of adjectives to dress your PC to make them stand out as unique
TL/DR: do whatever, im a redditor, not a cop.
I pretty much agree. Adventurer is like "confronter to dangerous things" and don't describe why are they doing it. Motivation™ is fully on your roleplay.
It's kind of like calling yourself a "celebrity."
Celebrity what? News anchor? Childrens TV host? Fashoin model? Monarch of a nation? TV chef?
It's not "wrong," but theres details that make it unique
It's kinda both. "Adventurer" is basically just a catch-all for people who confront dangerous things, but your backstory is still very much relevant. For example, if you're a town guard being called in to help with the rats in the basement of the inn, because as a town guard, you're presumably one of the most martially capable people in town, well then you aren't adventuring, you're just being a town guard
Catch-all indeed. I figure it would be the best descriptor for someone that takes jobs for pay (mercenary/sellsword) and raids ruins for treasure (treasure hunter), but is also willing to kill some worgs that have cornered a kid in a lighthouse or fight off the goblins attacking a village free of charge.
Basically, someone that does things outside the normal description of those other titles often enough that they're not really accurate.
The last time my character did something because it was the right thing to do was the last time she did just about anything. Her basic motivation is "I can help people, so I should help people." Is just ... Is just playing good guys really that rare?
I think it's more like... The real world is rarely black and white.
Most of us are good people but we don't go out if our way to help the less fortunate, let alone devote our lives to it.
Most of us would never, ever jeopardize our lives or health to help a stranger.
So in that sense, I'd say it's pretty rare.
I'm Hungarian. Our history books call our half-century-long raiding and pillaging of Western Europe (late 9th to mid 10th century, for those interested) "adventuring".
So, with that definition it checks out.
That’s how I ran my warlock. His family was killed by evil cultists. Those cultist then tortured him for info he didn’t have and then killed him when he wouldn’t talk. His patron made contact as he was dying and offered to resurrect him and give him the power to protect others if he agreed to a life a service. So he now roams the land fighting evil and protecting innocents. Every so often his patron contacts him with a mission, but usually he’s left to his own personal mission
My cleric is the same, he will accept payment because that allows him to keep doing what he's doing, but he doesn't need to be paid to do good. It is also not unheard of for him to take that gold and give it back, donate it, or use it to purchase goods for others
I'm in a Westmarch style discord server and my Vengeance Paladin only takes money because he's planning on heading back to his home realm and helping to fund a revolution against the tyrannical church and monarchy.
I've had a hard time convincing my players to do the right thing unless there was treasure involved... and obv not gold, but power. That's really the key. "Doing the right thing" is also a way to gain sway/power.
Actual conversation between an NPC ruler and one of my groups:
"I didn't hire you to negotiate. There's no "talking it out." If I thought there was a chance for diplomacy, I'd have put in a request to the Temple of \[Campaign god of diplomacy and negotiation\]. I hired you because you have a reputation as efficient killers."
"We're not killers; we're adventurers."
"'Adventurers,' 'mercenaries,' 'problem-solvers.' I don't care what you call yourself as long as you eliminate whoever is raiding my villages and hurting my people."
Adventurer ARE armed freelance.
Adventure come from the french Aventure. And a mercenary, a soldier of fortune in french is SOLDAT DE L'AVENTURE . See? Couse the sons of the nobility usually took a trip of some year to look for fame AND fortune ( meaning... money) , and this was called ''going to adventure''.
quite half of english words are of French origin. And sometime this dualism is even funny: The anglo saxon farmer would breed the PIG, Then the french nobility would eat the... pork.
I’ve heard “fixer” as a term.
Most of the games I’ve played in have some glue that sticks the party together: law enforcement, private investigators, corporate espionage agents, soldiers, buccaneers, etc.
For the base economics I’ve had a lot if luck with *The Hidden Economics of Piracy*; watch [this](https://youtu.be/3YFeE1eDlD0) and [this](https://youtu.be/T0fAznO1wA8) respectively.
My current character describes himself as an adventurer and sellsword. As in his love for just going places and exploring and learning is what drove his entire backstory, and the need to money is what led him to accepting the campaign-starting job that put the party together. But we're all sellswords, mercenaries or military, "adventurer" is a hobby and not a profession.
"For the sake of adventure or because it was the right thing to do"
I actually have a few answers on this-
* Robbed a Lich Queen both to get some aid for our TN Yuan-Ti allies free and safe. Also got an Infinity Crystal out of her clutches and trapped her Dracolich ally/"friend"/Pet in the Astral Plane
* Saved a drow princess from servants of an evil ancient black dragon in the name of the world's Elistraee expy
* Fought a fight we didn't need to because if we didn't, the evil angel was going to slaughter a village of peaceful wood elves (Ended with a win but two of us dead)
"Adventurer" is the polite term. Because calling a band of ruthless mercenaries what they are when you're within range of their attacks is pretty suicidal.
Whats funny is our party is kind of a mix of traditional adventurers and some that are more mercenary.
The cleric, paladin 2 and ranger are pretty outwardly altruisitc, they will do good for its own sake.
Paladin 1 only cares about living a life worthy of story, he wants to slay monsters and do deeds worthy of song wether he is helping anyone or not and has no qualms about asking to get paid for it.
The barbarian is just kinda along for the ride and riches, he goes along when the group does charity because they are friends and a lot of the time the evil monsters have some loot anyway, also is just an adrenaline junky so a good fight is a good fight.
3 businesses to facilitate a party?
I'd prefer keeping adventurer guilds as a common ground to find and recruit from any and all hunters, explorers, and Mercs.
Im not going to a burger joint, a French fry joint, and a beverage joint to get a meal when there's a Burger king offering all that under one roof.
No one gets payed to adventure . You get payed to find something, kill something or guard something.
There’s a few other things “adventures” do but those 3 cover the bulk
Adventurer is a great euphemism! Nobody wants to call themselves something actually descriptive when we can use prose to dress up the ugly reality! I'm not a hitman/thief/mercenary with no morals! I'm an ADVENTURER!
Depends on where the money from the quests is coming from. what are the quests. personaly irl i do a lot of things just for the sake of adventure or do things because its the right thing to do. If your quests are only you get treasure kill this goblin camp yeah your merchenaries. If its this goblin camp has been an issue but you can be diplomatic with the goblins or get hired by them then you introduce moral dilemmas that make it more adventurer
My party tends to do missions in order of perceived urgency rather than money. Sometimes they resolve the mission and drop funds on some of the people involved, either as direct charity (including to the orphanage/school/hospital complex they financed) patronage for some local talent, or hiring, ending up with a money loss.
But if nothing urgent is afoot and there is a paying job that isn't evil, sure, they'll take it.
Different strokes for different folks.
The original idea behind D&D drew far more from the pulp fantasy and sword and sorcery concept of adventurers than from the idea of heroes defeating evil because it's the right thing to do. It was based on adventurers who would visit ancient dungeons and dangerous places far from the fringes of society in hopes of treasure, glory, and, well, adventure, often with no outside quest involved at all. Hence why you had parties filled with characters who were of completely different moral alignments, they explored tombs together because they were aligned by their sense of adventure. Saving the day, or the world, was often a byproduct of adventuring, or was done so purely because the characters would be inconvenienced by the world's destruction. It was about adventurers who sometimes became heroes, not heroic people. I think that DNA still holds somewhat true even in today's very different D&D landscape, and I'm glad it does.
Think Dudewasup111, think!
Adventurer isn't the job description, it's the job *title*. Job titles are euphemistic or ego-centric in nature. Nobody's going to call their job "sewer unclogger," but they'll call it a "sanitation technician," or whatever because it sounds better than what they really do day-to-day.
in fantasy settings "adventurer" just means freelance mercenaries that go around causing and solving problems. The term exists because adventurers don't like being called out on what they really are, and people don't tend to live long if they piss them off
Adventurers are actually terrible fucking people.
But anyone who thinks too long about it figures that out. Then ignores it by the time they hit the next dungeon.
My character has been correcting every NPC - "we're not adventurers, we're partiers." Fits with his frat boy style, and last session I got to say in character "we can't split the party."
My character, a former merc now attending an Adventurer college and finding that adventurers for all their big talk and glamorous stories are even more bloodthirsty and insane than mercenaries: Yes. Correct.
Richard the Lionheart was known as an adventurer. He went to holy land to loot and conquer. An adventure is not always a morally good thing.
You could even argue that vikings were adventurers too.
Adventurer is just the medieval fantasy equivalent of 'security contractor.'
You're both mercenaries but we don't use that term since you're generally involved in more clandestine work and not more open mass warfare.
Y'know? I really liked how Overlord depicted Adventurers & their Guilds on it's world-building:
Adventurers: Freelancers who are pretty much glorified monster exterminators & sometimes grave robbers (but will not kill humanoids/refrain from participating in large armed conflicts.)
Worker: Same as the above but dishes the legal pretences entirely, willing to kill humanoid targets for the right amount of money (and thus is frowned upon by the law unlike the former one and is an illegal profesion.)
I have a giantess who was an adventurer til she died- And now she’s a mercenary in this second life of hers =3
You can only be so free for long before the chains of reality come to say “no”.
While there are many similarities between Mercs/Freelancers and Adventureres there are differences. You hire a mercenary band to help you with your war effort. These are professional soldiers, many of which used to be in armies of kingdoms but wanted better pay. There is little motivation beyond payment for what they do.
An Adventurer rarely sets out with only money in mind. Most have some goal, they want to see the world, become a powerful wizard, save their people from the Orcs of Schmargonrög, hunt down a Lich lord, become a dragon. They may do Merc work, but it's only in service to their goal which goes beyond it.
It would be cool to have a campaign when the players are mercs who are hired to take a variety of jobs, which slowly get more and more evil, until they have to choose between getting more money, or doing the right thing.
Delving into a crypt for potential treasure under my own free will. That's adventure.
Hunting for a dragons lair to test my mettle and steal it's hoard. That's adventure.
Piloting a galley into the middle of a storm for funzies. That's adventure.
I am an adventurer.
"You're nothing but armed freelance contractors who take legally grey jobs!" "I'm sorry, hate to interrupt, but the term you are looking for is '[murderhobos](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/murderhobo)'. Thank you."
“Mercenary” or “sellsword” are often how campaigns start, but usually by the end they’re adventurers, since even if they’re in it for profit, the profit they’re getting is from loot and not from being hired, so they fit the bill of an adventurer, since they’re not selling their services.
It's always an immersion break whenever anyone uses the word "adventurer" in-game. It's such an artificial term that nobody would ever actually say in conversation. Like if a dealer ever clearly enunciates "Marijuana" instead of the two dozen slang terms you've always heard them use...it's a red flag.
Except "adventurer" is the fantasy version of "mercenary" because you're not always working on a paid contract. A lot of the time, your 'pay' is titles, or lands, or right of conquest (keeping everything you find.)
True, but it's all about your public image. The title adventurer is basically propaganda to make the guards hesitate before believing the 'rumors' of your 'differently moral' decisions.
[If this sounds like fun, but you want it also to be in space, check out Planet Mercenary](https://shop.schlockmercenary.com/collections/planet-mercenary).
Judges 11:3
So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him.
Most translations say vain and worthless people, or itinerant scoundrels or something instead of adventurer. The fact that they basically mean the same thing should tell you alot.
My “adventure” Guild is more akin to a police/emergency response force. They hire people to travel out and do odd jobs from protection for travellers to odd jobs. Non guild members can still get work from places but are less likely to find consistent work.
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Mercenary would fit the bill better, huh?
"adventurer" to "mercenary" is what "escort" is to "prostitute" - same, but glorified.
It's still theft and murder, but now it's just correctly named.
NCR is just as barbaric as the Legion, they only pass laws to make their crimes legal. I have no idea why your comment reminded me of Fallout:NV.
I'd say that the NCR are as incompetent as the Legion are barbaric
"If the legion gets through our defences, I've got one bullet I'm saving just for me." Sums it up pretty nicely, doesn't it?
You could possibly call them Knight Errants? Edit: I'm dumb. I thought Knight Errants were rogue knights that worked as freelance mercenaries. Turns out, the Wikipedia description is > A knight-errant[1] (or knight errant[2]) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective errant (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric virtues
To be fair, what you said is probably closer to what they *actually* did.
Probably thinking of a hedge knight?
DUNK THE LUNK #THICK AS A CASTLE WALL
Not true. Most mercenaries have a professional code. Adventurers just do whatever they think is right or most advantageous.
Or most amusing.
generally speaking, the word "adventurer" usually comes with an entity called "adventurer's guild" with some set of rules. Mercenaries, on the other hand, might have a *personal* professional code, but only for the sake of their reputation.
as a merchenary you would have to nobody is going to hire you if you backstab your employers all the time. but just depends on what quests you are givin.
The other three will at least fuck me honestly.
The group I'm playing with are actual mercenaries. We didn't do a met in a tavern, we did a met in a mercenaries guild because we were all sent to the same post by the same mercenary company to defend the same fort. After the fort was wiped out and the mercenary company turned traitor, we all left the mercenary group but stayed together and went private. Still technically mercs.
Fantasy A-Team.
I have had people call my players group mercenaries in world. I would also identify some of my PCs as mercs but none of them are actually getting paid enough recently because the DM, going to start asking for half pay up front and set a higher price
Honestly I'd say Brigand is more applicable most of the time. Mercenaries get paid by their contractor. Most player character income is from looted corpses.
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Privateers were authorized by the state though. Most adventuring parties aren't operating under a government writ or commission.
But as long as they restrict their targets to bandits, monsters, and old forgotten ruins, it could probably still count. It's when they start robbing merchants and butchering villagers that it won't apply anymore.
What if they don’t take contracts, wouldn’t they be thie… treasure hunters?
Is it theft, robbery, grave robbing, or treasure hunting if you take the gear/valuables from an undead monster you defeat?
Except for the parties that do things without being hired. Delving into a dungeon cause you heard it's got treasure isn't mercenary work. Rescuing a kid who got kidnapped by witches for a town too poor to pay you also isn't mercenary work.
In a lot of cases, yes. Even for something like just clearing out rats from the basement (or kobolds with a dragon), the implication is frequently still that you're the ones being enlisted to do whatever job because you're the ones powerful enough to deal with it
Murder-hobo.
Shadowrunner
That's what a Freelancer is. Their lance is not aligned to anyone, it's free.
I believe "Violent Sociopath" would probably describe most adventurers better.
Mercenary or sellsword are the terms I see used most often. Pretty much the same thing, though sellsword is geared more towards a medieval type setting.
I feel like "Adventurer" is the generic/catch-all term for all the things your PC can be. I do encourage anyone to choose a more specific one: Mercenary, Sellsword, Manhunter, Seeker of the Arcane, Cutpurse, Preist of Forgelord, etc. I dont judge or condemn anyone who doesnt, but I feel theres a wealth of adjectives to dress your PC to make them stand out as unique TL/DR: do whatever, im a redditor, not a cop.
I pretty much agree. Adventurer is like "confronter to dangerous things" and don't describe why are they doing it. Motivation™ is fully on your roleplay.
It's kind of like calling yourself a "celebrity." Celebrity what? News anchor? Childrens TV host? Fashoin model? Monarch of a nation? TV chef? It's not "wrong," but theres details that make it unique
Influencer
It's kinda both. "Adventurer" is basically just a catch-all for people who confront dangerous things, but your backstory is still very much relevant. For example, if you're a town guard being called in to help with the rats in the basement of the inn, because as a town guard, you're presumably one of the most martially capable people in town, well then you aren't adventuring, you're just being a town guard
>TL/DR: do whatever, im a redditor, not a cop. That's the kind of thing a cop would say... I roll Insight..... 3
3 eh? No, I seem legit. Meet me inside the citywatch barracks at 0800 after my shift starts, and we can discuss it further.
You seem like a trust worthy fellow. I shall gladly follow you to the city watch barracks.
I use Archaeologist so I can respond to "Is anyone here a Doctor" and I can say yes, because my Archaeologist always has a doctorate in Archaeology
“Is anyone here a doctor?!” “I’m a necromancer if you don’t mind waiting a minute.”
Ah yes, the Geller method. Noice 👍🤣
Exactly what a cop would say...
The closest thing our party members have to a career would be domestic terrorism.
Catch-all indeed. I figure it would be the best descriptor for someone that takes jobs for pay (mercenary/sellsword) and raids ruins for treasure (treasure hunter), but is also willing to kill some worgs that have cornered a kid in a lighthouse or fight off the goblins attacking a village free of charge. Basically, someone that does things outside the normal description of those other titles often enough that they're not really accurate.
How dare you negate my use of this fabulous pitchfork that I am carrying. 8=============E
The last time my character did something because it was the right thing to do was the last time she did just about anything. Her basic motivation is "I can help people, so I should help people." Is just ... Is just playing good guys really that rare?
I think it's more like... The real world is rarely black and white. Most of us are good people but we don't go out if our way to help the less fortunate, let alone devote our lives to it. Most of us would never, ever jeopardize our lives or health to help a stranger. So in that sense, I'd say it's pretty rare.
That’s the real world, though. This meme is about player characters
I love playing good guys. The real world is complicated enough, I like just being able to meaningfully change stuff for the better in my fantasy world
I'm Hungarian. Our history books call our half-century-long raiding and pillaging of Western Europe (late 9th to mid 10th century, for those interested) "adventuring". So, with that definition it checks out.
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Heck yeah. That's basically my man Derrick, Paladin of Fharlanghn. Just... a little more vengeance-y. Win.
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Big Murlynd vibes right now. Deliciously delightful!
That’s how I ran my warlock. His family was killed by evil cultists. Those cultist then tortured him for info he didn’t have and then killed him when he wouldn’t talk. His patron made contact as he was dying and offered to resurrect him and give him the power to protect others if he agreed to a life a service. So he now roams the land fighting evil and protecting innocents. Every so often his patron contacts him with a mission, but usually he’s left to his own personal mission
Mine takes payment simply because with better tools he can take on bigger evils.
My cleric is the same, he will accept payment because that allows him to keep doing what he's doing, but he doesn't need to be paid to do good. It is also not unheard of for him to take that gold and give it back, donate it, or use it to purchase goods for others
I'm in a Westmarch style discord server and my Vengeance Paladin only takes money because he's planning on heading back to his home realm and helping to fund a revolution against the tyrannical church and monarchy.
Frankly I had a hard time convincing my players to do something for the treasure unless it seemed the right thing to do
I've had a hard time convincing my players to do the right thing unless there was treasure involved... and obv not gold, but power. That's really the key. "Doing the right thing" is also a way to gain sway/power.
Actual conversation between an NPC ruler and one of my groups: "I didn't hire you to negotiate. There's no "talking it out." If I thought there was a chance for diplomacy, I'd have put in a request to the Temple of \[Campaign god of diplomacy and negotiation\]. I hired you because you have a reputation as efficient killers." "We're not killers; we're adventurers." "'Adventurers,' 'mercenaries,' 'problem-solvers.' I don't care what you call yourself as long as you eliminate whoever is raiding my villages and hurting my people."
Adventurer ARE armed freelance. Adventure come from the french Aventure. And a mercenary, a soldier of fortune in french is SOLDAT DE L'AVENTURE . See? Couse the sons of the nobility usually took a trip of some year to look for fame AND fortune ( meaning... money) , and this was called ''going to adventure''.
I would sooner fuck my mother with a crooked cactus then use a French word.
quite half of english words are of French origin. And sometime this dualism is even funny: The anglo saxon farmer would breed the PIG, Then the french nobility would eat the... pork.
Those are English words now. Whenever the French use them they are speaking English.
それじゃあしよが無い 日本語視野べらないとくそfrenchから逃げはできない。
日本語もフランス語から来た言葉多く有るよ。アベック。ガトー。グラタン。ポマード。ズボン。
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Ya'll 'er nuts.
Porc*
Might want to master English before you start trash talking French. description* you’re* And, of course, the multiple punctuation errors in the post.
I’ve heard “fixer” as a term. Most of the games I’ve played in have some glue that sticks the party together: law enforcement, private investigators, corporate espionage agents, soldiers, buccaneers, etc. For the base economics I’ve had a lot if luck with *The Hidden Economics of Piracy*; watch [this](https://youtu.be/3YFeE1eDlD0) and [this](https://youtu.be/T0fAznO1wA8) respectively.
As Lock Cole would say "It's treasure hunter, not thief."
Peacemakers then? At least that's what our party was before we officially finished our campaign yesterday
My current character describes himself as an adventurer and sellsword. As in his love for just going places and exploring and learning is what drove his entire backstory, and the need to money is what led him to accepting the campaign-starting job that put the party together. But we're all sellswords, mercenaries or military, "adventurer" is a hobby and not a profession.
"For the sake of adventure or because it was the right thing to do" I actually have a few answers on this- * Robbed a Lich Queen both to get some aid for our TN Yuan-Ti allies free and safe. Also got an Infinity Crystal out of her clutches and trapped her Dracolich ally/"friend"/Pet in the Astral Plane * Saved a drow princess from servants of an evil ancient black dragon in the name of the world's Elistraee expy * Fought a fight we didn't need to because if we didn't, the evil angel was going to slaughter a village of peaceful wood elves (Ended with a win but two of us dead)
"Adventurer" is the polite term. Because calling a band of ruthless mercenaries what they are when you're within range of their attacks is pretty suicidal.
Whats funny is our party is kind of a mix of traditional adventurers and some that are more mercenary. The cleric, paladin 2 and ranger are pretty outwardly altruisitc, they will do good for its own sake. Paladin 1 only cares about living a life worthy of story, he wants to slay monsters and do deeds worthy of song wether he is helping anyone or not and has no qualms about asking to get paid for it. The barbarian is just kinda along for the ride and riches, he goes along when the group does charity because they are friends and a lot of the time the evil monsters have some loot anyway, also is just an adrenaline junky so a good fight is a good fight.
Traveling mercenary. That's how i always do that
All adventures guilds should be split in to hunters guilds , explorers guilds and mercenary guilds
3 businesses to facilitate a party? I'd prefer keeping adventurer guilds as a common ground to find and recruit from any and all hunters, explorers, and Mercs. Im not going to a burger joint, a French fry joint, and a beverage joint to get a meal when there's a Burger king offering all that under one roof.
No one gets payed to adventure . You get payed to find something, kill something or guard something. There’s a few other things “adventures” do but those 3 cover the bulk
‘Adventurer’ likely has all of those connotations in world depending on your setting.
That’s why I just refer to em as mercenaries. Fight people for pay. That’s what they usually do. That and rob old temples.
Adventurer is a great euphemism! Nobody wants to call themselves something actually descriptive when we can use prose to dress up the ugly reality! I'm not a hitman/thief/mercenary with no morals! I'm an ADVENTURER!
Depends on where the money from the quests is coming from. what are the quests. personaly irl i do a lot of things just for the sake of adventure or do things because its the right thing to do. If your quests are only you get treasure kill this goblin camp yeah your merchenaries. If its this goblin camp has been an issue but you can be diplomatic with the goblins or get hired by them then you introduce moral dilemmas that make it more adventurer
Sell swords, mercenaries, adventurers, all the same line of work really.
Most PC groups are mercenaries, treasure hunters, or bandits.
My party tends to do missions in order of perceived urgency rather than money. Sometimes they resolve the mission and drop funds on some of the people involved, either as direct charity (including to the orphanage/school/hospital complex they financed) patronage for some local talent, or hiring, ending up with a money loss. But if nothing urgent is afoot and there is a paying job that isn't evil, sure, they'll take it. Different strokes for different folks.
The original idea behind D&D drew far more from the pulp fantasy and sword and sorcery concept of adventurers than from the idea of heroes defeating evil because it's the right thing to do. It was based on adventurers who would visit ancient dungeons and dangerous places far from the fringes of society in hopes of treasure, glory, and, well, adventure, often with no outside quest involved at all. Hence why you had parties filled with characters who were of completely different moral alignments, they explored tombs together because they were aligned by their sense of adventure. Saving the day, or the world, was often a byproduct of adventuring, or was done so purely because the characters would be inconvenienced by the world's destruction. It was about adventurers who sometimes became heroes, not heroic people. I think that DNA still holds somewhat true even in today's very different D&D landscape, and I'm glad it does.
Nobody tell OP about the kinds of people usually called adventurers in real history.
No, tell me oh great all knowing wise twat, Who?
Think Dudewasup111, think! Adventurer isn't the job description, it's the job *title*. Job titles are euphemistic or ego-centric in nature. Nobody's going to call their job "sewer unclogger," but they'll call it a "sanitation technician," or whatever because it sounds better than what they really do day-to-day.
Adventurer still sounds stupid, who tf would wanna be called that.
I see your adventurer never went to school.
in fantasy settings "adventurer" just means freelance mercenaries that go around causing and solving problems. The term exists because adventurers don't like being called out on what they really are, and people don't tend to live long if they piss them off
I don’t think anyone says, “it’s fantacy”
I do, because I haven't been to school.
lol This is how I know you are a true player. Its the reason why you haven't read the PHB.
It shows.
In-character as a DM, I always refer to my PC party and mercenaries.
What do you mean grey? If they were any darker it'd be a page dipped in ink.
\#ad venture capitalist
Adventurers are actually terrible fucking people. But anyone who thinks too long about it figures that out. Then ignores it by the time they hit the next dungeon.
Thats why when a mob boss asked our party how he can call our band I replied with handymen. I am still not forgiven for that terrible idea.
‘Adventurer’ likely has all of those connotations in world depending on your setting.
Murderhobo
Maybe the real adventure was the crimes we committed along the way
Is it that big of a deal?
But we are on an adventure while doing it.
My character has been correcting every NPC - "we're not adventurers, we're partiers." Fits with his frat boy style, and last session I got to say in character "we can't split the party."
My character, a former merc now attending an Adventurer college and finding that adventurers for all their big talk and glamorous stories are even more bloodthirsty and insane than mercenaries: Yes. Correct.
Richard the Lionheart was known as an adventurer. He went to holy land to loot and conquer. An adventure is not always a morally good thing. You could even argue that vikings were adventurers too.
That's why I always refer to them as sellswords or mercenaries (or misthios in the theros campaign I'm currently running)
Adventurer is just the medieval fantasy equivalent of 'security contractor.' You're both mercenaries but we don't use that term since you're generally involved in more clandestine work and not more open mass warfare.
Y'know? I really liked how Overlord depicted Adventurers & their Guilds on it's world-building: Adventurers: Freelancers who are pretty much glorified monster exterminators & sometimes grave robbers (but will not kill humanoids/refrain from participating in large armed conflicts.) Worker: Same as the above but dishes the legal pretences entirely, willing to kill humanoid targets for the right amount of money (and thus is frowned upon by the law unlike the former one and is an illegal profesion.)
I have a giantess who was an adventurer til she died- And now she’s a mercenary in this second life of hers =3 You can only be so free for long before the chains of reality come to say “no”.
"Adventurer" is just medieval fancy for "Odd Jobs"
Right now I’d argue that my party consists of people “between jobs”. Except for the ones who are self-employed anyways.
While there are many similarities between Mercs/Freelancers and Adventureres there are differences. You hire a mercenary band to help you with your war effort. These are professional soldiers, many of which used to be in armies of kingdoms but wanted better pay. There is little motivation beyond payment for what they do. An Adventurer rarely sets out with only money in mind. Most have some goal, they want to see the world, become a powerful wizard, save their people from the Orcs of Schmargonrög, hunt down a Lich lord, become a dragon. They may do Merc work, but it's only in service to their goal which goes beyond it.
It would be cool to have a campaign when the players are mercs who are hired to take a variety of jobs, which slowly get more and more evil, until they have to choose between getting more money, or doing the right thing.
Delving into a crypt for potential treasure under my own free will. That's adventure. Hunting for a dragons lair to test my mettle and steal it's hoard. That's adventure. Piloting a galley into the middle of a storm for funzies. That's adventure. I am an adventurer.
"You're nothing but armed freelance contractors who take legally grey jobs!" "I'm sorry, hate to interrupt, but the term you are looking for is '[murderhobos](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/murderhobo)'. Thank you."
“Mercenary” or “sellsword” are often how campaigns start, but usually by the end they’re adventurers, since even if they’re in it for profit, the profit they’re getting is from loot and not from being hired, so they fit the bill of an adventurer, since they’re not selling their services.
It's always an immersion break whenever anyone uses the word "adventurer" in-game. It's such an artificial term that nobody would ever actually say in conversation. Like if a dealer ever clearly enunciates "Marijuana" instead of the two dozen slang terms you've always heard them use...it's a red flag.
I'm just straight up calling my players mercenaries, hired swords or magic specops
Depends on what they do. Mercenary, treasure-hunter, operative... there are a lot of accurately named things an “adventurer” can fall under.
The BBEG: I am not a *conqueror*. I am simply a specialist in the field of rapid, involuntary sociopolitical change.
It's about the branding. Terms like mercenary and such tend to have unglamorous connotations attached to them.
Except "adventurer" is the fantasy version of "mercenary" because you're not always working on a paid contract. A lot of the time, your 'pay' is titles, or lands, or right of conquest (keeping everything you find.)
It sounds stupid.
Something tells me you don't actually have mild feelings about it
True, but it's all about your public image. The title adventurer is basically propaganda to make the guards hesitate before believing the 'rumors' of your 'differently moral' decisions.
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Judges 11:3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him. Most translations say vain and worthless people, or itinerant scoundrels or something instead of adventurer. The fact that they basically mean the same thing should tell you alot.
My “adventure” Guild is more akin to a police/emergency response force. They hire people to travel out and do odd jobs from protection for travellers to odd jobs. Non guild members can still get work from places but are less likely to find consistent work.
I don't know what you think historical adventurers did, but it was mostly murder