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You just might have hundreds of suicidal would be adventurers clustering near supposed adventure sites.

 

Consider: there's lots of second sons & daughters with no hope of inheritance (be they nobles, freehold farmers, escaped serfs, etc. Poor people. Or poor-ish.) They hear about an opportunity to make $$$$... Lets not forget that the rumour mill will make it sound like gold is just lying around waiting to be picked up. "Every dungeon is full of chests guarded by one lousy orc." Adventuring may actually sound like a decent option.

 

Look at historic gold rushes and land rushes. Lots of people gambling on the chance to make it rich on the other side other continent/world, despite the threat of death and the dictates of common sense.

 

As to the OP. 

 

The last Fantasy Hero game I was running I also had the restriction on armour in the city. You could get away with a buff coat under your normal shirt. But that's about it.

 

Weapons were also limited to swords (for gentlemen and gentlewomen) and daggers. KNives could be pretty big. An eating utensil might be a small knife but a lot of people need large knives for work; cutting leather, trimming wood, butchering carcasses. Cudgels disguised as walking sticks were an option too. No one paid much attention to these "tools as weapons." Plus there was the unspoken understanding that people needed to defend themselves, especially in the bad parts of town. Other weapons were definitely out.

 

Town guards might carry catch-poles and, in times of civil unrest, halberds and crossbows. Guard officers would have access to better armour, like a breast plate. But good armour is expensive. Most folks, even professional guards, can't afford it.

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You just might have hundreds of suicidal would be adventurers clustering near supposed adventure sites.

 

Consider: there's lots of second sons & daughters with no hope of inheritance (be they nobles, freehold farmers, escaped serfs, etc. Poor people. Or poor-ish.) They hear about an opportunity to make $$$$... Lets not forget that the rumour mill will make it sound like gold is just lying around waiting to be picked up. "Every dungeon is full of chests guarded by one lousy orc." Adventuring may actually sound like a decent option.

 

Look at historic gold rushes and land rushes. Lots of people gambling on the chance to make it rich on the other side other continent/world, despite the threat of death and the dictates of common sense.

 

 

I picture a much different place in my head when I GM. If the first bunch of guys went out to the dungeon and nobody came back I think that would probably put off the next bunch. Maybe being bored on your Dad's farm ain't so bad after all? Unless they're Trollslayers or summit. Get rich quick is one thing; get dead quick not so much. When I GM players normally need a reason to go into a hole full of man-eating monsters and " 'cos that's the scenario I designed" wouldn't cut much ice with my group.

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Yes, getting rich quick  involves a certain risk of getting dead. That's why it's adventuring and not accounting. But there will be people to whom it appeals.

 

Sure, smart adventurers will require better motivation than simply "There's a hole in the ground, let's go!" But there's plenty of people in the world who are not too bright/imaginative and kinda violent to boot. I'll  repeat myself and again point out that there's plenty who might just be desperate enough to try adventuring. "There's gold in them thar holes!" would be plenty of motivation for both these types.

 

Now if the monster hole happens to be particularly lethal and word of it spreads then volunteers will eventually become rare. That's when you wait for high level adventurers to show up.

 

"Adventurer" might also be code for "mercenary." Dangerous people who are serving society by carrying out a bit of genocide on the neighbouring orcs. A necessary evil, from the point of view of the society, but not one you might want living in numbers within the city walls.

 

Okay, yes, the percentage of people who are adventure-inclined might be relatively small. But presumably they will gravitate towards areas where the monster holes are numerous. I'll suggest out on the borderlands, possibly with some sort keep as a staging ground... Once the adventures are numerous  enough in a particular area there will be industry to cater to them.

 

It's very context driven. There are plenty of contexts in which adventuring as a (I hate myself for putting it this way but...) social movement never becomes large enough to spawn it's own economy. But there are contexts in which it can. There's historical precedent too. Pirates on the Spanish Main. In the middle ages hordes of second sons (of noble families) would band together to form "mercenary companies." By which I mean bandits and condottieri. Both these social movements had rather large secondary economies based on them. 

 

I concede that not every game world will have the potential for this. But some definitely do.

 

So yes, I think Zeropoint has a good point. And in fact I think I shall go and give their post a Like.

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Soldiering is dangerous during times of war certainly, but it is an honest profession and works in conjunction and within the norms of society and law. Soldiers don't normally have a choice who their local lord is and who the work for.

 

Good points re the pirates but I have the feeling they lived outwith society cos they were running away from something, or to use a Trumpism, were pretty bad Hombres to start with. They were by and large making things worse not better for the rest of society and had pretty lose morals. But I accept your point that if you do have a large band of men coming together you will get a group of hangers on and merchants to service their needs.

 

Food for thought anywhoo.

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For my little-used homebrew fantasy world, I assume that the PCs aren't the only adventurers in the world, and that therefore towns have worked out a way to accommodate the, uh, quirks of the adventuring types. Typically this means that there's a group of businesses outside the city walls, or otherwise outside the town proper, where it's considered perfectly normal to show up at the pub for a beer wearing full plate and carrying a greatsword that has black runes floating off of it.

 

See, adventurers mean trouble, but they also mean money, so it pays to create a space where you can simultaneously take their money and keep them away from the decent folk. You'd probably also find runners there who would happily do errands inside the city walls for a few silver pieces.

 

In harn there is a port city that has a lot of sailors and trade where the wharf district is called "the alienage." It's a separate walled-gated area connected to the main city. In my games, larger settlements tend not to have separate walled areas, but taverns, gambling dens, inns... er, establishments... and supply shops that cater to adventurers tend to be clustered around the main gates, or in villages outside the gates. I guess you could call them a combination of "alienage" and "red light district." 

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This has disturbing parallels with cities that adjoin U.S. military bases.  These tend to sprout a lot of tourist traps, cheap barbershops, and... certain types of clubs and massage establishments.

 

Oddly, I live in a Navy Town. There is a preponderance of barbershops and tattoo parlors. However, those certain types of clubs and massage establishments are not to be found. This is because the Navy has pushed not to have them here! You actually have to cross the sound and go into the big bad city an hour away to find those dens of iniquity.

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The way I see a standard D&D fantasy world, you've got a lot of repeating low level threats, with correspondingly fewer high level things.  There's sort of a balance that exists across the fantasy world, an equilibrium between the number of dragons out there and the number of high level characters who can take them down (otherwise you don't have a fantasy world, you have either all dead humans or all dead monsters).

 

You can encounter basic 1st through 5th level characters, and suitable adventures for them, in most towns and villages and surrounding areas.  The guy who owns the tavern might be a retired 3rd level fighter, and 25 years ago he and his buddies got together and raided that den of orcs who had holed up in the caves a few miles outside of town.  He's got a +1 axe that is mounted on the wall behind the bar.  Local legend has it that he's got a chest full of gold somewhere in his house, but no one has ever seen it.  There's a 4th level wizard who lives deep in the woods, she keeps to herself mostly.  But young people are always going out there, asking her to brew them a love potion, or looking for a magic charm that will help their sick kid get better.  Her little hut is said to have furniture that moves on its own, and you're advised not to go there after sundown.

 

That sort of thing is going to be repeated across the world.  Almost every village and town is going to have a handful of people who were adventurers at some point, or may become adventurers in the future.  It's not necessarily a day-to-day part of life, but it's well known that sometimes people go into caves or dungeons, fight monsters, and come back with treasure (if they come back). When a group of odd travelers carrying weapons and armor show up in town and try to spend 1000 year old gold coins, people have a general idea of what has happened.  I wouldn't say that there's an entire industry built up around it, especially in smaller towns, but no one is going to stare at the guy wearing chain mail and wonder why he's doing it.

 

Characters of higher levels are going to be progressively more rare.  You don't encounter 12th level mages around every corner, those guys aren't very common.  The largest cities may have people of that scale, but now you're talking about adventurers where there are only a handful of that level in that kingdom, as opposed to every village having a guy who has figured out how to cast color spray.  I'm not big on having "magic shops", but if they do exist they'll be in the biggest cities and most populated areas.

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Hrrmmmm....

 

I'd go with 25 points per level.

 

Gut feeling, no testing done.

Likewise, 25 CP per Level is my estimation as well. Which means most Normals are effectively between 1st and 4th level, and Standard Heroes (175 point characters) are effectively 7th level (which is why the spellcasters can afford cool spells like ​Fireball and ​Invisibility).

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All a matter of scale, IMO. If a normal person, you know a peasant, starts with 8s across the board instead of 10s and at 0+25disads (or less) you could easily start a PC with 25+25.

 

You'd be surprised what you can get for 50 points.

 

Having said that with no figured characteristics in 6e it would be very tight. 50+25 might be closer to the mark.

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All a matter of scale, IMO. If a normal person, you know a peasant, starts with 8s across the board instead of 10s and at 0+25disads (or less) you could easily start a PC with 25+25.

 

You'd be surprised what you can get for 50 points.

 

Having said that with no figured characteristics in 6e it would be very tight. 50+25 might be closer to the mark.

If you are just using himans, no problem. It might be harder with Demi humans, though could be possible.

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