Adventurer Boot Camp

[Lucius]

Adventurers Boot camp.

Week 1: you do a number of tests to check your levels of health and physical fitness. They inject you with a number of potions that will make you immune to most of the more common natural sicknesses and very minor magical effects. Classroom, noble titles and the proper way to address those you may meet or work for. You will need to enter a lot of information such as your name, birthday, place of origin, next of kin. You will need to enter this information about 5 different times for 5 slightly different departments, each with their own format. You will also learn the "ettiquette" you are to use within the camp. Mostly this will focus on when they want you to wear a hat.

Week 2: gear issue and stenciling. You will be given your starting kit and told to write your name on it in very specific places with very poor quality writing implements. You will be expected to pack and unpack your gear in a very specific way many times.  You will do your first physical fitness test. You will go to a class room to learn about common laws in place throughout the realms and what you can get in serious trouble for. Gear inspection.  From this point forward you will have at least one gear inspection per week in addition to your other training.  Basic Adventure Training "Fighting Stress: The Enemy Within".

Week 3: long pointless hikes around the same hill. Over and over.  From this point forward you will do at least 1 hike per week in addition to your other training.  Basic monster identification. Nothing useful, just random bits of trivia you are expected to learn verbatim and be able to spit back word for word when asked. Test 1: noble titles, laws of the realms, monster identification.  Basic Adventure Training "Sexual Misconduct: The REAL monster".

Week 4: Long pointless runs around the same field. Over and over. From this point forward you will do at least 1 run per week in addition to your other training.  Basic magic. Learn about the various types of magic. Nothing useful, just random bits of trivia you are expected to learn verbatim and be able to spit back word for word when asked. You will do your second physical fitness test.  Basic Adventure Training "Sexually Transmitted Infections: It Could Happen to You".

Week 5: swim test (most people fail this). Outdoor survival, firefighting, basic first aid. Not all that useful by may keep you alive in the woods for about 1 day. Basic horsemanship. You will mostly learn how to mount and dismount a horse, basic commands, and not falling off. Test 2: magic and survival. Second chance swim test.  Basic Adventure Training "Dungeon Crawl Planning: Its Dangerous To Go Alone".

Week 6: Basic melee combat. You mostly learn how to hold a sword, shield, and polearm. You will learn various strikes and parries through kata forms. You will do a classroom section on the various weapons and be expected to memorize various trivia about them. Last chance swim test, final fitness test.  Basic Adventure Training "Loot Managment: A copper saved is a copper earned".

Week 7: Basic ranged combat. You will mostly learn how to hold a bow and crossbow and be expected to load and reload a crossbow. You will be tested for basic accuracy. You will do a classroom section on various ranged weapons and be expected to memorize various trivia about them. You will do a classroom section about splitting loot, savings, and investing.  On Week 7 a couple of very attractive women are going to come and talk to you about the "Adventurer's Bank" and tell you all the advantages it offers you.  Basic Adventure Training "Suicide Prevention: Don't Split the Party".

Week 8: Final inspection. A four-day outdoor survival course broken up by a final gear inspection, 2 melee combat drills, and a ranged accuracy drill.
You will pick a class if you haven't already and be shipped off to class school or if no slots are available in a class you qualify for, you may be put on hold until one opens up or you may go classless and try to pick up a class later.

 

Crossposted from rpg.net

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Brought over in palindromedary saddlebags

 

[Cantriped]

It dawns on me with horror that in twenty-five years of playing adventurers I've never met or played an adventurer who demonstrated the basic level of competancy this boot-camp implies all adventurers possess.

 

The list implies a minimal investment in such a wide range of skills that in most systems* you simply wouldn't be able to build a starting character that could have met all of these prerequisites before being trained in their chosen classes. The bredth of basic skills is completely appropriate, but runs counter to the design of many Fantasy RPGs, which purposfully restrict your ability to invest in so many different skills at once.

*HERO System is an exception, with its abnormally low proficiency/familiarity costs.

 

Your typical D&D Wizard certainly wouldn't have made it to wizard's school if he had to complete an eight-week training program that, to be frank, is obviously designed to train a militia (aka Warriors and Fighters), not adventurers (who generally shouldn't all be Warriors and Fighters). It wouldn't make much sense in such games if you left Boot-Camp proficient in standard militia weapons (effectively a 1st level Warrior), only to graduate from Wizard Camp having somehow forgotten which end of the spear is pointy, and which side of the shield you grasp (having replaced your level of warrior with wizard, losing HP and weapon/armor proficiencies in the process).

 

For "basic adventuring weapons" I would cut back to simple and inexpensive weapons such as Staves, Batons (aka Clubs), and Daggers. Anything more advanced is the perview of a more advanced camp.

 

In other words, if you want to be proficient in Sword & Shield as well as Polearm, you gotta go to Fighter Camp '87. If you want to learn Longbow, better hope it was a family tradition, cuz a a few afternoons of drills and instruction does not a proficient bowman make, and even Fighter Camp can only do so much (they train 1st level Fighters for pitty's sake).