Fresh Recruits

The following talks about the manner in which armies were raised in the 15-16th centuries, with recruiters riding through the countryside, with a licence to raise men, pay them and sometimes start off commanding them.

"Whoever the recruiting agent was ~ the agent of a regional magnate or of a supplier with a stand-by contract to raise men on demand, a local authority or a roving captain who had petitioned for a recruiting license ~ the approach, save to the few who positively welcomed the chance to enlist, as an identical mixture of cajolement and pressure.  Magnates called on their clientale groups of tenants and retainers to honour obligations, sometimes written, sometimes simply assumed, to serve them in arms along with their own tenants or servants; kinsmen were urged to support them in the same fashion, for the honour of the family and the favour of the king.  Local authorities, in rural parish or urban ward, consulted registers of adult males, selected the number they had been charged to send, and sent the constable to summon them in the name of the monarchs's wage, the justice of his cause and the reputation of a community only too well aware of its vulnerability to punitive taxation.  The captain submitted his patent, had his mission proclaimed by the cryer at church, market and through the streets, set up his standard, had his drummer beat, and waited for custom in an inn or the more supportive house of a justice or alderman; serve the king was his message too: let him pay you, enter that alternative society of warfarers which promises freedom for the humdrum, penurious, hen- and priest-pecked life of everyday."

J.R. Hale, War and Society in Renaissance Europe

That's just marvelous.  There's several pages of this kind of information, talking about how a town had to put up the money for recruits, to get them to staging areas, and hope the monarch would return the fees; and of course how individuals with means and connections would use whatever means they had to ensure they could get out of service, while dumping that burden on the poor, the stupid and the desperate.

The Goblins Want YOU.

I see two interesting starts for campaigns that don't end in the party being recruited.  The first is simply watching the process happen all around them, as people are rousted out of their houses, out of beds, pressed here and there, assembled, arguments on the street, recruits finding the coin to pay off a guard, a landlord asking the party if they want to rent a room cheap, as he's just lost his tenant, other similar opportunities, the town asking for donations and the players having the opportunity to make friends, etc.

And second, the players being assigned as recruiters, with the understanding that they'll get paid for every recruit they raise, and the knowledge they don't have to go to war themselves.  Of course, the more recruits they raise, the more recruits the local town must pay to send to the staging area (recruiters do not travel with cash!  Says so in Hale's book), so there's push-back from the town fathers if the players get too ambitious.  But then, the players can argue the name of some lord, who can bring punitive measures of all kinds, if the town doesn't play ball.  Really gives the players a chance to swagger.  Would make a very different sort of adventure.

Inspiration is fun.