Soldier XP/Progression

[Timeshadow]

TimeShadow, the idea isn't bad. It would be perfect n a computer game version, or even a tabletop RPG. For Frostgrave, in it's current gloriously uncomplicated version, your suggestions would generate a lot more book keeping, and crunchyness.

A suggestion I would like to offer though s that they would probably be better off as GC purhcasable updgrades.
Want to put your Thug, Pigeon Toe Pete, in leather armor ? 30GC.
Barding for you Warhound ? 30GC
Want your Tracker to become an Experienced Hunter ? 15GC

It would greatly simplify the book keeping, make keeping your ealy warband members more atractive, and burn though additional GC.

Good idea, but I was just thinking to make these guys a bit special not just another purchase.
I understand and love the game just as it is. I am in no way complaining. The purpose of all of this is to make "some" soldiers a little less expendable. Like if this guy dies it's gonna cost more than a few hundred gold to replace him. Heck even your apprentice really only costs 200-300 gc to completely replace him.
I can see how some ppl could see this as a bit too much paperwork/complexity but I like complexity. I guess you could just make fifty more mercenary types with different stats but I like building to something.

[FionaWhite]

Wait till one of your super strong guys gets killed with a crit from a basic thug

That's just it - you've got this trooper you've levelled and equipped through several battles in the past and then BAM - lucky hit and s/he's dead.
Now you might actually feel that loss instead of just tossing some coins off and getting an exact replacement.

These are the rules of the game, if you want to go build a super army ,go knock your socks off, but dont expect
everyone to follow your ideas, which personally I think is just a GW game with a different backdrop.

And that's another thing - nobody is forcing anyone to use these rules. 
I believe the point of the thread is for like-minded individuals to discuss ways of going about the soldier progression.

No doubt at least partially thanks to my background of tabletop RPGs the lack of soldier progression was a slight disappointment for me, so I've been writing up rules to level and gear the soldiers up as well as making up ones for a Captain who apparently is going to be an official future addition anyway.
So all in all I'm quite interested in the ideas that pop up in this thread and look forward to seeing more!

[Darkson71]

Oh, I'm not pooh-poohing any of the ideas in this thread (and I wouldn't have commented if Timeshadow hadn't specifically mentioned it in the FAQ thread), just for me it goes against one of the things that bought me to this game in the beginning - I like that your henchmen are just your basic nameless NPC such as in a RPG or video game.

I also like (in this game) the lack of complexity in the post-game - I'm not saying complexity is bad, it's just I have other games that do that, and this is a nice, simple, elegant system that doesn't need a lot of record keeping.

[Timeshadow]

The fact that my "super" character can be ganked by a thug with a nat 20 is a good thing. I don't want to unbalance things, which is why I stuck with a few simple bonuses stuff they kinda should be able to do anyway. I stayed away from boosting stats pretty much as that would lead to to much bookkeeping and gave each trade a "skill" that suited them. I think that someone using my rules vs someone not would not auto win or even have much if any advantage which again is the point, some added complexity and tactical options that don't break the game. Finally I put in the prerequisites to stop power runaway if someone gets lucky in his first game with 1500gold he can't just buy the best options he has to work towards them.

[Awesome Adam]

Well, we'll have Sellsword in a few more weeks, and we can see what direction the rules take for advancing the captain.