I Cast "Summon Murder Hobo"

 While I'm still ruminating on the background of the initial environment we generated, I thought I'd start building out the murder hobo clan that will be the protagonists of our sordid tale. I decided to go with Method I (AD&D DMG pg11) but keep them in order to add some difficulty to my future solo expeditions.

My results:

Ooof...lotta dogs in there, but let's see what we can make of the hand we've been dealt.

The campaign is going to have a lot of dungeon crawling (duh), but there will be a lot of wilderness exploration, so I want a ranger and a thief. I love blasty wizards, and will definitely need one of those, assuming he can live long enough to get some decent firepower.

I threw 5 of the losers back to civilian life and ended up with a party of 5 murder hobos:

Let's roll up hit points, starting funds and kit out these guys for their foray into the forbidden shrine. I also randomly rolled for alignment in order and got the following:

Yeah...Shifty and Blasty better not get delusions of heroism cuz they're pretty frail.  They're also the only evil characters, but since everybody came up on the Neutral axis, I'm going to say they can keep their nasty tendencies contained when the other guys are looking and the NG PCs are looking for the good side of their unfortunate brethren. Clean country living has made the Mighty Redneck into a pretty serious badass so Shifty and Blasty better watch their mouths around him.

The random rolls have already paid off with an interesting dynamic (Note: no bullshit session zero, or 3 page character backstories are needed!). Are Brother Fitzy and Sir Stabbington members of the same esoteric order that have fallen in with the like-minded Mighty Redneck? Are Blasty and Shifty two scumbag siblings that are using the stronger members as cover for their rapacious looting tendencies? Time will tell...

A quick trip to the local outfitters and we end up with:

All are mounted on light horses (with saddle, bit and bridle as well as saddle bags), and have backpacks, 10 torches each, iron rations, 50ft rope and iron spikes). Sir Stabbington has opted for studded leather and put the savings towards hiring 4 light horse mercenaries and equipping them with leather armor, shield and spears to act as additional guards and help haul treasure. I'm going to say they're former brothers-in-arms that are down and their luck and as their former commanding officer, Sir Stabbington is trying to take care of his comrades in their hour of need. Let's see what the first morale check tells us about their feelings towards the old boss...

Next time, we'll flesh out the background of the city and maybe get to the forbidden shrine we rolled up last time.