RPGs where you encounter other adventuring parties

[rusty_shackleford]

Why is this so rare?

[Tweed]

Bad guys with names and slightly better loot versus bad_guy_032.

Baldur's Gate does it a few times and you can get into fights with them.

Alvora Tactics does it several times and plays an exclusive track for team vs team fights, it's all free music, but the dev sure can pick em:

[J1M]

Why is this so rare?

Zombie and orc AI is easier to make.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

• The Trails series has other teams of heroes running around and doing stuff as a part of the story. In Trails in the Sky, you bump into the other team of Bracers led by Kurt regularly and fight with together with them sometimes. They are the ones that find the bad guys' secret base offscreen in SC.
• In the Crossbell games, Arios is regularly being flown out by the guild to resolve issues in other countries.
• In The first two Cold Steel games, each chapter the other team takes a train to another town in the empire and then comes back and tells you a little about what happened there or the places they saw like Byronia Isle, the Jurai SEZ, etc.
• In the current Calvard arc, the Bracers are regularly being shuffled around the other towns you aren't in and planning their own ops independent of you. Chapter 5 of Daybreak 1 has six different teams show up in Oracion each planning to resolve the situation their own way and the chaos and clashes that ensues, and you wind up having to align with one of them. There was also the subplot with junior Bracer Grey who wants to get revenge because Alamata murdered his sister, and he secretly followed the senior Bracer team that was sent to Oracion before getting busted.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 has certain missions where you get into terf wars with other guilds, the hardest one being the guild of all Nu Mou wizards.

In FF14 A Realm Reborn, there is a subplot about you keep running into at least a couple other parties of adventurers (the one with Alliane and her uncle Isildaure, and then the other party that disentegrates). The niece and uncle eventually join the protagonist group of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn as teritary NPCs. There is also the Heavensward patch story where the Scions slowly become aware that there is another party trailing them and killing Primals, and then the standoff that ensues.

I cannot think of any simulation RPGs like the manhunters in Mount & Blade Warband where there are other automated groups of adventures running around.

[Oyster Sauce]

There's a dungeon boss in The Burning Crusade who spawns with 4 companions chosen randomly from a pool of 8 to make for a 5v5 party fight. They all battle like players. Very cool idea for a boss.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=24560/priestess-delrissa

[Stack of Turtles]

I've only read an LP of it, but I think Etrian Odyssey, also known as "that JRPG where you have to kill an evil computer tree designed to stop global warming", has another party of dungeon divers you have to kill because they find out you're trying to destroy the whole dungeon that supports their way of life and the entire world economy.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I just remembered Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. Much like Trails, the plot is about joining the adventuring guild (in this case, the Wigglytuft guild) and forming your own team, one of many. During the story, you regularly bump into several other parties, and sometimes fight them.

[Oyster Sauce]

There's a dungeon boss in The Burning Crusade who spawns with 4 companions chosen randomly from a pool of 8 to make for a 5v5 party fight. They all battle like players. Very cool idea for a boss.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=24560/priestess-delrissa

Oh yeah, there's a friendly party you fight alongside in Zul'farrak. You can optionally fight them afterwards, or wait until some members have hearthstoned out of the instance before triggering the fight to only have to deal with the leader.

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Sergeant_Bly's_party

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I find it peculiar that adventurer guilds are uncommon in Western fantasy.

[rusty_shackleford]

I find it peculiar that adventurer guilds are uncommon in Western fantasy.

Western fantasy is inspired by history, european-medieval eastern fantasy is inspired by western fantasy. Western history has full of mercenary companies which show up regularly in western fantasy e.g., the Flaming Fist in Baldur's Gate.

Long live the Private Military Companies!

[The_Mask]

Dragon's Dogma 2 has this and it's one of the very few features of the game that are positive.

It is rare, yes.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I find it peculiar that adventurer guilds are uncommon in Western fantasy.

Western fantasy is inspired by history, european-medieval eastern fantasy is inspired by western fantasy. Western history has full of mercenary companies which show up regularly in western fantasy e.g., the Flaming Fist in Baldur's Gate.

Long live the Private Military Companies!

Generally for me, the point of fantasy is to escape to a more appealing world. I like the idea that there is a benign organization that exists to help people and is an outlet for people who want to live their lives practicing martial arts or combat skills without becoming murderers. They take a retaining fee from people putting up a request and part of that is used to help commission the adventurers, and to cover the cost of people who can't afford the fee. You do not have to become chaste or give up all of your wealth or renounce your inheritance and live in a barracks and appear super pious like joining a templar order. All sorts of different classes can join the guild like wizards, hunters, etc.

I thought that The Black Company trilogy by Glen Cook was interesting for the novelty of it being about mercs working for the dark lord (though it eventually becomes about fighting from the inside), but I generally wouldn't want to join such a mundane group of wicked evildoers in a game. I only picked the Lofwyr ending of Shadowrun Dragonfall because it seemed there wasn't much alternative in making a difference in the world on a wider scale.

[Stack of Turtles]

Adventurers' guilds are literally just fantasy police.

[Bertram_Tung]

Adventurers' guilds are literally just fantasy police.

What are you hoping to accomplish in this thread?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Adventurers' guilds are literally just fantasy police.

You are not having to deal with the banality of sitting parked behind the corner along the road waiting to nail people for going over the speed limit to meet your quota of tickets. You get to be a hero raising your shield against a big yeti, rather than just going to some drug addict's house who has an outstanding warrant for his arrest and then you shoot him when he lunges at you. You are not condemned to spend all of your time in the city or the suburbs, and get to go on hikes through the gorgeous wilderness. You make a name for yourself and are really appreciated rather than being another grunt nobody remembers or even outright shat on and have to move to a different county because you were on camera when you shot a criminal and now facebook hates you.

[Stack of Turtles]

Adventurers' guilds are literally just fantasy police.

You are not having to deal with the banality of sitting parked behind the corner along the road waiting to nail people for going over the speed limit to meet your quota of tickets. You get to be a hero raising your shield against a big yeti, rather than just going to some drug addict's house who has an outstanding warrant for his arrest and then you shoot him when he lunges at you. You are not condemned to spend all of your time in the city or the suburbs, and get to go on hikes through the gorgeous wilderness. You make a name for yourself and are really appreciated rather than being another grunt nobody remembers or even outright shat on and have to move to a different county because you were on camera when you shot a criminal and now facebook hates you.

Yeah but that's because it's a more exciting world, not because the job isn't fundamentally the same.

And realistically there would absolutely be libtards hating you for killing that yeti.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

And realistically there would absolutely be libtards hating you for killing that yeti.

I think the problem is more that people would be taken in by the cute factor of certain monsters and ignore the reality that they are pests or even eat people.

Trails in the Sky remake

► Show Spoiler

>Be apart of Bracer guild whose job is to protect humanity from maneating monsters
>Get request to exterminate monsters raiding a farm
>Catch and fight the crop munchers, narrowly avoid being killed
>They look uwu cute so you let them go rather than exterminating the pests
>The dad who requested the monster extermination moralizes about how we all share the land and should let the pests live

This quest was in the original but now it feels dumb with the cinematic, realistic presentation.

► Atelier Ayesha

Or Litwick from Pokemon which sucks the lifeforce of people nearby, but foolish Pokemon trainers keep catching them and keeping them only to then eventually vanish.

[Stack of Turtles]

Or Litwick from Pokemon which sucks the lifeforce of people nearby, but foolish Pokemon trainers keep catching them and keeping them only to then eventually vanish.

Canonically, Pokémon all stop doing bad things when they're caught by a good-hearted trainer.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Canonically, Pokémon all stop doing bad things when they're caught by a good-hearted trainer.

This Pokémon has the habit of hugging its companions. Many Trainers have left this world after their spines were squashed by its hug.

[Stack of Turtles]

Canonically, Pokémon all stop doing bad things when they're caught by a good-hearted trainer.

This Pokémon has the habit of hugging its companions. Many Trainers have left this world after their spines were squashed by its hug.

I'm not sure that counts if it was unintentional

[Valter]

We do all the time, there's just this weird omniglitch where the games call them "bandits"

[DemoGraph]

Why is this so rare?

Because the concept of adventuring party is dumb.

Why do you say that it is rare? All small team combat could be viewed as combat vs adventurer party. Knowing their names is irrelevant.

[maidenhaver]

Why is this so rare?

Because the concept of adventuring party is dumb.

Why do you say that it is rare? All small team combat could be viewed as combat vs adventurer party. Knowing their names is irrelevant.

No, you're wrong, it isn't, and I want these other adventurers trying to beat the game as well.

[DrSneed]

And realistically there would absolutely be libtards hating you for killing that yeti.

Miyazaki when they kill orcs in LotR

[Stack of Turtles]

And realistically there would absolutely be libtards hating you for killing that yeti.

I think the problem is more that people would be taken in by the cute factor of certain monsters and ignore the reality that they are pests or even eat people.

By the way, I forgot to mention this, but this is exactly how white libtards think of black criminals. They like them because they think they're "sticking it to the man".

[DrSneed]

Libtards in the late 60s were all clamoring over some ****** for writing a book about raping white women

[maidenhaver]

This is something I'd want in my ideal RPG. The point isn't to meet other adventurers, but that they are playing the same game as you.

Like HoMM2, and you can pick difficulty or handicaps.

[Stack of Turtles]

This is something I'd want in my ideal RPG. The point isn't to meet other adventurers, but that they are playing the same game as you.

Like HoMM2, and you can pick difficulty or handicaps.

Are you suggesting the NPC adventurers should also have their own difficulty settings where they get buffs if they're playing on easy mode etc.? That could be funny

[maidenhaver]

This is something I'd want in my ideal RPG. The point isn't to meet other adventurers, but that they are playing the same game as you.

Like HoMM2, and you can pick difficulty or handicaps.

Are you suggesting the NPC adventurers should also have their own difficulty settings where they get buffs if they're playing on easy mode etc.? That could be funny

Yes, and the player(s) can take handicaps, like less money for starting equipment.

[DemoGraph]

Why is this so rare?

Because the concept of adventuring party is dumb.

Why do you say that it is rare? All small team combat could be viewed as combat vs adventurer party. Knowing their names is irrelevant.

No, you're wrong, it isn't, and I want these other adventurers trying to beat the game as well.

NO U
Play LoL or smth.