What is an Adventurer

The role of adventurers has evolved throughout the editions of the Dungeons & Dragons game. Initially, they were dungeon delvers, mercenaries, and treasure hunters. But the newer editions portray and depict the player characters as the heroes of epic tales. And yet many groups are little more than lawless murder hobos terrorizing the realm with their insane power levels and destructive capabilities. So I ask you, what would be the opinion of most folk be of these adventurers?

 "What is an adventurer? One who goes on adventures? I say that an adventurer is a hero. And what is a hero? A hero is someone with the strength of heart, courage of spirit, and the might of will to go to strange lands and enact violence on the things there. We go to places where there are things that must be destroyed, and we destroy them. Wandering from town to town, getting into trouble, meeting in flophouses and taverns, and getting into scrapes with the law, and otherwise finding ourselves engaged in all manner of tomfoolery and shenanigans. Sometimes violent. Sometimes fatal! Yes... fatal. A hero is a violent wanderer who enacts their will bloodily, and with strange magics, upon the world."

    – Arthur Aguefort

Common Opinion

It is reasonable for common folk to be wary of adventurers. Outside of the obvious fact that they’re strangers from strange places with strange affectations completely foreign to the typical commoner. They never take off their armor. They're always bristling with weapons. They have access to powerful magics most folk have never seen and use them without much concern or consideration. They are constantly involved in dangerous, harebrained pursuits. And most worrying, violence is their answer to most problems. Normal people would want very little association with the typical player character adventurer.

In modern terms, the adventurer is one part special forces soldier, one part professional wrestler, and one part outlaw biker. Put three or five of them together and you've got a rockstar circus tour that everybody wants to see, but nobody wants stopping in their town. These are intense, unpredictably violent individuals unbound by ties of community, unrestrained by law or social order, and motivated by a dangerous mix of greed, notoriety, and whim.

In the feudal society that exists in the Realms of Adventure, everyone is born into a purpose. The entire social structure is a complex chain of relationships and responsibilities – there’s a reason why common names include things like Miller, Smith, Baker. If you were born on a piece of land, you were likely to die on that piece of land, whether you were a peasant farmer or a highborn lady. All of creation exists in some sort of grand cosmic order, with the deities at the top, peasants at the bottom, and everyone else in between. Even powerful dukes and kings are defined more by their relationships, commitments, and responsibilities than their own ambitions – the king may want to focus on war and glory, but still needs to make sure the dukes are in order and the church is properly respected first.

Adventurers, at the most basic level, are people who defy the order. They are outsiders by nature at the least and possibly outlaws at worst. They’re the ones who make their own purposes, who buck expectations and seek their own destinies. They might be knights errant sworn to no lord, starving serfs who wandered off their lands to scrape out a living elsewhere, priests expelled from their orders, or the landless children of nobles who will never inherit. These are not people who the populace hold in high regard. These are people who can not be trusted to behave in a predictable manner. These are individuals of questionable reputation, behavior, and temperament.

Common folk live a life based upon the idea that the entire world is built on a structure and that the natural order will be enforced. Without this structure and the safety of civilized society, it is assumed that these adventurers will meet a bad end – likely to die alone and unmourned.

“An adventurer is a sort of well armed, well trained, usually more-or-less benevolent (but greedy) vagabond that goes from place to place seeking fame and fortune. But sometimes they manage to change the world.”

– Morrus Rhedon

Living the Life

The life of adventure is full of extremes. Wealth and extravaganza when your purse is bulging from a big score, poverty and desperation once you've blown through the lot. Coin is for spending and there is never a shortage of ways to earn more. Debt is temporary and favors are plentiful. Yesterday is a sodden memory and tomorrow is always waiting just ahead. You might as well live high and well, because you never know when you'll be back to the mud–killed by some aberration or arcane beast.

When things are good it is all inns and taverns, drinking and feasting, cards and dice, and cavorting with the glitterati. When things are bad it's bedrolls on the cold, hard ground, sucking on hardtack until it’s soft enough to swallow, and endless walking on sore feet in wet boots. One day you’ve got the ear of the Countess of Coconino, the resources of the Mercantile Guild at your disposal, and the goodwill of the farmers. Two days later you’ve been run out of town with the watch on your heels, a witches curse bearing down on you, and the entrance to another trap filled, monster infested ruin beckoning you to do it all again. Freedom is a dangerous path that no “normal” person would seek out. The rewards are uncertain, the fame fickle, and the risk of death ever present.

"We search out things that want to kill us, or eat us. You know who does that? Crazy people! We are insane."

    – Dean from Supernatural

Adventurers are Scavengers

Adventuring is scavenging. Digging rewards from ancient tombs, crypts, and mausoleums. Exploring the ruins of temple, treasury, and citadel foraging for something of value. Begging for rewards and bargaining for work no one else will do. Tracking down hints and clues of lost secrets. Adventurers are scavengers, robbers, despoilers, and mercenaries as much as, and more often than, they are legends, paragons, and heroes. 

Bands of roughneck adventurers gather together to squabble over loot, build reputations, generate rivalries, and find acceptance among their peers. Sure, the governor will come down to the dregs when things have gotten bad and the world needs saving, but more often, the civilized folk stay well clear, hoping the ‘heroics’ don’t spread beyond the tavern and that the ‘heros’ will entertain each other without doing too much damage.

Once the world is safe, nobody wants a gang of magic-wielding psychopaths hanging around the market square scaring the old folk and influencing the children.