Fate's Harvest/Harvestmen
HarvestmenThe Harvestmen tend to attract the adventurers, the bold, the warriors and would-bes. They are the swords and bows, the semiautomatics, the knives in dark alleys, but they are also the traps, the maps, the Marco Polos and the Indiana Joneses. As the Freehold is scarcely a year old (at the time of game opening!), there isn't yet a specific Hall or Hollow built or claimed, the group practicing in the main cavern of Stoneheart for the time being. Claiming their own Hollow is an ongoing project! Harvestmen are often members of other Freehold subgroups. This is a position which entails a fair amount of physical risk and lack of anonymity in the Hedge.
HistoryWhen coming to a new area, with new dangers and an unfamiliar Hedge, it is reasonable to assume that a modicum of physical defense will happen, and it did. Thus, the Harvestmen were born. While to date there have not been any insurmountable difficulties, their task is not an easy one, and there have been signs, subtle and not, that the True Fae have noticed the valley's new occupation...and are pleased.
Requirements to JoinOne of the easiest groups to join, the only requirement is the desire to protect the Freehold and the willingness to spend a fair amount of time training combat skills to achieve that. Even those more purely explorers are expected to be competent enough to handle themselves until greater combatants can arrive, or they can make a break for it. To reiterate: every member of the group, regardless of which squad they belong to, is expected to know basic combat by the time they are promoted from being a Recruit. Being a Harvestman means putting yourself at risk to protect others. Those not truly willing to sacrifice their lives to protect the Freehold tend to be weeded out early.
Rank StructureMany members have come from martial backgrounds, and the basic structure of the Harvestmen reflects their influence. Captain
Lieutenant
Private
Recruit
Squad StructureFor flexibility and independence in the field, OOCly seeing as not all players are around at all times, and ICly seeing as the Hedge is not conducive to large-scale modern warfare, the group is deliberately divided into four squads.
Once you are promoted to the rank of Private, you always join a specific squad. The only member of the Harvestmen who is NOT within a squad is the Captain, because s/he is the tactician and leader of the whole group. Squads must have roughly equal numbers. You can certainly swap to another squad later if an opening develops and you'd rather try something new! Or, more to the point, if you find that you are never online at the same time as everybody else in your existing squad... Reality, psh. As intended, this allows the Lieutenants a degree of independence and ability to run events for their own squad, since putatively the members of said squad would have similar interests/talents. On an OOC level, this means that even if the Captain's life gets unexpectedly busy, the group as a whole will still be puttering along. It isn't entirely dependent upon one player's availability. If your Lieutenant is never around, the Captain is expected to step in, or replace said Lieutenant with someone who IS around. Higher rank does come with activity requirements. See the Influence page. If you want to take part in another squad's event, ask the Lieutenant's player. Unless it is supposed to be a closed training exercise, it's easy enough to contrive some reason for your character to be there. Typically, Recruits train with members of all squads, so they can see the various options at work and gauge where they will best fit into the group. When they are promoted, newly-made Privates should already have an idea of which squad they would like to join.
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