Would an executioner make a good adventurer?
Anyone can be a good adventurer, if not, great.
>>43638258
In-universe... Compared to what? Better than a clerk, at least the executioner knows how to swing an axe or whatever. A guard? Definitely not. The guard can work with people and has martial training. The executioner kills people who are tied down.
As a player: It's a good character start, has plenty of roleplay potential. Go for it.
>>43638258
Yup. WHFRP even has a career ("class") for playing one.
There's a fun French comic which features exactly this. It also has a blacksmith who's wife is a fire elemental that lives in his forge.
>>43638297
>The executioner kills people who are tied down.
Executioner is usually deputy of either government or church and in some cases could act as Judicial Champion should circumstances demand it.
So he should have both some authority to work with people and martial skill.
>>43638333
In medieval europe he actually was a highly interesting character, expanding his repertoire far beyond killing people. He had certain privileges to earn some extra cash and compensate for the whole stigma.
He had more than rudimentary medical knowledge and was allowed to sell potions made out of sinner's fat etc. also often a vermin extinguisher and sewer cleaner. Highly interesting class for a rpg imo.
>>43638398
Also their executing weapons were engraved with words that excused them for breaking the 6th commandment. "Cast in the name of God. Ye not guilty." Or something to that effect.
So if you killed someone with it, at least in the eyes of the divine, you weren't committing murder. That's a pretty big deal.
>>43638258
This guy would be good.
>>43638398
>He had certain privileges to earn some extra cash and compensate for the whole stigma.
Those privileges were awareded to them in lieu of actual renumeration, Anon. That's how pubilc service during the period worked down to door guards.
Yeah, you could recieve an invitation and end up being turned away at the door if you didn't have the cash to pay the door guard's fee.
>>43638398
Some executioners took pride in being able to behead a standing person, or multiple people. They have at least some skill in the blade.
>>43638810
Depends on the exact period. During the renaissance, an executioner could have his own home provided by the city he worked in. They also received work travelling around and performing executions for a fee at villages and towns too small to have their own executioner.
I'd recommend a book, The Faithful Executioner by Joel F. Harrington. It's the analysis of a late 16th/early 17th century executioner's diary, and how he fit into the society of the city he worked in. Really interesting book, also great for flavor for that time period.
>>43638481
It wasn't just words. The axes with that written on them were actually ritually blessed during their creation (Using the metal casting process, thus "cast in the name of god")
Using them outside of a sanctioned execution is still iffy, because that's not what they were made for in a theological sense.
>>43638842
>the society of the city
What location was this in? Places as nearby as Germany and Poland could be completely different
>>43638309
Link please
>>43638258
might depend on the executioner
Posting for a banned friend
alsoyes
No but a sexecutioner would be perfect.
>>43638258
Lone wolf and cub?
Book of the New Sun / Long Sun?
>>43638862
The Treasure Hunters is fun.
Executioner rolls for indimidation ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
Also book three never.
>>43638885
the sister's aleady murder hobo material
>>43638966
and if dad weren't a cripple he'd definitely be prime murderhobo material
>>43638258
Only a bastard one.
There is some excellent art in this thread
>>43638861
Nuremberg, earlier in Hof. The book predominantly covers the Holy Roman Empire during the period, which is of course a clusterfuck of various laws and rule systems and different traditions. Nuremberg was a fairly typical Imperial Free City for the region, however, and so combined with examples from other cities you can get a fair idea of the HRE's general system for executioners as a whole. Poland is an entirely different story, and it isn't covered at all.
>>43639073
not to mention Italy, Iberia, the Baltics under the turks, the brits, Scandinavia, Russia, etc. Its always interesting how societies deal with death and punishment, I'll have to find a copy of it in the library.
Executioner's Kris. They tied the convicted face down and stabbed him in the heart through the back.
Not exactly practical, other than for superhuman D&D adventurers.
>>43639141
Hangmen were respected in Britain for being a noble, if grim profession of pure logic and mathematics.
Right up until the 1980ies.
>>43639141
Didn't most people on the western end of Eurasia follow the "you want him dead, you do it yourself"-model? Pretty certain that that was the case at least as far up as Scandinavia.
Lone wolf and cub.
Need I say more?
>>43639304
But the last person to be hung in England was in the 1960s
If well executed
Naah
They make for terrible character concepts
>>43639304
You probably have the 1980s bit mixed up with France.
>>43638258
Yes. An executioner turned adventurer comes with their own plot hooks right out of the box.
Why are they adventuring now?
Were they well known as an executioner or did they hide their identity behind a mask?
Did they completely give-up their former profession or are they just now making house calls?
Do they view death as just another a part of life, a sacred event, a means to make money, etc.?
Additionally it could be a good explanation for why a character who is a bit older and more world weary would begin at level one since executioners usually do not fight at all but merely kill those who have already been incapacitated. Choosing an alignment for such a character would be fun as well because they could easily be lawful despite their rather grisly career.
>>43638258
Yes, absolutely.
>>43638258
Read Lone Wolf and Cub, that's your answer.
>>43638258
Yes
>>43638481
>>43641004
10/10 taste.
