Blades in the Dark: Any Bravos-gang that grows to a sufficient size is effectively a PMC, and players can engage in natural resource takeovers, security, strike-breaking, and a wide variety of PMC-related activities.
Broken Gears: The Australian Army also doubles as a large PMC, because this way the Australian government can pay for its costs (they need to be large enough to prevent a potential British take-over of the place) and get hard currency for international trade, and the soldiers also get live fire training.
Cyberpunk 2020: This is the meat of the game. The most conspicuous PMCs are Arasaka and Militech, two of the largest corporations of the game's setting, and the Lazarus Group — featured on a splatbook and that is a full-fledged large private army.
The Dark Eye: Mercenaries do have their own demigod, who demands, that they either fight for the "good fight"note violent and bloody or for the "good gold", both of which is strictly defined. His priests will ensure, that they are paid what they deserve, and are a one-man army by themselves.
The real-life Constellis Group, a real-life conglomerate that includes PMC subsidiaries such as Academi (Former Blackwater) and Triple Canopy, is a possible employer for the PCs. However, since the writers did their research, they're a more realistic and accurate version of this trope. They are mostly very well-armed security guards that work in government contracts in war zones. The job is notable for its lack of stability and high layoff rates, with most of the military contractors being veterans and ex-military without any other marketable skills. In short, working for an actual PMC sucks.
Hobgoblins, are generally more of a militaristic society than one composed of PMCs, but that just makes them more valuable when they do hire their units out to others.
Eberron has several groups, such as the troops of House Deneith and House Tharashk's ogre/troll contacts in Droaam. For non-House versions, the Red Gauntlet regiment and the Manifest Legion (mercenary summoners) are also up for contracts. The setting's Gnolls have also decided to position themselves on every side of every conflict under the reasoning that that way they'll grow in power and influence no matter who wins. They refuse to fight each other though.
Forgotten Realms: Gold and Glory is a sourcebook specifically for these, along with inherent adventure hooks. With understanding that small adventuring bands impossible to list due to great numbers and overall turnover rate also do a lot of the small-scale work in this field, and sometimes happen to hire, be hired by, or grow into larger mercenary groups.
Early editions had rules for "henchmen" and "hirelings", who are essentially NPC mercenaries paid to accompany the adventuring party. Later editions continue to publish rules for them, but their focus has faded to an afterthought.
Many neutral and evil-aligned adventuring parties (and even some good ones) are official or de facto mercenaries, accepting payment to perform some dangerous task or fight an enemy.
Eclipse Phase features Direct Action, a hypercorp formed from the remnants of old earth's militaries, they act as the Planetary Consortium's primary enforcers. Since there are few traditional nation-states remaining there are hundreds of smaller PMCs including the Ultimates, a group of Social DarwinistNietzsche Wannabes who hire themselves out as mercs while waiting for an opportunity to seize control of the system.
Fading Suns has the Muster guild, which offers many kinds of muscle for hire, but began as, and is still mostly made of, mercenaries.
GURPS Technomancer: GHOST (Global Hazard Operations and Security Techniques), the magical security/monster hunter arm of Leviathan Investment Group, is also known to take military contracts around the world (especially The Magocracy of Surinam, which Leviathan is heavily involved with) generally hiring ex-US Army war-mages.
New World of Darkness: Blackfire, a PMC that's well-connected and clued in to the nature of the supernatural. Whether they're upstanding or bastards depends entirely on the Storyteller, though the sample adventure that comes with them implies that they're not entirely on the up-and-up — mainly because one of the three heads of the company got possessed by a fragment of an ancient spirit that desperately wants out of its current prison.
Orpheus, from the Old World of Darkness line, has a company called NextWorld, a private contracting firm that deals with security, surveillance, and protection, while having much more questionable dealings under the table. And they have access to the same methods and technology that the other ghost projecting firms do, so they can deal with supernatural issues or exploit spiritual abilities and loopholes to get the job done. They're even hired at one point by a mysterious third party to take out Orpheus Group, which they do with great success, and continue to ruthlessly hound the survivors and remnants afterward because their client didn't technically tell them when to stop.
Rocket Age: The Legion Martien is often hired out to various Martian principalities as mercenaries. Some Martian Freebooters bands also count, in particular the Mavericks, who are effectively American deniable assets.
Shadowrun: This is an essentially driving force behind the game.
The player characters are "Shadowrunners" — mercenaries assembled on-demand like a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits in as heist flick. Of course there's nothing stopping the DM from making a PMC for the players to join, and indeed many shadowrunners incorporate their teams, becoming small PMCs.
The best-known subsidiary of arms manufacturer Ares Macrotech is Knight Errant, which is essentially a first-world army for hire.
Seattle's law enforcement has been contracted out to the megacorp Lone Star Security Services since 2023 — when the Mayor of Seattle's response to a police strike was to hire contractors and dissolve his police force.
More conventional PMCs do exist in the game's backstory — the most prominent are MET2000, Tsunami, 10,000 Daggers, and Combat Inc.
Talisman: The Mercenary is a particularly useful follower if you have the gold to burn. He will add 3 to your strength on combat, but only if you pay him a gold. He also costs 3 gold to hire.
Traveller: Since many characters have a military background, they often find themselves doing mercenary work. Basing a campaign around the characters being in a mercenary outfit was common, and supplements, rulebooks, and premade adventures were issued to support such campaigns.
Warbirds player characters are, as a default, assumed to be employed by one of these in the form of the Guild. Since the Guild can provide superior upgrades and weaponry to its Ace Pilots, and has control over titanium (much of which it uses to make its planes better), it's adept at poaching up-and-coming pilots from various countries. It also doesn't object to hiring out a squadron to each side in a conflict; since pilots in Guild warbirds are likely to survive going down, as long as it's making more from the clients than it's spending on replacement planes, it's satisfied.
Wargames
BattleTech is full of mercenary armies. Many of the high-grade mercenary armies are a match for or even superior to the best armies of the various governments, and some can even get titles and holdings in the neo-feudal system of the 31st century. The setting also has both honorable mercs (the Gray Death Legion, Wolf's Dragoons, The Kell Hounds) and dishonorable ones (the Crater Cobras, Little Richard's Panzer Brigade, the Waco Rangers). Many Pirate groups are failed mercenary units. Running a small Mercenary Company is the standard campaign mode for the game. A few notable examples:
The Gray Death Legion was one of the few Inner Sphere units to come out with wins in their initial clashes with the Clans, and for their service to House Steiner were given the planet of Glengarry; Grayson Carlyle himself was given the title of Baron. Twenty years prior to the Clans, they made a major Lost Technology discovery and shared it with the Inner Sphere, putting the kibosh on ComStar's plan for technological monopoly.
Wolf's Dragoons were originally a "scouting party" sent by Clan Wolf to infiltrate the Inner Sphere before the invasion (and sabotage the invasion that Clan Wolf was opposed to). They quickly distinguished themselves with their prowess and LosTech and were ceded the world of Outreach, which they made into the Mercenary capital of the Sphere. When the Clans invaded they revealed their origins to the Successor States and sided with them instead of the Clans. Unfortunately the Word of Blake nuked Outreach during their jihad and destroyed most of the Dragoons, though Clan Wolf evacuated two dozen Dragoons and several civilians.
Warhammer: As the games focus chiefly on constant warfare and the armies waging it, mercenaries, paid marauders and assorts thugs-for-hire have a consistent presence:
The Kroot who serve the T'au Empire as auxiliaries also do mercenary work on the side, to ensure that they get plenty of useful genetic traits from their prey. There used to be an official Kroot Mercenaries army list, although it hasn't been updated for recent additions and most of its units had to be converted in some way. Kroot in secondary material are usually mercenaries and hired guards, such as Dahyak Grekh in Warhammer 40000 Blackstone Fortress or the multiple mercenary companies in Only War working for the Severan rebels, the Dark Eldar, and even Chaos and the Imperium.
The squads of Marauders who often fight alongside Renegade & Heretic armies are a mix of corrupted pirates and mercenaries who fight because they are being very well paid to do so rather than for the glory of the Dark Gods. To represent their status as more professional soldiers, the 8th Edition rules make Renegade Marauders one of the most reliable units in a Renegades & Heretics force, but they are the only infantry unit in the army that cannot be dedicated to one of the Chaos Gods.
The Squats are a highly mercantile species of Abhuman who approach every aspect of life as a business, including warfare. Squat mercenaries are highly sought after and renowned for their skill, determination, and reliability, especially when fighting against Orks. Early editions of the Epic scale version of the game represented this by allowing any army, except Orks and Chaos, to include companies of Squad mercenaries in their force.
Many minor Xenos races, such as the Loxatl and the Sslyth, willingly serve as mercenaries for other alien races, the forces of Chaos, or even radical Imperial forces. What they ask for in return can vary, ranging from precious gems, the looted possessions of the enemy, or even their choice of slaves. Such races are usually confined to the background material but when they do turn up in the game itself they are often incorporated into a specific faction's army list or as optional rules. Sons Of The Hydra features an Alpha Legion warband hiring a widely varied force of alien mercenaries, including Sslyth, Tarellians, Morralians, Galgs, Fra'al, and Eldar Outcasts, to overwhelm their Ultramarine targets with as many fighting styles and angles of approach as possible.
Fyreslayers are a culture of dwarf mercenaries, with armies all across the Mortal Realms, with the reputation that they'll fight for or against just about anyone, but only accept payment in magical ur-gold. The truth is a little more complicated: ur-gold is actually formed from the blood of their shattered war god, Grimnir, which was scattered across the realms eons ago. By releasing its magical energies, they hope they can resurrect their lost god. They keep that part a secret, though, to keep anyone else from trying to gather it for themselves, leading to them being looked down on as Only in It for the Money.
Races from the Grand Alliance Of Destruction (most often Ogors and Gargants, as Orruks and Grots are often less interested in material gain) are known to work mercenary for other factions. Ogors especially are known to work for anyone willing (and able) to feed their massive apetities in exchange for not eating their clients. They later taught this "secret" to the Gargants, who were a bit slower on the uptake. Particularly the "not eating your employer before getting paid" part.
The Grundstok Company, also known as the Grundcorps, are a group of professional mercenaries who hire out their services to the mercantile Kharadronsky-fleets to protect them from the vicious aerial monstrosities of the Mortal Realms, as well as any other threat they might face. Highly trained and outfitted with advanced weaponry, the Grundscorps are well worth their high price.
There are rules for ten explicitly "we'll work for anybody" mercenary companies. You can incorporate one of them into your army, giving you access to units that normally would not ally with your faction.
The Dogs of War are an entire army of mercenaries who mostly hail from Tilea, the setting's analogue of Renaissance Italy and the Condottieri. More individualistic examples are the Regiments of Renown, legendary mercenaries with interesting special rules that can be attached to other army lists. They come with various individual quirks, such as the Birdmen of Catrazza, who fly into battle on leather wing-harnesses; Tichi-Huichi's Raiders, raptor-riding skinks who only fight for those who can pay with the golden tablets of the Old Ones; Asarnil the Dragonlord, an exiled elven noble who dreams of returning home laden with gold and glory; and Long Drong's Slayer Pirates, dwarfen corsairs who specialize in retrieving other companies' pay chests and stealing the enemy's. They're extremely pay-motivated — they use their pay chests as battle standards, and will rout if these are lost.
Maneaters are Ogres who have returned to their homelands after serving as mercenaries abroad, with new skills to share (and often a costume inspired by their former employers). When the Ogre Kingdoms were first introduced, there were also rules for other armies to hire Ogre units as Dogs of War.
The Empire fields Free Companies, militia, or mercenary companies that support their standing armies. This is despite the fact that regular Empire infantry already dress like and are organized like real-life Landsknecht mercenaries.
, a real-life conglomerate that includes PMC subsidiaries such as Academi (Former Blackwater) and Triple Canopy, is a possible employer for the PCs. However, since the writers did their research, they're a more realistic and accurate version of this trope. They are mostly very well-armed security guards that work in government contracts in war zones. The job is notable for its lack of stability and high layoff rates, with most of the military contractors being veterans and ex-military without any other marketable skills. In short, working for an actual PMC sucks.