History Headscratchers / MountAndBlade

** They actually explain that buying prisoners from you is their hobby when you first meet them - they usually go out on commission to find someone who was captured and already sold (probably to one of their friends) and then arrange for ransoms to be made. When they buy from you, they're basically cutting out the middle man of whoever they pay a ransom to normally. So, the reason they move is probably because they're doing their main job and they're picking up prisoners from you as a side deal. But if you're hauling prisoners, they'll take them off your hands to see if they can get some good coin additional to their normal funds.

** they follow rumors of active wars and recent wars, attempting to find cheap prisoners to sell off in over-crowded prisons or via travelling bands looking to offload their human cargo.

** Is it possible that ransoms aren't all that common? Most counts/emirs/jarls are ransomed directly from the person who was captured, and most prisoners are just held in the dungeons in a town or castle until the lord sees fit to release them. The ransom broker probably makes his business solely off bandits that run around capturing farmers and the player. Not to mention, when you're associated at all with bandits (which, even if the bandits don't sell.to.him, are mostly what the player will be selling), you're not exactly in a safe occupation. There's plenty of reason to get to a town, do.business, then disappear without a trace.

* Why do ransom brokers randomly move from town to town? It seems like either staying in on place where their customers/suppliers know they can be found, or at least moving in a fixed, predictable circuit (e.g., people know that the Ransom Broker who covers Dhirim is currently in Suno, but will be in Dhirim in four days) would be far better for business, both letting manhunter-types easily find them and sell them captives, and allowing slave buyers or friends/family members to find them and pay them to buy a slave/free a friend or relative.

** Maybe they're actually yelling at you from far away, and if you answered, you were also yelling back?

* Could it be any more obvious that the guy who added the Warband trope section really hates the game. No this isn't a question it's an open challenge. How much more obvious could it be and how would you do it?
** This is that guy, and for the record I don't hate it. If I did, I'd just stop playing it. On the contrary, I love it. Which is why I was so deeply disappointed by some of the changes (as well as the lack of changes in areas of the game that really need fixing) in Warband. Perhaps this bitter aftertaste shows through, and if so I apologize. If I wanted to make it more hostile, I would remove all mention of the positive aspects of Warband and blow the negatives wildly out of proportion.

* Generally, when you encounter an enemy force on the map, you go to a parley screen before the battle begins and meet the enemy commander face to face. Presumably, after this both armies then separate before the battle begins and charge from a distance. However, why do looters and bandits do the same thing? They walk up to you, announce their intention to murder and rob you, and then withdraw (often on foot) two hundred yards away before the battle starts.

** This is that guy, and for the record I don't hate it. If I did, I'd just stop playing it. On the contrary, I love it. Which is why I was so deeply disappointed by some of the changes (as well as the lack of changes in areas of the game that really need fixing) in Warband. Perhaps this bitter aftertaste shows through, and if so I apologize. If I wanted to make it more hostile, I would remove all mention of the positive aspects of Warband and blow the negatives wildly out of proportion.

* Could it be any more obvious that the guy who added the Warband trope section really hates the game. No this isn't a question it's an open challenge. How much more obvious could it be and how would you do it?

** You are thinking of deserters (though why ''they'' have them is still a valid question) and all bandit units except sea raiders have a chance of a mount.

** 1. The rules are only enforced once the council is over, presumably. In any case, "rules" and "law" in Calradia are little more than pretext to allow those with the strongest armies to do what they want to anyway.
2. The practice is pretty stupid, but perhaps the Rhodoks were not expecting any attacks, as the meetings could be held in secret or in areas well-protected, suggesting that Rhodokian intelligence had failed, or it was a complete surprise attack. Maybe even the guy with the weapon informed the enemies of its location, then rushed in to "save the day". The game is reasonably careful in showing that there are two sides to every conflict for the claimants, and that pretty much every would-be ruler is not above cut-throat tactics.