In your homebrew settings, how do you justify a gang of five

>>51323936
Being in the right place at the right time type stuff. Almost any fantasy tale that has a group of heroes accomplishing something granidose could easily be re-written to say

>The army showed up and killed the bad guy lol

>>51323936
The teens get through the barricades and work from behind enemy lines.

>>51324220
But that just smacks too much of deus ex machina, doesn't it?

>>51324699
The same could be said of 99% of the justifications you can throw out there. And to be frank accidental right time and place shit has happened plenty drastically altering the course of human history. Fun fact, did you know that the Nazis almost beat every one to making the nuke and their main development sight got randomly bombed shutting them down long enough for America to beat them to it?

>>51323936
The core conflict in my setting involves a slowly widening rift between a world and a fallen god's pocket dimension. Large groups of untainted foreign entities in the pocket dimension attract the attention of horrific entities that like nothing more than tasting the exotic flesh and souls of strange beings. Small groups of exceptional individuals are far safer since they largely only have to worry about the "average" denizens of that twisted Realm.

>>51324761
That's one way to look at it, I suppose. It's just finding the balance between deus ex machina and player advocacy to make sure my players aren't feeling that the events they perpetrate aren't being railroaded by me.

>>51323936
Generally my characters are special ops soldiers in said Military working alongside the rest of it and doing specific things.

Otherwise they're from a 3rd party and super speshul powerful snowflakes or so.

Basically I just mainly avoid that situation

>>51323936
How the fuck did halflings throw a ring into a volcano located in the heart of Baddarkshadowbobadowland?

>>51323936
Usually, gifts. As in they are gifted. In rules, they are going to start with higher stats then mooks. Next, give them a faster path to power. In say pathfinder, you would give them a faster experience line then the others. In other systems, bonuses to xp from roleplaying usually accelerates them faster then any average NPC could keep up. Then finally, give them access to something noone else has. Experimental tech, super magic, class abilities that noone has, or even just access to NPCs that know what is actually going on and can point them in a direction that the blind, dogmatic, foot soldiers and their commanders couldn't see.

Pretty easy stuff anon for any storyteller with half a brain. Remember, you are not building a universe, you are building a setting. Settings are for stories. Universes are for reality.

>>51327016
I guess Elijah Wood's good looks opened more doors than expected.

>>51324761

Norwegian commandos bombed their heavy water facility in a daring raid. Real life Rogue One shit there

>>51323936
balls and initiative.

What makes any PC more powerful than NPC is that the NPCs position is more or less set in life. They aren't going to go out and risk their life daily on a bunch of long shot shenanigans. But a PC would. PCs are established unpredictable wily madmen who would sneak a lockpick up their dick and intentionally get captured by your guards just so they can get close enough to you to shortsheet your bed.

Soldiers hit shit. PCs are omnipotent gods of deception and plotting.

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>>51323936
>In your homebrew settings, how do you justify a gang of five or so plucky preteens accomplishing more then the militaries in your setting?
Amusingly enough, my homebrew setting works on the assumption that many teenagers have the capacity to be more powerful than entire armies because of the frightening supernatural powers they wield, but it's rather about making them feel weak because they are teenagers without a proper grasp of the world and said powers they wield. You could say I am working with the opposite problem.

>>51323936
>I can't find a reason why this small group of six would be able to accomplish what literally thousand of soldiers could not.
Diplomacy. A small neutral group can move between borders, brush with local law enforcement, take jobs for important people, and get into fights without major incident. If a flag-bearig army did any of those things, it would be an act of war.
All you have to do is find a way to entertwine the PC's work/life with the war.
>The PCs accidentally swap suitcases with someone, and it turns out the case is full of stolen war plans. Now the national army and the spy who stole the plans are after the PCs.
>The PCs accidentally wander into the back room of a speakeasy, only to discover a hideout for terrorists where bombs are being assembled.
>The PCs are hired to deliver a package to somebody. When they open the package, a bomb exploded, killing them. The PCs are immediate suspects.
Basically, have the PCs get tangled up in some preexisting plan, and force them to have to clear their names.

>>51327917
Meant to say that the bomb kills the intended recipient of the package, not the PCs. Please don't kill your party with a bomb OP.

>>51323936
My PCs cannot do what a military force can do by virtue that they are not hundreds upon thousands of people. They can do some pretty cool stuff, but put them up against even a poorly trained, yet numerous fighting force and they'll get slaughtered all the same.

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>>51323936
Heroic martyrdom?

I can't really think of any other possibility in a "serious" setting unless they're superhuman in some measure.

>>51331077
I don't imagine that'd go over well with most players though.