Rules Design Concept
Followers & Hirelings is a rules expansion on the hirelings rules found in the 1977 AD&D game.
Followers & Hirelings is designed to be used in an OSR, Low Magic Fantasy rules setting such as Pulp Sword & Sorcery RPGs, using A Weast Marches / Expeditionary Style, of play. to resolve issues with games relying too heavily on Magic Items such as the bag of holding for encumbrance purposes and Spells such as Create Food & Water. Also, a tool to mitigate a character(s) death, killing the pace of the game no more disruptions or full stops of the action because a player died leaving the table, or the player is clanging dice rolling-up a new character asking the DM questions during play. Players now can just grab a member from their PC's Cohort pool of NPCs as the new leader of the cohort and roll initiative. An important strategy in the game is to recruit useful NPCs to the player's Cohort to choose from in the case of a dead PC. Another option is the player to ask permission from the group to use an NPC member of the Entourage, the group's pool of NPCs. They may play that NPC character temporarily or permanently. Only rolling-up a character between sessions if you wish to do so with DM's permission.
I hope, Followers & Hirelings will help smooth out common bumps in your Long Term Campaign sessions thanks for reading.
Terms to Know:
Entourage: All the PCs & NPCs
together.
Cohort: Includes all NPCs loyal to one PC.
Follower / NPC: Individual, low-level laborer, curious of adventuring, gains no experience points free to come and go.
Higherling / NPC: Individual, general laborer contracted, gains experience points. Loyal to the PC & coin purse.
Mercenary / NPC: Individual, skilled laborer, contracted armed fight worthy, gains experience points and a ¼ share of the loot.
Pundits / NPC: Individual, short contracted, educators / trainers / sages, NPCs who don’t typically adventure, but help PCs with leveling learning new abilities / spells etc.
Morale Check: The better of Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma Ability.
Loyalty Score: option
Followers & Hirelings - Part 1
These ne’er-do-wells are loyal to the character’s coinage not the party, they work together for the individual PC as a “Cohort” yet have separate motivations from the PC. When on a quest, expect to be paid & fed. This is their way of avoiding a life of hard labor being a slave, peasant, or ending up in a stockade.
Followers: Typically, of poor economic lifestyles. Followers Expect to be fed & sheltered for helping. Followers make great torch bearers, water bearers, arms & armor caddies. They carry your stuff but dare not fight. They will drop the gear running home if cornered, they have no level and 1d4 hit points.
Homesick: Followers have an approximate range of a 25-mile radius from home. From then, followers have a chance to become Homesick roll a morale check. The PC treatment of the follower can positively or negatively effect the follower. Followers must make morale checks every morning beyond the 25-mile radius from home whilst in the wilderness. Followers may abandon the party to get home or resent the character for forcing them to stay or renegotiate the follower’s contract and become a Hireling.
Hirelings: Expect to be fed, sheltered, and be paid an agreed upon base pay, with a bonus share of the loot when successfully completing an adventure, typically 5-20% of PCs loot.
Game Expectations:
Players are expected to run and upkeep their Cohort of followers, hirelings, animals and create personalities for them during adventures. (Players: Remember the Cohort is a pool of replacement player characters, so roleplay them accordingly and try not to kill them.)
The Cohort :
Keep in mind that the Cohort is a pool of helping NPCs for the character to share the load and the Cohort to earn the freedom from serfdom, also functions as a pool of ready-made replacement characters. So if a player's main character dies, the player may to choose to play a new character from the Cohort permanently or temporarily, to not interrupt the game and the player can quickly move on from the character death. Then, in between sessions, the player may roll-up a new character 3 levels of experience points, behind the highest-level character.
None of the Cohort or Entourage are to be in the spotlight of the story, expected to go that extra mile as full PCs do. They’re not going to be the ones scouting ahead in the deadly dark monster infested cave systems or try to open the lock to a trapped chest. Their loyalty is primarily to one PC and their coins, to shoulder some extra weight give a hand, when possible, but not be the party’s meatshields. They have some staying power, but if mistreated, they will walk away, spread rumors of poor pay, mistreatment, and the adventurers’ incompetence. So, the player has a big heavy backpack with a few weeks of Rations, coins, a bulky sleeping bag, coil of 100′ of rope with a grappling hook etc... Good luck fighting or being stealthy with that on your PC. Give that load to the cohort and tell them to come to the front when you need equipment or armaments. Who is typically holding the lantern, well an encumbered armored Cohort, that’s who.
Pundits: Educated NPCs who don’t typically adventure. They educate characters to unlock class abilities & levels. While researching & teaching characters, Pundits expect to be paid very well, deserve to be well-respected, and characters should expect witty expensive or esoteric haggling from Pundits. Pundits are significantly more costly. For example, costs per month: Alchemist 1,000 gp, Animal Trainer 500 gp, Armorer 100 gp, Blacksmith 750 gp, Cartographer 300 gp, Engineer 750 gp, Magic-user 3,000+ gp, Priest 3,000 gp Sage 2,000 gp,
Followers: 0 level low skilled workers cost 5sp to 10gp per month jobs range from guides, pack & torchbearers, camp attendants/cooks to guards & lookouts. Followers usually do not have a class and level, they will have a very specific task they’re engaged to undertake for a fixed salary guard this camp while we’re gone, escort us from point A to point B. Exploring and looting a monster-filled dungeon is beyond the scope followers are morally capable of doing. The closest you would get is having the followers guard the packhorses outside a dungeon entrance and help safely transport any treasure back to safety. If cohorts get killed frequently in your service, it will be exceedingly difficult to attract more in this part of town, word travels fast round here.
Mercenaries: 3 levels lower than the PC they are trained workers, and they cost 20-350gp/ per month per level. For example, costs per month: footman 20gp, heavy footman 30gp, archer 50gp, light cavalry 100gp, Dwarven mounted crossbowman 150gp, Elvin longbowman 200gp, heavy cavalryman 300gp, elven mounted bowmen 350gp If the PCs want the mercenaries to accompany them into a dungeon or into some other type of battle, they earn a bonus of the character’s loot, typically 5-20%. However, to maintain your Mercenaries’ morale, arms & armor must be kept in good working repair you would also need to hire an armorer for 100gp/ per month per level who will tend to all your and mercenaries’ gear upkeep. Spy 500 gp (per mission, not per month), Sailor 15 gp / Rower 10 gp, Navigator 150 gp, Captain 250 gp
Consequences of Mistreatment
Followers & Mercenaries earn a death benefit payable to their families or loved ones 1000 gp for mercenaries and 200 gp for tagalongs. Further, the Loyalty system below applies, when appropriate, the NPC rolls 3d6 against their loyalty score, and DM may add positive or negative modifiers to the roll according to the situation no more than a +/-5 or just adjudicate the situation. If the result exceeds their loyalty score, they flee or otherwise stop helping. If the NPC loyalty score reaches 20, then the NPC doesn’t have to roll. But in all cases, if the NPC feels abused, dreadful things may happen.
Hirelings & Loyalty: Loyalty is an optional rule you can use to determine how far an NPC party member will go to protect or assist the other members of the party (even those they don’t particularly like). NPC party members who are abused or ignored are likely to abandon or betray party members. Whereas an NPC who owes a life debt to characters or shares their goals might fight to the death for them and their cause.
Loyalty should be role-played or represented by this rule. Loyalty Score NPC’s loyalty is measured on a numerical scale from 0 to 20. The NPC’s maximum loyalty score is equal to the highest Charisma score among all adventurers in the party, and its starting loyalty score is half that number. As the game progresses the DM rises or lowers the NPC’s Loyalty based on the actions of an individual PC or the Party. If the highest Charisma score changes, perhaps a character dies or leaves the group-adjust the NPC’s loyalty score accordingly.
Thanks for reading Zimzimdars OSR Campsite.
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