"When the Duke of Alba set out from northern
Could be interesting if every henchmen you wanted to bring on an adventure had 0-2 followers with him - wife, kids, whatever - or perhaps the requirements for strongholds (1 armorer for X troops) were carried over to expeditions as well. In truth, the added annoyance would probably guarantee my players would never use henchmen (or henchman - 10,000 gp in their pockets, and the most they would ever hire was one guy, with a few hit points, who always managed to die within an hour of leaving town ... Gygax help me, I tried).
The K.A.Pendragon game's "4 knights going to tourney = 30 people + 45 horses" is a touchstone of mine.
ReplyDeleteIMG starting adventurers may only have a single Sancho Panza NPC for the entire party, but by mid-levels we generally end up with entourages of positively Hackmasterish proportions (apprentices/squires/acolyte/proteges, drinking buddies, heralds, servants, muleskinners, cooks, hangers-on/leeches, etc.)
Some of the henchies have minor mechanical effects, others are just there for colour and lugging ability.
I like the sound of that!
ReplyDeletea big slice of the followers would have been prostitutes.
ReplyDeleteWhich would make them only slightly less honorable than your average adventurer ;)
ReplyDelete