April Alphabet of Adventure: B

B is for Beasts that slither and bite!

April Alphabet of Adventure: A

A is for Assassins, who strike in the night!

The April Alphabet of Adventure Returns!

A few years ago, I did an April Alphabet of Adventure.  Think A is for apple, B is for Bird, except that each word had something to do with adventure.  I've decided to do it again this year, but this time I've also decided to illustrate each word.  Now keep in mind that I can't draw, so I'm sure that the pictures that I come up with will be bad, but hopefully they will also be amusing.  So, if you're interested, stop by each day to see what new wackiness I've come up with for that day. :-)

Miniatures Monday - Skeleton with Sword

A skeleton, summoned from the grave by necromatic powers, prepares its rusty weapons for battle!

Just one of a group of skeletons that I painted.  I think the rust spots on the sword came out fairly well.

Where Have all the Hirelings Gone? (and those pesky henchmen too!)

I'm pretty sure those guys with the chest aren't coming back...

Where have all the hirelings gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the hirelings gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the hirelings gone?

Monsters have eaten them every one

When will they ever learn?

When will they ever learn?

Apologies to Peter Paul, and Mary, but seriously, nobody takes hirelings on adventures anymore. In fact, the current D&D ruleset doesn't even have rules for hirelings (not Sure about D&D Next, but I'm hoping). Back in "Tymes of Yore"TM, hirelings were an essential part of a dungeon crawl.  No self respecting adventurer was going to carry their own damned torch! Also, somebody had to haul that huge chest of copper pieces back to town, and it sure wasn't going to be the magic user.  Heck, Grenadier Miniatures even put put a boxed set of hirelings, with torch bearers, chest carriers, potion testers (that one always seemed a bit cruel to me), mercenaries and other assorted utility folks.  Honestly, where do you even get a potion drinker?  Was he the guy in the village who would eat anything for a silver piece?

Potion Drinker?  Where did he go to school for that???

A couple of mercenaries were always useful when fighting hordes of goblins, kobolds and other denizens of the depths. Also, all of these NPCs presented opportunities for roleplaying in a dungeon environment.  Let's imagine for a moment that a band of intrepid adventurers has stumbled upon a mysterious shrine deep in the bowels of the earth.  Everything seems safe, but how can they be sure.  The thief could check it out, but he's almost second level.  Enter the hireling...

Grimgoth the Mighty: We should send the torch bearer in to check for traps!
Mudfoot the Torchbearer: Like Hell we should!
Mizron the Mage: That does seem a bit cruel.  Shall we vote?
Grimgoth the Mighty: Aye, we shall vote! Send the torchbearer!
Mizron the Mage: Aye!  Indeed, the torchbearer should go.
Lightfingers the Thief:  Better him than me!
Mudfoot the Torchbearer: (looking around) Crap!

Hey, I'm old.  I like old stuff. :-)

I'm quite sure that of those who even remember the prevalence of hirelings and henchman in the early days of RPGs, quite a number of them don't really miss them.  I've heard comments from people to the effect of "hirelings don't make for a heroic story", or "Conan didn't hire a torchbearer."  While I can see these points, I would argue that especially at low levels, the PCs are not mighty heroes of literature, they are adventurers, adventurers on a journey often into the uncharted depths of the earth.  To me, hirelings and henchmen accentuate the sense of an expedition.  I think back to the days of watching the old Tarzan movies, where the explorers surrounded themselves with no end of bearers, guides and other assorted local-help, not to mention hiring Tarzan to save them when things got really tough.

In games terms there is sometimes some confusion between hirelings and henchmen (sometimes called retainers).  This was in my opinion caused by the somewhat inconsistent terminology used in the early days, but for the most part, the confusion was cleared up by the first edition AD&D Players Handbook.

Hirelings are individuals such as Bearers, crossbowmen, men-at-arms, teamsters, etc.  They are employed by the PCs for a set fee.  They generally are employed for a set period of time and do not usually gain experience.  In the case of crossbowmen or men-at-arms, they will fight with the party as that's what they are payed to do, but the other non-combat hirelings will generally only fight when it is necessary for their own survival.  The PC's charisma, while affecting the loyalty and morale of Hirelings, does not restrict the number of hirelings a PC may have.

Reaper Miniatures does make a few hireling miniatures

Henchmen are a different story.  Henchmen are considered to be followers of the PC.  They travel with the PC for lodging, supports and a share of the adventuring spoils.  They also gain experience, albeit at a slower rate than the PCs, gaining only 50% of earned experience.  This is because they are not involved in the decision making process of and adventure and while controlled by the gamemaster, they generally follow the orders of the PCs, except of course in situations where the orders are not of an egregious nature.   Charisma is an important factor with henchmen, as it limits the number that a PC may have as well as affecting their loyalty.  Thus, when using hirelings and henchmen, charisma becomes a more important stat in the game and not the dump stat that it has become in later days.

Henchmen provide not only addition muscle and skills on an adventure, they can also provide a source of replacement characters.  Dungeons in the old days were deadly places, and having a henchmen along when your PC fails a save vs. poison can be a godsend.  this becomes even more important later in a campaign.  Imagine if you will, a party of 4th level character wandering deep beneath the earth, when disaster strikes.  Suppose that one of the PCs is slain, perhaps in a manner that precludes his or her being raised from the dead such as a pool of lava or acid (no body, no raise dead).  So, what is the player to do?  Go home?  Roll up a brand new first level character?  Well, if there was a henchman around, the day would be saved.   He would most likely be only second level and while that might not be ideal, that character would still be more survivable than a level 1.  

Of course hirelings and henchmen do require a bit more record keeping on the part of the GM, but I think that the benefits that they can bring to a game are numerous.  From rounding out a weak party to providing a source of easy and logical PC replacements it's hard to argue their potential value.  So, I say, "Bring on the hirelings and henchmen!"

What does everyone else think about hirelings and henchmen? 

The Lord of Plagues

Evil from the Warhammer 40K universe.  Typhus, the Herald of Nurgle spreads his plague across the galaxy!

R.I.P. Dave Trampier

Dave Trampier, who was responsible for some of the most iconic artork of the early days of Dungeons & Dragons and creator of the comic strip Wormy has died at the age of 59.

Going out in style

Skulldarr the Mighty stands amid the corpses of his fallen enemies!

R.I.P. Oderus Urungus

Dave Brockie perhaps best known for his alter ego Oderus Urungus, the lead singer for GWAR has been found dead.  He was only 50 years old.  I saw GWAR in concert in 1994 at an old roller skating rink.  It was a sight to behold.

Miniatures Monday - Skeleton with Spear

A skeleton dressed in moldering rags hefts his spear and prepares to strike!

Work in Progress Barbarians

Here are a few barbarians in various stages of completion.  Some of them have been like this for far longer than I care to admit, but hopefully at least some of them will be finding their way into a Miniatures Monday post in the near future.

The unfinished horde

Game Mastering Preferences and Indecision

Pick your poison.

Back in the day (The day being twenty to thirty years ago), I used to run games all the time.  These days I do so considerably less.  I have my excuses of course:  I've got a job, I'm busy, I'm lazy, etc.  In reality though, the truth is more complicated than that.  I'm pretty sure that what keeps me from running games these days is simply the inability to choose a system that I want to run.  Of course it was a lot easier way back when, as I didn't have that many games to choose from.  Basically I had Tunnels & Trolls, Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and The Hero System to choose from.  Today I have a lot of games to choose from and spend most of my time looking at them unable to decide.  Now there are a ton of great systems out there and many that I'm quite fond of, but when I start thinking of running a game with one of them, I start thinking of reasons why I should use a different one.  The end result is that I don't run anything.  So I decided to write this as my stream of consciousness assessment of what I look for in a game system.  First let's go over some of my general gaming preferences.

3d12 would be awesome...

DICE:  I love dice, and I own way more than anyone would ever need.  D5s, D6s, D14s, D30s, you name it, I've got it, but in truth I'm not all that keen on using funny shaped dice in actual play.  I'd rather not have to figure out which die I have to use.  I like games that use a single type of die.  The humble six-side die is pretty much tops with me.  I really like systems that use three six-sided dice to generate nice bell curves, but if there was a system that used three twelve sided dice, I'd be in heaven.  Twelve sided dice have always been my favorite shape, and a 3 to 36 range has to be good for something right?  :-)

CHARACTER CREATION:  Random character creation is fine for a quick dungeon delve, but for longer games, I prefer point-buy systems.  I like having the ability to build the character that you want within the constraints of the available points of course).  I know that it tends to be possible for players who are intimately familiar with the rules of some point-buy systems to min-max those systems and get better characters, but in truth I've seen that in non point-buy systems as well.

CHARACTER CLASSES:  I go back and forth on this one, but in general, unless it's a dungeon delving style game, I'm not a big fan.  I prefer skill based systems that allow the players to take the skills that they want.  Sure, you can have people take useless skills, but don't we all have some useless skills in real life?

COMBAT:  I like tactical combat.  I love having miniatures on the table, but I also want combat to resolve fairly quickly.  Unless it's the final big boss fight at the end of the game, I don't really much care for combats that run an hour or longer.  Now tactical combat isn't a must for me.  I'm perfectly willing to do combat theater of the mind style, but I do miss those miniatures. :-)

CRUNCHY vs. ABSTRACT:  What I mean here is having a ton of rules for situations vs. expecting more hand waving.  I'm pretty much a hand waving kind of guy.  If you come up with something cool to do, more than likely it's going to succeed because I'm entertained by things like that.  I don't much care for someone saying, "It doesn't work like that in the rules."

SINGLE BOOK vs. MULTIPLE BOOKS:  I'm pretty much a single book guy.  I like to have everything that I'll need in one place.  I've just never been a fan of having to page through multiple books to resolve a rules issue.

So there are some of my general gaming preferences.  I'll be doing a follow-up post on some of my favorite games and how they line up with my preferences, but I would be curious about what games other people think fit my preferences or about where they fall in respect to their own preferences.

Decisions, decisions...

Free Map - Outdoor in Color

Here is a map that I did for a Castles & Crusades game that I ran several years ago.  I didn't get around to including most of the place names, but I did manage to color some of it in with colored pencil.  It has sort of a Mediterranean Sea feel to it.

Free Map - Ruined Forest Temple

Here is a map I did of a ruined forest temple.  I seem to recall that there were killer monkeys in here somewhere...

There is a walled garden in the back and plenty of water to hide all sorts of nasty aquatic things.

Miniatures Monday - Black Knight

The dreaded Black Knight prepares for battle!

This miniature sat mostly finished for a couple of years because I couldn't decide on colors.  I've never had much luck painting black, so I kept considering painting the cloak and tabard some other color.  In the end, I stayed with black and did some edge highlighting to help it stand out.  I'm glad that I stayed with black and am fairly happy with the result.  He should make a good villain.