Experienced Hotbloods & Other Hirelings

[Sir Brad]

Ok! an adventuring Party walks in to a Tavern.

sounds like the first line of any one of a Hundred Gaming Jokes, but in Classic DW it's how PC groups find Sword Fodder, I Mean Help, but for an experienced party Hotbloods and 1st Rank Knights & Barbarians just won't cut it, they need access to more variety and more skilled Sidekicks.

anyway Back in the Day I added Mystics and Sorcerers to the list of folks you could just pick up in a Bar (though it's a tough ask to do so), but also the chance that you can pick up Characters above 1st rank (An other Tough ask but possible)

An other thing that bugged me was Hotbloods went from just a Dude to 1st rank knight after six adventures, their was no progression in between, this encouraged PC's to be less than careful with the Hotbloods they picked up because their was little incentive to keep them around from one adventure to the next, so why not get them killed off instead of themselves?

But first what are the chances of picking up an experienced Adventurer in a Tavern? and how good will the Guy be?

Village- 2nd Rank Knight or Barbarian 5% 3rd Rank Knight or Barbarian 1%. 1st Rank Mystic or Sorcerer 5%, 2nd Rank Mystic or Sorcerer 1%. Check each Month.

Roadside Inn- 1-2 2nd Rank Knights or Barbarians 10%, 3rd Rank Knight or Barbarian 5%. 1-2 1st Rank Mystics or Sorcerers 10%, 2nd Rank Mystic or Sorcerer 5%, 3rd Rank Mystic or Sorcerer 1%. Check each Week.

Town- 1-2 2nd Rank Knights or Barbarians 10%, 3rd Rank Knight or Barbarian 5%. 1-2 1st Rank Mystics or Sorcerers 10%, 2nd Rank Mystic or Sorcerer 5%, 3rd Rank Sorcerer 2%. Check each Month.

Castle- 1-3 2nd Rank Knights or Barbarians 20%, 3rd Rank Knight 10%. 1-2 1st Rank Mystics or Sorcerers 15%, 2nd Rank Mystic or Sorcerer 10%, 3rd Rank Sorcerer 5%. Check each Week.

This is in addition to the chance of finding Hotbloods and 1st rank Knights or Barbarians. members of the Adventuring Professions beyond 1st rank  will not join a party unless their is at least one member of that group of equal or higher rank without significant inducement (ie. a cut of the parties Treasure in addition to their Fee and what ever Loot they can carry out themselves). Adventures base their Fees on their Experience charging 10 Florins per Rank per Day with Sorcerers demanding an additional 50% surcharge for the special skill they they bring to the Endeavour and to compensate them for the additional Personal Risk and expenses they are likely to incur.

Next: Experienced HotBloods

 

[Sir Brad]

Ok part 2

Back in the Day their where Five Combat Factor points and 4 HP between some Guy working in a Field and a 1st ranked knight, then we got Book 4 and two more Factor Points difference between the Bloke working the Smithy and your Sorcerers Meat Shield, I mean Knightly Companion. Any way it Bugged me that just by following some PC's around for half a year (about the game time it takes to knock over six adventures including Healing and Travel) some NPC can jump from normal Human Combat Factors and HP to Rank 1 Knight, I mean after six outings they go to bed one night and when they wake up the Ability & Equipment Faeries have visited and they are a Rank 1 Knight with Full Kit. Anyway I came up with a bunch of tables that ment you could Hire more experienced Hotbloods and could track the development of the NPC on their journey from "Just some Guy" to a full Fledged Adventurer.

I broke the Development down in to 9 "Improvement Points" that could be gained either by participating in Adventures or spending time Training (three Months of Intensive Training or six months of normal training), now Following Adventures around counts as both as you learn things on Dungeon Crawls and the Marching too and From Underworlds builds Fitness (and therefore HP) plus sparing with PC's and the other Hotbloods helps develop Combat Skills, also standing Watch teaches you to stay sharp (Develops Perception) and when to Keep Quite (Stealth).

anyway rough guide is each adventure a Hotblood completes earns them an IP and the Training they do between adventures roughly equates that every 2nd adventure scores them an additional IP. (I'll post a more Complex Method later if folks are Interested)

now what do IP get you? (or the NPC in this case) well 1 IP buys a Combat Factor Point or 2 HP, But you can only buy 2 Attack, 2 Defence, 1 Evasion, 1 Stealth, 1 Perception and two lots of HP, and the Real Kicker is if you (or the NPC in this case) is Spending you/Their Bonus IP that you get every 2nd Adventure you can't buy the same Improvement Twice.

Now Hireling Experienced (or at least some with some Training) Hotbloods may sound nice but how dose one go about it? well once you find Hotbloods in the normal manner each has a 50% chance of having some Experience or Training equal to D8 IP and any HotBlood will demand 1 + IP Florins per day for their Services (you are paying for what you get).


Option: to avoid leaving Players out of a game due to Character Death or some other unfortunate occurrence allow the Players to use Hotbloods as Back Up Characters, any Player that shows an Interest in a individual Hotblood should be allowed to guide the NPC's development (if they are bean carried over from adventure to adventure) and have First Dibs on that NPC as a back up character.

Next: Equipping Hotbloods.

 

[Sir Brad]

OK this one is just a bunch of (D6) tables, and to make it compatible with Both Editions I'm leaving out Specific Names on armour types and just referring to them by their AF

Weapon Type
1- Cudgel (D3,3 points)
2- Mace, Flail, Short Spear, Hand Axe (D6, 3 points)
3- Mace, Flail, Short Spear, Hand Axe (D6, 3 points)
4- Mace, Flail, Short Spear, Hand Axe (D6, 3 points)
5- Short Sword (D8, 3 points)
6+- Sword (D8, 4 points), Warhammer (D10, 3 points) or War Axe (D6, 5 points)

Armour Type
1- AF1
2- AF2
3- AF2
4- AF3
5- AF3
6+- AF4

Shield
1-3 No
4-6 Yes

Cash
D6 + IP Florins

Other Equipment
a small amount of Reasonable Equipment as determined by the GM including a Back Pack

the Hotblood has a pool of modifiers equal to their number of IP/2 to spend these the Player or GM must declare their use before any table is Rolled.