Hirelings: should they “improve”?
A player asked me: “What about my hireling? Does he level too?”
That’s a nice question that as far as I know isn’t covered by core rules.
I thought, like, adding a skill point every time the related character level ups could be nice. What do you think?
When your hireling prevailed despite overwhelming odds, they gain another point to distribute between their skills.
When you spend time and effort, training with a hireling, they gain 1 point in a skill related to your class.
Works as custom moves.
Maybe a bit too strong, if you ask me. And kind of pointless. Hirelings are meant to be disposable, right? Every miss result is an opportunity to kill or seriously maim a Hireling. They don’t tend to last long.
If one is lucky enough to survive an adventure though, then give him all the points you can justify 🙂
Maybe tag them like items?
I don’t tell them the stats so if I want them to get better they do. 1 point per level works if they have multiple stats. One stat probably makes them too strong to fast… maybe meh
Daniel Kellett How does that even work? Many of the Hireling skills is just a bonus to some roll or stat?
Kasper Brohus TLDR: Most of time it’s fine. when it’s not I would change it or ignore it.
 Adepts burglars and minstrels are fine unless you bother to keep track of how much money they have. Priests don’t work but I would probably change it to “If your wounds are tended by a priest gain +1 to last breath and heal all your hit points when making camp”  if I ever used one. Protectors I feel take up too much screen time unless you had a small party or they’re directly controlled by the player(which I feel makes them the players property and makes screwing with them a much harder move. (Hard moves can surprise the player but if they leave the player feeling violated something weird is happening)
trackers and warriors work fine unless you’re OCD
Kasper, hirelings might be disposable in your game, but they’re not in mine. I see nothing that suggests they’re meant to be.
Adrian Brooks Well, that was the impression I got from reading page 36 in the book. The “to the players they are a resource” part specifically helped that.