NPCs that Follow
I was listening to a Fear the Boot podcast on GMPCs recently, which prompted a visit to Jeremy Strandberg and Jason Lutes ‘ revisions to the hireling rules, as my DW setting is largely based on an Academy and what little of the world remains from Flood and Man’s own folly.
During the first session, my players named two NPCs–one brother, one rival–and told me why they were essential to the PCs’ lives (as well as why they’re attending the Academy).
Given the nature of the world (harsh) and the predilections of their teachers (for science!), I wrote the two NPCs first as full characters and then as Followers only, before settling on a hybrid of sorts with the mods linked below.
So far, my players have enjoyed their streamlined, yet fictionally potent allies (in our last session, a PC worked with his rival to recover an artifact from a sunken tower).
If you have any ideas on how to improve the mods or the base rules, or just want to share your favorite NPC stories, the comments are all yours. 🙂