I’m considering adding Burning Wheel style ‘wises’ to persistent hirelings- broad based competencies like ‘sailing-wise’ or ‘hunting-wise’ which could present players with a topical +1 to Spout Lore when consulting the hireling in question. Any thoughts? Cautions? The idea is to encourage players to interact with party followers and help flesh out persistent NPC companions.
Do you have the Perilous Wilds?
The follower rules there give every follower a “wise” tag. They can roll+Quality to Spout Lore on your behalf about in that wise. Or they can assist you, granting a +1 to your own role.
Kismet! That’s awesome. I’d heard that there were new follower rules- I’ll go check it out. Thank you.
Oh Jeremy Strandberg, so humble 😉
Your rules are gold! I always think of BW’s circles mechanic when using them. Jason Lutes’s little publication should be required reading in my mind. Goodness all round.
These are great, I might substitute the whole Perilous Wilds hireling ruleset in!
I asked Jeremy if I could include his follower rules in TPW because I loved how they worked when I tested them out with my group. That small increase in mechanical weight brings with it a greater narrative weight, and in our game NPCs that felt slight became suddenly more solid.
Since then I’ve gotten a better handle on how to manage *World NPCs, but I can’t imagine not using those follower rules for all of my DW games.
Yeah, so true. I treat every NPC as a potential follower and just embellish as needed. They always have a name and a knack / quirk.
I’m pretty broad with the Recruit trigger
‘When you go looking to hire help, tell the GM what you’re offering and whom you’re looking for’
The Help can be transient, or a ‘one off’, rather than a full blown follower in the traditional sense. It builds a certain PC reputation too, based on how they deal with the greater unwashed of our particular Dungeon World.
It gives the Bard some really cool fictional weight via their moves too.