RE: Followers augmenting question.

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 07:48:03 +0100

> It's always been my assumption that there's a simple
> trade-off that happens.
> You can either have a relationship with an NPC, in which case
> the narrator
> plays the NPC, and it has a full array of potential abilities
> that it might
> use for you, against you, whatever. Or you can have the
> relationship with a
> follower, which gives you much more control of the character
> (complete
> unless the narrator calls for a roll) at the expense of the
> follower being
> limited in scope as to what it can provide.

Yes, that's how I see it. And that makes some assumptions about the relationship between narrator and player that aren't always true.

As a player, I've been known to use one of my sidekicks against my own PC, because I know that's what the character would have done. Narrator intervention not required. I'm sure others have done the same - it's fun! After all, internal conflict within a PC's own head is fun, moving some of it out to a follower is also fun. But it depends on your roleplaying style. And all those different types of NPC - allies, dependents, and so on - give you the flexibility to do all of this.