Follower abilities

From: Benedict Adamson <badamson_at_...>
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 16:35:15 +0000

I wrote:
...
> we now
> strictly enforce a rule that (for extended contests) follower
> abilities are useful only for increasing your AP totals.
...
wulfcorbett replied:
> Hold on, you are saying if your warrior is Injured, his healer
> follower isn't allowed to heal him? If your merchant is ambushed on
> his way to market, his bodyguard stands back and watches? That
> doesn't sound right (and it's contrary to the leader templates in BA)
> - and makes followers totally useless in Simple Contests.
...

It IS a tough rule. And we don't claim it to be official. We were initially unsure about strictly enforcing it.

First of all, the healer *can* heal the warrior. This is represented by the healer providing APs during the extended contest. The healing (APs provided by the follower), in effect, allows you to keep fighting (bidding APs) when you would otherwise have been incapacitated by injury (driven to negative APs).

The bodyguard does not 'stand back and watch'. Followers who provide APs can be (and usually are) actively doing things. But the dramatic focus is on the player character. The DESCRIBED events are about what the merchant does. The bodyguard will fight more skilfully, but the merchant's fighting (for better or worse) is more interesting. The merchant, of course, doesn't just stand there either. Neither is the merchant helpless. He might have only Close Combat(staff) 13, but he will have many APs.

The rule ensures that the player characters, rather than the supporting characters, are the focus of action.

As for simple contests, we handle them differently. We would allow the follower's ability to augment the character's ability. As you have pointed out, the rule for automatic augments is useful here.