Re: Buying & increasing (follower abilities and) keywords

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From: Peter Larsen <plarsen_at_...>
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 11:04:13 -0500

At 9:41 AM -0600 3/31/04, Mike Holmes wrote:
>I'd agree that limiting a player this way would be a tad overdoing it. But I
>don't like this solution any better. I'll just be adjusting the NPCs the
>same way that I adjust the PCs, adding an appropriate amount to their
>keywords depending on downtime. Yes, this means that the player with a lot
>of followers gains more than one without in some ways. But, again, I don't
>think this is a time for "balancing" so much as for coming up with
>characters that make sense.

One balancing element is attending to the PC's relationships with their followers. Say two PCs want to maximize the usefulness of their followers, and one has a sidekick and the other has a sidekick and four retainers. The first one doesn't get to exploit AP bonuses or augments as much (and this would get more extreme as the game went on and the followers get experience), but for a fairly minimal HP cost, she can improve her relationship with the sidekick as the dangers get worse. PC 2, with his little horde, is going to have to spend a lot more HP to keep those guys happy. It's one thing when you need to talk your sidekick cousin into coming along on a trip to the Frekori tula to buy a horse; it's quite another to get your mangy band of Relationship 13 followers to fight at Iceland (or not betray you to the Lunars -- test that Relationship 13 against the Reward 10W for your head...).

Peter Larsen