Full context can be found here:
http://www.herewardslegion.info/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=GameChronicles
And the Pavis chapter is what you want. Probably starting part-way through, with "The previous resident" section.
Precis of context: an NPC Humakti leader called Vur (from an obscure subcult) has been trying to find an ancient lost temple to his sub-cult in the Rubble for perhaps the last decade. The PCs (different Humakti warband and obscure sub-cult) have just waltzed in and found it in the first week or arrival. They've done a lot of the exploration already, but as they did so, Vur's scouts have surrounded them. They're now going to go and talk to him and try to convince him to be friends and allies. The latest PC to join is a member of Vur's obscure sub-cult, and he's the one acting as an intermediary. Vur has all sorts of useful abilities like "paranoid", "distrust anyone not of my sub-cult", and so on.
> > OK. Though some of them are applying more than one augment,
> where they have
> > "always on" abilities. Which number does the follower's
> augment get applied to?
>
> Whichever is appropriate, I would say. I wonder if this is a
> question of your
> tendency to make followers more "allies" than followers.
I see them as people. Probably one of the results of my being very much a role-player not a rule-player, and why I get so confused.
> If they are followers (rules-wise) then they only have a few attributes,
> and it should be fairly easy to see which one they apply to.
They all have a keyword of "Humakti warrior" or some equivalent (possibly other cults), and they're using their "loyal to leader" or "loyal to rest of warband" ability, or something like it, off that. This is why they're being used as pure Greek Chorus, they just don't have any more appropriate abilities.
> If they have their own character
> sheets, then they are allies and should be able to apply
> directly to the lead PC. (as I would rule it, anyway.)
Maybe that's the "problem", yes. Some of these people are ex-PCs, or designed as replacement PCs, and while they're currently NPCs on the same side as the PCs, they're fully detailed. Only, currently, acting as followers.
> > Another of those areas where I've never understood how rules map to
> > reality.
>
> Like active vs augment-only magic? (That's the one that
> always does it for me.)
(groan) Don't go there. At least, not in this thread.
> If a PC has a
> follower that's a Bodyguard, and has "Looks Tough" and having
> tough-looking
> back up is the appropriate modifier (since the main PC is
> talking about how
> tough the Legion is) then the PC who has the follower is
> augmenting the main
> PC with his follower's "Look Tough" ability.
I thought we said the follower could only augment the PC they belong to? So the PC uses their own "look tough", but at (say) 19 not 17 because the follower gives them a +2?
> In this case, depending on how the main PC's trying to
> persuade Vur to
> acknowledge these things, only some stats are going to apply
> as useful
> augments. ("Look trustworthy" or some such if the PC is going
> the "anything
> you could say to me can be said in front of my men" route,
That's about it - more like "these are my oath-sworn friends, and I trust them with our secrets", augmented by "yes, I did swear an oath, and my devotee of Humakt rating is X so I'm not likely to break it", and similar things.
> I get the feeling there is some element we are talking past each other on
> this, and that it might do with your mention that your
> followers aren't really followers, but NPC allies.
Maybe. On the PCs' side, what we've got is "members of the Legion present but not currently run by a player". Which in some cases is because the player's on holiday... Which character sheet they get listed on is variable - assignment to a Ten within the Legion is at the discretion of the Warleader, not the PCs. As I say, they're people.
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