> >> But it's also a trope of most heroeic stories
> that
> >> the followers are there to 'take a bullet" for
> the
> >> heroes, if they are mentioned at all.
> > True, but....
> >
> > let me quote at you a bit of the tactics notes
> from an
> > NPC I believe you wrote up, and who personally I
> > regard as the ultimate PC.
> > "Kallyr protects Ernaldesta whenever she
> accompanies the band into combat."
>
> Aaaaand the important word is "most" (heroic
> stories). Most is, as I know you are well aware, not
All.
I am fully aware of this (not being Orlanthi). But the minority areas do need to be made possible as well. "Most" and "normal" are not what PCs do...
> As far as your dungeon-bashing crack, followers
> dying in droves comes from
> millenia before Gygax and Arneson - Odysseus had
> twelve ships (approx. 600
> men) when he left for Troy. And he had how many men
> when he returned?
I have a nasty suspicion that many of them got home well before he did, having had the sense to avoid his sillier detours. But I doubt if he *deliberately* treated them as ablative armour. That was in the days when heroes led from the front. Going for a slightly more modern example, Harold's housecarls carried on fighting after he was shot in the eye (or whatever). They didn't suffer a level worse damage and all drop even deader than he was on the spot.
> I think the tactics notes for the various heroes
> came from Greg, and I just
> added numbers, but it's been a while.
Fair enough, but you take my point. It's regarded as valid tactics by someone who some PCs at least might regard as a role-model to emulate.
> Anyway, if Robin is still reading... What happens
> to followers can be
> another place to put some effort in alternatioves.
Yes.
> And another one from me: What can you do to a
> defeated enemy (as in "I tie him up...then slit his
throat").
The Swords PCs seem to be making a habit of taking defeated enemies as followers. Well, except for when they kill them, chop the heads off and burn the bodies. I really must introduce a moderating influence to suggest ideas in between these two extremes, I mean they're not even looting.... oh hang, on, I did, didn't I? :)
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