An Army in the Dungeon

Dungeons & Dragons' roots stretch all the way back to wargaming and it has a subtle influence on play that's sometimes forgotten today. Early D&D relied heavily on henchmen and hirelings, who often rounded out a group that could number as high as 20 members. This sort of play affected the kinds of D&D, from expectations on mortality rate to distribution of treasure.

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Hirelings

Hirelings were hired soldiers of a variety of types, the true cannonfodder who were risking their lives for coin. Hirelings were governed primarily by how much the PC could spend, but Charisma played a role in attracting them. Additionally, PCs could attract more by establishing a stronghold.

Morale was an important part of managing hirelings. Rather than make these NPCs suicidal drones who did whatever the PC wanted, morale was introduced to provide a mechanic to manage them without requiring the DM to control all of their movements. A PC who abused his hirelings risked them quitting.

Henchmen

Henchmen were non-player characters who had a wide range of abilities, like player characters. They could be just about anything, but their loyalties varied by their relationship with the PCs.

The distinction is significant. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons often presented classes in Dragon Magazine that were considered too powerful for players to use but could make interesting henchmen. This practice gave rise to the "NPC class" which was often used by players anyway, from anti-paladins to death masters.

Henchmen were a part of regular play -- they gained experience points at a slower rate than PCs, but they still advanced -- and were thus these additional characters were usually run by the player herself. In this regard henchman served a variety of roles, including as backup PCs should the PC die. As an extension of the PC, the number of henchmen were dictated by the PC's Charisma stat. Henchmen filled important support: healers, torchbearers, and baggage carriers who took loot out of the dungeon while the PCs continued on.

How it Affected the Game

A mass of people moving through a dungeon changes a lot of dynamics in adventure design. Loot that could be pried up, that was heavy, that was not easy to carry, could be relegated to hirelings. Traps could be numerous because few PCs would put themselves at the front of the party. Non-combat characters like wizards could use their henchmen and hirelings to fill in their own combat weakness. Henchmen and hirelings were part of the army-building that was D&D's roots, as we discussed back when "name level" was a goal for PCs to aspire to. Peter V. Dell'Orto, who co-wrote the GURPS supplement, Henchmen, said:
Personally, I think the "meatshields," "mine detector," and "potion drinker" approach shows the wargaming roots of D&D. In a persistent wargame setting, it makes perfect sense to risk your least experienced and least valuable resources on the unknown. In a game growing out of a tabletop wargame, where you are moving your characters like pieces and promoting them between expeditions when they do well and survive . . . doing anything but expending your pawns and husbanding your queens and bishops and rooks and such would be foolish.
Henchmen and hirelings complicated the game considerably from an inventory and character management perspective, something that would likely not be nearly as feasible for later (and more complicated) editions of D&D. Encounters were freer with cash as well, because it was assumed to be spread out among the (very large) party. James Maliszewski explains:
The very fact that Grenadier produced an entire boxed set filled with torch bearers, guys toting treasure chests, and even a "potion tester" (he's figure E in the image above) tells you far more about the way D&D was played back in the day than I ever could. Old school D&D was not a game in which a small band of hyper-competent heroes braved the dangers of the world with only their swords, spells, and wits to protect them. No, they had a veritable army of hirelings and henchmen to assist them and these guys all got a share of the loot in exchange for their assistance. Considering that the life expectancy of a hireling could be measured in minutes in some cases, those that survived the dungeon certainly earned their share.
Although we don't use them nearly as much today, henchmen and hirelings were an important transitional step between PCs as leaders of armies and PCs as heroes. As D&D became more focused on the party and less about the army, they fell out of favor.
 

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Michael Tresca

Michael Tresca

And part of that came from the top: Dragon magazine authors were constantly floating trial balloons and suggesting new or different ways to do things, each of which would be adopted by some groups and not others until yes, almost everyone's game was different.

True that. That's why I take it with a grain of salt when some old-timer talks about their gritty, Combat-as-war, "We rolled 3d6 straight down and we liked it!", "You modern kids are spoiled", "We were totally immersed-not like now when its all focused on the stats", "I know the one true way that Hit Points are supposed to work.", and "Get off my lawn!" game as if it was the only way that the game could be played back then. Pretty much, if you start a sentence with "AD&D was always played..." its guaranteed to be wrong for somebody. Heck, I'm not even sure anyone can play AD&D RAW anymore.
 

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There is a difference between "Retainers" / "Henchmen" and Hirelings. Retainers / Henchmen ("Special Hirelings" in the original game) had a class (like PCs). Alternatively they might be creatures of some type. Hirelings is a reference to the mostly 0 level (unclassed) NPCs. Men at arms, blacksmiths, servants, etc. Hirelings did no rise in level or gain experience. They were "zero level".

This is a very good point... and yet.... (again from Rule Cyclopedia)

"A retainer is a person hired by a character to
help on an adventure or a series of adventures.
Retainers are sometimes called "hirelings." Retainers
are never characters run by players;
retainers are always NPCs run by the DM"

.... sigh.
 

I just looked this up the rule Cyclopedia (which is my "bible" when it comes to old D&D... I just can't research/master all the old editions, so it will have to do!)

"When the DM calculates experience points at
the end of an adventure, the total amount of experience
points earned by the group is divided
among the number of characters. A retainer gets
one share of experience just as any player character
does."

daaaaaaaamn

So Job the halfwit in charge of holding the torch and carrying the spare shovel gets full XP?
A retainer in B/X or RC = a henchman in AD&D. They get a share of XP (which is then halved when it is added to their total). But hirelings do not get a share of XP, as they are mostly zero-level, and even if not (sages (who generally won't come on adventures in any event), mercenary officers) are unable to gain levels.

Having read your later post with the quote from RC, I can only say that it seems confused compared to the clearer distinctions in AD&D and B/X.

And having read [MENTION=55149]R_Chance[/MENTION]'s post, the only thing I think that is wrong there is that there is no half-level limit on henchman/retainers. Gygax's DMG has various rules about henchman level relative to circumstances of recruitment, but no level cap that I could find on a quick scan. The PHB says nothing about it. Basic (p B21) says that a retainer (henchman) can't be higher level than the PC leader.

In practice, I think the half XP rule (which is clearly stated in both AD&D and B/X) is going to mean that levels of henchmen/retainers don't exceed those of the PCs who retain them.
 

This is a very good point... and yet.... (again from Rule Cyclopedia)

"A retainer is a person hired by a character to
help on an adventure or a series of adventures.
Retainers are sometimes called "hirelings." Retainers
are never characters run by players;
retainers are always NPCs run by the DM"

.... sigh.

The Rules Cyclopedia is one source for one edition. I have several versions of Basic D&D including it, but never played them (we did borrow from all sources as needed :) ). I played the original game, and 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D (and 3E, 3.5E and now 5E -- sorry never played 4E). The terminology has varied with the edition and has never been all that plain. 2E, iirc, defined it fairly carefully. I don't want to wake up the wife digging in my closet tonight, but I'll pull the relevant books tomorrow and go over the variations.
 

A retainer in B/X or RC = a henchman in AD&D. They get a share of XP (which is then halved when it is added to their total). But hirelings do not get a share of XP, as they are mostly zero-level, and even if not (sages (who generally won't come on adventures in any event), mercenary officers) are unable to gain levels.

Having read your later post with the quote from RC, I can only say that it seems confused compared to the clearer distinctions in AD&D and B/X.

And having read [MENTION=55149]R_Chance[/MENTION]'s post, the only thing I think that is wrong there is that there is no half-level limit on henchman/retainers. Gygax's DMG has various rules about henchman level relative to circumstances of recruitment, but no level cap that I could find on a quick scan. The PHB says nothing about it. Basic (p B21) says that a retainer (henchman) can't be higher level than the PC leader.

In practice, I think the half XP rule (which is clearly stated in both AD&D and B/X) is going to mean that levels of henchmen/retainers don't exceed those of the PCs who retain them.

I'm not positive about the level for Henchmen... that's what I recall. I'll check into it and see where I picked that up from.
 

This shifting nomenclature isn't helping isn't it?

In a somewhat high mortality game, there is a benefit to having some hireling around - if some of them stick around (ie survive), they are a pool of plausible character replacement - they can get promoted to "PC" status (first level, full XP, full treasure share) - they've demonstrated they had the gumption for it.
 

This shifting nomenclature isn't helping isn't it?
AD&D is fairly careful with it.

Moldvay Basic has retainers only (the analogue of AD&D henchmen); Cook/Marsh Expert adds hirelings, who are the same (functionally, and also in general descriptions of the various categories) as AD&D. Having just had a look at RC, it doesn't have the same clear distinction between retainers/henchmen, and hirelings. It seems to have a general category of hirelings, which includes retainers, mercenaries and specialists (in earlier editions these would be "hirelings'), and then stronghold retainers (who in earlier editions would be "followers"). I don't know if this terminological feature of RC is unique to it, or reflects changes that were made in the Mentzer versions of BECMI.

In a somewhat high mortality game, there is a benefit to having some hireling around - if some of them stick around (ie survive), they are a pool of plausible character replacement - they can get promoted to "PC" status (first level, full XP, full treasure share) - they've demonstrated they had the gumption for it.
I think this was part of the logic of it, although it's never clearly spelled out (because clarity as to how to actually play the game would be too helpful!).

EDIT: I also just noticed that RC doesn't have the "half XP" rule. It doesn't have a max level rule, but does have a "can't be recruited if more than half the PC's level" rule, with an exception for 1st level.

The lack of a henchman/hireling distinction is reinforced by the fact that candidates for hiring as retainers will include 0-level NPCs, which isn't the case in AD&D nor (I think) in B/X.
 
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And having read [MENTION=55149]R_Chance[/MENTION]'s post, the only thing I think that is wrong there is that there is no half-level limit on henchman/retainers. Gygax's DMG has various rules about henchman level relative to circumstances of recruitment, but no level cap that I could find on a quick scan. The PHB says nothing about it.
I don't know where (or even if!) I saw it but I always thought the level limit for a hench only mattered at time of recruitment or hiring. After that it didn't matter; and if the hench did really well while the boss became a wraith meal the hench could in fact end up higher level than the boss....though it occurs to me that while this outcome is perfectly plausible I've never seen it happen.

What's happened in practice IME is that if a hench survives long enough to become relevant (say, two or three or four adventures) she just ends up getting offered a full party membership, usually as an NPC but once in a while a player will take it on as a PC.

Basic (p B21) says that a retainer (henchman) can't be higher level than the PC leader.
So if the leader gets chowed down on by a wraith not only does she lose a bunch of levels but her hench as well. Nasty!

In practice, I think the half XP rule (which is clearly stated in both AD&D and B/X) is going to mean that levels of henchmen/retainers don't exceed those of the PCs who retain them.
In theory, yes. In practice, if a 3rd-level MU hires a 1st-level Thief as a hench the Thief might catch up by about 6th, because Thieves bump so fast and MUs don't. And if the MU loses a level or two along the way... :)

Lan-"In character, I've hired one hench. She later got full party membership. Then I married her. Worked out pretty well..."-efan
 

In all the games I've run across the years, I think the players have intentionally hired two henchmen. both were specific RP situations. They have certainly led anything from squads to small armies of NPCs, again for specific situations (the local lord's guardsmen, all armed with crossbows, as an ambush against a raiding giant, for one exmaple), but they never took along a posse of NPCs for other pruposes. The couple times I reinforced the sheer weight of all the coins in a hoard (one a dragon's, the other yuan-ti), they grabbed what they could, went back to town, and sold the location of the rest for a finder's fee!

We *have* used "mostly NPC" characters to flesh out a game with not enough characters, but we statted and treated them as PCs. In one case, one was an "auotmated bodyguard" for the PC warlock (the NPC was a warforged fighter); in another, the warpriest brought along an NPC acolyte out to make a name for herself (and, incidentally, was more healing oriented). In the former case, the warlock was sent off for story reasons, the bodyguard outgrew his programming and became the PC. In the latter case, the acolyte *did* make a name for herself, and left the party to pursue her own goals.
 

In all the games I've run across the years, I think the players have intentionally hired two henchmen. both were specific RP situations. They have certainly led anything from squads to small armies of NPCs, again for specific situations (the local lord's guardsmen, all armed with crossbows, as an ambush against a raiding giant, for one exmaple), but they never took along a posse of NPCs for other pruposes. The couple times I reinforced the sheer weight of all the coins in a hoard (one a dragon's, the other yuan-ti), they grabbed what they could, went back to town, and sold the location of the rest for a finder's fee!
And there, folks, is how in one campaign you set up first-level adventures for the next!

You're a first-level party and someone lets slip the location of this vast amount of leftover coin in a (supposedly) cleaned-out dungeon. Party goes there, has to deal with the minor stuff that's moved in since, and gets a nice haul...if they find it.

Lan-"and the 'finder's fee' idea is mercenary as all hell - I love it!"-efan
 

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