Depends.
If I have a stronghold, I use my followers to staff and guard it. The cohort becomes the seneshal, and is often a bard or similar leadery sort. Bards can make a huge difference when singing in a courtyard where 100 1st level warriors can hear him.
More often though, I'll use the cream of the followers (the higher level ones) to staff a smaller stronghold, then spread the 1st level horde all over the place. A blacksmith in this city...a farrier in that one. All of them commoners, aristocrats, or experts.
A spy network, my friend. Every so often, they send a pigeon to my spymaster cohort (whom they know only as a codename...the pigeons are provided for them already knowing where to go) with news of their end of the kingdom. Court dealings. Monster movements. Rumors and gossip. The spymaster gets it all, then weeds out the inconsequential ones.
My PC gets a monthly report, with special reports made for matters of interest or urgency.
This makes it really easy on the GM, since the network's operation is largely hands-free. All he has to decide is what hooks to use it to feed us.
If I have a stronghold, I use my followers to staff and guard it. The cohort becomes the seneshal, and is often a bard or similar leadery sort. Bards can make a huge difference when singing in a courtyard where 100 1st level warriors can hear him.
More often though, I'll use the cream of the followers (the higher level ones) to staff a smaller stronghold, then spread the 1st level horde all over the place. A blacksmith in this city...a farrier in that one. All of them commoners, aristocrats, or experts.
A spy network, my friend. Every so often, they send a pigeon to my spymaster cohort (whom they know only as a codename...the pigeons are provided for them already knowing where to go) with news of their end of the kingdom. Court dealings. Monster movements. Rumors and gossip. The spymaster gets it all, then weeds out the inconsequential ones.
My PC gets a monthly report, with special reports made for matters of interest or urgency.
This makes it really easy on the GM, since the network's operation is largely hands-free. All he has to decide is what hooks to use it to feed us.
