Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7760810" data-attributes="member: 6873517"><p>They're not really that different IME. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Cool tale!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Absolutely. The really old skool "ensemble cast with henchmen" type style of play works great---that's how the Lake Geneva crowd did it. In many respects I like it better than traditional party play. I like a smaller group of players (2-3) so almost always the party needs some filling out. We played a lot of "ensemble cast" where the general rule was "one upper tier PC and one henchman" in a given story, with the henchman being typically about three or four levels back. Each of us had, oh, three upper tier PCs, though it varied and sometimes one would retire for good reasons---called to found a temple, for instance, or killed. In the 2E days this worked fairly well because once you got to about fifth level for the henchmen they could still contribute to a ninth level party without just dying ignominiously. </p><p></p><p>Sometimes the henchmen were super fun to play, too. One of my favorite characters was the intrepid (and foul-mouthed) Buckminster "Bucky" Burrmaster II, a halfling fighter with throwing specialization. He wasn't the sort of character I'd have played for an entire campaign but he was a blast to play when it fit. His campaign end worked, too. One of the other hench-level characters, a dwarf fighter named Borlin, was one-shotted by a greater demon the party went up against. After that, Bucky said "Well, <em>that</em> could have been me..." and decided to cash out his magic weapons and such (except for a magic dagger he kept for old times' sake) and got married to the heiress Euphemia Morris, daughter of pipeweed baron Philip Morris. Two PCs were later introduced to the campaign through his wedding....</p><p></p><p>The thing about this kind of game is that everything's clear and laid out: Hench is hench so those characters are going to be a level back and will be more crunchy than main PCs.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jay Verkuilen, post: 7760810, member: 6873517"] They're not really that different IME. Cool tale! Absolutely. The really old skool "ensemble cast with henchmen" type style of play works great---that's how the Lake Geneva crowd did it. In many respects I like it better than traditional party play. I like a smaller group of players (2-3) so almost always the party needs some filling out. We played a lot of "ensemble cast" where the general rule was "one upper tier PC and one henchman" in a given story, with the henchman being typically about three or four levels back. Each of us had, oh, three upper tier PCs, though it varied and sometimes one would retire for good reasons---called to found a temple, for instance, or killed. In the 2E days this worked fairly well because once you got to about fifth level for the henchmen they could still contribute to a ninth level party without just dying ignominiously. Sometimes the henchmen were super fun to play, too. One of my favorite characters was the intrepid (and foul-mouthed) Buckminster "Bucky" Burrmaster II, a halfling fighter with throwing specialization. He wasn't the sort of character I'd have played for an entire campaign but he was a blast to play when it fit. His campaign end worked, too. One of the other hench-level characters, a dwarf fighter named Borlin, was one-shotted by a greater demon the party went up against. After that, Bucky said "Well, [I]that[/I] could have been me..." and decided to cash out his magic weapons and such (except for a magic dagger he kept for old times' sake) and got married to the heiress Euphemia Morris, daughter of pipeweed baron Philip Morris. Two PCs were later introduced to the campaign through his wedding.... The thing about this kind of game is that everything's clear and laid out: Hench is hench so those characters are going to be a level back and will be more crunchy than main PCs. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals
Top