PCs and the people that love them

[Napftor]

What that strange thread title is about is followers. Do your PCs have any and how are they used? Do they even care about them? None of my players have ever gotten around to accumulating followers. The closest we've come was a 2nd edition campaign where I had young kids emulating the PCs, going so far as to adopt variants of their characters' names and appearances.

 

[Psion]

My players are officers on a ship. The presence of the crew is sort of automatic.

'Course, nobody has taken leadership yet, so their faith may be less than perfect...

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Do your PCs have any and how are they used?

Sometimes. When we take the Leadership feat, we usually ditch the followers or leave them behind to watch the horses or hold down the fort. We keep the cohorts around though.

 

[orchid blossom]

Our campaign is a pseudo-Scottish world, and our group is a noble family. My characters followers are actually the house staff, so they stay there and keep things running while we go off and do the dangerous work.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

In the campaign I'm running at the moment, one of the characters is an older baron and is married with several children and a small keep. One of his daughters is recently married (to the bishop of the capitol of a neighboring province) and, every so often, sends him potions made by her husband. His other children may well have plot points in the future as well.

But no-one has taken Leadership yet.

 

[Wycen]

The release of 3E has virtually wiped out the henchman trade, at least in my groups. I did take Leadership for my cleric when he reached 9th level (and got a cool cohort), but beyond that game 2 years ago, there has only been 1 other PC taking Leadership and the DM for that game had a policy that your cohort didn't even follow you around. So, for as long as he was DM, I had no intention of taking the feat. Now our new game is Eberron and with a new DM, but we are 5th level, so it isn't an option yet.

 

[Galethorn]

Well...

In a star wars game I started not too long ago, one of the other PCs is an old friend of my character (we both had the same master, but he left the Order at some point), and he asked me to help him resume his training, which I have. So, technically, he's sort of an apprentice now.

In a FR game a long while back, I had a Barbarian. I rolled godly stats, led an impressive early career, and ended up taking Leadership at some point. The DM decided I attracted a female cleric of Sune as my cohort. Over the course of the campaign, they fell in love, and when the characters finally retired, we moved into the castle I had gotten from a Deck of Many Things.

Those are the only interesting followers/cohorts I can recall...

 

[Jhamin]

IMC one PC is a Cleric with Leadership. Her cohort is a bodyguard sent by the larger church to see to her safety in the wilds of the Moorlands. The temple she has built is becoming a bastion of civilization in the wilderness.

The rest of the followers are the guards at the temple and the farmers and craftsmen that have congragated around the temple. I see them as a religous enclave with the character as their spiritual leader rather than generic townsfolk.

After seeing how far a bunch of 1st level commoners would go for her, the player will now move heaven and earth for them. Don't mess with her crew.

 

[MonsterMash]

Jhamin seems to have a similar experience to mine, except my cleric isn't high enough level yet to take leadership, but because I've characterised him as being evangelical and spending money and time to build a congregation I have a following, even if they aren't followers in the strict rules sense.

 

[Henry]

In previous D&D games, there have been followers, but in all our 3E games, followers have been both hard to keep track of (for the DM) and less desired by the players. My co-DM ran a D&D game with a number of followers recently, but it lasted all of one session. It was fun to lead a horde, though.