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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8497432" data-attributes="member: 82106">I don't follow. Henchmen are constructed in basically the same fashion as any other PC, are they not? Certainly before the introduction of the 1e DMG in 1979 there were no rules for rolling up beyond "3d6 in order 6 times." They had the same class choices, etc. Since there were no other rules for them of which I'm aware it is impossible to say if they were 'different' in some way, that would have been a choice dictated by an individual GM. If we take the 1e DMG henchmen rules as roughly how Gygax did it, then they might have had less equipment, perhaps? Usually the first treasure haul rectified any such lacks. As for the personality, our experiences may differ I guess? PCs had precious little personality in most cases to start with, its hard to go down from there!There are hard limits imposed by Charisma, though even a 12 will let you get up to 4 'hirelings' (the term henchmen and any distinction between them and hirelings is purely an invention of AD&D). I'd note that the limits in 1e are, IIRC, somewhat lower, but only apply to true henchmen. Thus, going by the rules on PP10-13 of Men & Magic, a starting first level party would be hard-pressed to get much, as each hireling requires a minimum of 100gp to enlist! Granted, once a party has delved a few times it would be possible to have 20, sure. I only rarely saw anything like this, and in those cases they were mostly AD&D hirelings, 0 level non-advancing humans who can be hired for perhaps a dozen GP or less and wouldn't even HAVE stats.We did often allow 2 PCs, but again I would say that was not super different from henchmen, per se. Also remember that the original rules are a bit different in that they emphasize leadership and service. Monsters can be attracted to your service with reaction checks! Charm is a permanent condition, and it isn't all that unusual to have charmed servitors. Monsters could also be subdued (again refer to Men & Magic in the 'NPCs' section around P12). So, the game, as originally written, was intended to allow for an entourage, and indeed was built on the chassis of Chainmail where 'heroes' are leaders of armies.Anyway, I still contend that a lot of groups had and allowed for a type of entourage, though the Gygaxian conceit of PCs each having their own wasn't that common IME. The party itself was more of a collective entourage, whereas in the Ur Campaigns it seems there were dozens or 100's of players and they formed parties on an ad-hoc basis. We were not gifted with such numbers of players! If we had 5, that was super, but I only remember having maybe 20 players in a group once or twice in the mid 80s. At that point things did take on a bit more of the form that Gygax seems to envisage.</blockquote>

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