RPing cohorts

[the_mighty_agrippa]

Any tips out there for distinguishing your cohorts from your main character? I've tried to adopt different voice, different vernacular, etc.

Just wondering what you all might have done to make the cohort come to life.

Thanks!

 

[Altalazar]

Do you run them yourself (not the DM?)

I run all NPCs in my game, though obviously cohorts and such take a lot of direction from the PCs who they serve.

In older play (1E) I ran a lot of followers and others with my PCs, including a whole mini-mercenary band of fighters (sofa-slayers) - there, the peons I just ran in combat but didn't really have them interact.

The key players I made up whole characters for and played each as if it were a PC. I never really did voices - more of a different manner of thinking and reacting when controlling the actions of a particular character. Voices can certainly add to it, but there can be other distinctive character traits, such as manner of speaking (choice of words) and typical reactions to certain stimuli (RUN AWAY!).

 

[CCamfield]

I've never RP'd a cohort but as Altalazar suggested, try to think of them as a distinct personality. (I've never had any luck keeping an accent going, and I don't think they really add that much.)

Perhaps you could select one or two things they might disagree with your PC on, like their choice of combat tactics. ("Enemies? Charge!" "No, wait sir, we will fight better if we cautiously scout the area first." "You fool! There's no glory in that!") It could also be more mundane stuff like what they like to do to relax, f'r ex maybe s/he is a heavy drinker, or prefers to stay in his room reading, or what have you.

 

[Henry]

One of the best suggestions I've seen is to let another player play the cohort; that way, the cohort doesn't languish as just another splinter personality of its master, and also it keeps him from being ignored by the DM, who has enough to do running all the other NPC's as it is.

If another player consents to running him, you get someone who is agreeable most of the time, but not always...

 

[DM2]

LOL yes! I'll get David to run your cohort!

DM2, one of agrippa's DMs (the second one, *wink*)

 

[DiFier]

In our current game there are only 2 players. we each have a cohort. basically we each created the other player's cohort. So I play the other player's cohort and she plays mine. It works well. especially since our two charachter's now live a weeks travel on ship away from each other. When we are all together as a group the cohorts are kinda side lined but I still control her corhort in combat and vise versa. We recently had an occasion where the PC were working together and the cohorts were babysitting. But the cohorts had some fun. That was rather enjoyable.

the question is when another player is playing your cohort how do you keep the cohort form being just like that PC. IF the cohort is different enought then it is possible no matter who is playing them

 

[hong]

In our current game there are only 2 players. we each have a cohort. basically we each created the other player's cohort. So I play the other player's cohort and she plays mine.

Kinky!

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I'll have to see how things go with us. I just picked up the first active cohort in our campaign (Someone else has one but is unknown/unseen by the group] and the way we are planning on it is the Player controls advancement and all combat actions, and the DM Controls it otherwise. In a few more weeks we may have a better idea on how this works.

 

[Vaxalon]

I think cohorts, when used properly, offer the opportunity for troupe play very similar to how it was handled in Ars Magica.