In one round a lifetime: round 2

In many old school games and AD&D, you hire retainers to help you in the dungeon, which can give a player lots of actions (see my last post). Does that mean tactics and consequences are more varied and fun in OSR retainer play than traditional (trad) RPG play, like D&D 5e with its multiple actions per round? For many games, I am going to say yes*. Why is there a darn asterisk by my yes? Well, please read on if you really want to know. But before I get started, I want to dedicate this post to three people: bankuei, who made an excellent Discord comment about interesting tactical play. The Knight of the Opera, who closed up their blog this week but has inspired so many good conversations over the years. Ravenwing, my OD&D level 1 elf wizard, who fell in Thracia last week. She drowned in the river, fleeing a pack of stirges she foolishly attacked. From the standpoint of a player in many OSR games, there are three phases in PC life: Phase 1: You are a single low-leveled character in a…