I was Wrong about Hirelings

Credit: Ryan Lynch, for Perils & Princesses ... So to explain what all this is about. My Problem with HirelingsI play RPGs to watch, closely and intimately, as characters the table is enormously emotionally invested in tumble down a fantasy-shaped Plinko board.1 I want to put human agency in a body weak enough to be familiar, then pit it against the arbitrary cruelty of monsters real and imagined. These games are a ritual that indoctrinate me into believing that good people are more powerful than fate. The hireling systems I’ve previously played with were all aggressively simplified - because I have a preference for lightweight games, and because a lot of my GMs understand the philosophical arguments in favor of hirelings more than their procedural nuances. None of my friends played AD&D. Here’s a truncated hireling list from the Swords & Wizardry game I play in. Mercenaries Chuck - Bowman, 6gp/week + full share Adelhard - Infantryman (light), 4gp/week + full share Rowena -…