d100 - Hireling Hobbies or PC Pastimes

For a little diversion, here’s a table that contains a hundred ideas for Hobbies/Pastimes that might be useful for adding to Characters. Whether we’re decorating downtime descriptions, or coloring a Camping situation, I find that these can sometimes add a bit of fun details to Retainers and Hirelings, but I thought why not open this up to Player Characters as well? This might make a good Player Facing “roll or choose” type table for any Player looking to add a little more detail or embellishment to help elaborate on what their Character might find amusing or rewarding in that little bit of “spare time” they might get before, during, and after Adventuring.

Whether or not any of these passive pursuits merit tangible or mechanical impacts on the Game and its assorted Challenges however is something I’d rather leave as an exercise for the Table. I can see a few coming up in certain specialized situations, but it’s always more fun to Play in order to find things out!

d100 - Retainer Refusals & Hireling Hang-Ups

Although I do have a few prior Tables that are focused on fleshing out those “Followers” in compelling ways, for this one I decided to focus on traits and temperaments that might have the potential to create some real conflicts or discretely limit options in order to generate what might be “interesting” situations in Play.

This dovetails a bit with my overall philosophy that Hirelings/Retainers should not be thought of as robotic automatons or trap-springers: Often their sense of self-preservation should be just as strong (if not stronger sometimes!) as that of the Player Characters. Whilst risking life and limb might be par for the course to wrest those Rewards from Dangerous Places, there are lines that some simply won’t cross. This table should provide a bit of fun fodder for defining those, with the idle hope that over time, some of these “Retainer Restrictions” might even make those “Meatshields” at least a little more memorable. This could also work quite well if a Party has worn out their good-will with a local Settlement’s potential applicants, and when only the unqualified or unsuited respond to their Call to Adventure!

Naturally, I leave it as an exercise to the Referee whether or not these might come up during the Hiring Process. For some entries, the inhibition might be more obvious than others or there might be Clues. Others might work a bit better as a rather rude revelation once the Adventure has begun!