Enlistment of Hirelings

[this needs a note about charisma]

For details regarding the relationship between characters and hired persons, see Hirelings.

Hirelings are paid per month, up front, before they participate in any activity. It is presumed for game purposes that player characters have some reasonable ability to determine the quality of persons applying to be hired, and that given the time and circumstances of the campaign setting that most persons are much more loyal and respectful than in the present day. As such, it is presumed that a hireling will not flee with their wages, unless the employer deliberately accepts hirelings of poor quality (see below).

When enlisted, hirelings will provide the base materials necessary to perform their jobs. For example, men-at-arms will provide their own armor and weapons; artisans will have the specialized tools necessary to perform their work; a rider will typically provide their own horse; a scribbler their own pens. However, it should be noted that permanent structures will not be made available by the hireling, such as laboratories, forges, ships and boats, office furniture and so on. These things will have to be provided by the employer.

Methods of Location

There are four basic methods of seeking persons who can be enlisted as hirelings:

Frequenting Inns & Taverns will cost characters 5 g.p. per day in bribes, drinks and other insundries, enabling them to interview enough persons to have a chance of locating reputable hirelings. By this method, the character makes a wisdom check. If the check succeeds, the enlistment of a hireling will be successful that day. The character may make an attempt to locate a hireling once per day, to a limit of one day per 1,000 persons (with a minimum of once) that inhabit the city, town or village, per month. This means that if a given city were to have a population of 8,000, the character could attempt to find hirelings in that city eight days out of every month, indefinitely. A city with more than 30,000 persons can be searched every day without fail.

Hiring a Crier will cost characters 20 g.p. per day. The crier being hired must be a local resident, who will carry the respect and trust of those who hear. A crier will drive potential hirelings to the character, freeing the character to act otherwise for the main part of the day. Hiring a crier will allow the character to make two wisdom checks per day, the success of each resulting in an enlisted hireling. Since criers are in high demand, a crier may only be hired once per 3,000 persons that inhabit the city, town or village, per month. Thus, in a city of 8,000 persons, a crier could be hired three times per month.

Posting Notices in Public will cost characters a flat outlay of 50 g.p. To do so, however, requires that the character be able to prove residence, have a writ of passage, be a member of a local guild or in some similar way show themselves to be a citizen of worthy standing. Over the space of a week, posting notices will enable the character to make one wisdom check per 1,000 persons that inhabit the city, town or village. Each successful roll will result in an enlisted hireling.

Hiring Agents to Seek Prospects will cost characters a flat outlay of 10 g.p. per prospect sought. No roll must be made, as the agents who have been hired will provide the enlisted hirelings as requested. The maximum number that can be enlisted by this method will be equal to one hireling per 500 persons that inhabit the city, town or village. An agent will take a minimum of two weeks to provide up to twenty hirelings, then an extra week over and above that for each additional twenty hirelings desired. Thus, to provide 100 hirelings would require six weeks.

Nature of Hirelings

When obtained, hirelings will typically possess a morale of 9 (several factors may adjust this number). Ability stats can be rolled, usually with 3d6. Most hirelings, those who possess one amateur skill (see Sage Abilities) will not have an experience level. All hirelings who possess an authority-level skill, a study or a knowledge field will have one or more experience levels.

Players who have successfully obtained more hirelings than they actually want will likely want lists of ability stats and personal skills that will enable them to choose the best candidates for enlistment. It should be assumed that characters cannot distinguish the difference between one potential candidate and another from a surface interview, and that the hireling enlisted was, in the opinion of the character at the time, the best person for the job. This will save enormous amounts of time.

Types of Hirelings

There are many, many varieties of hireling that can be hired. At the moment, this list is a placeholder for additional content to be added later. For the present, I will add a link for the one type that was requested by my campaign: the mercenary.

Poor Hirelings

Characters who are desperate for any hireling may choose to ignore their wisdom checks and merely accept any person who applies. The purpose of the wisdom check above is to enable the character to disregard an unworthy applicant ~ but the character may choose to hire them nonetheless, from desperation or from the surety of knowing the hireling cannot escape (for shipboard crew, for example).

In such cases, the hireling should be judged to have a base morale above nine. A d6 is rolled, resulting in a morale of 12 [1-3], 11 [4-5] or 10 [6].

Such persons will be of low character. Each day that they are required to work, the hireling should make a morale check ~ a failure will result in one of three possible effects. In each case, the hireling will have:

• done something grossly incompetent, resulting in something of value being wasted or damaged. Roll randomly among items/materials the hireling regularly affects.
• acted dishonestly, rolling a d20 on a list including theft of something worth less than 5 g.p. [1-5], drunkenness [6-9], deliberate failure to work or accomplish anything [10-17], lying in a way that causes someone else to act incompetently [18-19] or acting in a manner that allows an outsider to make use of tools, facilities or the name of the employer [20].
• initiated an aggressive encounter with a co-worker, a guest of the employer, a tradesperson or other outsider, chosen by the DM. Such disputes will usually result in a minor fracas, a point or two of damage and potentially an unwillingness to participate together among co-workers, or a refusal to provide services by outsiders.

Hirelings of this type may have their morale improved by a forced situation in which they have to act in a positive manner. They will never, however, cease to be some sort of problem.

See Also,
Campaign

Hirelings