Hiring Retainers

Introduction

Old-School Essentials outlines fundamental procedures for locating and hiring retainers, leaving certain details, such as pay rates, to the discretion of the referee. The following segment is taken from an article in Carcass Crawler Issue #2.

Players with the Adventurer role that is given after a Player participates in a session can use the following rules to hire retainers between or before sessions with a referee's approval using the Store Record channel to record Gold Pieces spent and the Dice Commands channel to roll according the rules outlined in the following sections.

Locating Potential Retainers

Frequenting Drinking Establishments:

Spending a night buying rounds and greasing palms in taverns.

Cost: 50gp per night.
Success: 3-in-6 chance.
Method limit: Once a month in villages, once a week in small towns, twice a week in large towns, and once a day in cities.

Posting Notices of Help Wanted:

Spending a day posting notices in public places.

Cost: 25gp per day.
Success: 2-in-6 chance. Applicants apply at the specified location 1d4 days later.
Method limit: Twice a month in villages, Twice a week in small towns, three times a week in large towns, and unlimited in cities.

Training Grounds:

Visit local training grounds where aspiring adventurers practice. Identify and approach those showing promise.

Cost: 15gp per day.
Success: 1-in-6 chance.
Method limit: Once a month in villages, once a week in small towns, twice a week in large towns, and once a day in cities.

Criminal Underworld:

Tap into the criminal underworld to gather information on skilled individuals looking for work as retainers. Can generally only be used by Thief, Assassin, and Changeling Classes without risk.

Cost: 80gp for information.
Success: 4-in-6 chance.
Method limit: Unlimited. But each consecutive time you use this resource it increases risk.
Risk: Each time you use a criminal contact you have a 1-in-6 chance of attracting attention from law enforcement. You must either spend an additional 80gp to bribe the guards or become imprisoned for 1d6 days. Regardless of what you choose, you are unable to locate retainers if you attract attention from law enforcement.
- The 1-in-6 chance increases by 1 for each time you use a criminal contact more than once a month in villages and Small Towns, or more than once a week in Large towns and Cities

Local Festivals or Fairs:

Attend local festivals or fairs where diverse talents gather. Retainers may showcase their skills, making them easier to spot.

Cost: 40gp per event.
Success: 3-in-6 chance.
Method limit: Can only be used once during a local holiday. See Sidhranor Calendar & Holidays.

Temples or Shrines:

Seek out temples or shrines dedicated to relevant deities. Devotees may include skilled individuals willing to serve as retainers.

Cost: 60gp donation.
Success: 4-in-6 chance.
Method limit: once a month in villages and Small Towns, or once a week in Large towns and Cities
Class Limit. When Adventurers are rolled as a result of seeking out retainers through temples or shrines, roll a d3 instead to determine the class and reference this chart:

Cleric
Paladin
White Mage

- If the Temple or Shrine is Nature or Ruin (Black) aligned, then the class offerings may change to reflect that:

Ruin (Black)

Assassin
Necromancer
Chaos Knight

Nature (d4)

Bard
Beast Master
Druid
Ranger

Class Bias: Clerics that use Temple or Shrines can spend an additional 20gp when using this trait to pick from the above list of relevant adventurer classes when Adventurer retainers are rolled as a result of seeking out retainers.

Repeated Searches:

Each method has a frequency limit based on settlement size. the Method Limit is determined by the in world calendar (see Sidhranor Calendar & Holidays) and a Player should note when they last attempted to find retainers with a given method. If you are unsure of the size of the settlement, feel free to wait and ask a referee. For example, the starting city of Silbermere counts as a City for Method Limits.

Applicants

Roll on the table beside each time a search for potential retainers succeeds. You are allowed to name the retainer with a tone-appropriate name, otherwise the retainer's name is generated upon first game session by the attending referee.

Townsfolk

Normal humans without a character class (effectively level 0) willing to join an adventuring party. Often used as torch-bearers or porters.

How to Stat Townsfolk:

There are two main ways to create stat-blocks for Townsfolk as Retainers in OSE.

Option 1: You can use the Old School Essential Retainer Generator, set the Level to 0, the Count to the number of applicants, and the Chance for a Normal Human and Magic Item Table should remain untouched. Then click generate and have the complete list of townsfolk applicants.
Option 2: See the Normal Human monster listing in Old-School Essentials.

Adventurers

Independent adventurers of a specific character class (roll on the Retainers’ Character Class table).

Level: Most applicants are 1st level, but 1-in-6 may be of level 1d3+1. However, you can't hire a retainer of a level higher than you without explicit referee permission.
Starting equipment: Basic adventuring gear, weapons, and armour (e.g. using the tables under Quick Equipment).

Alternative Classes

Underneath each of the main 6 retainer classes (Cleric, Fighter, Magic-user, Thief, Dwarf, and Elf) are a list of secondary alternative classes. When rolling for retainers you can choose to see if applicants of that main retainer class may be of one of these alternative classes. To do so, each applicant of that class has a 2-in-6 chance of being an alternative class and then you roll to determine which alternative class that retainer is.

Example
For example, Lets say I have 3 Fighter applicants and want to see if I can have a little variety. So I roll a d6 for each 3 Fighter applicants, I get a 3, a 2, and a 4. That means only one Fighter applicants is an alternative class and I roll a d8 to determine which class, and I roll a 5 meaning this 2nd Fighter Applicant is a Retainer of the Knight Class.

Generating Adventurer Retainer Sheets

To generate sheets for most baseline adventurer retainers players have two main options.

Option 1: A player can use the Single NPC Generator to generate each adventurer retainer in order, publishing the results in Dice Commands. To do so, select the appropriate Level (Most should be 1 unless you rolled to determine the chance of a higher level). Then Select the Class.
- Leave the Magic Item Table box unselected unless the Retainer is a Dwarf or Elf.
Option 2: Generate the Retainer stats as you would a Player Character in Character Creation including a sheet. This is suboptimal.

Homebrew and 3rd Party

Some of the potential Retainer Classes are 3rd Party published classes, Homebrew Classes, or simply do not have a convenient way to generate them. This includes the following classes

Banneret (Homebrew)
Beast Master (Carcass Crawler)
Chaos Knight (Carcass Crawler)
Marshal (Homebrew)
Warrior (3rd Party)
Necromancer (Free OSE Download)
White Mage (3rd Party)
Sidhranor Dwarf/Dhreugh (Homebrew

Generating Homebrew and 3rd Party Classes

If you wish to use the Single NPC Generator for these classes, you may wish to employ one of the following options or simply return to its base class.

Banneret (Homebrew): Create a Knight retainer using the generator and make note of its first level abilities.
Beast Master (Carcass Crawler): Create a Ranger retainer using the generator and make note of its first level abilities.
Chaos Knight (Carcass Crawler): Create a Paladin retainer using the generator and make note of its first level abilities.
Marshal (Homebrew): Create a Knight retainer using the generator and make note of its first level abilities.
Warrior (3rd Party): Create a Fighter retainer using the generator and make note of its first level abilities.
Necromancer (Free OSE Download): Create a Magic-User retainer using the generator, replace its spell and instead roll for the Necromancer's first level spell.
White Mage (3rd Party): Create a Magic-User retainer using the generator, replace its spell and instead roll for the White Mage's first level spell.
Sidhranor Dwarf/Dhreugh (Homebrew): Create a Deurgar retainer using the generator and make note of its first level abilities. Dwarf Retainers also have a chance to start with a Magic Item when using that generator.

Offering Wages

Once an applicant has been located, the hiring PC must offer them a certain wage. When hiring retainers between sessions, Players are expected to choose only from the beside table for convenience, and save more esoteric pay rates for referee discretion during game sessions.

Townsfolk: Will want a daily rate of pay. You never need to offer a share of any treasure recovered as they will always prefer a standard rate.
Adventurers: Will want a daily rate of pay plus a share of any treasure recovered.

Applicant Reaction

The applicant’s reaction to the offer is determined by a 2d6 reaction roll, modified by the hiring PC’s Charisma Modifier, Lifestyle bonus, and reputation (e.g Ill Will), as well as the generosity of the offer.

Generosity modifiers: The modifier listed in the table beside is applied to the 2d6 reaction roll to determine whether the applicant accepts the offer.
Bonus payments (Game Session Exclusive): Offering to buy equipment for the applicant or give them a sum of money up front may improve the offer generosity by one step in the table above, to a maximum of a +2 generosity bonus.
Refused offers: A reaction roll of 3–5 or less indicates that the applicant refuses. When hiring retainers between sessions without direct Referee attention you may try again with an improved offer provided that the reaction roll was higher than a 2. However you may only try again ONCE.
- Additionally, you will take a -1 modifier to the 2d6 roll for your subsequent attempt regardless of the generosity (though the generosity bonus will still apply).

Payment Plans

You do not need to include retainers in your living expenses as your retainers are only hired for the span of an adventuring day (e.g. during game sessions) and so only adventuring days count for their Daily Rate.

Process (In Order)

Below is a comprehensive list of steps for how to hire Retainers on your own between sessions using the Store Record and Dice Command. channel. (if a session is ongoing please use Bot Commands instead of Dice Commands)

Choose Retainer Locating Method. Choose which method you are employing and ensure to obey the Method Limits. Pay the requisite price in Store Record, check for any risk, and then roll to determine success based on the listed success threshold in Dice Commands. Remember, lower is better. A 2 in 6 chance means you want to get a 1 or a 2, not a 5 or a 6.
Determine Number of Applicants. Assuming the success threshold was achieved, then you roll to determine the number of applicants based on settlement size.
Determine Townsfolk and Adventurers. Determine the statistics of the Townsfolk and Adventurers if any. post the list of potential Retainers in Dice Commands as either a google document, picture, or pdf. You are allowed to name the retainer with a tone-appropriate name, otherwise the retainer's name is generated upon first game session by the attending referee.
Determine Wage and Reaction Roll. You must decide which wage to offer, and then roll a reaction roll for each retainer in the order you posted.
Enjoy any Hired Retainers. Enjoy any Retainers that have accepted you as their employer. Celebrate.

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