Hireling Complications

 In OSE, which is the system I return to again and again, the hireling process is pretty solid, but there is one bit I hate. When rolling to confirm whether a character can hire a recruit or not, there is a mostly useful table, if it wasn't for one glaring problem:

 

 Do you see the problem? 6-8 would be pretty significant even if there wasn't a dice curve, but with the curve it's dramatically more likely that when hiring a hireling you will be tossing dice over and over, for no reason- except maybe to increase the drama. That works once, I think, but quickly becomes farce. 

 This table is modified by charisma, so that helps things, but unless you have a huge charisma modifier there's still a large likelihood of that pointless reroll.

Rather than redo the table, or change my procedures, I had a brief moment of epiphany and realized I could pull on some of that Powered by the Apocalypse energy, bring in those Success At A Cost ideas. So I replaced "Roll Again" with "Complication". Hirelings will join you, but there's a twist, something the players need to take into account, that will hopefully give the hireling some flavor right from the start.

 This has been playtested a couple of times and it was a huge success. Now, instead of pointless rerolling, the most common result gives hirelings flavor and identity, and is a lot of fun to riff on as a gm. I'm not sure it's as well appreciated by my players, but it does mean that unless a negative charisma is in play, success is very likely. So it's not an entirely bad deal for them either. 

 The following list is optional, if a complication presents itself through context go for it. This also does not mean that a hireling hired with a 9+ has to be simple- they can still have faction ties, history with other NPCs, goals, etc. It just means they're not making it the players problem (yet).  

 LIST OF HIRELING COMPLICATIONS (1d10) 

 1. Indecisive- The Hireling isn't sure. Come back tomorrow, and I'll think about it. Treat "Complication" as "Roll Again" and every time you get the result add another day to their hemming and hawing. This is the worst, but eating up some in game time waiting for a hireling to make up their mind isn't the end of the world, comparatively.

 2. Disloyal- They'll join you, but you're not clicking for some reason. The hireling has -1 loyalty compared to what they should.  This is probably something that can be fixed, with time and effort, but for the time being they're more likely to leave after an expedition. 

 3. Expensive- The hireling won't join unless you sweeten the deal. Increase their rate of pay, give them a nice shiny gift, or maybe just build a sweet high class stronghold- the hireling values the fine things in life and will join purely off of that.  On the plus side, this means they're highly receptive to bribery should they ever fail a loyalty check.

4.  Quest- The hireling has something they need to do, or want done. They need to find x item, go to y location, meet with z person. They don't need to do it now, but waiting too long to help them with their quest will reduce loyalty after a couple expeditions. Needless to say, these sort of quests shouldn't be a complete tangent, they should still be in the game's area of interest, but should be just a tad inconvenient- otherwise the hireling would just do it themselves!

5. Faction Ties- The hireling is up front about it- they've got divided loyalties. This may mean they intend to report everything that happens to their faction, or they just will likely defer to members of the faction they meet in the adventure. This isn't necessarily malicious, but it can definitely be a dealbreaker, especially to groups that prize secrecy.  

6. Two in One Deal- The hireling has a friend (or perhaps they just want to keep an eye on someone that owes them money), and won't adventure unless you take another hireling along. On the plus side, you needn't roll to recruit the second hireling, they join automatically- on the other hand it's now double jeopardy with regard to loyalty rolls- if one leaves,  the other follows.

7. Dangerous Enemies- The hireling has pissed someone off- someone important in town, a rival adventuring party, or even a dungeon faction. They're a liability when dealing with that faction, -1 to reaction rolls while they're present at the very least.Or maybe they pissed off the mob and you get to look forward to assassins? I'm sure it'll be fine. 

8. Local- The hireling isn't just passing through, they've got some strong connections to the place they were hired. On the plus side, this means they definitely know people. But it also means they won't be interested in traveling the world, only adventuring in the local area. For many campaigns this isn't even an issue, but there's always that moment when the sphere of play widens... Also means there will be loyalty checks for things like "going deep into the underdark" or "traveling to another plane", if there weren't already. 

9. Cowardly- Or one might say, "actually values their life". They will not be the one to step into a room to test for traps first, they would rather not be in the front line unless the front line is 3 people at least, and if a session goes poorly they're going to be itching for the loyalty checks. Don't be too negative towards them, this probably means they have a strong reason to live.  

10. Ill Intent- Like Quest, but bad. Your hireling is very clearly plotting a murder, a heist, pissing off a dungeon faction, or something of that nature that will cause a lot of trouble. It might be a lot of fun, though. This is the hireling that ropes the party into doing something really stupid. More so than any other, this hireling needs to be watched.