What are the Meatshields up to?

Art by Toren Atkinson

I have posted before about how I handle PC actions when the party is back in town. I made a basic list of activities and just select from the list what I think makes most sense for the character at the time. In short I play them individually as if each were my own character in a 'normal' game. So far this has worked out well, but I also wanted something for the retainers. Meatshields are people too, right?



But whereas I 'play' the PCs and determine their actions myself, for the retainers I wanted to ensure the element of randomness which would potentially take the emergent story into unforeseen directions. And of course to help with this, I needed some tables!

The table below represents the base percentages for each activity, but I will likely adjust  the various weights based in the NPC in question. Some may be more inclined to go drinking and gambling while others may be more demure and unlikely to get wild.

%       Activity

30      Resting up for the next mission

20      Dealing with personal stuff (I will play off any personality quirks or traits)

20      Gambling (use PC gambling table)

20      Carousing (use Retainer Carousing subtable)

10      Disappears for d6 days (see subtable)

I'll post some of the sub tables later on.