Why the hell is your character carrying everything anyway? This isn’t a video game, buddy.

Call them henchmen, retainers, lackeys, sidekicks, followers, or whatever other parlance your favorite game uses. Having a hired gun or two is a great way to free your character up to do much more important things, like almost get killed protecting the Queen.

For certain games and in the early days, for sure, they made great backup characters. I vividly recall a game of some form of Basic Dungeons and Dragons run by Dark Age of Man aka Jason, where my character, Sir Vantes, died upon opening the front door. One round.

As luck would have it, I had rolled up another character before Sir Vantes, but after this fellow turned out to have a 3 in wisdom, I begged Jason to be allowed to make another character.

He laughed and said sure, but I kept this guy around to be a torchbearer. Maybe he could carry all the loot. He turned out to be the character I played for the rest of the session, and he was great.

In games powered by Ubiquity from Exile Game Studios and Triple Ace Games, having a follower or a lackey can be a tremendous experience. I should do it more, to be honest. They can really take on a life of their own, and they’re not just limited to carrying the kitchen sink. You can send them out to go do other errands based upon their strengths, (hopefully ones that you don’t have). They are also great fun when the GM has the other players at the table play your sidekick.

Henchmen: They’re not just for carrying stuff anymore.