Unusual Hirelings in OD&D/FMC

Let’s get one thing out of the way: unusual hirelings are not regular hirelings. On its face, this seems like a truism—but this is a distinction that OD&D makes which its successors do not. Your character can hire as many mercenaries and helpers as they please, but there is a ceiling on how many so-called unusual hirelings they can employ or otherwise retain. So, what is an unusual hireling, and what does this tell us about how OD&D plays unlike its later editions?

Classed Characters

Fortunately, the text gives us a hint. After introducing the concepts of charisma and loyalty with regards to non-player characters, it says how a player might build up an entourage of various character types, monsters, and an army. There it is: character types, monsters, and army troops all constitute different categories of non-player characters and different methods of how to enlist them into your service.

When it comes to classed characters, you can hire a first level human NPC for 100 gold pieces. Dwarves will be motivated by treasure, elves (and mages) by magical items, and clerics by an opportunity to serve their patron deity. Fuck halflings, I guess.

What benefits do each of these give? It’s actually pretty quick to list, since first level characters are so basic.

• Veteran: 1d+1 hit dice; has improved fighting ability.
• Medium: 1d hit dice; can cast one first level spell.
• Acolyte: 1d hit dice; can turn undead.
• Elf: Can switch between fighting and magical ability between adventures.
• Dwarf: As a veteran, except with +4 to saving throws against magic.

Although you can only hire first level classed characters, it’s unclear about whether they advance as you do. Either way, I think it would make sense by extension that you can only retain characters of a lesser level than your own.

Monsters

A monster is technically a term for any non-player character, though I think it tends to (though not always) refer more specifically to non-classed NPCs. Players can recruit monsters of their same alignment, charm monsters into service, or sometimes subdue them.

In order to recruit a monster, the character must make an appealing offer to entice them. Then, two dice are rolled to determine the monster’s reaction to the offer. You might recognize the table below, since it is where we get the more detailed reaction table (relative to OD&D) in later editions of Basic D&D.

2d6	Reaction
2	Attacks; no more attempts.
3-5	Hostile; no more attempts.
6-8	Uncertain; negotiate.
9-11	Accepts offer.
12	Enthusiastic; +3 loyalty.

This is one way for characters to enlist stronger retainers than just veterans, mediums, and acolytes. They may also be able to enlist higher-level classed characters in the same way.

Armies & Lieutenants

Obviously, when you’re employing troops by the dozens or hundreds, these figures must not be subject to the same restrictions as “unusual” figures are. What gives? My first hunch going into all of this was that unusual hirelings were distinguished from regular hirelings along similar lines as fantastic figures from regular figures in Chainmail (the former being figures who fight as multiple figures against units of regular figures, and who are also able to fight against other fantastic figures using a special matrix).

However, in OD&D, a different scheme emerges and rubs up against the old fantastic versus regular distinction: that of character class and hit dice. It seems like, after all, even first level characters count as unusual precisely because they are classed and therefore have special abilities compared to your typical 1d hit dice troops. The outcome is that while your character could command armies of troops, they also have a handful of superpowered subordinates. This is an in-world rationalization of the mechanics for fantastic combat in Chainmail, except that Chainmail’s own mechanics have been replaced with a more granular system.

This seems especially clear in the nautical combat section of Volume III: player-characters have a certain range in tabletop inches which is the radius within which they can command troops, equal to their charisma score. For example, a character with 10 charisma is able to command troops within 10" on the tabletop (e.g. within 100 in-world yards). However, they may also have two lieutenants within range, who have their own range equal to yours minus 1". If your charisma were 10 again, you could extend your sphere of command up to 19" with a lieutenant. This is not necessarily related to unusual retainers, except that I wonder if this is not a logical extension of them.

Conclusion

The distinction between regular and unusual hirelings seems reflective of the original distinction between regular and fantastic figures in Chainmail except it is made along lines more friendly to OD&D’s “alternate” combat system. Unusual characters seem to be any character who is not a typical fare 1d hit dice figure, having either greater hit dice or special abilities which would necessarily set them apart on the tabletop. This distinction is more more flexible than the regular versus fantastic distinction which plagued OD&D, and anticipates the direction in which later classic D&D would develop as far as character taxonomy goes (getting rid of Chainmail and its fantastic versus regular distinction altogether).

I wonder if a useful point of comparison wouldn’t be the “personality figure” in TSR’s Warriors of Mars, a campaign guidebook for Barsoom-based war games published soon after OD&D. Personality figures are basically just named characters whose capabilities improve throughout the course of the campaign, unlike the unnamed masses of troops they might command in battle. This guidebook is something I want to take a closer look at later since I think it tells us a lot about how OD&D was originally expected to be played, contrary to some readers' opinions that it is a regression to a more war-gamey style of play (just because characters don't have ability scores!) – but that’s a different topic altogether.

Finally, I think that my abstract skirmish system, which I am including as an optional rule in FMC, lends itself well to the figure/unit distinction which "unusual characters" teeter between (as figures which fight with the capability of units, i.e. organized groups of figures). I'm increasingly convinced that the tabletop war game aspect of the 1974 game cannot be understated, and that this is just one aspect through which it shines as a distinct beast from its successors.