The Joys of Leadership
March 7th, 2011
Last week I talked to you a lot about the perils of Leadership (the feat, for those of you who've been skipping articles). This wasn't really all that surprising, as last week was Leadership week, and, really, all that everyone had to say was, in one way or another, related to Leadership (or, at the very least, leadership). After writing last week's article, however, I find that I have a lot more I want to say about Leadership (possibly because I find the idea of a Leadership-heavy game that involves PCs running an organization, such as a guild, an estate, or even a kingdom to be a really, really cool idea), and, you know, it'd be nice if maybe I wrote an article that didn't paint Leadership as some sort of tabletop equivalent of a home-wrecker.
As this is a game design article (with, admittedly, occasional forays into DM advice), and not a plot hook article (that would be Grave Plots, tomorrow), I'm not going to jump into a discussion of the different leadership-centric plots that one could run, even though I think that there are quite a few of them, and I don't really know how well the issue has been explored elsewhere. Instead, I'm going to focus on some constructive tips to help make sure that your leadership-centered game makes the strongest impact it can on your players.
As I said last week, at its most stripped-bare and boiled-down state, Leadership is really about creating a lot of NPCs for the PCs to interact with in a way that doesn't involve stabbing, burning, or other violence. Ultimately, then, the key to making Leadership shine is really going to be in making sure that those NPCs shine.
Of course, as anyone who's ever taken the time to look at the Leadership feat knows, we're talking about a lot of NPCs. First-level followers alone can number over 100. Certainly, any DM in his or her right mind would pause before embarking upon fleshing out over 100 NPCs! Luckily, there are a few tricks and shortcuts which can allow you to keep these NPCs interesting without turning DM into your full-time job.
First, consider letting the player do some of the work. After all, it's his (or her) feat, so it's only fair to give them a little bit of control over what sort of NPCs they get. I would definitely discourage leaving the creation of these NPCs entirely to the player (not just because of concerns over powergaming, but mostly because if you have nothing to do with their creation then, most likely, you won't be all that interested in them, which will keep you from being very excited about roleplaying them, which will be a source of disappointment for the player who spent all that time writing them up), but allowing them to have general guidelines certainly isn't going to hurt. Bear in mind that, theoretically, at least, the PC is hiring (or otherwise signing off on) all of these followers, and while it's fun to sort of "stick" him with a few oddballs (and in some cases will make more sense to at least have "default" followers, such as a character who inherits a small household which already has a maid, a cook, and a butler, or the like), it would only make sense that he would generally have some amount of control over who he has working for him.
Secondly, though there are technically going to be a whole lot of followers, you should probably have a fairly good idea of which ones are going to come up the most. Get a general idea from your player about exactly what he wants these followers doing (for example, if these followers represent an army, ask him what the rank structure is—such as X squads of Y soldiers, each of which is overseen by a captain, with Z squads forming a platoon, each of which is overseen by a lieutenant, etc., etc., etc.), and then be prepared with information for the more important followers. Important followers aren't necessarily those with high rank, of course. The maid who cleans the PC's bedchambers may be far more important than the captain of the guard, depending on exactly what's going on.
I recommend devoting a notebook to the character's followers. Set aside a page for each follower you note, or more, as it's important to have room to add in more information as the situation develops and you (and, of course, the player) learn more about that in particular NPC. This would obviously start with the "highlights" described in the paragraph above, but after that, just add a new entry for each follower that the PCs interact with. The entry might be as simple as a name and their job, or even just "Cook – was very angry and yelled at PC for spilling soup," or the like. If the PCs interact with the cook later, and find out more (like his name, or what his deal was with the soup), just jot that down in the notebook, and you'll have it available for later.
Of course, in order for that method to work, you generally need to be fairly comfortable with roleplaying these NPCs more-or-less on the fly. For some more advice on that, check out this article from a little while back, which gives advice for DMs who don't have as much time as they'd like to devote to prep-work.
Now that you know your NPCs (more or less), the battle is halfway won (go Joe!). In order to make a leadership-heavy game really shine, however, you're going to need to give your players the opportunity to really…well…lead. Depending on exactly what the PC is planning to do with his hordes of NPCs, if all you do is give them a little bit of personality but otherwise leave them alone, those followers will range from more-or-less background (a dapper butler in a manor whose service is always impeccable, but who really only performs basic butler-style functions), to mindless puppets (any follower involved in combat, most of the time). The real fun of playing a leader is dealing with all of the difficult situations that leadership creates.
Give the character's followers problems, and have them come to the PC (their leader, after all) to solve them. Petty disputes, illnesses, romantic interest (either for the PC, or else for someone else, and they want the PC's advice), money problems (also known as "investment opportunities), etc., etc., etc. And, of course, the problems can be about the NPC's job or function, rather than his or her personal life. The quartermaster may come to the PC and explain that rats got into the grain (or whatever), and ask the PC what he wants them to do. In short, as leader, the PC is responsible for handling all kinds of crises that can't be solved with a sword or a fireball, and you should never hesitate to drop one or two of those in his or her lap (especially as their following continues to grow).
These crises can be carefully selected to create a story and weave a tapestry of what the character's command (or household, or guild, or whatever) is like, or they can be determined with some kind of random table. Off the top of my head, I remember seeing some interesting tables for community crises in an older 3.5 third-party supplement for playing games in an old-testament setting, but it should be fairly easy to create your own table, or adapt a table you find elsewhere.
Join me next week for a very special Dark Designs. In the meantime, don’t shy away from leadership, and the responsibilities it brings.