Dungeon World: hirelings

[philaros]

As I've been working on the rules for the sha'ir class for Dungeon World, specifically thinking about binding genies into service, I've been thinking about the general rules for hirelings. Apocalypse World doesn't have specific rules about hirelings, but does have rules for things such as detailing a chopper's gang and a move for the player, "Pack Alpha", to order the gang around. For "Apocalypse D&D", Tony basically adapted the "Pack Alpha" rule to "Order Hirelings", but didn't provide any guidance on creating or detailing the hirelings, aside from explaining that they could be promoted to or demoted from PC status as needed to accommodate the presence or absence of players. Dungeon World hasn't yet expanded upon those rules to provide information about hirelings, though I know it's something Sage and Adam are working on.

Well, I've already decided that bound genies should be treated as hirelings, so I want some explicit rules now. And as a player, I've felt frustrated a few times in past games, not really having a good idea what abilities the hirelings have or how to get them to use those abilities on my behalf. So here are a few things I'm thinking.

Following on the model for gangs, hirelings should come defined with a few basic stats and traits, which provide guidance to both the player and DM how to use them in the game. As with monsters, the basic stats for a hireling would be level, hit points (or hit dice), armor, and damage caused by an attack. Additionally, hirelings should come with at least these three tags indicating their traits: class, price, and weakness or failure condition. 

• The class trait indicates the basic class moves that this hireling has access to. So a fighter hireling can Bend Bars or Lift Gates, a cleric hireling can Turn Undead and Cast a Cleric Spell, a ranger hireling can Hunt and Track, and so forth. A hireling can be expected to use these abilities as appropriate during the adventure, such as in combat, or the player can specifically order the hireling to use the ability. I think that although hirelings can be higher than level 1 (or can advance in levels through adventure), by default they never have access to the advanced class moves—those are advantages for full player characters.
• The price trait indicates what the hireling needs to be paid on a regular basis for services. It's similar to the surplus trait that followers and holdings have in Apocalypse World. By default hirelings have a price of gold, probably something like 10 gold per level per day. As long as you're meeting the hireling's price, you have access to their class moves.
• The weakness or failure trait—and I'm not sure what's the best name to call this—indicates how the hireling reacts when the price is not met or as a result of a failed Order Hirelings move. It's similar to the want trait that followers and holdings have in Apocalypse World. By default hirelings have a weakness for desertion, and will flee if confronted with a situation beyond their price ("man, I'm not getting paid enough for this!"). Other possible weaknesses include treachery (attempt to secretly betray the players), mutiny (openly rebel), or despair (do nothing but cower and wait until it's over). 

Maybe hirelings should have a fourth basic trait, mercenary, indicating that they're only in this for the money. Then there could be class-specific moves that could replace that trait and also change the price: for example, a paladin might get one that replaces mercenary with loyal and changes the price to upkeep (providing food and shelter). Or maybe just a general special move open to all players, Retain Hirelings, that lets them pick an option when attempting to hire hirelings.

Combat-wise, follow the general Apocalypse World rules for NPCs or gangs.

That's about as far as I've thought about this so far, and it's almost midnight, so time to post it.