This is a bit of a long shot, but I figure what the hell. I recently decided to pick up Honor + Intrigue for my group after talk about it here interested me and reading the core book convinced me it was worth a shot. I'm curious if anyone knows if Pawns are worth using in a fight intended to be a bit challenging - particularly the high end ones - or if I must needs stick to retainers at a minimum. I want the party to be badly outnumbered, but I don't want the battle to be an interminable slog.
>>96837192I found pawns to be very underwhelming, maybe because i wasnt gonna play the type of game where players down trained guards like they are pieces of cardboard so i propped them up a lot with some homebrewing and that left me very satisfied.But honestly it depends on the type of game you want to play. Pawns might work just perfectly for you. My one advice if you want more skilled opponents but without the HP you can drop them from 8 to 5 Lifeblood so they are in the 1-2 hits territory instead of the 2-3 hit territory.Another not is that my game wasnt big on guns. Pawns work much much better when they all carry guns and are a serious threat to pcs that wayWhat type of game are you planning to have?
>>96837192What the Kane?!/
>>96838684>What type of game are you planning to have?Pretty standard pulp historical in a Howardian vein. The dry run of this system will largely concern a jungle island peopled by an offshoot human race, cannibalistic ape men, rumored to be the scions of Cain. That's all flavor, but I want them to make quite an impression when they initially show their faces. They'll be fighting with spears, axes, bows, and probably slings or dart throwers.I AM expecting plenty of guns, though not used by the subhumanoids, of course. I too had considered bumping pawn LB to 3 or 5. Kinda blend them with low level creatures/monsters.
>>96838895My own game was a piratical campaign set in the Honduras and Jamaic at the late 17th century featuring mostly swordplay and duels, so a very different vibe overall, but i will give you my homebrew regarding pawns that i just dug up, in case they might seem useful to you.>pawns start with 1 point to allocate to qualities and they gain an additional one at competence level 2 and 4>pawns start with 1 point to allocate to careers and they gain an additional one at competence level 1 and 3>pawns have Lifeblood equal to 4+Might
>>96839246Seems reasonable, thank you.
>>96837192It's ironic that someone would bring up Honor + Intrigue on here because I'm doing a one-shot pretty soon. It's going to be an 18th-century picaresque-style comedy where the players go from a barfight at the local tavern to a masked ball where they pull a heist, loosely inspired by stuff along the lines of Tom Jones, Moll Flanders, Sinful Davey, etc. The pawns can be taken in a few punches, while only the villainous lord and his right-hand (a general) are the real threat with a sword. There's less emphasis on combat and more on theft and seduction, so that could be a moot point, too.
>>96837192In general, too, stiffen groups of pawns with retainers. I believe the math for BoL was 1 tough per PC and 2 or 3 rabble per PC. One wrinkle of H+I is that stunts make it very easy to own zone big groups of Pawns, so either send more in general or don't have them lump up.
>>96841414You should at least include some retainers for flavor NPCs. Important and obnoxious partygoers, other thieves, what have you.
>>96837192>This thread>>96838684>And this guy
