Design Commentary

These cards are designed to fit a standard Magic the Gathering card sleeve. I like to slot my hirelings and henchmen into silver and gold sleeves respectively to match the coin denomination of their wages (figure 1). This level of detail is not remotely necessary, however. When I use these retainer cards, I shuffle a deck of them and select random characters based on whether my players are seeking to hire hirelings or henchmen. Placing them in a card sleeve makes them more tactile. Players can hold onto them and they feel more like a unique entity.

Here are my homebrewed rules for hirelings and henchmen. The rest of this commentary clarifies my intent, notes probabilities, as well as identifies sources of inspiration.

Quirks

Most quirks are intended to give character’s a distinct personality and help encourage players to view them as more than a faceless meatshield. A few retainers have a slight mechanical benefit/detriment that may factor into whether a party hires them. For instance, some carry a tattered bestiary, while others may refuse to venture into swamps. With characters such as these, it’s up to the DM to adjudicate if and how that matters.

Level and Wages

All hirelings are effectively level 0 characters—meaning, ordinary townsfolk. The henchmen are heavily weighted toward lower levels, partially because I expect players with need to rely on henchmen more when they are starting out. The breakdown is:

• Level 1: 35%
• Level 2: 30%
• Level 3: 20%
• Level 4: 10%
• Level 5: 5%

Each retainer’s wages reflect their level. A level X henchman receives X gp per week and encounter. Their salary is calculated on a weekly basis because I run a West Marches hexcrawl in which players might be gone from town for a month, but only at their destination for a day or two at a time.

Race and Alignments

Humans make up 6/9 (66.7%) of generated retainers, with dwarves, elves, and halflings each at 1/9 (11.1%). This roughly matches the race distribution as found in DCC RPG’s core rules, page 22-23. Alignment probabilities vary by race and apply to both hirelings and henchmen:

Race	Lawful	Neutral	Chaotic
Human	33%	33%	34%
Dwarf	70%	20%	10%
Elf	10%	40%	50%
Halfling	70%	25%	5%

HP Calculations

Although some OSR generators, such as the official Old School Essentials generator, provide higher level characters with spells, my generator does not. My henchmen are simply sellswords, but compared to other generators (listed in the inspiration) these henchmen make up for their lack of class abilities with higher HP (1d4 base + d8 per level + STA mod). Hirelings are (1d4 + STA mod).

Ability Score Modifiers

My generator does not include stats for hirelings and henchmen—only their saving throw (SV) modifiers: Reflex (R), Fortitude (F), and Will (W). If you need to know an ability score, I recommend rolling on the fly.

DCC has unique ability modifier scores. They are as follows:

Sources of Inspiration

I strongly recommend checking out the following:

• Julio’s RPG Cove’s Compact Level Zero & Hirelings Generator. This is a great generator for DCC hirelings. One day I had the idea to insert his hirelings into Magic the Gathering sleeves, however, I realized they were too small. Thus, I created my own generator. In addition to formatting my results to replicate the dimension of a playing card, I’ve made two other changes for ease of use: I streamlined retainer names and fit every relevant detail onto one side. Julio’s website has many more generators. I recommend checking them out!
• Barrowmaze.com’s Meatshields! The Classic Fantasy Hireling & Henchman Generator. Despite its name, this generator really sold me on how fun and interesting retainers could be—they are more than just meatshields! I included a talking parrot in my generator as an homage to one of its results. I had so much fun playing with a henchman whose parrot often squawked “You’re doomed!”
• Colin Sproule’s Gig Economy (2022). This is a masterclass in balancing concision with interesting personal details, which I call “quirks” in my own generator.
• Trevor Stamper, Brian Gilkison, & John Olszewski’s Tales from the Smoking Wyrm, no. 3 (2020). After reading Brian Gilkison’s “You, Too, Can Gongfarm!” hack, I decided to randomize the standard occupations provided in the DCC RPG core rules so that they were not dependent on race. Each issue of this DCC fanzine is such an incredible work of art. I wish more people knew of it.
• Ben Milton’s Knave 2e (2024) and Matt Finch’s Tome of Adventure Design, Revised (2022). I consulted both while selecting names for my generator. I avoided importing names wholesale from Knave, but many of them were used for my halfling and human names. I used Tome of Adventure Design for creating some of my dwarf and elf names.