Casting Shadows

The eighth day of #RPGaDay2026 gives us the prompt Resolve. The daily filter is the oh-so-familiar ‘works hard for a living.’ We are almost done with ‘Intellect’ as a modifier on responses, and likewise almost finished with our journey through Vagabonds of Dyfed. I realized yesterday as I finished up my entry for Day 7, that even though fantasy is quite low on my list of genre-appreciation, I have been enjoying integrating the sort of characters which interest me with the approach to play of this game (ideologically in line with my own), and a classic old school type of generic fantasy setting. That is a nice gift and the sort of positivity that I like to see crop up by surprise in RPGaDAY.

Today has us at the first of two final posts for this particular cluster of prompts, system, setting, and mood. For today’s prompt of Resolve, I think it is time to look at the hirelings and other support characters which we know must be present, but are often abstracted into oblivion or forgotten altogether. Unlike the characters we looked at from Monday to Thursday, yesterday’s and todays have been working toward this specific meeting for some time. As the hired help have hard work to do more often and are more at risk than anyone else present, let’s look at them in terms of how they are conceived and the prompt of ‘resolve.’

In Vagabonds of Dyfed, hirelings and other allied creatures such as hunting dogs, mounts, and the like are defined in much the same way we approach character creation, but on an even less granular scale. This has an interesting side-effect of modelling status effects for the player. If a hireling is beloved, capable of important interactions, and is themselves important to the player, a full character is made. We want to know as much about them as possible and we want them to be able to Act, React, and Interact fully in play. For the rest, we make them from important concepts tied to being of service, such as what their role is as a hireling, their name and appearance, and how loyal they are. That last one plays a role in how they behave when asked to do things, and how their behavior changes depending on their treatment over time.

As a servant, especially in the sort of societies that fantasy settings usually get stuck with by default, there is a tendency to think of them as tools, and so the way in which these hirelings can be used in play is the same as how tools are used. If used appropriately, they add to the effort, and if directed toward something they are ill-suited to do, they detract. These minor characters can be made extremely quickly and just as easily can be upgraded into full-on characters as needed or desired.

The book offers a variety of occupational tags which can quickly sum up what they have been hired to do and frame the duties and attitudes they would hold in normal circumstances.

How then, would such a crew of support staff in place to care for horses, handle supplies, set up tents and staging areas, cook and provide other health care, and in some cases fight with their lord, be reacting to the eve of battle? What are their responses to the sort of specialists that lord has had to hire? What are their fears and thoughts on the ruin crumbling out there in the darkness under the bloody sky of night beyond the last frontier of any human holding? What thoughts do they have on those they love and have left behind?

They are here. They work. They serve.

How?

They swore to serve and who is anyone who cannot live up to their pledges or do the work they were hired to do?

They resolved to be something and to break their resolve is to become nothing.

Tomorrow is Sunday, August 9th and our prompt is Privilege in conjunction with the last appearance of the weekly filter of ‘Intellect’ but only our second for the daily filter of ‘Blessed.’

See you tomorrow!