I just rolled up 20 potential hirelings for my new campaign. If players try to recruit some men-at-arms or other hirelings, I can roll a d20 or three to see who shows up.
My son helped me list some names, which means some have some joke names (Chae Du --> Chad, or the actual Korean name Yu Seok, pronounced like "you suck"). And to decide what, if any weapons and armor they came with, and if they had any interesting traits, I made some quick and dirty random tables.
Each is on a 2dx spread to get bell curve results, except for the ranged weapon subtable. They're rare enough that a flat distribution is fine. Only one PC ended up with a ranged weapon anyway (and has a shield...go figure).
Armor roll 2d4
2: leather & shield
3: silk armor & shield
4: shield
5: no armor
6: silk armor
7: leather armor
8: brigandine or scale armor
[Silk Armor gives AC 8(12) vs melee, but AC 5(15) vs ranged attacks]
Weapons roll 2d6
2: ranged weapon
3: saber
4: dagger-axe
5: hand axe
6: dagger
7: no weapon
8: spear
9: nunchaku
10: staff
11: tiger fork
12: roll twice
Ranged Weapons Subtable roll 1d6
1: short bow
2: pellet crossbow
3: light crossbow
4: sling
5: 2d4 javelins
6: blowgun
Each NPC had a 1 in 6 chance to have a Special ability. Two have them.
Special Ability roll 2d4
2: 1st level mudang (cleric) spell
3: Keen Eyes: find traps/secret doors 1-2/d6
4: Educated: +2 languages
5: Adventuring Gear (backpack, rope, lantern, tinderbox, etc.)
6: 2HD instead of 1-1HD
7: High Strength (+1 to hit/damage)
8: 1st level wu jen (magic user) spell
It's interesting. Almost all have at least some kind of armor. Only one NPC doesn't have a weapon. All of the melee weapons were rolled, but the saber is the most common. Go figure. Rolled lots of 3s when rolling weapons.
This is a nice wee approach to quickly giving them kit. My son likes the idea of joke names too. His current schtick is to use condiments as the basis.
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