Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

Longterm readers of my comics will know by now that I have two children.
The oldest of which is of an age where we are introducing her to our own fandoms (Y'know, before her peers immerse her in modern pop culture and ruin our ability to communicate with her on that level.)

We've already gotten her hooked on such ancient trends as pre 1990's Sesame Street, the original Muppets, Bill Nye the Science Guy, The Beatles, Sailor Moon, the Avengers comics, Doctor Who and a promise for a reading of J.R.R.Tolkien's "The Hobbit".

This week it was Basic Dungeons & Dragons and she's a natural!

I dug out my copy of the old red book (Basic D&D, early 80's edition), printed out a character sheet, sorted out a complete set of dice and had her roll up a character.

Her name is Tulip. I have since translated her name into Elvish, the closest I could come up with was "Spring Flower" which came out as Ehtele' Lote and she is an Elf. In AD&D terms, she'd be a Fighter/Mage, but this being Basic, she's just an Elf. She wears chainmail armour and carries a shield, is armed with a sword and a long bow and carries a mirror and some rations in her backpack (she wouldn't go for the 40' rope.)

I started her off living in the Keep on the Borderlands in a little private house near the Tavern where she heard some rumours about some magical treasure in the southern part of the Caves of Chaos.

Off she went boldly along the road to the Caves of Chaos where she selected a cave (Marked F on her map) and walked in. There was a big scary door, so she knocked on it. A Hobgoblin answered and she casually said she was travelling and asked if she could stay with them for a few nights. The Hobgoblins was totally confused (and she rolled really well on her Charisma) so he invited her inside and lead her to the common room where they were preparing for a feast. The other Hobgoblins started to get very uncomfortable with this Elf in their midst, but she just chatted away. She mentioned that she was looking for some treasure in the caverns. The Hobgoblins realized that she'd come to take her gold, so she bolted, fought off guards with amazing skill and, though she got captured, she managed to escape and free a bunch of other prisoners who helped her fight their way out. They all headed back to the Keep where she was rewarded with a magical dagger, lots of money and two new loyal followers who promised to fight at her side for a year and a day.

She became a hero at the Keep and off she and her 2 buddies marched the following day to try to find the treasure. This time she entered the cave marked B on her map, which lead her into a den of Orcs. They put up a massive fight, but were overcome by the Orc chieftan and his 12 guards. She woke up sometime later on a table about to be carved up for dinner, but was rescued by a company of guards from the Keep who were worried she might be in trouble. One of her two friends was killed and eaten by the Orcs. They limped back to the Keep and tended to their wounds. She spent her hard earned treasure replacing all her gear. Then she hired herself a Cleric to acompany them back for revenge!

She lead her two new friends back to the Caves and reentered Cavern B, got her revenge on the Orcs (though the Chieftan was mysteriously missing) and got her magic dagger back, plus a bunch of new treasure which she split with her henchmen, and then used to buy them presents when they got home!

She's a natural at this!

AWESOME . Someone maxed out their parenting skill.

BTW that same Orc Chieftain took out my cousin when I introduced him to D&D.

Those hobgobs have killed pretty much every neophyte we've taken in to the Keep at one point or another, usually through just plain hideous rolling.

Good memories.

Also, I'm back.

The companions were NPCs?

Henchmen and hirelings, dear lady. Basic, you see.

Yes, as Lord Fellgrin points out they were NPCs. She was the only player in these sessions and in the "Keep on the Borderlands" module it says that if you rescue the two "Men at arms" in the Hobgoblin prison they'll vow to work for the PCs for "a year and a day" without demanding money other than room and board (or something like that. I may have improvised some of it.)
Also in basic D&D (and I'm sure in AD&D as well) there are rules for hiring "Retainers, Hirelings or Henchmen" which are NPCs who help in the battle, require payment and otherwise are loyal to the PC. There's a loyalty base score and a chart that will determine how loyal they remain, of course, with modifiers based on how they're treated. Buying them gifts, for example, definitely put Tulip way up in their esteem.
The CHA stat has a "Max Henchmen" and "Loyalty Base" score after it in both systems.

The systems also have Morale scores, which were criminally discarded in later editions.

Not bad, I think she might be taking over the lands and uniting some kingdoms if this keeps up.