Friends, Hirelings, and Side-Kicks

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by restlessgriffin

If you have a small group say only 1 or 2 players, what is a good way of allowing NPCs controlled by the GM as members of the party while NOT outshining the PCs. I'm specifically, looking at ways to use the NPCs to help the PCs survive and thrive while NOT taking the focus away from the PCs.

Is there any special reason you need the GM to control the hirelings? The old-school way is for players to play their hirelings (with GM veto power over decisions to prevent suicidal or overly robotic actions like handing over valuables to PCs for no reason), which keeps the spotlight on the players of not necessarily the PCs. Sometimes players would even play a whole adventure as one of their PC's hirelings instead of the PC.

I've found that players really enjoy collecting even fairly mechanically-pathetic hirelings, and will invest in their welfare and work to keep them safe, as long as they have some sense of "ownership" over the hireling, and letting the player mostly control the hireling does that.