On Sat, 7 Feb 1998, James Ruhland wrote:
> It depends, IMO, on how much an additional burden the DM wants to take on;
> Sidekicks (or, I'm old, Henchies) are just like other re-occurring NPCs
> (with the added burden that they're not just re-occuring, but almost
> constantly present). If the players are reasonable/good at it, then they
> can take over much of the job of "running" their own henchies (I.E. almost
> as secondary characters), and much of the "adminstration" as well (though
> it might be fun to keep the alighnment & motivations/goals of henchies
> secret. . .)

Ars Magica covers a lot of this sort of ground - players running
multiple PCs and all that. It can work very well in a campaign, possibly
with several groups of PCs at each PC controlled court.

neil