I thought you actually proposed something along the lines of "hired
hands" a long time ago on rec.games.pbm, but my memory is hazy and I
don't think I saved it.
> For example, if the ability to hire followers and their
> subsequent loyalty were tied to the "fame" of the hiring unit, it
> would drive some people towards gaining fame rather than money.
The fame/glory rating is something I'm seriously looking at. A rating
of that sort is almost conspicuous because of its absence in the
current system, and could be useful in several different game contexts.
A system that relates glory to unit hiring is just screaming for
faction trees. (The number of units you can control being some function
of your glory rating.) This is the first thing that occured to me
when I read Scott Hauck's companions proposal.
-- Rich Skrenta <skrenta@rt.com> N2QAV