Leadership is the ability to inspire and maintain loyalty in followers. Its primary effect is to attract followers, though it can also be used to give orders with authority and to determine the effectiveness of an organization you lead.
Default Attribute
Unskilled Use
You can give orders to people you clearly outrank. You cannot just naturally assume command.
Physical Ability
You exude an air of authority. Those who recognize you as their legitimate superior will follow your orders to the best of their ability. Those who do not may follow you instinctively in a pinch, just because you seem to expect it. The difficulty of assuming a position in the chain of command in a group is generally the highest Leadership value in the group, an Outcome equal to the leader's Charisma places you in overall command. This is only possible in a time of crisis.
When acting on your direct orders, your followers can act using your Leadership value. You take a 3-shot action to give a command, and some of you underlings executes the order, using you Leadership Action Result. If the underling is unskilled in the task at hand, he can still only perform unskilled tasks.
You can attract followers and henchmen. Henchmen are named characters with abilities similar to your own, while followers are unnamed mooks, loyal and willing to risk their lives for you. The templates below are used to build followers and henchmen.
You can have a number of henchmen equal to half your Charisma, though only one is usually in action at any given time. Their base skill is equal to your Leadership, and they get improvement picks equal to your leadership too. If you recruit a henchman during play thats better than this, he keeps his values unchanged until you improve sufficiently to improve him. No follower or henchman can have a Leadership less than three points lower than your own.
Both henchmen and followers start with base attributes depending on their race and one primary skill at a full value. In addition, they have improvement picks, that can be used in the following way:
- Improve a primary attribute one point. One secondary attribute can be increased by reducing the others two points (total). Extreme attributes are discouraged.
- Get an extra skill. The first extra skill has a value equal to the primary skill, and each succeeding skill is one point lower than the preceding skill. You can restart the progression for one additional pick. Leadership value must be two points lower than your own.
- One schtick (Sorcery schticks cost double, Items and Fu schticks cost half)
You can have a number of followers equal to your Charisma score. They have a primary skill equal to your Leadership, and improvement picks equal to your Charisma. If you instead elect to have a horde of followers, they have a primary skill equal to your Leadership -3. Each sequence a number equal to your Charisma are in the action close to you; the rest are doing important stuff or cheering you on from the sidelines.
Knowledge
You know a particular theory of leadership and discipline, whether it be the code of obedience of Ancient China, or the bureaucratic management manuals of the Buro. If it has a written component, you can quote it to the last punctuation mark.
Contacts
You know others in the leadership hierarchy you belong to or once belonged to. Depending on your current circumstances, your superiors may still support you or want you dead. Your former underlings will still revere you, even if they've been ordered to smoke you on sight.
Skill Schticks
These are the Pulp Schticks related to this skill. Check with your GM which of them are applicable for this game.