TEXT: Unified Minion & Companion Rules for SotC
  By Tom Miskey
  This is an effort to provide a single, unified set of Minion and Companion rules for SotC.  
  Upon purchasing the Minion, Animal Companion, Contacts, Gambling Buddy, or Spirit 
  Companion stunts, you receive the following base ally:
  Average quality in a single conflict type, 1 stress box, cannot act alone, provides +1 
  group bonus to their leader in their type of conflicts (the character who paid for them)
  
  The Minions stunt also gives 1 free “Strength in Numbers” advance, and 3 other 
  advances.
  
  The Animal Companion stunt gives you 4 advances of your choice, within the 
  limitations stated under that stunt.
  
  The Contacts stunt gives the “Independent” advance for free, and 3 other 
  advances.
  
  Gambling Buddy gives you the “Independent” and “Skilled” advances for free, 
  though Gambling must be one of his top skills, and 2 other advances.
  
  The Spirit Companion has the “Summonable” advance for free and 3 other 
  advances.  He does not get the Independent advance for free, it must be 
  chosen.
  Ok, you now have your basic ally, time to spend those advances!
  Communication – The ally is almost always in communication with their leader, whether 
  by telepathy, wrist phones, or whatever else you can think of.
  Independent – The ally is able to act on his own.  This has 3 effects:  First, it gives the 
  companion a single Consequence in addition to its Stress boxes.  While attached to his 
  Leader, the Leader may decide if he would rather put the ally in harm’s way (use his 
  Stress boxes to protect himself) or have the ally act more cautiously, hanging back to 
  aid him as long as possible and protect him when it really counts (take a consequences 
  for him).  
  Second, he gains his own skill pyramid, with a single skill at his Quality, 2 at his Quality-1, 
  3 at his Quality-2, etc.  The lowest skill detailed should be Average, because all other 
  skills will default to Mediocre.  He may only use these skills while he is on his own, and all 
  of these skills must all belong to his Scope.
  Third, if his Leader has any Aspects pertaining directly to the ally, he may access and 
  use the Leader’s Fate Points to tag that Aspect even when he is not in the presence of 
  the Leader.
  
  Keeping Up – The ally may share his leader’s locomotion or stealth capabilities while 
  attached to him.
  Quality – The ally improves by 1 Quality level, from Average to Fair to Good to Great.  
  This gives him an additional Stress box, and if he is Independent, it increases his skill 
  pyramid.
  Scope – While attached to his leader, he may aid in an additional type of conflict.  If he 
  is Independent, he also gains 1 additional skill at each level, all of which must belong to 
  his new scope.
  Skilled – (requires Independent)  A skilled ally gets an additional skill at each level (so a 
  Good Quality ally would get 1 additional Good, 1 Fair, and 1 Average skill) , and these 
  skills do not need to come from within his assigned scope.  While attached to his leader, 
  he may also aid any uses of these skills, even if they are outside his usual scope.  
  Secondly, if any of the ally’s skills are higher than his Leader’s, the Leader may use that 
  skill level instead of his own while the ally is attached to him.
  Strength in Numbers – You have more than one ally!  The first time this advance is taken, 
  you gain 2 additional allies (for a total of 3) that are all identical (statistically, anyway).  
  Each additional time this advance is taken gives you 3 more allies.  However, there is a 
  drawback: These hordes of minions are limited to the Leader’s Quality-2, not -1 as is 
  typical for a single companion.
  Summonable – No matter where you are, you can summon your ally to you.  This 
  normally takes 1 minute of concentration, but you may spend a Fate Point to 
  accomplish it in a single round.
  Variable Summons – (requires Summonable)  You may vary the allies you are able to 
  summon, rather than always summoning the same one.  Each time you summon them, 
  you may reallocate your advances.  One time you may choose to summon an 
  Independent, Fair Quality Physical Scope companion, and the next time a group of 6 
  Average Quality Social minions.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Spirit of the Century/Spirit of the Century Unified Minion & Companion Rules.pdf