The Quintessential Aristocrat
The Quintessential Aristocrat
| Author | Martin R. Thomas |
| Series | Quintessential Series |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2004 |
| Pages | 98 |
| ISBN | 1-30000-076-4 |
| OGL Section 15 | qari |
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
Aristocratic Affiliations
The aristocrat's background is an important part of her existence, for it frames the ideals and values that she holds, provides a benchmark against which she can measure her status among other members of the aristocracy, and helps define the types of favours she can obtain. In this manner, each aristocrat character becomes even more unique. We call these aristocratic backgrounds and associations Affiliations.
Only members of the aristocrat class may obtain the benefits of these affiliations. While members of other classes may claim membership in an aristocratic affiliation, only an aristocrat truly understands the inner workings of the association and is able to draw upon its benefits to obtain favours.
Special Note: The use of Aristocrat Affiliations is dependent upon the rules for Status as presented in Chapter 9. Players and Games Masters not using the rules for Status will find it very difficult to implement the ideas presented in this chapter.
Types of Aristocrat Affiliations
As with the four main archetypes of aristocrat presented in Chapter 1 [LINK NEEDED], there are four main types of aristocrat affiliations. Each affiliation type matches up with one of the aristocrat character archetypes:
An aristocrat character may only receive the benefits of one aristocrat affiliation. While it is possible for one to be born a minor member of a noble family and later devote one's life to the church by joining a religious institution, the character would need to choose which affiliation takes precedence (in this case, most likely it would be the religious institution).
- Noble Family: A noble family is a powerful force indeed, typically second only to royalty in terms of authority. Members of other, lower social classes are usually expected to defer to the directions and command of the nobility. A noble family is most often entrusted with a portion land given to them by the king. They are the effective rulers of this segment of land, which may be a duchy, county or some other division devised by the Games Master. The noble family's land ownership is hereditary; as long as they continue to swear loyalty to the king, they may control the land. They are expected to raise taxes from their land and turn over a portion of these taxes to the king. Other examples of noble families include dwarf clans and orc tribes.
- Religious Institution: The role of religion can play a very important part in politics. In a typical mediaeval or feudal setting, the church is often on equal footing with the nobility. Often a senior member of the predominant faith in the kingdom will crown the king and queen. While members of the nobility swear loyalty to the king, the king swears loyalty to his faith and his deity. In this manner, the church keeps a close watch over the actions of the nobility and royalty. A senior member of the predominant religion in a city, county, or kingdom can expect to be treated with the respect deserved by the members of the nobility.
- Guild: The merchant class in the actual mediaeval era was nearly non-existent, and those few tradesmen who did exist were not considered members of the aristocracy in any sense. For our purposes, however, we assume that a person's wealth plays a part in his acceptance as an aristocrat. An aristocrat character affiliated with a powerful guild can expect to receive the respect of members of the lower social classes such as peasants and serfs and those tradesmen of less wealth. In certain types of governmental structures, the members of the powerful guilds may actually be the rulers of a city or county. In these cases, membership in a merchant guild will afford all of the advantages of membership in a noble family or religious institution.
- Academy: An academy is a rare institution indeed. Affiliations devoted to academic study are respected for their great learning, as well as for the amount of time and money its members have devoted to the acquisition of knowledge. Academy affiliations include not only colleges and universities dedicated to the study of science, philosophy and the liberal arts, but also include conservatories that focus their study on the magical research of wizards. Knowledge and arcane magic play an important part in maintaining a king's reign and therefore members of an academic institution are counted among the most prestigious members of the aristocracy.
Affliation Design
Designing an affiliation is quite easy. You can use the following steps as a guideline. As an adventuring hero, you are of course an exception to these guidelines. Just because the typical members of your affiliation are skilled at Climb and Handle Animal does not mean that you need to be.
Affiliation Name: This is the most basic step. Choose a name for your affiliation that sounds noble and aristocratic, not silly or cliché.
Typical Members: Identify the races and classes of the typical member of your affiliation, as well as the names of the more important members.
Typical Skills: Members of your affiliation are probably known for having particular skills. A Guild's members may be experts at Appraise and Craft (calligraphy), while a particular Noble Family may be known for their horsemanship (Ride) and menacing personalities (Intimidate).
Typical Feats: Similar to skills, feats help to define the average member of an affiliation. Perhaps a Religious Institution requires all of its members to learn Martial Weapon Proficiency in the preferred weapon of their deity, and an Academy requires that its members all learn the Diligent feat.
Typical Contacts: Belonging to an affiliation allows you to call upon specific contacts to gain information or to perform certain tasks for you. Use the examples given under 'Calling Upon Contacts' to define the typical types of contacts available in your affiliation.
Typical Allies & Enemies: Most affiliations will have a complicated series of allies and enemies with other affiliations, which makes for a very political game. An important noble family, for example, may have close ties to a particular church. This relationship makes the noble family the enemies of another faith and of that faith's allies. Such a complicated web of affiliation relationships helps create ideas for an affiliation's contacts and the types of favours it is able to grant to its members.
Affliation Ability Scores
Just like a character, an aristocrat affiliation has a series of 'Ability Scores' that help describe the affiliation and how it is viewed by other affiliations and members of the aristocracy. Each affiliation has four ability scores: Wealth, Size, History and Prominence. Scores for these four abilities are generated in a similar manner to a character's ability scores as explained in the SRD. Players of aristocrat characters are allowed a +2 bonus to one of the four ability scores of their choice when they roll to calculate the ability scores of their aristocrat affiliation. Players of other character classes do not receive this bonus.
Wealth
Wealth represents the amount of wealth available to the affiliation in actual coin, lands, estates and items. An affiliation with high Wealth has more material assets available to its members than one with a low Wealth score.
Size
Size is a measure of how large the affiliation is in terms of its members. An affiliation with high Size has more members than one with a low Size score.
History
History represents the provenance of the affiliation in terms of how long it has been in existence and how far back a member can trace the roots of the affiliation. Affiliations with higher History scores have been around longer and are therefore accorded more prestige than those with a lower score.
Prominence
Prominence measures how well known the affiliation is among the aristocracy, as well as how the affiliation is viewed by the aristocracy based on past deeds, accomplishments and actions, as well as by the actions and behaviour of its members. A high Prominence indicates that the affiliation's deeds are well known.
Ability Score Modifiers
Each of the four affiliation ability scores has a series of penalties or bonuses associated with it. Refer to the SRD for a description of these modifiers.
The four affiliation ability scores are used to determine the benefits an aristocrat character can derive from his affiliation. Collectively, the four scores are also used to calculate the affiliation's Status score.
Affliations and Status
Each affiliation has a Status score, which is calculated based on its four ability scores. A character belonging to an aristocrat affiliation must have an individual Status score that is equal to or above the Status score of his affiliation. If a character's Status score falls below that of his affiliation, the character takes a -4 penalty to all Charisma-based checks that he makes against other members of the affiliation. In addition, a character with an individual Status score lower than his affiliation's Status score may not request loans, contacts or favours from his affiliation, nor may he use the benefit of the Affiliation Skills are described below. Refer to the following chapter on Status for further explanation of individual character Status scores.
To calculate the Status score of an aristocrat affiliation, take the average of the four affiliation ability scores (rounding down). The result is the overall Status score of the affiliation.
For example, an aristocrat affiliation has the following ability scores:
- Wealth: 15 (+2 bonus)
- Size: 8 (-1 penalty)
- History: 12 (+1 bonus)
- Prominence: 11 (no modifier)
Its overall Status score is 11 (15 +12 +8 +11 = 46; 46 divided by 4 = 11 rounded down.)
This example affiliation has a good amount of wealth and enjoys a fairly long history, but it is relatively small in terms of its membership and is only average in terms of how well known it is. Overall, however, the affiliation has an average amount of status.
Character and affiliation Status scores will change frequently throughout the course of a campaign. As an affiliation's Status score increases and decreases, so does the Status score of any character belonging to that affiliation.
Affliation Achievements And Flaws
Similar to the way a character gains Feats, affiliations gain Achievements and Flaws. Achievements represent the accomplishments, successes and triumphs of the affiliation in terms of gaining land, earning a government grant, or forging a powerful alliance. Each Achievement grants a bonus to the affiliation's Wealth, Size, History, or Prominence score. Flaws represent the shortcomings, inadequacies and even the general bad luck of the affiliation, such as poor investments or having a criminal history. Flaws generate penalties either to the affiliation's ability scores or to specific skill rolls of its members.
An affiliation purchases Achievements with Affiliation Points. Upon its creation, each affiliation has a base 10 points to spend on Achievements. To this base score, add or subtract a number of Affiliation Points equal to its History score modifier; affiliations that have been in existence for longer periods of time have more accomplishments to their name. Thereafter, an affiliation earns its Status score bonus in Affiliation Points each year.
Unlike Achievements, Flaws are free and may be taken any time that Achievements are purchased. No more than one Flaw may be taken for each Achievement purchased. As mentioned, Flaws generate penalties to certain affiliation ability scores or skill rolls, but each Flaw taken also generates +1 Affiliation Points. Additionally, some Achievements require Flaws as prerequisites.
Achievements and Flaws are a game mechanic to represent the ever-changing condition of an affiliation and its members. They help prevent the organisations and associations from becoming stagnant. Many of the
Achievements and Flaws are constructed as 'events' which may become the basis for adventure hooks during the campaign.
A Note on Stacking: All of the Achievements and Flaws listed below provide bonuses and penalties that are stackable. By selecting the Small Estate Achievement, a character may add +2 to his affiliation's Prominence. Later during the campaign if he selects the Grand Palace Achievement, he adds an additional +2 to the affiliation's Prominence (for a total of +4) as well as a +2 to the affiliation's Wealth.
Benefits Of An Aristocrat Affliation
Belonging to an aristocrat affiliation gives the member certain advantages in the form of Affiliation Skills, Affiliation Symbols, Loans, Favors and Contacts. Only characters of the Aristocrat class are able to use these benefits. While other classes may belong to an affiliation, they do not have the requisite connections and aristocratic bearing to be able to take advantage of these benefits.
Affliation Skills
All aristocrats who belong to an aristocrat affiliation are able to count certain skills as class skills, whether they advance in the aristocrat class or multi-class into other character classes or prestige classes. Each type of aristocrat affiliation grants a different set of affiliation skills as noted below. Having access to these skills does not give the character any extra bonuses to the skills. It simply allows her to buy the skills as class skills instead of cross-class skills no matter which class she advances.
- Noble Family Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Knowledge (nobility & royalty(
- Religious Institution Skills: Diplomacy, Knowledge (religion), Sense Motive
- Guild Skills: Appraise, Knowledge (business & economics), Profession (merchant)
- Academy Skills: Gather Information (research special use - see 'Tricks of the Trade'), two different Knowledge skills (choose from arcana, arithmetic & geometry, astronomy, history, or law)
If an aristocrat character's Status score drops below the Status score of his aristocrat affiliation, she no longer benefits from these Affiliation skills and needs to purchase the skills normally until such time that she raises her Status score above that of her affiliation.
Affiliation Symbols
If the character's affiliation has its own symbol (such as a Noble Family's heraldic device or an Academy's seal), the character may display it upon his armour, shield, clothing and other items to portray his membership in the affiliation. There may be special rules of the affiliation requiring the character to modify the symbol slightly, such as to indicate his status as a lesser son or as the heir to the family fortune; see the discussion of Family Icons in 'Tricks of the Trade' in Chapter 5 [LINK NEEDED].
Any actions the character makes while displaying his Affiliation Symbol affect not only his own personal Status but also that of his affiliation. Whenever the character engages in an action that causes him to gain or lose Status, his affiliation also gains or loses Status on a two-to-one basis. For example, if an aristocrat character lost five points of Status due to being convicted of a violent crime, his affiliation would lose two points (5 divided by 2, rounded down) of Status.
Characters who become the heads or leaders of these affiliations (such as a clan leader or the regent of a university) will be expected to use the affiliations icon, unchanged, in place of their own personal icon. In these cases, gains or losses to the character's individual Status score are applied to the affiliation Status score on a one-to-one basis.
Affliation Checks
The other three benefits of belonging to an aristocrat affiliation (loans, favours and contacts) require the character to make an Affiliation Check. This is a Status check made by rolling a d20 and adding the player's Status score modifier and comparing the result to a set DC as explained under each heading below. Requests for favours and contacts also typically require a monetary donation.
Making a request for a loan, favour, or contacts affects the aristocrat's Status score; in effect, he has to 'use up a favour' by paying Status points in order to obtain the benefit. Requesting a loan, favour, or contacts also requires a time investment as noted below.
If the character's overall Status score is lower than the Status score of his affiliation, then all checks for wealth, contacts or favours are made at a -4 penalty.
Requesting a Loan: Aristocrat affiliations are usually the wealthiest organisations around, and their members
are able to call upon this wealth in the form of taking a loan.
Loan Check: You must make a Status check versus a DC equal to your affiliation's Status score. You apply your affiliation's Wealth score modifier (either penalty or bonus) to your Status roll. This modifier takes into account that affiliations with less wealth are less liable to give out a loan.
Minimum Time to Request: It takes less than an hour to go through the proper channels to request a loan from an affiliation.
Minimum Time to Implement: Obtaining the money (assuming the check is successful) requires a wait time of 1d4 days per 1,000 gold pieces requested.
Monetary Cost: Requesting a loan costs no actual money on the part of the character looking for the loan. Using Up a Favour: Requesting a loan is a major favour for a character. After the request is made, the character's Status score drops by two points temporarily. This penalty lasts for two weeks. Any requests you make from the affiliation during this time period suffer a -2 penalty to your Status score check to determine the success or failure of obtaining the favour.
| Wealth Score | Gold Piece Limit |
|---|---|
| 1 | 40 gp |
| 2-3 | 100 gp |
| 4-5 | 200 gp |
| 6-7 | 800 gp |
| 8-9 | 2,500 gp |
| 10-11 | 4,000 gp |
| 12-13 | 10,000 gp |
| 14-15 | 17,000 gp |
| 16-17 | 25,000 gp |
| 18-19 | 35,000 gp |
| 20-21 | 50,000 gp |
| 22-23 | 70,000 gp |
| 24+ | 100,000 gp |
The total Wealth available is equal to the affiliation's Size score (see below) times half the gold piece limit of the affiliation. An affiliation with a Size of 12 and a Gold Piece limit of 25,000 would have a total Wealth available of 150,000 with no single item worth more than 25,000 gold pieces.
A character can request a loan in the amount of 1% of the entire Wealth of the affiliation. Requests for an additional loan amount are made at a -5 penalty per each incremental 1%. Loans must be repaid within one month per 100 gold pieces requested for the loan. Failure to repay the loan results in a -5 penalty to the character's Status score and a refusal of any further loans for a period of one year. Interest is calculated based on 10% per year, a savings versus a typical loan charge of 25% for other characters (the maximum allowed by law to not be considered usury).
Calling Upon Contacts: Affiliations have many members skilled in a variety of areas. Members of these affiliations are able to call upon their affiliations to provide contacts that can gather information, sell goods and services at a discount, or have a specific area of expertise.
Contacts Check: To call upon your affiliation's contact, you must make a Contacts check by rolling a d20 and adding your Status score modifier. The DC of the check is equal to your affiliation's overall Status score. As with requesting a loan, you apply your affiliation's Size score modifier to your Status score check. Your affiliation's Size score also defines how many contacts are available and what level they are. Contacts are used for one of three purposes:
Gathering Information: You may use your contacts to Gather Information as per the skill. You actually make the Gather Information check as normal; however, calling upon contacts allows you to cover a wider area in a shorter period of time (see below under 'Minimum Time to Implement'). The number of contacts you call upon also increases the chances that your Gather Information check will succeed; for every five contacts that you call upon, you may increase your Gather Information roll by +1.
Purchasing Discounted Goods & Services: By making a successful Contacts check versus your affiliation's Status score and modified by your affiliation's Size score modifier and the Community Size modifier (noted on the table below), you may obtain mundane goods and services at a 10% discount from the prices listed in the SRD, as you have found merchants that are favourable to your affiliation. This does not apply to magical goods and services, which are covered under 'Request for Favours' below.
Finding Specific Skills: You may also look for a specific contact to make a skill check for you if you do not have that particular skill. In this case, there will only be a maximum of one of that specific type of contact available, and you take a -5 penalty to your Contacts check. If the contact is available, that contact has a bonus to the particular skill specified equal to his level (see chart below) +3, modified by your affiliation's Size score modifier. For each point by which you beat the DC of the check, your contact has an additional bonus to the skill requested.
| Size Score | # of Contacts Available |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0 |
| 2-3 | 2 |
| 4-5 | 5 |
| 6-7 | 8 |
| 8-9 | 12 |
| 10-11 | 17 |
| 12-13 | 23 |
| 14-15 | 30 |
| 16-17 | 40 |
| 18-19 | 55 |
| 20-21 | 75 |
| 22-23 | 100 |
| 24+ | 150 |
Community Size Modifier Table
| Community Size | Check Modifier | Maximum Level of Contacts |
|---|---|---|
| Thorp | -15 | 1d4-2 (minimum 1st level) |
| Hamlet | -10 | 1d4-1 (minimum 1st level) |
| Village | -5 | 1d4 +1 |
| Small Town | -2 | 1d4+2 |
| Large Town | +0 | 2d4+1 |
| Small City | +2 | 2d4+2 |
| Large City | +5 | 2d6+2 |
| Metropolis | +10 | 2d6 +4 |
Regardless of the result on the Maximum Level of Contacts column, the contact's maximum level is limited to the level of the aristocrat character –2.
Finding a specific contact within an affiliation is also dependent upon the type of affiliation to which you belong. Contacts within different affiliations have different skills as noted below. If you require a contact with a different set of skills, you take an additional -2 penalty to your Contacts check.
Noble Family: Contacts within a noble family are usually aristocrats or fighters and will likely be other family members or their servants. Noble family contacts mainly have social skills such as Diplomacy, Knowledge (law), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (military tactics), Knowledge (nobility & royalty), Knowledge (symbolism), Perform, Ride and Speak Language.
Religious Institution: Contacts from religious institutions range from lay members (commoners and experts) to priests (clerics) and even paladins. Typical skills available include Concentration, Heal, Knowledge (religion), Sense Motive and Speak Language.
Guild: Guild contacts will be other low-level members of the guild such as experts and rogues who are appraisers, moneychangers, or actual tradesmen and craftsmen. Their skills available include Appraise, Craft, Knowledge (economics & business), Knowledge (geography), Profession and Speak Language.
Academy: An academy's contacts are most often students, teacher's assistants, or junior members of the faculty. They typically belong to the expert class, and a few may be bards or wizards. Their skills include the areas of Decipher Script, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (architecture & engineering), Knowledge (arithmetic & geometry), Knowledge (astronomy), Knowledge (fine arts), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (the planes), Speak Language, Spellcraft and Use Magic Device.
There are two other areas from which the character may request contacts. Members from any affiliation requesting contacts with skills in any of the following areas make their check at an additional -2 penalty.
Underworld: These are the members of the criminal underground of a city. They are most often experts or rogues with skills in the areas of Craft (trapmaking), Disable Device, Disguise, Forgery, Knowledge (games & contests), Knowledge (local), Open Lock, Profession, Speak Language, Use Magic Device and Use Rope.
Nature: Members belonging to the outdoors group represent the members of an affiliation who have skills in the areas of Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge (nature), Ride, Survival and Swim. They are most often experts, druids and rangers.
Minimum Time to Request: Asking around to find some contacts takes roughly 30 minutes of time.
Minimum Time to Implement: Finding contacts to simply gather information for you takes about an hour, and they can gather information in about half the time it would take you to do so (roughly 3 hours instead of an entire evening's worth of time). You make a Gather Information check using your own skill bonus. Your contacts can gather information relating to an entire province (such as a county or duchy). Every five contacts you recruit to gather information reduces the time required by a half-hour and increases your Gather Information check by +1. It is possible to gain information nearly instantaneously with enough contacts.
Finding a specific type of contact with ranks in a particular skill takes 1d6+2 hours.
Monetary Cost: The cost to call upon average contacts for information gathering services is 2 gold pieces per contact. The cost for a specialist contact is 5 gold pieces per level of the contact. Roughly half of this cost is returned by the contact to the affiliation to which he belongs.
Using Up a Favour: Calling upon contacts to gather information is a relatively common occurrence. You suffer only a -1 penalty to your Status score for 24 hours. Calling upon a specialist is another matter entirely. Specialists are in short supply and if they are helping you that means that they are not helping someone else who is probably more important than you. Each time you call upon the services of a specialist contact you suffer a -5 penalty to your Status score. This penalty is temporary but it lasts for one month. During that month, you may not call upon the services of any other specialists.
Requesting a Favour: Asking for anything else from an affiliation other than a loan or contacts falls under the broad category of a favour. Your Games Master must decide if it is within the purview of your affiliation or its representatives to grant you the favour. Requesting the use of a magic weapon, potion, or other item is determined by the gold piece value of the item and is resolved as per 'Requesting a Loan' as noted above.
Examples of favours include the following:
- Small Favours: Requests for transportation to the next town, asking for a message to be delivered across town
- Medium Favours: Requests for transportation in excess of 100 miles (by sea or land), asking for a message to be delivered to a titled noble from another province or region, gaining access to a University's exclusive library, requests for access to items such as maps or books
- Big Favours: Requests for inconspicuous or disguised passage out of town for you and all of your adventuring companions, use of your affiliation's lands or estates for personal business, access to items such as ancient irreplaceable tomes or family heirlooms, gaining access to the secret vault of a University's most prized research volumes, asking for a message to be delivered to the reigning monarch of an enemy kingdom
Favours Check: You may request a favour from your affiliation by making a Favours check. Roll a d20 and add your Status score modifier compared to the DC of your affiliation's Status score. Your affiliation's Prominence score modifier adds a bonus or penalty to your Favours check. How well known your affiliation is will affect the resources it can call upon to grant you a favour.
Minimum Time to Request: Requesting a favour requires a variable amount of time dependent upon the type of favour being requested. A minimum amount of time is one hour for a small favour up to 1d4+1 hours for a medium or big favour.
Minimum Time to Implement: The time to implement a favour is also variable depending on how detailed the favour is. The implementation times are 1d12 hours for small favours, 1d6 days for medium favours and 2d6 days for big favours.
Monetary Cost: Small favours require a gratuity to the person granting the favour of 10 gold pieces. Medium favours require an investment of 50 gold pieces. More elaborate big favours require a donation of 1d4 x 100 gold pieces.
Using Up a Favour: Small favours cause you to suffer a -1 penalty to your Status score for 24 hours. A medium favour generates a -2 penalty to your Status score for one week. A Big favour causes a severe -5 penalty to your Status score that lasts for one month. Requests for further favours within one week of requesting a favour are made at an additional -5 penalty.
