Undead Trout
03-13-2011, 09:19 AM
Threw together this little beast to give more satisfying results when creating a knight's family, with a minimum of time and effort. You'll end up with enough detail to fill in a simple family timeline or tree, listing births and deaths of siblings born before and after the character who you've chosen as the focus of your family. Just add names, and you're good to go. You can also quickly toss together families for non-player characters or expand the cadet branch of your dynasty with minimal fuss. I have included an example at the bottom of this post.
[hr]
Step 1: Determine the focal character of the family.
Step 2: Roll 3d6 for total number of focal character's siblings.
Step 3: Roll 5d6 for each sibling. Relative Age: odd = older, even = younger;
Current State: odd = living, even = dead.
Marital Status: odd = never married, even = married;
Legitimacy: odd = illegitimate, even = legitimate;
Gender: odd = female, even = male.
Step 4: Determine birth order and number of years between each sibling's birth. Group siblings by relative age in order rolled. Focal character's place in birth order is between older group and younger group.
Roll 1d3-1 for the number of years separating the births of each sibling and the next in sequence, either starting with the eldest and proceeding to the youngest, focal character included, or using focal character as the base and proceeding from nearest older sibling to oldest and from nearest younger sibling to youngest.
Step 5: Calculate the birth year and age for each sibling, and the age of death for all dead siblings. Using focal character's birth year as a baseline, calculate birth year and age for each sibling. This is current age if living, and maximum possible age if dead.
Roll 1d20 to determine age of death for each dead sibling; 01-04 = infancy (age = zero).
05-08 = one year to one-quarter maximum age.
09-12 = one-quarter to one-half maximum age.
13-16 = on-half to three-quarters maximum age.
17-20 = three-quarters to maximum age.
Step 6: Resolve any and all inconsistencies to your satisfaction.
Think of every discrepancy as a chance to exercise your creativity. This is a quick-and-dirty system, meant to give you results with a minimum of time and effort that you fit to the circumstances.
Either disregard "married" results for all siblings who have not or did not reach majority, or consider them arranged marriages which have not or did not come to fruition. Your sister could be promised to another knight's son as part of the agreement ending a feud between families, for example.
If focal character was determined to be the eldest son or daughter by other means but a legitimate older sibling of the same gender was rolled, that sibling may: be the child of a parent's prior marriage;
be an orphaned godchild, hostage or fosterling taken in by the focal character's parents;
have been disowned for his or her profligate ways;
have been passed over for the family favorite (i.e., the focal character);
have abdicated to pursue another calling in life (took religious vows, prefers a life of errantry, etc.)
[hr]
Step 1: Our focus shall be Sir Alexander, a humble vassal knight of Salisbury, age 21 in Anno Domini 485.
Step 2: The result of our dice roll is 10, a nice average number. Convenient.
Step 3: Our ten sets of 5d6 produce the following results: Beatrice, an older living married illegitmate female [5,4,4,1,5].
Caradoc, a younger living unmarried illegitimate male [4,2,5,3,2].
Dorcas, an older dead married legitimate male [5,3,2,6,4].
Erbin, a younger living married legitimate male [2,6,4,2,2].
Fiona, an older living married legitimate female [1,2,2,4,3].
Gwynneth, an older living unmarried legitimate female [1,2,5,2,3].
Hugh, an older living unmarried legitimate male [5,4,1,2,2].
Ignacia, a younger living married legitimate female [4,6,4,4,1].
Jordans, older living unmarried legitimate male [3,6,1,2,2].
Kaitlyn, a younger dead unmarried illegitimate female [6,1,1,5,3].
Step 4: Grouping the characters in order based on relative age, our birth order is Beatrice, Dorcas, Fiona, Gwynneth, Hugh, Jordans, Alexander, Caradoc, Erbin, Ignacia and Kaitlyn. Our dice rolls are 1,0,2,0,0,0,1,2,1,0, so Beatrice was born a year before than Dorcas and Fiona, who were born two years before Gwynneth, Hugh, Jordans and Alexander, who were born one year before Caradoc, who was born two years before Erbin, who was born one year before Ignacia and Kaitlyn.
Step 5: Beatrice, born in 461, is 24 years old.
Dorcas, born in 462, would have been 23 had he lived; he died at the age of 20.
Fiona, also born in 462, is 23 years old.
Gwynneth, born in 464, is 21 years old.
Hugh, born in 464, is 21 years old.
Jordans, born in 464, is 21 years old.
Alexander, born in 464, is 21 years old.
Caradoc, born in 465, is 20 years old.
Erbin, born in 467, is 18 years old.
Ignacia, born in 468, is 17 years old.
Kaitlyn, born in 468, would have been 17 years old had she lived; she died at the age of 8.
Step 6:The sole staggering discrepancy is the quadruple legitimate births in 464. I'm going to resolve this little quandary by making Gwynneth and Alexander twins, with Hugh and Jordans as twin maternal cousins who were orphaned just over a dozen years ago. And there you have it!
[hr]
Step 1: Determine the focal character of the family.
Step 2: Roll 3d6 for total number of focal character's siblings.
Step 3: Roll 5d6 for each sibling. Relative Age: odd = older, even = younger;
Current State: odd = living, even = dead.
Marital Status: odd = never married, even = married;
Legitimacy: odd = illegitimate, even = legitimate;
Gender: odd = female, even = male.
Step 4: Determine birth order and number of years between each sibling's birth. Group siblings by relative age in order rolled. Focal character's place in birth order is between older group and younger group.
Roll 1d3-1 for the number of years separating the births of each sibling and the next in sequence, either starting with the eldest and proceeding to the youngest, focal character included, or using focal character as the base and proceeding from nearest older sibling to oldest and from nearest younger sibling to youngest.
Step 5: Calculate the birth year and age for each sibling, and the age of death for all dead siblings. Using focal character's birth year as a baseline, calculate birth year and age for each sibling. This is current age if living, and maximum possible age if dead.
Roll 1d20 to determine age of death for each dead sibling; 01-04 = infancy (age = zero).
05-08 = one year to one-quarter maximum age.
09-12 = one-quarter to one-half maximum age.
13-16 = on-half to three-quarters maximum age.
17-20 = three-quarters to maximum age.
Step 6: Resolve any and all inconsistencies to your satisfaction.
Think of every discrepancy as a chance to exercise your creativity. This is a quick-and-dirty system, meant to give you results with a minimum of time and effort that you fit to the circumstances.
Either disregard "married" results for all siblings who have not or did not reach majority, or consider them arranged marriages which have not or did not come to fruition. Your sister could be promised to another knight's son as part of the agreement ending a feud between families, for example.
If focal character was determined to be the eldest son or daughter by other means but a legitimate older sibling of the same gender was rolled, that sibling may: be the child of a parent's prior marriage;
be an orphaned godchild, hostage or fosterling taken in by the focal character's parents;
have been disowned for his or her profligate ways;
have been passed over for the family favorite (i.e., the focal character);
have abdicated to pursue another calling in life (took religious vows, prefers a life of errantry, etc.)
[hr]
Step 1: Our focus shall be Sir Alexander, a humble vassal knight of Salisbury, age 21 in Anno Domini 485.
Step 2: The result of our dice roll is 10, a nice average number. Convenient.
Step 3: Our ten sets of 5d6 produce the following results: Beatrice, an older living married illegitmate female [5,4,4,1,5].
Caradoc, a younger living unmarried illegitimate male [4,2,5,3,2].
Dorcas, an older dead married legitimate male [5,3,2,6,4].
Erbin, a younger living married legitimate male [2,6,4,2,2].
Fiona, an older living married legitimate female [1,2,2,4,3].
Gwynneth, an older living unmarried legitimate female [1,2,5,2,3].
Hugh, an older living unmarried legitimate male [5,4,1,2,2].
Ignacia, a younger living married legitimate female [4,6,4,4,1].
Jordans, older living unmarried legitimate male [3,6,1,2,2].
Kaitlyn, a younger dead unmarried illegitimate female [6,1,1,5,3].
Step 4: Grouping the characters in order based on relative age, our birth order is Beatrice, Dorcas, Fiona, Gwynneth, Hugh, Jordans, Alexander, Caradoc, Erbin, Ignacia and Kaitlyn. Our dice rolls are 1,0,2,0,0,0,1,2,1,0, so Beatrice was born a year before than Dorcas and Fiona, who were born two years before Gwynneth, Hugh, Jordans and Alexander, who were born one year before Caradoc, who was born two years before Erbin, who was born one year before Ignacia and Kaitlyn.
Step 5: Beatrice, born in 461, is 24 years old.
Dorcas, born in 462, would have been 23 had he lived; he died at the age of 20.
Fiona, also born in 462, is 23 years old.
Gwynneth, born in 464, is 21 years old.
Hugh, born in 464, is 21 years old.
Jordans, born in 464, is 21 years old.
Alexander, born in 464, is 21 years old.
Caradoc, born in 465, is 20 years old.
Erbin, born in 467, is 18 years old.
Ignacia, born in 468, is 17 years old.
Kaitlyn, born in 468, would have been 17 years old had she lived; she died at the age of 8.
Step 6:The sole staggering discrepancy is the quadruple legitimate births in 464. I'm going to resolve this little quandary by making Gwynneth and Alexander twins, with Hugh and Jordans as twin maternal cousins who were orphaned just over a dozen years ago. And there you have it!