King Lot
08-17-2013, 03:53 PM
I plan to use the Book of Estate in place of the Book of Manor even for single-manor vassal knights. Usually, the default Standard of Living for a vassal knight is Ordinary (as stated in the main rulebook). However, in BoE, it is stated that estate lords have a default standard of living of rich. When their estate gets damage from war, pillage, bad weather and such, their standard of living drops to ordinary, then poor. Should I adapt this table to work with vassal knights? For example, after 3 damaged Lots, does a vassal knight turn poor?
Also, it is written in p.14 of BoE that if an estate lord appears as a Normal knight, he gets -1 to honor each year. Should I rule that if vassal knights appear as Poor knights they also get -1 to their honor?
In a slightly different but related topic, I want to know if it is possible for an estate lord or a vassal knight, who have a reduced standard of living due to his manor being damaged, to raise his Standard of Living back to its default by just using his accumulated money to buy things. For example, let's say my baron knight's estate is plundered (7 lots of damage, let's say 3 are repaired, which leaves me with 4 damaged Lots and drops my Standard of living to Ordinary). Can I just invest some money I got from an adventure to buy me and my retinue some good looking new clothes, jewels and horses from a nearby city so I still appear as Rich and I do not lose Honor? I would have to spend that money each year as long as my estate manor is not repaired, but at least I would not lose Honor.
In the Pendragon main rulebook, I think it is written that a rich standard of living requires 9 Libra, compared to the ordinary standard of living which is 6. Following these rules I would assume that if a baron with a damaged estate invests 3 Libra per year, he can still look like a rich knight even though his estate would make him look as an ordinary knight. Is it reasonable or should I rule out that everyone knows that the estate of this knight has been pillaged and so he loses Honor and cannot do anything but wait and rebuild his manor before appearing as a rich knight again, even though in fact he might have 20 Libra in his treasury?
Another possibility would be to ask the player to pay for the value of each damaged Lot. For example in a 100 Libra estate with 4 damaged Lots, a player would have to pay 20 Libra each year until his estate is not repaired to compensate for 2 damaged Lots and "artificially" raise his Standard of Living to Rich according to the Shortage Results section on p.47. The problem with this method is that the bigger your estate is, the harder it is to stay rich since each Lot is worth more. It looks more intuitive to me to ask for the same amount of money to every lords, from owners of a single manor to lords of 300 Libra estates.
If a knight cannot increase his standard of living with money, I fear that, in the anarchy period when manors are often raided and pillaged by Saxons, it won't take long before player knights are reduced to low levels of Honor. According the BoE rules, every time a manor is pillaged (not talking about Plunder, Ravage or successive Bad Weather), its owner automatically loses 1 point of Honor. Pillage results in 5 damaged Lots of which only 2 can be "repaired" the same year (if you don't have the luck to have nearby Russet Monks). That gives 3 damaged lots which drops your Standard of living which in turn drops your Honor. Isn't it a bit harsh considering that Honor is so important for knights and that pillage or bad weather are not decided by the players but imposed by the campaign?
Maybe it's intended to work that way, maybe I don't understand something, but I'd like to know!
Also, it is written in p.14 of BoE that if an estate lord appears as a Normal knight, he gets -1 to honor each year. Should I rule that if vassal knights appear as Poor knights they also get -1 to their honor?
In a slightly different but related topic, I want to know if it is possible for an estate lord or a vassal knight, who have a reduced standard of living due to his manor being damaged, to raise his Standard of Living back to its default by just using his accumulated money to buy things. For example, let's say my baron knight's estate is plundered (7 lots of damage, let's say 3 are repaired, which leaves me with 4 damaged Lots and drops my Standard of living to Ordinary). Can I just invest some money I got from an adventure to buy me and my retinue some good looking new clothes, jewels and horses from a nearby city so I still appear as Rich and I do not lose Honor? I would have to spend that money each year as long as my estate manor is not repaired, but at least I would not lose Honor.
In the Pendragon main rulebook, I think it is written that a rich standard of living requires 9 Libra, compared to the ordinary standard of living which is 6. Following these rules I would assume that if a baron with a damaged estate invests 3 Libra per year, he can still look like a rich knight even though his estate would make him look as an ordinary knight. Is it reasonable or should I rule out that everyone knows that the estate of this knight has been pillaged and so he loses Honor and cannot do anything but wait and rebuild his manor before appearing as a rich knight again, even though in fact he might have 20 Libra in his treasury?
Another possibility would be to ask the player to pay for the value of each damaged Lot. For example in a 100 Libra estate with 4 damaged Lots, a player would have to pay 20 Libra each year until his estate is not repaired to compensate for 2 damaged Lots and "artificially" raise his Standard of Living to Rich according to the Shortage Results section on p.47. The problem with this method is that the bigger your estate is, the harder it is to stay rich since each Lot is worth more. It looks more intuitive to me to ask for the same amount of money to every lords, from owners of a single manor to lords of 300 Libra estates.
If a knight cannot increase his standard of living with money, I fear that, in the anarchy period when manors are often raided and pillaged by Saxons, it won't take long before player knights are reduced to low levels of Honor. According the BoE rules, every time a manor is pillaged (not talking about Plunder, Ravage or successive Bad Weather), its owner automatically loses 1 point of Honor. Pillage results in 5 damaged Lots of which only 2 can be "repaired" the same year (if you don't have the luck to have nearby Russet Monks). That gives 3 damaged lots which drops your Standard of living which in turn drops your Honor. Isn't it a bit harsh considering that Honor is so important for knights and that pillage or bad weather are not decided by the players but imposed by the campaign?
Maybe it's intended to work that way, maybe I don't understand something, but I'd like to know!