...I'm not sure what they do.

Do 60 year old knights still do garrison duty and such or is there a retirement age of some kind? If they do retire then who pays to keep them fed and clothed...

One of the reasons I'm asking is because I was thinking of making one of my players the squire (for the opening session) of a family member 'old knight'. But I wasn't sure if Old Knights are active enough to provide a proper... I don't know. Do old knights still go about doing knightly things and training a squire? That is what I am asking.

In Our Campaign...

Old knights get shuffled to officer positions, where their own declined physical prowess matters much less than their high skills. In the case of some household knights, they might give their horse and armor to their son, and semi-retire to act in one of the esquire positions to the Lord, like a steward. If they are still spry enough to fight in a pinch and don't have a son, then yes, sure, they will continue in garrison duty or even riding at their Lord's side, giving him advice with the wisdom they have garnered over the decades. Not to mention that these are likely men who have served their Lord faithfully for most of the Lord's life. They are friends and valued confidants.

And yes, they definitely would be still OK to train the squires, assuming they are still fit enough to ride a horse and to swing a sword.

Game mechanics:

What I found out, when I was rolling for the aging for the code-generated NPC knights, was that the stats drop on average 1 per 5 years. See this discussion (click the 'Quote from'):



In any case, it does mean that while there are still quite a few knights left in their 55th year who are able to be active, about half of them will drop to bedridden before 65th birthday. So there is a rather steep 'best before date' curve in there. Also, they are not really terrifying opponents in a fight, either, as they are quite likely to be hitting with 3d6 or even 2d6, and tip over with a tap of a sword. But then again, fighting is what the young bucks are for. These guys are for advice and positions of responsibilities.