How do you guys interpret the rules for squire glory on p.69 in BoKL?

One of my players interprets them as a logical rule, that all player squires should begin with a 1/4 of their knights glory (excluding annual and non-global events). So he wants for example a squire that is becoming a player knight to look at the glorysheet from the knight (if its a player knight) and recieve 1/4 of the glory that battle.If it's a non player knight, the average table on p.69 should be used.

I don't want to be the sulky GM and say no. But I do feel there is no need for a squire to begin with more glory than they get from their father upon knighting.

Do you guys use this rule?

No we do not. However I would allow a squire to accumulate Glory based on his own actions if he is a played player character. So if he rides into the fray of the battle to deliver a spare horse to his knight, I'd give him a modest amount of glory for that and so forth. In our campaign it has been an almost tradition that 'almost' ready squires get to prove their mettle and earn their spurs in battle if one is in the offing and they have the equipment for it.

No we do not. I use only the glory gained from the father. Gaining glory from being a knight's squire feels wrong to me. Glory is gained from personal actions first. Maybe some extra could be gained if they squired to a very glorious knight, but I would not give them glory for each battle they attended.
Most of my players do not own all the books, so they do not know all the rules. So I have it more easy there. ;)

For a player character I would make difference. They would gain some small glory, but also depends on their own actions.

Does he want 1/4 knight glory? (so a knight with 16000 gives a 4000 glory bonus to anyone he squires)

Or 1/4 what they earn from battles, plus what the squire might earn from attending major events? (during the period - generally 5 years - that the squires serves the knight)

One of my players interprets them as a logical rule, that all player squires should begin with a 1/4 of their knights glory (excluding annual and non-global events). So he wants for example a squire that is becoming a player knight to look at the glorysheet from the knight (if its a player knight) and recieve 1/4 of the glory that battle.If it's a non player knight, the average table on p.69 should be used.

I don't want to be the sulky GM and say no. But I do feel there is no need for a squire to begin with more glory than they get from their father upon knighting.

Be a proud GM and say no
This interpretation is nonsense
The knight may have had a dozen squires through his career
That rule is only for battles that the squire has been in

One of my players interprets them as a logical rule, that all player squires should begin with a 1/4 of their knights glory (excluding annual and non-global events). So he wants for example a squire that is becoming a player knight to look at the glorysheet from the knight (if its a player knight) and recieve 1/4 of the glory that battle.If it's a non player knight, the average table on p.69 should be used.

I don't want to be the sulky GM and say no. But I do feel there is no need for a squire to begin with more glory than they get from their father upon knighting.

Be a proud GM and say no
This interpretation is nonsense
The knight may have had a dozen squires through his career
That rule is only for battles that the squire has been in


That's where I was going with my response basically, but I wanted to get a clarification on the player's interpretation.

My understanding is that squires actually fight in battle, thus they have the opportunity to earn glory there.

Similarly, if a squire attends a major wedding or funeral - then they may well get glory for that as well. Keeping in mind that squire may well not have such an opportunity. When the feast-hall fills to capacity with knights and lords then the squires will be waiting outside with the horses. (After all, for some of the really big feasts even knights get bumped to the bailey)

Nothing in the rules seems to imply that the squire earns glory simply by association.

But I'm not sure the player was actually interpreting it that way... I mean if he's just looking to get the 90 glory that the squire would have earned for participating in the Battle of Lindsey, I don't think that would be objectionable. If he actually writes it down on his glory sheet and makes it part of his background, it's potentially even laudable.

Ultimately, every rule is the GMs option. The amount of glory the player is liable to get from this rule option is so small that hopefully neither side considers it a horrible grievance to gain or be denied an extra 90 glory at character creation. (and if he does think that it will amount to thousands or even several hundred glory, then he's misreading it quite severely)

I give a flat 10% of glory for everything (battles and events), except for 100% for specific opponents that they fight in a battle.

Thus, if the battle gives 30glory/round, the squire gets 3.
But if the squire fought a 20glory baddie, he get the full 20 glory.

Thank you for all the good answers.

To be fair, I want to make it clear that the player only argued for 1/4 of the glory for the events that he as a squire participated in. In many cases, player knight character in our campaign tend to be squires for older player knights. This means that certain squires end up being in several major battles.

What I'm going to do (after the advice of most of the people in this thread) is to say no. There will be no glory for squires from earlier events, unless they have made a major contribution during play (if for example a squire ends up saving a player knight from battle). In this case, they may end up with part of the glory for the battle. There will be no passive glory for squires from the background unless it's a major theme of the character or if he is an older squire (21+).

The player did point out one thing though, that made me think some more. Is there no glory in serving a greater knight? Perhaps there should be a small glory-bonus during a year that you serve a greater knight (for example 1 glory/per year/per 1000 knight glory?) If for a example a player knight ends up serving as a squire for an extraordinary knight, would this squire not get some recognition for this? Perhaps not as glory... but in some way? I'm afraid this might end up being a "race".

Is he playing the squire as his character? Then yes, I would definitely let him gather glory for the stuff he does, even if it is standing Disengaged on the back of the battle, waiting to be summoned forward by his knight to bring an extra horse. If he is not playing the squire at the time, and is saying 5 years later that his new, shiny 21-years old player knight should get such and such amount of glory for having been a squire in this and that battle, then he'd be out of luck in our campaign.

Giving the squires a small bonus if they serve glorious knights would not be unbalancing for the campaign, but really, who'd really bother to do that? Even if your knight has 10 000 Glory, that is just 10 Glory per year or 60 Glory for the 6 years of being a squire. You will get that Glory soon enough. I might consider giving like +50 Glory (Was Knighted by a Knight of the Round Table) or some such, and not bother otherwise.

But I understand that you have played the campaign for quite some time already, and this is the first time that it has come up? I'd say that we have not been giving any Glory out before, so we are not going to start now. End of discussion. Play your knight and earn your Glory.