Hi Gents,

I took Greg?s advice and created backup knights for all my players, so when they are injured, killed, run of mental etc, they can fall back on their backup. So they only come out every now and again.

If your player is forced to use a backup character, do you then start to advance that backup when they?re out of play e.g. put away till their needed again?

Cheers,

BigSteveUK

We always do.

Most definately, I believe on the website there is a "catching up" out of play characters form.

Catching up on some back topics, but this one caught my attention:

In the campaigns I have been involved in, we had two backup plans going at the same time. The first was a sibling of the main knight (if available, or if not, a second knight). We did keep advancing him using solos only as that was only fair.

We also had what was known was the 'squire pool'. Everyone created a squire that was a no-name persona until a knight went out of play. That player would draw, at random, one of the squires from the pool. This was his squire from now on. He would play the squire until the knight was once again available, or he himself was knighted. There were some very good sessions using this as the others would jeer, applaud, and generally have fun with the antics of the squire. This would avoid the 'sudden appearance' of a new knight or explanation of working in a new person into the party as the squires are almost always there.

Bob

The squire pool idea is a good one.

What I've usually done early on in a game, is have each player create a second knight at age 21 (or slighhtly older with background experience) with no ties to the first. Leave the birthdate blank. Then when the main character is out of commission, bring the backup in, and calculate his birthdate now.

Then keep both characters updated when the years pass by.

Later in the campaign, most players have sons and brothers of their active knight they can bring in. As soon as one of them reaches 21, they get designed (maybe not all of them, but at least one), and put in an inactive folder. When there is an opportunity to be brought into play, the player chooses which if his reserves he wants to use, and they are quickly aged up from there age 21 stat (doesn't take long) and brought in.

Also, by that point in the campaign, the players usually have enough spare characters that we start up a second group, often in a different location, so we get to play two adventures per year. Then they need extra backups, in case their characters in both groups are out of commission for a while. It also leads to characters swapping groups from time to time, which can be interesting.

My most extreme multi-group game was one where the players had orkney knights, malahaut knights (separate group), logres knights, and saxons, all being played during the period of arthur's coronation and shortly after. Those groups soon got thinned down to one...

I like the squire pool idea a lot.

In the last two game sessions one of the player knights went out of action for a time. In the first instance the player fell back on a knight previously rolled up and kept up with solo adventures just for this purpose. The player wasn't very enthusiastic about the experience as they had no real connection with the character. That character was previously in the story as an NPC; but, still, the love wasn't there. On the second instance we just fell back onto the squire of the fallen night. It went off without a hitch and the player was still engaged.

So the squire pool worked well for us, at least that one time.

<Just resurrecting this as some of my PCs have just created backups>

I'm not quite sure of the best way forward here. My group now consists of 5 PCs and during our last play session 4 of them had their knights knocked out. Before we play again I've given the option of either preparing a younger sibling to play, or creating a totally separate family. Two of my guys went for the new family option - one of them because he has no younger brother. All fine and dandy so far. However, I'm not sure how to go about advancement. I run the full economic rules from BotM and I don't really like the idea of having to do this for character families that are just sitting in the background - not least because of the bookkeeping involved; eg manor builds, harvest results, treasury, pop increase, etc etc.

I'm probably going to do this: The primary family is king. Backup family knights are considered new characters - who can be played as and when needed - but I do not track their family (other than immediate wives and children) or their manor until such time that the backup becomes the primary. As and when they do, I run x amount of years family events etc, to give some more colour, and start to track the manor economics and allow builds etc,. The downside for the backup family is that the lead knight may be 30+ years old and yet his manor will start as a basic one; not as "advanced" as one which had been played. The upside is that the knight will still be better than a new one, having had skills checks and boosts for the last x years. It's not perfect I admit, but as only 2 of my PCs want backup families I don't want to penalise the others that don't, and, as I spend a large amount of time already tracking families between sessions, I don't want to add to that. Any thoughts?

Edit
hmmm actually this is twisting me in knots. One of my guys has managed to get the chiv and religious bonus from character generation. If he sits him as a backup and I allow full glory each year, he's going to be raking it in. This seems wrong as his character is effectively doing nothing and has no chance of losing the bonus (which he only just managed) unlike a character being actively played. Then I thought of just advancing the "active" character but that gets tricky if you run full economics.. eg what happens on an "off" year. Just how are people handling backup families?

Edit
hmmm actually this is twisting me in knots. One of my guys has managed to get the chiv and religious bonus from character generation. If he sits him as a backup and I allow full glory each year, he's going to be raking it in. This seems wrong as his character is effectively doing nothing and has no chance of losing the bonus (which he only just managed) unlike a character being actively played. Then I thought of just advancing the "active" character but that gets tricky if you run full economics.. eg what happens on an "off" year. Just how are people handling backup families?




This is the problem of getting too big in annual glory. Why go adventuring when you get 400+ per year from all the bonuses? If it really bothers you, then make a fiat ruling that only played characters get full glory (house rule here). If the player really wants that much glory, he'll play him. I find that it totals out in the end as non-played characters are not up to the same skill level as one who plays regularly and so will be outdone in combat, or social interactions. The old cliche of a "pampered" superior officer and the old trench-fighting hardened veteran getting the same results out of his men come to mind.

Just how are people handling backup families?

Backup characters always start out as household knights or questing knights. Thus, they have no wifes and no families or manors. If the do get played a lot, that is likely to change, but, then again, they often are advanced to primary characters. This keeps the bookkeeping to a minimum.

Also, I only allow a player one character the use of the Book of the Manor. Their other character(s) must use the "simple system", ie I decide their level of maintenance.

make a fiat ruling that only played characters get full glory (house rule here).


as it is for me too

In general, the system I had allows characters to get skill checks, but no glory while not being played

make a fiat ruling that only played characters get full glory (house rule here).


as it is for me too

In general, the system I had allows characters to get skill checks, but no glory while not being played




What about year end skill or stat increases through training? ie the usual +1d6+1 or 1 point to Stat, Passion or Skill.

make a fiat ruling that only played characters get full glory (house rule here).

as it is for me too
In general, the system I had allows characters to get skill checks, but no glory while not being played

What about year end skill or stat increases through training? ie the usual +1d6+1 or 1 point to Stat, Passion or Skill.

Oh yes.
And any checks due from builds on manors.