So obviously the players during Uther's reign wish to gather manors and lands under their thumb. The easiest way of course is through marriage. As such Salisbury has a few such as Lady Jenna and Sir Hywel's unnamed daughter who ages aren't listed but have very promising dowries.

I would imagine, and historian I am not, that in the case of Lady Jenna that one would have to get Roderick to promise her to the knight and then wait till she is old enough. My question is what would Roderick require in order to promise her hand. It seems that he most likely would want to use her as a reward for great service or to expand his power outside of Salisbury but I'm not sure how to quanitfy that for the players.

In the case of Sir Hywel's daughter what would be required? What would he as a father require the suitor to have?

Also what would Roderick want out of the suitors for the other eligible ladies? Obviously he wouldn't be as hard on the suitors as he would for his own daughter but what would the knights need to convince him to marry them to one of the ladies?

Also with Lady Indeg who can pick her own husband, what would a lady like her look for? Obviously the rules of courtly love aren't being used in Uther's time.

Now normally when I had 4th edition rather than 5th it was easier because i tended to use romance and players tended to go for random marriages. But with 5th edition and GPC's earlier start date it makes me wonder what I as a GM should require of the PC's in order to gain these ladies hands in marriage?

Any help would be appreciated.

I probably would not marry Jenna to one of my pcs purely because she is too rich and potentially powerful, however, if they did something exceptional then I might give them the chance. As KAP5 states that there are already many suitors for her, at the very least I would have a contest of some sort.

With the other courtly ladies I've devised a very simple marriage table to determine how much they like/dislike any potential suitor. It consists of four stages; Favour, Strongly Favour, Adore, and Love with each stage requiring several successful rolls at something, such as Dancing, Flirting etc, to pass through. Once Adore or Love is reached the knight is likely to have a proposal accepted assuming there are no other suitors. Of course this is not technically correct as the women are not really free to choose their husbands, but it creates more competition for my players, quantifies their progress and spurs them on in Courtly scenarios. I also use a roll vs APP each year at court to determine if the lady "fancies" the knight on this occasion. A failed roll means that no amount of dancing or flirting will allow them to progress along the table, though they wont lose status either. This often spurs my knights to groom themselves meticulously and dress as best they can to increase their APP; it's fun and a great counterbalance to the grit and grime of combat.

I know this doesn't really answer your question but I thought it might be helpful nonetheless.

I know this doesn't really answer your question but I thought it might be helpful nonetheless.

Very helpful actually. The idea of a table would actually work very well for earning the Earl's or Father's favor as well. Of course the table would be modified by more martial pursuits rather than the courtly ones. If you have a chance to post your table I would love to see it so that I can steal ideas from it.

Well it's so cunningly simple it exists only in my head ;D

But this is essentially it.

Stage 1-5 = Favour
Stage 6-7 = Strongly Favour
Stage 8-9 = Admire
Stage 10 = Love

As you can see, it doesn't take much to earn favour but progressing beyond Strong Favour takes considerable effort (most of my players are lucky to get more than 1-2 decent successes per year!). Once Admire is reached Love follows more easily. Each stage requires a successful roll at a courtly skill to attain, remembering that some of these are contested rolls (eg two knights dancing with a lady). Using this system it could easily take 5 years to reach a state of admire or love, the only 2 states where a marriage proposal is considered. This is unrealistic but I feel it presents a worthwhile risk/reward structure considering the benefits of marrying one of these "named" NPCs. In my game all my knights have a Luck stat which I use for a lot of things and I will call that roll to determine a player's proposal chance with a lady if she is anything less than in love with him, with failure dropping him down one notch. Of course, you could go one further and have certain ladies react more significantly to certain approaches (eg Indeg might grant a +1 "bonus" to Singing advances).

In contrast I use this for disfavour..

Stage 1-3 = Disfavour
Stage 4-6 = Strongly Disfavour
Stage 7-8 = Detest
Stage 9-10 = Hate

At present all of the major NPCs (including the priests and the likes of Sir Elad and Jaradan) either favour, disfavour or are neutral towards one or more of my pcs and each other. I use a matrix to keep track of how everyone views everyone else.

It's not bulletproof, but it works for me.

I got to say Pram I really like.

After all love and marriage is another one of life tourneys and usually involves me getting battered and falling of my horse!!! :D

Thanks Steve.

It's really just a first pass basic setup. With a bit more effort you could easily make them Passions or tie in all sorts of modifiers etc. I just wanted something quick to use after my first session to give some feel to the players about their relationships. They don't know what scores they have but they do know their status.. "Woe is me, why does Lady Indeg detest me so and yet favour my good friend Sir Darin" It adds some colour.