Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Kurt Wiegel]

Hey all

So I'm closing in on running a SW-powered Riftwar sort of game (feist is my favorite fantisist- and the Riftwar books are preternaturally interesting- and prolific- to me.)

One thing I've been tripping over is the application of the Noble Edge- it works well for games where a lot of being noble can be handwaved but is sort of one size fits all- theres no gradation there.

Has anyone ever worked on making different leves- say Knight, Baron Count, Duke etc? should each be a seperate edge? That seems a little spendy, but there are A LOT of advantages that go with each increasing level (+2 CHA, riches, filthy rich, contacts etc).

Any thoughts on this?

Kurt

[Seeker of Truth]

If I were doing a Savage Midkemia/Kelewan, I would make some small changes to the interaction between the Noble-ish Edges, like Noble, Rich, and Filthy Rich. I can see a wealthy merchant getting to take rich, but in that world, something like Filthy Rich is really reserved for the nobility, and I'd require Noble to take it. The progression of titles in the kingdom went something like Squire < Earl < Baron < Duke < King (with theweird middle of Prince of Krondor in the West). Noble should be something like Earl, responsible for a small, but interesting amount of land. Taking Filthy RIch would increase this to Baron. Anything beyond that should really, IMHO come from roleplaying.

As for knights, from my recollection (distant that it might be) you had professional soldiers in the Kingdom, who were not necessarily high-born, and nobles who commanded soldiers only by virtue of their title. I would want to differentiate between these. Maybe make a Knight Edge, taken if the individual is a true leader in the military. Gives them a +1 Charisma in general (considered at least a nominal member of the upper classes), increased to +2 amongst their personal command (as determined by the GM).

As a side note, as a fellow fan of Feist, I've always imagined handling Lesser Path magic as basically blend of AB(Magic) and AB(Weird Science). How are you doing it?
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Epic of the Arrows - A Saga of the Untamed Lands

[ValhallaGH]

Savage Mojo covered various levels of nobility-as-edges in their Suzerain book Caladon Falls. Might be some good things in there.
Full book: https://savagemojo.com/home/?p=2557
Player's Guide: https://savagemojo.com/home/?p=2327

Re: Noble. It's the High Status edge. You're well connected, making you better at talking to folks through both practice and interest in not being screwed over (+2 Charisma). Further, you have a steady supply of high income, though not necessarily high enough. These two large benefits are balanced out by major responsibilities, that just get worse as the benefits accrue (followers, favors from other nobles, high offices, etc.).
For a Minor Noble, especially one from a poor house, there are several alternative edges. Connections (favors owed and friends of the family, but no real status nor income), Rich (holdings and income but no status), "Rank" (+2 Charisma but no income), and Followers (loyal retainers, despite your lack of status and wealth). A few small changes to existing edges can give you what you're looking for.
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"Got a problem? I've got the solution: Rocket Launcher."
"Not against a Servitor."
"... We're all gonna die."

[Kurt Wiegel]

[Kurt Wiegel]

The other thing I was thinking about for the nobility aspect was to do a Ubiquity-powered Midkemia game, since All for One hadles noble ranks pretty well (as part of the resource mechnics). The concern I had was (1) I find Ubiquity's magic to be underwhelming and (2) I find beginning characters to be even more underwhelming. Since I don't know the system well enough to alter characters tofind the middle ground between Underwhelming and "Dear God what have I done," I'm less likely to make severe alterations there.

The "extra" rules hold up very well for most of the big combat scenes (Siege of Crydee, Armengar, etc. Savage Worlds gets us about 85% of where I want to be, but occasionally using somehting different is interesting (I've been about an inch from using A Song of Ice and Fire for a while, and Pathfinder even entered my world view recently).

Kurt

[Kurt Wiegel]