Traits For A New Baron

[TheRealMe]

I am running a fantasy campaign where wizards are the rulers. As part of a long-term plot, one of my players was revealed to be the secret heir to a holding that is essentially a medieval-style barony. I gave the player the option of his character refusing the position and leaving it all to his niece. However, he decided to become the next baron. I do not want to hand this character a ton of points for free, so I am going to ask him to buy off the social advantages over time. I do plan to allow him to swap out old disadvantages for appropriate new ones: Sense of Duty to his people, for example, or long-term Enemies of his noble house.

So, what traits would he need to acquire to reasonably be able to function as a Baron? I assume that Status 4 is a given.

He will need some Wealth, too, but how much? It is a relatively poor, out-of-the-way backwater barony, but it includes a keep and a small town of several hundred people.

What about Administrative and/or Military Rank? If so, how much?

Legal Enforcement Powers?

What about his servants and castle guards? Do they come with Status, or must they be made Allies or Dependents?

What else?

Thanks for any help.

[Humabout]

Not looking at my notes on this, but when I wrote up various fuedal ranks, Baron looked something like this:

Wealthy, Fuedal Rank 3, and Status 3 or 4 (I don't remember which I set as baseline), Legal Engorcement Powers (akin to an FBI agent), and Legal Immunity (can't be accused by a peasant).

I also provided ranges for Wealth and Status, since not every baron is as well off or influential as the next. Really, Feudal Rank was what set a nobel as a baron - not status. All nobels had the LEP and LI; the Monarch and his family had LEP [15] and LI [20], though. Basically the royal family could do anything they wanted as long as they didnt anger the monarch, and the monarch can do anything (s)he wants.

[EDIT]
NOTE: Many other traits may also be added to any noble position in my setting. This is where nobles get things like military rank, administrative authority, etc. Since nobility is hereditary, as are most noble tanks, I bundled those two states together when writing up barons, earls, dukes, etc. Anyone without a title is not a noble, and any peasant who is gifted a title becomes a noble.

[ANOTHER EDIT]
I never consider employees Allies unless there is a very personal loyalty. Most people do their job because of the consequences of not doing their job - not out of personal loyalty to their boss. I consider the household staff that comes with living at a given status level as employees.

[Apollonian]

You can also help mitigate the cost of those advantages by (with the player's cooperation) saddling the PC with some new Disadvantages. One that immediately springs to mind is Duty; if the baron holds his new demesne in fief from a count or a duke, he's going to owe that guy something. Traditionally that was a couple weeks a year of fighting, plus providing a retinue of soldiers to fight with him. Later in the medieval era, it became cash payments with which the crown could hire professional troops. He may also have some duties (small d) that come with the position; one that's a right and duty is the ability to hear criminal and civil cases in his demesne, and charge the plaintiffs for it. This is probably covered under Legal Enforcement Powers, but I might put in Duty (Baronial responsibilities, 9 or less) [-5] to cover the kind of things he has to do to maintain his position.

When handing him his new Wealth rating, don't forget that he now has a higher Cost of Living to maintain. Making sure that new Wealth rating isn't quite high enough to maintain the baronial lifestyle is a good adventuring hook, if he needs and wants one.

Oh, hang on. Is he now the actual baron, or he is just next in line for the barony? If the latter, he should get the Heir advantage for the baronial package (Characters, p. 33)

[talonthehand]

Originally Posted by Apollonian

You can also help mitigate the cost of those advantages by (with the player's cooperation) saddling the PC with some new Disadvantages. One that immediately springs to mind is Duty; if the baron holds his new demesne in fief from a count or a duke, he's going to owe that guy something. Traditionally that was a couple weeks a year of fighting, plus providing a retinue of soldiers to fight with him. Later in the medieval era, it became cash payments with which the crown could hire professional troops. He may also have some duties (small d) that come with the position; one that's a right and duty is the ability to hear criminal and civil cases in his demesne, and charge the plaintiffs for it. This is probably covered under Legal Enforcement Powers, but I might put in Duty (Baronial responsibilities, 9 or less) [-5] to cover the kind of things he has to do to maintain his position.

Another one might be a negative reputation with the other rulers. "Upstart who thinks he's noble."

[tanksoldier]

You can adjust his legal enforcement powers based on what his lord is willing to grant him.

Traditionally there is low, middle and high justice... the power to punish financially, corporally and take a life.

Low justice involves fines and other judgements regarding property... both as punishments for crimes and for what would today be considered matters for civil court.

Middle justice involves punishments of the body. Flogging, imprisonment, slavery or indentured servitude....

High justice is for capital crimes and usually involves execution but can also cover what happens to lands, titles and other property of the convicted. Is the family of a freeholder convicted of treason and executed also sold into servitude, do they keep their freehold or something in between?

Not all nobles hold all levels of justice, or even any in some cases, and a high noble might only hear high justice cases himself delegating the low and possibly middle to an appointed justice, reeve or other functionary.

For example, the Duke May hold the high, middle and low justic for his domain but require his barons to administer the low and middle on their lands, bringing high justices cases to the Duke.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by TheRealMe

So, what traits would he need to acquire to reasonably be able to function as a Baron? I assume that Status 4 is a given.

If he doesn't have the money, marrying the daughter of some social-climbing commoner is a standard tactic.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Humabout

Not looking at my notes on this, but when I wrote up various fuedal ranks, Baron looked something like this:

Wealthy, Fuedal Rank 3, and Status 3 or 4 (I don't remember which I set as baseline), Legal Engorcement Powers (akin to an FBI agent), and Legal Immunity (can't be accused by a peasant).

I also provided ranges for Wealth and Status, since not every baron is as well off or influential as the next. Really, Feudal Rank was what set a nobel as a baron - not status. All nobels had the LEP and LI; the Monarch and his family had LEP [15] and LI [20], though. Basically the royal family could do anything they wanted as long as they didnt anger the monarch, and the monarch can do anything (s)he wants.

[EDIT]
NOTE: Many other traits may also be added to any noble position in my setting. This is where nobles get things like military rank, administrative authority, etc. Since nobility is hereditary, as are most noble tanks, I bundled those two states together when writing up barons, earls, dukes, etc. Anyone without a title is not a noble, and any peasant who is gifted a title becomes a noble.

[ANOTHER EDIT]
I never consider employees Allies unless there is a very personal loyalty. Most people do their job because of the consequences of not doing their job - not out of personal loyalty to their boss. I consider the household staff that comes with living at a given status level as employees.

A reasonable look at poetry of the time tells how the relationship between a warlord and his retinue was sentimentalized. While one must grant that sentiments are overdone in poetry, they are also expressions of emotions the hearers want to experience, as after all they are the ones paying the poet. Ally Group is perfectly legitimate for employees. More so as many will be a given lord's neighbors or fosterlings or hold other forms of kinship.

Servants probably should not normally be considered allies though but simple employees. Those that are allies would have some background story to justify it.

[Humabout]

Btw, I looked up my actual write-up and here it is:

Baron/Baroness

53 points

Male Honorific: My Lord, Your Lordship, or Lord London.
Female Honorific: My Lady, Your Ladyship, Lady London, or Baroness.
Consort Honorific: My Lord/Lady or Lord London/Lady Mary.

You are the lord of a small territory called a barony; there are usually seven or so baronies in a county. Thus, you rule a stretch of countryside that usually encompasses one large village or small town. Some cities are baronies in their own right.

Advantages: Feudal Rank 3 [15]; Legal Enforcement Powers [10]; Legal Immunity [10]; STatus 4* [10]; Wealth (Wealthy) [20].
Disadvantages: Duty (Monarch; Quite Rarely, 6 or less; Involuntary) [-7]; Duty (Barony; Fairly Often, 9 or less) [-5].

* This includes +1 from Feudal Rank 4 and +1 from Wealth (Wealthy).

----
Note: The Duty values are relatively arbitrary and largely dependent on the individual baron's relationship with his monarch and the neediness of his barony. Also, I would allow Status and Wealth to vary by 1 level in either direction, and both to possibly be much lower than listed.

Note: This is purely a function of his position within the nobility; it does not reflect any military, administrative, or religious rank, and it does not take into account how people feel about him (Allies, Contacts, Dependents, Enemies, and Social Regard). These things are all either the subject of separate lenses or too personal to bake into any single lens.

[tanksoldier]

Another good source for aristocracy in GURPS is GURPS Traveller’s “Nobles”.

One interesting aspect of Imperial nobility is that a lesser noble doesn’t owe fealty to the noble above him, he owes it to the Emperor Himself.

All patents of nobility are issued by the Emperor and the noble swears fealty to the Emperor. Knights can be created by Archdukes but even then are created in the name of the Emperor and still swear fealty to the Emperor and not the Archduke.

It also goes into the differences between social titles and members of the Peerage, who wield actual governmental authority.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by tanksoldier

Another good source for aristocracy in GURPS is GURPS Traveller’s “Nobles”.

One interesting aspect of Imperial nobility is that a lesser noble doesn’t owe fealty to the noble above him, he owes it to the Emperor Himself.

All patents of nobility are issued by the Emperor and the noble swears fealty to the Emperor. Knights can be created by Archdukes but even then are created in the name of the Emperor and still swear fealty to the Emperor and not the Archduke.

It also goes into the differences between social titles and members of the Peerage, who wield actual governmental authority.

Traveller Nobles are more like eighteenth or nineteenth century nobles than Medieval ones. There are more sources of income then rent and more trades then war available.