D&D General Why would someone that's the heir of both A Very Minor Duke and A Minor Baroness become A Adventurer?

[JMISBEST]

Out of boredom I've amused used A Mates Family Generation Tables to create a background for A Dnd Character and I'm puzzled. Why would someone that's the heir of both A Very Minor Duke and A Minor Baroness become A Adventurer?

Before anyone asks yet again this kind of thing is possible because the mate that made them had the attitude that he would never have to worry about this kind od thing because this kind of thing would happen

Anyway here's the full info

Rolling for his Family

A 96 on 1D100 followed by A 49 on 1D100 means that his fathers A Very Minor Duke and his mothers A Fairly Senior Baroness

In case anyone’s wondering The 49 on The 2nd 1D100 would normally mean that my characters mothers A Wealthy Commoner but because my characters fathers A Very Minor Duke my characters mothers gets boosted to A Fairly Senior Baroness

A roll of A 74 means that his fathers very small Dukedom consists of 5 fairly large Earldoms each of which consists of 7 fairly large Baronies

A 58 on 1D100 followed by A 29 on 1D100 means that he’s the youngest of 5 children

A 4 on 2D10 means that even though he’s the youngest of 5 children all 4 of his older siblings are female

That means that he’s the 2nd in line to inherit both his fathers title of Very Minor Duke and his mothers title of Minor Baroness, which when he takes the title the title will change to minor Baron

Rolling for motivation

A 1D10 roll of A 4 for motivation means that whilst waiting to inherit both of his parents lands my character has gotten bored and decided that to get a bit of excitement in his life he would become a adventurer

Naturally theirs no way that someone that’s the heir of both A Very Minor Duke and A Fairly Senior Baroness would go anywhere without bodyguards, naturally my characters bodyguards are paid by his father

Saying that though because this person that’s their of both A Very Minor Duke and A Fairly Senior Baroness is bored and want some fun, excitement and danger normally they will let him get the fun, excitement and danger he wants and they will only intervene is his life is in mortal danger

And

So great is The Very Minor Dukes concern for his heir/my character, that he has assigned A Guard Force that consists of 1 31 Strong Platoon, 1 7 Strong Squad and 1 5 Strong Squad to protect his heir/my character

Rolling for what his family gave him

A 79 on 1D100 for regular stuff means that he starts with up to 40,000 Gold Coins worth of regular stuff

A 11 on 1D100 for magical stuff would normally get him almost nothing but because he’s the spare heir of both A Very Minor Duke and A fairly Senior Baroness he gets 1 +1 Mace, 1 suit of +1 Chainmail, 3 1-dose bottles of Potion of Healing and A Flask of Endless Water

As well as which my character has A 4-in-10 chance of having enough Type III Bags of Holding to allow him to carry with him all of the regular stuff, all of the cash and all of the magic stuff that he starts with

When rolling for cash A 35 on 1D100 nets him cash equal to 2D3+1x1,000+15,000 Gold Coins or 21,000 Gold Coins

A 19 on 1D100 for Valuables wouldn’t normally get him almost nothing but because he’s the spare heir of both A Very Minor Duke and A fairly Senior Baroness he gets 1D8x1,100 Gold Coins worth of valuables or 5,500 Gold Coins worth of valuables

A 99 on 1D100 for bodyguards nets my character bodyguards whose wages are paid for by his father that have a combined total of 1D10x10+120 levels or 200 levels

A 1D10 roll of A 5 means that I get to choose what the force consists of and in the end I go for 18 4th level Fighters, 11 4th level Clerics, 6 5th level Rangers, 4 3rd level Thieves, 1 9th level Druid, 1 9th level Cleric, 1 12th level Magic User and 1 12th level Fighter

A 7 on 1D10 means that I can choose The 9th level Druids 18HD worth of Animal Companions and I go for 1 5HD Owlbear, 1 5HD Large Crocodile, 1 3HD Dire Wolf, 1 2HD Wolf, 1 1HD Weasel, 1 1HD Bloodhawk and 1 1HD Huge Spider

A 98 on 2D10 means that The 12th level Magic User has 9 Spellbooks and 3 Spellscrolls that between them hold a total of all 32 1st level, all 2nd level, 2D2+12 3rd level, 1D3+9 4th level, 1D3+5 7 5th level, 1D2+3 6th level and 1D2 7th level Magic User Spells

In the end The 12th level Magic Users has 9 Spellbooks and 3 Spellscrolls that between them hold a total of all 32 1st level, all 2nd level, 15 3rd level, 12 4th level, 7 5th level, 4 6th level and 1 7th level Magic User Spells

Also

My characters motivation for become a adventurer is that whilst waiting to inherit both of his parents lands my character has gotten bored and decided that to get a bit of excitement in his life he would become a adventurer

Naturally theirs no way that someone that’s the heir of both A Very Minor Duke and A Fairly Senior Baroness would go anywhere without bodyguards, naturally my characters bodyguards are paid by his father

Saying that though because this person that’s their of both A Very Minor Duke and A Fairly Senior Baroness is bored and want some fun, excitement and danger normally they will let him get the fun, excitement and danger he wants and they will only intervene is his life is in mortal danger

And

So great is The Very Minor Dukes concern for his heir/my character, that he has assigned A Guard Force that consists of 1 31 Strong Platoon, 1 7 Strong Squad and 1 5 Strong Squad to protect his heir/my character

 

[ilgatto]

Out of boredom I've amused used A Mates Family Generation Tables to create a background for A Dnd Character and I'm puzzled. Why would someone that's the heir of both A Very Minor Duke and A Minor Baroness become A Adventurer?

(...)

Also

My characters motivation for become a adventurer is that whilst waiting to inherit both of his parents lands my character has gotten bored and decided that to get a bit of excitement in his life he would become a adventurer

Um...

 

[mamba]

So great is The Very Minor Dukes concern for his heir/my character, that he has assigned A Guard Force that consists of 1 31 Strong Platoon, 1 7 Strong Squad and 1 5 Strong Squad to protect his heir/my character

that doesn’t sound like a very minor duke any more…

 

[aco175]

I'm reminded of a movie scene where Dustin Hoffman was playing the devil antagonist to Joan of Arc. She was being attacked by a man on the road that passed through a field and pinned to the ground assumedly to be raped. While she flailed in the grass, her hand found a sword and she killed the man. She believed it was the hand of god that intervened. The devil was trying to corrupt her playing to her hubris in thinking that hand of god reached down upon her specifically at that very moment to place a sword in her grasp, since she was so favored.

The scene went on showing several possible scenes how a sword could have come to rest in the field such as two knights fighting and the sword being flung by one when he was killed, or a wagon hit a rock and the sword fell from the back. My favorite was a man walking with the sword over his shoulder and then looks at it and say, eh as he tosses it into the field.

The point is that it does not matter much why the PC comes to adventure. A larger point in one of my games certainly is why would he have so many guards and why would you roll on a noble chart in the first place. There is a noble background in the game and my group has taken it a couple times, but it does not grant 1,000s of gold and a platoon of armed soldiers. Why not just send him with a 12th level priest that can raise dead and full heal all the PCs in the party. At some point you need to decide what is worth finding the sword.

 

[A2Z]

The peerage in this setting is wild. How does one address a 'very minor duke'? Your Minuscule Grace?

 

[ilgatto]

that doesn’t sound like a very minor duke any more…

I was wondering about the same thing.
I suppose the DM is lucky that this PC isn't the Emperor's son.

 

[thirdkingdom]

The peerage in this setting is wild. How does one address a 'very minor duke'? Your Minuscule Grace?

<snerk>

These threads are something else.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I do want to raise an issue concerning the uncritical use of tables: when a person uses very old (40+ years) tables uncritically, they end up reproducing the sexism of when the tables were created.

In the OP, the character is the 5th child of the Duke and the Baroness, having 4 older sisters. You are uncritically assuming that the sisters cannot inherit.*

Since on the tables used, there seems to be a very high percentage chance that a character will be noble (much higher than the actual proportion the nobility represents in medieval society), the use of tables definitely gives the impression that the group is hostile to female PCs.**

*Interestingly enough, we know that women can inherit in this universe, since the mother is a Baroness. You could presume male-preference (a woman can only inherit if she has no brothers), but the simpler approach would be to recognize that both men and women can inherit and have the PC be 5th in line for the title.

** You could try to argue verisimilitude to justify male primogeniture, but arguing verisimilitude based on these tables would cause most people to dissolve in fits of laughter.

 

[JMISBEST]

I do want to raise an issue concerning the uncritical use of tables: when a person uses very old (40+ years) tables uncritically, they end up reproducing the sexism of when the tables were created.

In the OP, the character is the 5th child of the Duke and the Baroness, having 4 older sisters. You are uncritically assuming that the sisters cannot inherit.*

Since on the tables used, there seems to be a very high percentage chance that a character will be noble (much higher than the actual proportion the nobility represents in medieval society), the use of tables definitely gives the impression that the group is hostile to female PCs.**

*Interestingly enough, we know that women can inherit in this universe, since the mother is a Baroness. You could presume male-preference (a woman can only inherit if she has no brothers), but the simpler approach would be to recognize that both men and women can inherit and have the PC be 5th in line for the title.

** You could try to argue verisimilitude to justify male primogeniture, but arguing verisimilitude based on these tables would cause most people to dissolve in fits of laughter.

I've just realized that I forgot to mention that in the country it takes place in Women can only inherit if they have no legitimate brothers and that The Baroness that's the characters mother had 1 brother but because he's illegitimate he can't inherit and even though the character is the youngest of 5 children his siblings are all female, which is why he's 1st in line. Sorry

 

[GuyBoy]

I was going to answer your question but then I rolled a 15,27,80, 09 and 62 on my mate’s ex-partner’s table, which meant that I have a sister that I never knew about, who is married to an owlbear (but not the owlbear in the D&D movie; a different owlbear) and their son is a long-dead vampiric bishop, who owns three baronies, a trireme and a pub that serves remarkably pleasant mango cider. So I couldn’t remember the question.