AEG Toolbox and Ultimate Toolbox: Definitions

[timbannock]

I have yet to get my hand on AEG Ultimate Toolbox, but I do have the original Toolbox, and one thing I realized going through it is that so much of it is left open-ended.

GREAT!!

Well, except when it's hard to find the definition of a term used.

So, this thread is a chance to define those things you don't know very well and can't find on a quick Google or Wikipedia search. The learned folks here at ENWorld should be able to provide answers galore!

Let's get things rolling:

I don't know what the following occupations really meant back in "the day" (my Medieval history is pretty shaky):

• Boorman/Chalmers (Toolbox 118, table 3-25)
• Jent (same, table 3-26)
• difference between a Reave and a Reeve (same, table 3-27)

There's a ton more, but let's start there!

 

[Crothian]

I wish I still had my copy of Toolbox. It is a book I want to find again.

 

[El Mahdi]

Where's Galloglaich? I bet he'd know, or at least know where to find it.

 

[Burrahobbit]

A quick search of the Oxford English Dictionary reveals the following, for what it's worth:

Jent (primarily an adjective, at least as listed here), seems to be an alternate form of gent, used often to describe a knight or gentleman (Says Chaucer: "I wol telle verrayment..Al of a knyght was fair and gent.")

Reave comes up (oddly enough) as a "long low boundary wall," while a reeve is more what you might think of in the medieval context: "a minor officer appointed by a landowner to superintend his estates, tenants, or workmen." (Not the only definition, but all are related: some kind of official overseer or delegate). I would guess that reave could also just be an alternate spelling.

Nothing for boorman, though a boor used to just mean "a husbandman, peasant, countryman"

 

[timbannock]

Thanks, Burrahobbit!

I found some resources on this particular quandary that might help:

Dictionary of Ancient Occupations and Trades, Ranks, Offices, and Titles
CALLIHOO Writing Helps--Fantasy/Medieval Job List
Role Playing Fundamentals - Medieval Professions


I'm also interested in hearing people's fun tales of actually putting Toolbox or Ultimate Toolbox to use. What kind of interesting rolls did you come up with? What properties did you apply to things like the "fantasy plants" and the like?