Noble resources?

[Psion]

Other than the Noble's handbook, does anyone know of any resources to help haggard GMs flesh out noble families/houses? I am talking more about general details here (holdings, personalities, figures, political stances, etc.) than game rules material.

This is related to my Sailors on the River of Worlds campaign thread, BTW.

 

[Ranger REG]

Dynasties & Demagogues (Atlas Games)?

 

[DMScott]

Other than the Noble's handbook, does anyone know of any resources to help haggard GMs flesh out noble families/houses? I am talking more about general details here (holdings, personalities, figures, political stances, etc.) than game rules material.

A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe has a bunch of useful information, assuming you're talking about western european nobility.

 

[Psion]

Got MMS:WE and Dyn&Dema., not really what I am looking for. The former details, um, details of the society, the latter details political games. What I am looking for is generation of specific details unique to various noble houses.

For example, lets say I wanted to come up with 10 nobles houses, and have a list of a variety of distinctions each would have from the other, where would be a good place to look?

 

[Crothian]

Birthright?? That's the best guess I've got for you.

 

[Silveras]

Got MMS:WE and Dyn&Dema., not really what I am looking for. The former details, um, details of the society, the latter details political games. What I am looking for is generation of specific details unique to various noble houses.

For example, lets say I wanted to come up with 10 nobles houses, and have a list of a variety of distinctions each would have from the other, where would be a good place to look?

You could glean some information from the old BD&D module B6, the Veiled Society. Set in Karameikos, the adventure is based around intrigue among noble families in that land. Much of that information was later subsumed into the Karameikos boxed set for AD&D 2nd Edition Mystara.

You could also look at the various Organizations statted up in the Dragon .. although I have not seen any recently. The Dragon articles used a standard "Organization Stat Block" modeled on the Settlement descriptions (i.e., a gp limit, an amount of ready cash, notable members, total membership, etc.).

I think the big problem is that the distinctions would be very specific to a campaign world. Alliances with various power groups would be a big piece of the differentiation. Philosophical differences ("We are the old nobility, we do not respect anyone who bought his title" vs. "I am a wealthy merchant. My father raised pigs on a noble estate.") would also abound, but be based on the campaign history ("We are the old nobility; your people stole our lands, but we remember").

[Edit: You can also look at the Clan structure in Oriental Adventures/Rokugan for some inspiration.]

 

[Psion]

You could glean some information from the old BD&D module B6, the Veiled Society. Set in Karameikos, the adventure is based around intrigue among noble families in that land. Much of that information was later subsumed into the Karameikos boxed set for AD&D 2nd Edition Mystara.

Funny you should mention that. Parts of the subsetting I am running right now are derived from Mystara resources (but not Karmeikos; savage coast).

Philosophical differences ("We are the old nobility, we do not respect anyone who bought his title" vs. "I am a wealthy merchant. My father raised pigs on a noble estate.") would also abound, but be based on the campaign history ("We are the old nobility; your people stole our lands, but we remember").

Funny you should mention that, too. Part of the history of this little corner of the setting is that there are two brands of noble houses: merchant and true. Merchant houses came about because the true houses were barely getting by, and started accepting money for titles and other privledges. Eventually, the situation became standardized, and the true noble houses were afforded the exclusive privledge to raise and arm warrior companies, and had the obligation to provide police and defense forces in exchange for their protection.

For more history behind the Sword Isles and the city of Tai, see this page (my old AD&D page; ignore the 2e references):
http://members.tripod.com/~hawk_wind/trinalia/SSCgeo.html

Perhaps the best thing to do is for me to throw up a few noble houses and tickle people for ideas, plots & places style. I'll post back when I get the chance.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

The 2e Waterdeep box had a listing of a LOT of noble families (crests, business interests, interesting personalities, etc). You can get it cheap as a PDF.

 

[Psion]

The 2e Waterdeep box had a listing of a LOT of noble families (crests, business interests, interesting personalities, etc). You can get it cheap as a PDF.

Is that the city of splendor set? I think I have that tucked away on a hard drive somewhere.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Yup. that's the one that should have it in it.

I picked it up when i was running waterdeep adventures for my now defunct FR campaign.