Some setup questions

Hi,

So, we did the setup and character creation with my players. It took us about 3 hours (but my players are rather slow).

Here are some questions we encountered :

- Stronghold armory : a vassalage counts 40 warriors. You can have weapons for 10, for 20 or for 60. So you have the choice of having weapons for the quarter, the half, or for too much of your warriors ? Or if you take spears and bows for 20, can you arm 20 of your warriors with spears and 20 of your warriors with bows ?

- Consequence on the war company sheet : does 40 warriors count as having archers or spears if only 10 of them are armed with it ? if 20 ?

- The war captain : if he asks for his own war company, is he allowed to have one ? If yes, how do we create it ?

- The blacksmith : is he necessarily an actual blacksmith ? (we didn't agree about yes or no)

- Household possessions : when we met the household creation, the PC's family suddenly got armories, fortifications, treasures, sacred shrines... Is it ok ? I felt confused because some of those seem to be in the stronghold creation choices, so could one household possess a sacred shrine or fortifications if that's not included in the stronghold sheet ?

Soon, actual play !

Not an authority, but here's my thoughts FWIW:

- Stronghold armory : a vassalage counts 40 warriors. You can have weapons for 10, for 20 or for 60. So you have the choice of having weapons for the quarter, the half, or for too much of your warriors ? Or if you take spears and bows for 20, can you arm 20 of your warriors with spears and 20 of your warriors with bows ?

This is how I interpreted it -- if you have a big force, you can use combined arms tactics by having your archers up on the walls and your spearmen defending them.  If you don't take the option of having enough weapons for everybody, I figure you've got a certain number of well-armed and -trained militia and then a levy of able-bodied householders with whatever they happen to have -- maybe just a pitchfork and a broken shield. 

- Consequence on the war company sheet : does 40 warriors count as having archers or spears if only 10 of them are armed with it ? if 20 ?

I think you round up the largest fraction of the warriors and use that as their war stat, but I'd still let the company attack with arrows if they have archers.

- The war captain : if he asks for his own war company, is he allowed to have one ? If yes, how do we create it ?

I saw this playbook as being "Captain of the Guards" but I guess you could give him his own war company and make them a mercenary company or something independent of the stronghold's force.

- The blacksmith : is he necessarily an actual blacksmith ? (we didn't agree about yes or no)

I feel like he's meant to be a blacksmith, but I don't think it will break anything if he has another sturdy job that fits the Rights well.  A fletcher or mason would probably be cool too!

- Household possessions : when we met the household creation, the PC's family suddenly got armories, fortifications, treasures, sacred shrines... Is it ok ? I felt confused because some of those seem to be in the stronghold creation choices, so could one household possess a sacred shrine or fortifications if that's not included in the stronghold sheet ?

In our play test game, I let people take whatever they wanted but encouraged people to pool households.  It seemed to work pretty well.  I figured that there's only one Stronghold or castle, but there could be lots of shrines or fortified manor houses. 

1. Correct.

2. Yes.

3. Yes. The easiest way to create it is by creating it as a people.

4. Definitely a blacksmith, no other profession.

5. Yes. Households can own things the stronghold does not.

-Vincent

Thank you both !

4. Definitely a blacksmith, no other profession.

Any chance you'd elaborate on this? :)

Sure. Blacksmiths are the difference between the bronze age and the iron age. Their role in society in the iron age remembers this. They are figures of tremendous power, inheritors of Thor and Wayland. They wrestle earth through fire into the best of stuff; they are forerunners of the alchemists. They are guardians of this world against an intrusive older world: their iron swords and iron bells are proof against fairies and demons. We still remember them today when we hang a horseshoe over the door.

-Vincent

Sure. Blacksmiths are the difference between the bronze age and the iron age. Their role in society in the iron age remembers this. They are figures of tremendous power, inheritors of Thor and Wayland. They wrestle earth through fire into the best of stuff; they are forerunners of the alchemists. They are guardians of this world against an intrusive older world: their iron swords and iron bells are proof against fairies and demons. We still remember them today when we hang a horseshoe over the door.

-Vincent

I think people in this thread (and me before) have interpreted the blacksmith as not necessarily the blacksmith because the constellation of rights in the playbook do not uniquely evoke a blacksmith.

If I now understand you correctly: the blacksmith playbook is the definitely blacksmith playbook because a playbook has been designed to represent a blacksmith (which is essential to a "stronghold" grouping of playbooks). That it does not so necessarily uniquely is not a problem.

If I were to create a "carpenter" playbook, it is possible that I would select the exact same constellation of initial rights for the new playbook, but I would have to write a new poem and name it the Carpenter playbook. Then it would definitely be the Carpenter playbook and not the Blacksmith playbook.

It's a coincidence (sort of) that blacksmiths are useful to castles. Rather, the blacksmith is essential to this group of playbooks in mythic terms. The Wicker-wise, the Court Wizard, and the Dragon-herald, together, demand a capital-B Blacksmith to complete the figure. (They aren't a square, they're a d4, a triangular prism in three dimensions.)

If you want to create a carpenter playbook, I urge, oh my word urge, you to consider the actual role of the carpenter, don't copy the rights from the Blacksmith. It'd be as unsuitable to copy the rights from the War-captain or the Outranger!

-Vincent

On one hand, all the playbooks are definitive. There is one Keep-liege. There is one war-captain. There is one Blacksmith. On the other hand, there may be other definitive playbooks - I can imagine perhaps a Midwife or a Weaver - that hold the same sort of mythic place. If we had intended this to be the Skilled Craftsman playbook, we would have called it that instead and laid out options there unto.

Vincent- what dimensions, exactly, are the Wicker-wise. Court Wizard, Dragon-herald, and Blacksmith occupying in this figure?  I'd like a clearer picture of their relationships to one another.

Midwife, ooh yes!

Nweismuller: It's a metaphor, a suggestive image. I've been picturing them as the corners, with lines of tension between them, and you can too, but that's made up. Don't draw any conclusions from it.

-Vincent