Patronage and Professionals

These professionals cost £ 1 to find.

Astrologer

Astrologers are seers of the sky, able to discover mystical secrets from the patterns of the sky.

Cost: £ 2

Skills: Astrology, Clerk

Benefits: Modest predictive ability. At the Gamemaster’s whim, an Astrologer who makes a successful Astrology roll can provide one generalized clue about a question asked by the Patron.

Jongleur Troop

Jongleurs are traveling entertainers, part circus, part theater, part medicine show, part spy ring. They travel widely, see much, and talk to many.

Cost: £ 5 per year

Benefits: +2 to Diplomacy, based on the extra  knowledge they provide.

Writer

Writers create books, that may either be translations or new works entirely. Subject include historical or contemporary chronicles, legends, geographies, Saints’ lives, or even the life of the patron!

Cost: £ 2 for the writer +  £ 1 for materials

Skills: Read Latin, Write Latin

Benefits: 2 Glory per year, a roll for the Patron on Read (Latin), and the chance for a new book.

New Book Creation

Attempt the writer’s Writing skill roll. Critical Success = new book worth £ 2. Success = new book worth £ 1; Failure = the book is not finished, + 1 to skill roll next year; Fumble = no book, complete waste of supplies. Books are a type of Treasure.

Starting Key Skills

The starting Key Skill for a professional depends on whether the normal, request, or interview method is used.

Normal method costs nothing to fill the position. Qualification is determined by kinship and need, not by finding the best applicant. This is where those other family members are engaged. Normally a brother, uncle, cousin or in-law who is an esquire is simply given the job. Such a newly appointed non-professional character starts with Key skill of 2d6 if young, or 2d6+5 if old (Gamemaster determination).

Request method is applied only to your liege or vassal, both of whom have social bonds to allow this to happen easily. If your vassal has the man you want, a simple statement should be enough to have him delivered, for which a suitable gift (£¼) is given. If the man is your liege’s, his release depends entirely on the lord’s whim. If he is not released, it will never happen. If he is, a gift of £½ is suitable. Starting Key Skill: 2d6+5.

Interview method get a more qualified candidate. Pay £1 per skill desired. You got your man. Starting Key Skill: 2d6+10.

Aide-de-camp

An aide-de-camp is a professional esquire closely attached to a lord to oversee his care. An aide is usually promoted after proving himself as the knight’s squire — it is not a job suitable for a stranger. He will oversee a staff, called the lord’s chamber, if there is one. Although he will have been taken off the battlefield by his duties, he retains his weapon skills in case of an emergency.

Key Skill: Stewardship starting at esquire’s Age/2, max 15.

Upkeep: £2

Chaplain

A personal chaplain is a combination of personal priest and clerk. He is usually one of the first entourage members hired. His religious advice is handy in a pious age, and also keeps the lord clear of conflict with the church officials. Primarily, however, he reads and writes for his lord.

Key Skill: Priest

Upkeep: £1

Chef and Staff

He is experienced in all the high culinary arts as well as running a kitchen staff, included here: assistant chef, two assistant cooks and four kitchen servants (scullions).

Key Skill: Cooking

Upkeep: £2, plus £3 for the team

Clerk, Secretary

Although a monk (“cleric”), this man is hired for his literacy, not religion. He reads and writes letters and notices for his lord, keeps books and records, checks the steward’s accounts, and so on. A Secretary does the same work as a clerk, but only for one person.

Key Skill: Clerk

Upkeep: £1

Courtesan

This cultured companion, dedicated to sophisticated entertainment and personal pleasure, is often of scandalously noble origins. She requires a lady’s care and maintenance — often more, if she provokes a Love passion from her lover. Even an emotional link, however, does not guarantee her permanent employment.

Key Skills: Lustful, any one other Courtly Skill

Upkeep: £2

Additional: Checks for childbirth and Lustful resolved each Winter Phase.

Engineer

This commoner knows how to build castles and take them down. He combines masonry, carpentry, art and architecture. He can build towers and castles, and also make siege engines, emplace them, dig tunnels and slow them down from destroying his own defenses. He can also maintain waterworks, such as fountains.

Key Skill: Siege

Upkeep: £2

Herald

This expert knows coats of arms and badges, can paint a shield, advise on tournament protocol, and make loud public announcements. 

Key Skills: Heraldry; possibly Recognize

Upkeep: £1 per skill listed above.

Huntsman

A huntsman coordinates all aspects of the event for his lord, making sure that there is a suitable rendezvous spot, the dogs and beaters are prepared and on-site, spoor has been located, and carts or bearers are ready to take home the meat at the end of the day. The Huntsman oversees the dog Boy in the absence of a Master of hounds. Esquires and  knights in this role are called “Master of the Hunt.”

Key Skill: Hunting

Upkeep: Commoner: £½ , Esquire: £1, Knight: £2 (bonus)

Lawyer

This expert knows all the ins and outs of the king’s many courts. He is useful to advise nobles.

Key Skill: Law

Pay: £ 1

Master of Hounds

A Master of Hounds is a commoner or esquire in charge of a large kennel with several dozen dogs of every type.  He has several dog boys that work for him.

Key Skill: Dog Care

Upkeep: £1, plus £4 for dog boys and a huge pack of hounds.

Majordomo

This man heads the household servants and staff of a banneret-sized staff. In larger households he’s called a dapifer. In a manorial household, this task is the wife’s.

Key Skill: Stewardship

Upkeep: £4

Mistress

It is easy for a knight to find a beautiful, young common woman who will be his mistress, willingly sharing her life and her body for the chance of a bastard noble son.

Key Skill: Intrigue (Gossip)

Upkeep: £ 1

Additional: Annual Childbirth Roll each Winter Phase.

Steward

This expert who looks after a manor is always a nobleman, usually an esquire of the family. While his main duty is to oversee the manor, he may accompany his lord on tour if the absent time is relatively short.

Key Skill: Stewardship

Upkeep: £ 1

Tailor

This is an expert at making men’s clothing. The biggest advantage to his employment is that he can work quickly, just for you. His upkeep includes the cost for two seamstresses.

Key Skill: Fashion

Upkeep: £ 2 upkeep; plus materials. He requires cloths, furs, jewels and feathers worth £ 1 of raw materials into stylish clothing worth +1 APP. This may be given away. If crassly sold, it is worth £ ½. With more materials, he can make one such set of clothing per month. These clothes are subject to the normal deterioration of £ ½ value per year.

Tutor

A private teacher can be found for almost anything at a nearby monastery, though some teachers of some skills (like Hunting), will have other backgrounds. Choose the skill desired, check with the Gamemaster, and hire him on. Limits exist for the number of subjects to be studied. Obligations allow only limited time for someone to be tutored each year, depending on their social status: household knight 0, other knight 1, lady 1, maiden 2.

Key Skill: As chosen

Upkeep: £ 1

Additional: Grants an annual check to the skill, or 1 point if it was at zero.

Valet

This expert in grooming, dressing and protocol, is dedicated to ensuring his lord always appears his absolute best.

Key Skill: Fashion. Success grants 1d3 bonus to APP. This effect lasts for only one day.

Upkeep: £ 1

Harper

The harp is the traditional noble instrument, both for its golden tones and because it is played in the court of heaven. A harper is the lesser equivalent of having a court poet.

Key Skill: Play Harp

Upkeep: £ 1

Jester

A particular type of entertainer, jesters are can be offensive but seem to possess a special immunity from violence by being beneath proper notice as they are often small or deformed. They are often actual dwarfs. A jester is smart and watchful, and so even if he says something offensive, as long as it is true, and couched in such a manner that it could be ambiguous, then he is above retaliation. (Historically, “Fools” were often people with dwarfism, gruesomely deformed people, or mentally deficient folk who were brought forth to be laughed at by the court — these unfortunates are ignored in this game.)

Key Skill: Orate

Upkeep: £ ½

Additional: The sardonic, yet honest, appraisals typically given by jesters grants a Humble check to his employer.

Minstrel

This is an entertainer of the common sort, who knows popular ballads, ditties, and bawdy songs suitable for coarse entertainment. He’s welcome at court too, though there he carefully omits all the anti-noble parts of his song list.

Key Skills: Singing 2d6 + 2, Play (Lute) 2d6 + 2

Upkeep: £ ¾

Musician

This commoner is a professional at playing some courtly instrument other than the noble harp. One musician may be joined by others, variously playing trombone, pipe, flute, rebec, dulcimer, lute, viol, tabor, tambourine, trumpet, lizard, gemshorn, crumhorn, sackbut, etc.

Key Skill: Play (Instrument other than Harp)

Upkeep: £ ½

Poet

A court poet is a sign of sophistication. He is able to perform and entertain with heroic or romantic lays, as is fashionable for the time. He is also a flatterer of his lord, a personal manufacturer of good tales about him.

Key Skills: Compose, Orate

Upkeep: £ 2

Raconteur

A storyteller, who can equally tell legends of glorious heroism, by both knights and ancient heroes; tender stories of love and sweet sorrow; moralizing animal fables; thundering biblical histories; legends of ancient Prydain; and hysterically funny ales of ribaldry. Lesser men know just one or two of these types.

Key Skill: Orate

Upkeep: £ ½

Singer

This person must be a skilled vocalist, and know many songs for any occasion in the current style of singing.

Key Skill: Singing

Upkeep: £½

Apothecary

He typically makes soap, perfume, poisons and antidotes, ink from both oak and squid, and the latest alchemical tinctures to fight disease. He is of urban origin, usually a member of the local guild, if such exists, and his rarity and superior attitude are reflected in his upkeep.

Key Skill: None, only gains additional (see below).

Upkeep: £3

Additional: He manages to make one magic potion peryear. Each gives +1d6 to the patient’s CON roll versus  disease for a year.

Barber

This is a specialist in Chirurgery who performs bleeding, cupping, pulling teeth, leeching, and cutting hair.

Key Skill: Chirurgery, 4d6

Upkeep: £1

Chirurgeon

These “general surgeons” are typically monks that treat wounds, sores, abscesses, fractures and infections. They provide long-term medical care, and are responsible for putting spider web and honey into wounds, dribbling soup and herbs down throats, changing bandages and so on.

Key Skill: Chirurgery 15, First Aid 5

Upkeep: £1

Empiric

These men are extremely specialized in one aspect of care from the first cut to the final stitching back up. They specialize in specific conditions such as a hernia, cataract, skull fracture, and so on. The skill of Chirurgery (Wound Care) is the one to nurse knights back to health. They are found in cities and in abbeys. Their specialty must be stated upon hiring.

Key Skill: Chirurgery (Wound Care, or other) 2d6+12

Upkeep: £3

Herbalist

This commoner is typically of rural origin, and knows many traditional treatments to fight ill health. Massage, skeletal manipulation, and other physical methods may be added to a regimen of tinctures, teas, powders and neck sachets to obtain the potion effect below.

Key Skill: None, only gains additional (see below).

Upkeep: £2

Additional: Grants +1d6 to the patient’s CON roll for one year when the regimen of daily ingestion is followed. The bonus is not for hit points, but benefits anything else (consciousness, resisting disease, etc.).

Physician

Physicians look after the well-being of the lord and his household, both at home and on campaign. Skilled at both bandaging wounds and providing long-term care, they are responsible for many knights’ lives being saved.

Key Skills: First Aid, Chirurgery

Pay: £ 2. Experienced and Master Physicians may be hired for £ 4 (Skill 16+) and £ 8 (Skill 20+), respectively.

Sister of Healing

This Roman Christian order is famous for their skills and  devotion to healing, curing, and care for the wounded and the ill.

Key Skill: Medicine, 2d6+6

Upkeep: £1

A Pagan practitioner on the staff of a Christian household would be extremely rare. The Player-knight may be entirely without prejudice, but the rest of his staff would not be so liberal.

Of course, some Player-knights are Pagan and presumably their household is too. Their problem is that there is an acute shortage of members of the druidic order.

Bard

These entertainers have a special status in Cymric society due to their Pagan religious traditions, even while professing Christianity.

Bards wander the land going where their intuition and poetic obligation takes them. They are servants to their craft, their muse, and their ancient sacred duty. They do not charge a fee, but rely on the largesse of their host for rewards. No one wishes to shortchange them, for this could incur their wrath — the Glam Dichinn, or Lampoon, a satirical curse that can be sung by any Bard! For happier magic, they know songs that will make their audience laugh, cry or go to sleep.

A suitable reward for a Bard would be a seat amongst the knights to eat during his stay, a place to sleep equivalent to a knight’s lodging (i.e. in the great hall), plus a 2 d gift as a thank you. The Bard would not ask for more. Of course, giving more warrants a Generous check. Double the Bard’s “fee” for each five years of experience. Don’t be stingy with the truly great!

Key Skill: Bard (a special skill that includes Compose, Dancing, Orate, Play (any instrument), and Singing).

Druid

Druids are the height of the British Pagan wisdom. To becomea druid a candidate must be multifaceted in many skills. This is reflected in their upkeep. The stats below are for a recent graduate. Each knows and obeys their master, Merlin

Key Skills: Celestialogy (Astronomy and Astrology), First Aid, Chirurgery, Read/Write Ogham, Play Harp, Priest — all at 15

Upkeep: £12

Vate

Also called by the Greek word Ovate, these holy men are still trained in the skills listed under Druids.

Key Skill: Choose one or more from the list above, with skill of 12 each.

Upkeep: £1 per skill

Priest, Priestess (Pagan)

These are ceremonial leaders for their shrines and temples. They are not in the druidic order.

Key Skill: Priest 15

Upkeep: £2