N is for Noble
It seems half the Old World is a bloody noble of one sort or another! Too many of the cities' nobles are procreating indiscriminately, and too many people are allowed to buy the title of nobility. Various city supplements speak of noble houses, noble schools, noble sponsored businesses, armies, and magic schools. Too many nobles are thinning the stock.
Which is why it is good to see the Noble as an adventuring career. The family's fortune is only going to the firstborn son, so the rest of these dandies need to do something with their lives. Some may be found joining the church. Others may become learned scholars, helping their families become even more successful. Fewer join the ranks of Empire knights and become famous warriors, stupendous leaders of armies. Then there are the rest.
The rest are pretty much cut off from their families, but they still see life as a game. They wish to go adventuring, making grand names for themselves...but they don't want to have to work too hard for it. In battle they hide behind their hangers-on, others from nameless families who hope to gain some notoriety by hanging around the noble and toadying to his every whim (the book actually lists d4 hangers-on under a Noble's trappings). In taverns, they loudly proclaim of the parties victories, conflating their contribution while playing down the rest of the party. They require the best food, the best drink, and the best bed, while hardly earning their share of any of it.
The greatest trial of any party containing a noble is...who can restrain the longest from berating him?
Which is why it is good to see the Noble as an adventuring career. The family's fortune is only going to the firstborn son, so the rest of these dandies need to do something with their lives. Some may be found joining the church. Others may become learned scholars, helping their families become even more successful. Fewer join the ranks of Empire knights and become famous warriors, stupendous leaders of armies. Then there are the rest.
The rest are pretty much cut off from their families, but they still see life as a game. They wish to go adventuring, making grand names for themselves...but they don't want to have to work too hard for it. In battle they hide behind their hangers-on, others from nameless families who hope to gain some notoriety by hanging around the noble and toadying to his every whim (the book actually lists d4 hangers-on under a Noble's trappings). In taverns, they loudly proclaim of the parties victories, conflating their contribution while playing down the rest of the party. They require the best food, the best drink, and the best bed, while hardly earning their share of any of it.
The greatest trial of any party containing a noble is...who can restrain the longest from berating him?