Character Type Charts

The Character Type Charts are used to generate encounter characters for Errantry, and also for reference when creating major characters.

Once you have determined the type of character you have encountered using the Encounter Character Tables, refer to these charts to flesh out the details of the specific character (or group of characters) you are encountering.

Each Character Type Chart has some or all of these sections:

• Character Type Description: A general outline of the character type and its role.
• Subtypes and Crosstypes: A list of variations on the character type. A crosstype includes aspects of another character type.
• Names: A cross-reference to a list of suggested names from which you can select freely.
• Abilities and Secrets: Closed abilities and Secrets specific to the character type.
• Retainers and Companions: Other “supporting” characters who may be encountered with this type of character.

Place in Life

One’s place in life, one’s position in the Great Chain of Being stretching from God down through the layers of the feudal system to animals, plants and the inanimate, was key to one’s identity in medieval society, and it rarely changed in the course of one’s life. A fortunate commoner might, for some outstanding service, be ennobled and granted lands; an unfortunate noble might, for some notable treachery, be “attainted in blood” and his descendants stripped of noble rank (he himself usually lost his life). This, however, was the operation of Fortune’s Wheel, which lifted up and cast down, inscrutably.

There are three Estates of the Realm in Errantry, the Nobility, the Commons (technically including the gentry, but for most purposes they count as part of the nobility), and the Church. Within each of these there is, of course, a hierarchy, but one’s estate is highly significant to one’s place in life.

Noble Characters

The nobility (and gentry - that is, powerful landowners who do not possess titles of nobility such as Baron, Earl or Duke) are the source of the knightly class. All adult male nobles and gentry, unless they enter the Church, are assumed to be knights.

A youth studying to be a knight is known as a squire, and will normally accompany his knight-master, who is training him, acting as his personal servant and helping to maintain his equipment and horses. Squires may accompany knights who are encounter characters.

Troubadours can be either nobles or commoners. If they are nobles they will probably also have had knightly training.

In Errantry, players can play noble characters who are Knights, Troubadours or Ladies, or any combination of two of these. Encounter characters who are nobles will also fall into these three categories and their combinations, and may be accompanied by servants, squires or men-at-arms.

Although warrior maidens/lady knights are characteristic more of ancient and Norse material than genuine medieval tales, they do appear in what might be called the “authentically pseudo-medieval” Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, written in the 1590s, and treatments of the Roland legend such as Orlando Innamorato (1480s) and Orlando Furioso (1516), in which the character Bradamante is an invincible warrior-maiden. So you can be a Lady Knight if you want.

Commoner Characters

Players in Errantry don’t play commoners, and there are no commoners among the major encounter characters. The genre of medieval romance often ignored the peasantry almost entirely, and included other commoners mainly as scenery, if at all.

Minor encounter characters who are commoners are merchants, heralds or men-at-arms. Minor encounter characters don’t have their own character sheets; they are “slot-machine” characters who will dispense supplies, messages or military assistance, but are not designed for in-depth interaction.

Church Characters

The Church played a significant social and political role in medieval society. Besides its many other purposes, it served to accommodate those sons or daughters of the nobility and gentry who, for whatever reason, were unsuited for the other paths of life open to them.

The church had a complex structure within itself. There were several varieties of what we think of in general terms as “monks” and “nuns”, belonging to a number of orders which were organized differently and imposed different requirements on their members. Most of this complexity can be ignored for our purposes. The important distinctions are:

• Secular clergy served parishes as priests and larger areas as bishops and archbishops.
• Monastics (who might live in monasteries, convents, abbeys or priories) were usually somewhat separated from everyday life, especially the nuns. However, if their House was located in a large town they might be very involved in the life of the town, depending on the period and which order they belonged to.
• Church Knights took similar vows to monks, but were active as knights, typically in the Crusades in the Holy Land.
• Friars were brothers who travelled from place to place, often preaching as they did so.
• Hermits, unlike practically everyone else at the time, lived alone, often in remote places, where they assisted travellers and local communities with advice, health care, and maintenance of the roads and bridges.

Players in Errantry who want to play church characters can play Friars, Church Knights, Abbesses or Nuns (see Ecclesiastic).

Although nuns were theoretically confined to their convents, Chaucer depicts at least one (the Prioress, a senior nun who was the leader of her community) as one of the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales, and there is a second, apparently different nun who is also a pilgrim in the same work.

Encounter characters of an ecclesiastical nature can include priests and bishops (in settled areas), various kinds of monastics (in towns and settlements and in the country, where they often offered hospitality to travellers), church knights and friars (in all kinds of settings, often travelling), and hermits (in remote regions).

Magical Characters

Many magical characters are probably nobles originally (since they have the resources to learn magic). However, they stand outside society, somewhat distrusted by the Church. Commoners can also use magic, but do so in a more “earthy” style.

Magical characters are all referred to as Enchanters (Enchantresses, if female). They can variously:

• control forces of nature such as wind and weather;
• control arcane creatures such as demons or imps;
• turn people into beasts;
• curse people;
• make people follow their instructions or believe illusions.

Unless the “dial” for magic is set to Low, players in Errantry can play Enchanters, and they can occur as encounter characters also.

Beasts

There are several kinds of beasts in Errantry, namely:

• Mundane beasts, such as dogs, horses and falcons, which look and behave much as the animals we are familiar with. These can be encountered anywhere.
• Unnatural beasts, which usually combine elements of several natural beasts (a lion and an eagle, an owl and a bear…). These are usually encountered in remote regions.
• Heraldic beasts, which we think of as mythical but which can be encountered in Errantry, again in remote regions.

All three kinds of beast may be able to talk, although this is more likely for heraldic beasts and less likely for unnatural beasts. If you have the “dial” for magic set low for your particular game, ignore this possibility.

Players in Errantry can play talking beasts (including heraldic or unnatural beasts) if they want to and their setting permits. They can also play humans transformed into beasts, who may or may not be able to speak.

See Beast.

Spirits and Sprites

“Spirits” such as angels, djinni (if playing in an easterly setting or if a “Saracen” character is involved), imps, demons, ghosts and the like can turn up as encounter characters in Errantry if you want them to. This involves setting the dial for magic to “high”.

Sprites are more “earthly” or “fleshly” supernatural beings such as elves, fae, woodwoses and so forth.

Crosstypes

The following crosstypes (combinations of two character types) are possible in Errantry:

Obligations and Boons

Obligations and boons are both determined the same way, since you receive an obligation if you are beaten by an encounter character and a boon if you beat them.

Consult the Obligations list and the List of Boons for suggestions on what, concretely, the obligation or boon will consist of.

Draft Character Sheet

Second draft: Knight character sheet

Filling Out the Character Sheet: Encounter Characters

The following instructions apply only to characters who are encounter characters (those which are encountered by the main quest characters during their quest). To create a quest character, see the instructions under Creating a Character.

If the character becomes significant enough that he or she effectively becomes a quest character, use the main character creation rules to fill in any missing detail such as the maximum size of his or her pools. Obviously, take into account the randomly generated information.

Pools

The number of points in a character’s pool are determined by the suit of the three cards drawn (Encounter card, Tens card and Ones card). The Encounter card determines the Valour pool, the Tens card the Courtesie pool, and the Ones card the Artes pool.

Spades give zero points, Clubs 1 point, Diamonds 2 points and Hearts 3 points. Tick the boxes up to, and including, the column marked with the relevant suit.

Add one extra (bonus) point to the pool marked with a tick in the Bonus column. This is the characteristic pool for the character type. For reference, these are:

Abilities

The Abilities of an encounter character are determined, again, based on the suits of the three cards drawn, in all possible combinations. The possible combinations, with the numbers of boxes to tick next to the ability, are:

• Encounter card and Tens card (3)
• Tens card and Ones card (2)
• Encounter card and Ones card (2)
• Tens card and Encounter card (1)
• Ones card and Tens card (1)
• Ones card and Encounter card (1)

Ticking the boxes indicates the character’s rank in the ability, from one tick (Apprentice) to four ticks (Grand Master).

Any of the abilities on the chart for a character type can be assumed to be at Novice for that character type by default.

If your suits are such that the same ability comes up twice or three times, add one tick (only) for each time after the first. If this boosts the character’s ability beyond Grand Master, select another ability freely and set it to Journeyman.

Possible rule to increase number of ticks to match quest characters better goes here.

All characters also have three innate abilities: Endure, React and Resist. Give each of these as many ticks as the points in the corresponding pool, including the bonus point in the character type’s characteristic pool.

Some character types automatically possess particular abilities (for example, all Troubadours possess the Music ability).

If your character is a crosstype (Enchanter Troubadour, Church Knight etc.), this may entitle him or her to additional abilities. Start these at Journeyman level (level 2).

Secrets

The Secrets of an encounter character are also determined based on the suits of the three cards drawn, but this time it is all three suits at once, in any order, which determine the Secret. Some combinations do not yield a Secret.

Circle the Secrets possessed by this encounter character.

Some character types automatically possess particular Secrets (for example, all Knights possess the Secret of Knightly Discipline).

If your character is a crosstype this may entitle him or her to between one and three additional Secrets. Circle those Secrets for the crosstype that correspond to the suits of the three cards.

Keys

The Key of an encounter character is determined based on the subtype and the denomination of the Encounter card. Circle the Key which applies.

Initial Attitude

If the initial attitude of an encounter character is not determined by their character type and subtype, determine it using the colours of the three cards drawn to determine the character encounter.

Red indicates a friendly attitude, black a hostile attitude. Consider the cards in order (Encounter Card, Tens Card, Ones Card).

The Encounter card indicates the character’s attitude when they first meet you, before you have really interacted.

The Tens card indicates the character’s attitude after they have interacted with you a little and found out more about you. Perhaps they have discovered a common interest or ally from a remark you made, or they admire your style (red), or something you said or did has rubbed them the wrong way (black).

The Ones card indicates the encounter character’s long-term attitude to you, after extended interaction and getting to know you well. If they never get that opportunity, this obviously doesn’t apply.

Weapons and Armour

These are not necessarily literal weapons and armour, although they may be. They are anything which aids attack and defence, respectively.

A character for whom the three cards (Encounter, Tens and Ones) are of the same suit gets an enchanted weapon or armour (to compensate for the very limited range of abilities, and no Secrets, which such characters get). Black cards are weapons, red cards are armour. Spades and Diamonds are worth +1, Clubs and Hearts are worth +2.

Consult the List of Weapons and Armour for suggestions as to what the weapon or armour may be.

'''Scratchpad'''

That's eight charts. How can we generate eight charts from three suits?

1. Suit of Encounter card vs suit of Tens card = 16 options (good for pools, abilities, maybe weapons/armour, obligations?).
Slight skew if Jokers included. Can count them as red joker = Heart, black joker = Spade (for example), 
or as their own suit and get 20 options.
2. Suit Tens vs Suit Ones = 16 options.
3. Suit Encounter vs Suit Ones = 16 options (or 20 as above).
4. Rank non-court cards by value rather than draw order; Suit Larger vs Suit Smaller = 16 options. (What if the same?)
5. a) Number of each suit present, ignoring order = 20 options, or 
b) creates 4 numbers between 0 and 3, 4 chances of 0 or 3, 6 chances of 1 or 2 (Good for abilities?)
6. Denomination of court card (not otherwise used), counting red and black Joker as different = 3 options each with 4 chances, 
2 options each with 1 chance; or counting Jokers as the same, 3 options/4 chances and 1 option/2 chances. 
Or 3 options with equal chance if no Jokers. (Good for secrets or keys?)
7. Majority colour, and difference majority colour/minority colour = 4 non-equal options (all red, 2 red, 1 red, no red), 
or one number between 0 and 3. (Secrets or keys?)
8. Which colour is in the majority, could be used for attitude (red = friendly, black = hostile) if this is in doubt. 
All red is actually friendly, all black actually hostile; if there is one of the other colour the attitude can change 
to the opposite or is a front?
9. Actual suit of each card, each suit with a significance = 12 options. 
'''Not preferred as this is a different way of reading what we have already done.'''
10. Give values to the suits, generate a number out of the total with a range of 0-9 (assuming values are 0-3; 
if 1-4 the range is 3-12). '''Mathematically intensive, but a chart can be supplied. Functionally equivalent to 5a.'''

SO: 
* 3 (or 4) x 16 options (2 of them can be 20 with slight skew or 16 with slight skew if Jokers used)
* 1 x 20 options (doesn't really work with Jokers?), or number 0-3 with skew
* 1 x 3, 4 or 5 options, slight skew
* 1 x 4 options, skew
* 1 x 4 options, skew
* 1 x 10 options, skew (0, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9).



'''One idea, abandoned then revived:'''

The actual current level of an encounter character's pool is determined as follows:

* The Encounter card's suit determines the character's Valour pool.
* The Tens card's suit determines the character's Courtesie pool.
* The Ones card's suit determines the character's Piety pool.

The suits apply as follows:

||border=1
||! Suit ||! Value (per character "power level") ||
||Spades ||0 ||
||Clubs ||1 ||
||Diamonds ||2 ||
||Hearts ||3 ||

Do this by having a 3 x 3 grid with tick boxes on the character sheet. Rows are pools, columns are suits. Tick along until you reach your suit; Spades are zero and so are not shown.

Possibly another box for a "bonus" point in a pool determined by the character type (e.g. Valour for Knights).

Errantry copyright 2006 by Mike Reeves-McMillan. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License(approve sites).

These are notes for a work in progress. Don’t expect everything to be consistent or make sense.