Starting a Noble House

[chocolatelover]

Is there a Starting A Noble House primer somewhere? Perhaps those who have done it can give some pointers?

[Amateur Hour]

Not a prepared primer, but as someone addicted to playing nobility and large families, here's what I'd suggest for a successful noble house.

1. The basics:

   • Pick where your character comes from. Some areas in Toril have no nobility at all. Others have a highly-detailed system for how nobility works (note that almost none function based on strict male primogeniture, like real-world nobilities worked until recently). Look this up, know it.

   • Pick your character's race. This honestly goes hand-in-hand with nation of origin; there are noble houses in the Dalelands, but you wouldn't find an elven noble house in Scardale even though you'd find human noble houses, for example. Your house doesn't have to be entirely homogenous (particularly if you have half-elves or half-orcs), but you want to pick something that's at least plausible.

   • Have a vague idea of what canon noble houses exist in your character's region, in case you run into a player who is from one of those houses. This is important for networking.

2. Decide how the family became ennobled. Did they do a great service to a king a long time ago? Did they pay a lot of money? Are they descended from a royal bastard, or was one of their ancestors a favored lover of the monarch? This can shape the values the House holds.
   The one caution here is to make sure this is in keeping with a minor noble house.

3. Decide on the House values and core goals, their "theme". Is this House devoted to amassing wealth through trade? Are they staunch supporters of a particular faith? Are they keepers of some important magical artifact that they have sworn to protect for generations? Note that these do not have to be your character's goals! Your character can be a black sheep; they've decided to come to the most dangerous godsforsaken place on Toril, after all. (EDIT TO ADD: I do not recommend the goal "amass power and influence on Arelith". Noble houses are not established overnight; amassing power and influence on Arelith will take a long time, and will probably involve a lot of setbacks. Having some other goal gives your roleplay direction while you achieve the secondary goal of Arelith power and influence.)

4. Design your heraldry. Briefly check to make sure it isn't exactly the symbol of some random god or some other canon noble house. This can get across your theme.

5. Have a rough idea of how you're going to amass social and material capital. Just having a minor award doesn't mean you'll be able to throw together a noble house on Arelith; a lot of people with the Noble Award don't even try (and have valid reasons for doing so). Actually running a noble house will take resources. You will want a plan, even though this plan will change as roleplay happens.

6. Design your character, the core of the noble house. If you actually want to start and organize a larger noble house, I would recommend avoiding characteristics that would make them disinclined to interact with other people. Personable, communicative characters are the easiest for this (though keep in mind as well that you need to roleplay them as personable and communicative; just saying they're personable in their description does not make them so).
   Disclaimer: you can absolutely make a grumpy elitist codger to be the core of your noble house, but this is doing it on Hard Mode.

Write all of this down. If you get an original noble family going, you'll probably get players approaching you wanting to make other members of the family, so having a basic summary to hand them can be helpful. You can try recruiting before you roll up, but I don't recommend trying to get a large group together for so many reasons, chief of which being that it can stifle organic roleplay to rely so much on OOC organization.

Once you're in-game:

1. Build that social capital. Meet people. Make friends. Make noble friends. Implement noblesse oblige whenever you are able with your lessers; this is a great way to find retainers.

2. Try to hire retainers, but most important in that, give them things to do consistent with your House goals. As with recruiting family members, I do not recommend relying on OOC prearrangement for this.

3. Start to take an active role in whatever settlement you land in. Generally speaking - and most nobility would know this - consistent service speaks loudly. Aiming straight for titles will usually lead to failure, in any settlement.

4. Remember that your House is by default a very minor House, and no one can actually see that you have a Noble award. People likely won't recognize your House name. It's up to you to make them great.

[Edens_Fall]

Not a prepared primer, but as someone addicted to playing nobility and large families, here's what I'd suggest for a successful noble house.

1. The basics:

   • Pick where your character comes from. Some areas in Toril have no nobility at all. Others have a highly-detailed system for how nobility works (note that almost none function based on strict male primogeniture, like real-world nobilities worked until recently). Look this up, know it.

   • Pick your character's race. This honestly goes hand-in-hand with nation of origin; there are noble houses in the Dalelands, but you wouldn't find an elven noble house in Scardale even though you'd find human noble houses, for example. Your house doesn't have to be entirely homogenous (particularly if you have half-elves or half-orcs), but you want to pick something that's at least plausible.

   • Have a vague idea of what canon noble houses exist in your character's region, in case you run into a player who is from one of those houses. This is important for networking.

2. Decide how the family became ennobled. Did they do a great service to a king a long time ago? Did they pay a lot of money? Are they descended from a royal bastard, or was one of their ancestors a favored lover of the monarch? This can shape the values the House holds.
   The one caution here is to make sure this is in keeping with a minor noble house.

3. Decide on the House values and core goals, their "theme". Is this House devoted to amassing wealth through trade? Are they staunch supporters of a particular faith? Are they keepers of some important magical artifact that they have sworn to protect for generations? Note that these do not have to be your character's goals! Your character can be a black sheep; they've decided to come to the most dangerous godsforsaken place on Toril, after all. (EDIT TO ADD: I do not recommend the goal "amass power and influence on Arelith". Noble houses are not established overnight; amassing power and influence on Arelith will take a long time, and will probably involve a lot of setbacks. Having some other goal gives your roleplay direction while you achieve the secondary goal of Arelith power and influence.)

4. Design your heraldry. Briefly check to make sure it isn't exactly the symbol of some random god or some other canon noble house. This can get across your theme.

5. Have a rough idea of how you're going to amass social and material capital. Just having a minor award doesn't mean you'll be able to throw together a noble house on Arelith; a lot of people with the Noble Award don't even try (and have valid reasons for doing so). Actually running a noble house will take resources. You will want a plan, even though this plan will change as roleplay happens.

6. Design your character, the core of the noble house. If you actually want to start and organize a larger noble house, I would recommend avoiding characteristics that would make them disinclined to interact with other people. Personable, communicative characters are the easiest for this (though keep in mind as well that you need to roleplay them as personable and communicative; just saying they're personable in their description does not make them so).
   Disclaimer: you can absolutely make a grumpy elitist codger to be the core of your noble house, but this is doing it on Hard Mode.

Write all of this down. If you get an original noble family going, you'll probably get players approaching you wanting to make other members of the family, so having a basic summary to hand them can be helpful. You can try recruiting before you roll up, but I don't recommend trying to get a large group together for so many reasons, chief of which being that it can stifle organic roleplay to rely so much on OOC organization.

Once you're in-game:

1. Build that social capital. Meet people. Make friends. Make noble friends. Implement noblesse oblige whenever you are able with your lessers; this is a great way to find retainers.

2. Try to hire retainers, but most important in that, give them things to do consistent with your House goals. As with recruiting family members, I do not recommend relying on OOC prearrangement for this.

3. Start to take an active role in whatever settlement you land in. Generally speaking - and most nobility would know this - consistent service speaks loudly. Aiming straight for titles will usually lead to failure, in any settlement.

4. Remember that your House is by default a very minor House, and no one can actually see that you have a Noble award. People likely won't recognize your House name. It's up to you to make them great.

Well stated. Do you mind if I steal some of this for the Wiki?

[Amateur Hour]

Steal away!