Wizardry School: Lordly Advisory

[Doyce]

First, note that I cross-posted an updated version of the school up a few posts.

I thought that I'd read that he had the Servant occupation somewhere. That's where a lot of the problem is right there. Probably from spending too much time on the Wiki.

His character sheet as has a Lackey as a follower, which I then linked to a Servant keyword on the wiki.  That could easily be it.

They get a noble to say "sure, I'll pay your way in, but only to the Lordly Advisory Academy, and afterward I'll expect you to work for me for a time not less than double that which you spent at Academy. Agreed?"

So it's sort of an indentured period. How long might these last? Not unlike a squire in this way, actually.

Well, in the example I gave, it'd be double the time that the guy spent in the Academy.  For the Sim answer, I'd look up the normal amount of time someone typically spent at University in the Middle Ages.  For the Narr answer, I'd say "you're working for them for as long as it's interesting for you to be working for them." :)

[Doyce]

I seem to remember reading that actual English butlers were highly trained and sought-after, and accordingly well-compensated.  Would it be possible for, say, "Clean Up Master" 5W2 to give the master a subsequent bonus in their interaction with the Queen?  If so, that might mechanically explain why nobles would pay large sums to have powerful "wizards" carry out such apparently mundane tasks...

I'm not sure how this could be implemented mechanically, though.  As a blessing, or an augment perhaps?

I'd think as an augment -- all of the stuff that the guy is doing to make his master really shine at the right moments.

I modified "clean up master" to "Clean up attire" in the rewrite, simply to make the thing a little more flexible toward different character concepts -- I think the current version allows for everything from Jeeves to the guy on Magnum PI, to Jafar (at least a young Jafar), to James Bond, honestly.

Or at least that "Steele" guy from The Avengers :)

[Mike Holmes]

His character sheet as has a Lackey as a follower, which I then linked to a Servant keyword on the wiki.  That could easily be it.

Prolly, yep.

So, the advisor has a servant? Cool.

I gave my wizard five followers, no less. One from each keyword, an additional one, and one as a flaw no less (he's employed as a porter, but has "Bumbler" on the sheet).

Mike

[Doyce]

His character sheet as has a Lackey as a follower, which I then linked to a Servant keyword on the wiki.  That could easily be it.

Prolly, yep.

So, the advisor has a servant? Cool.

Have you ever seen the Three Musketeers movie with Christopher Lee as Rochefort?  Dartagnan has a manservant... slept on the floor, etc... and although he was ostensibly "his" servant, like, EVERY one of the musketeers pretty much gave him orders and had him do stuff?

That's the guy the Advisor has.  Effectively, he's the servant for the whole group of young hooligans that Guilbert has around him.  Poor bastard :)

[Donald]

Just to clarify, his class is that which people with the Petty Noble occupation have, but his occupation is servant? Or am I confused? If this is the case, this is precisely the problem that I'm talking about. Actually, I can see a single PC getting into such a situation - I don't have a problem with that, given that PCs are exceptions often. What smacks my suspension of disbelief around is that there's a whole Academy where nobles go to study hard to become servants of other nobles.

Why is this so surprising? Ladies-in-Waiting to a queen are just that - servants of noble birth and they exist in today's monarchies. The male equivelents have just about disappeared but most medieval kings had several.

[Donald]

Just to clarify, his class is that which people with the Petty Noble occupation have, but his occupation is servant? Or am I confused? If this is the case, this is precisely the problem that I'm talking about. Actually, I can see a single PC getting into such a situation - I don't have a problem with that, given that PCs are exceptions often. What smacks my suspension of disbelief around is that there's a whole Academy where nobles go to study hard to become servants of other nobles.

Why is this so surprising? Ladies-in-Waiting to a queen are just that - servants of noble birth and they exist in today's monarchies. The male equivelents have just about disappeared but most medieval kings had several.