The gaming products out there that will tell you how to swing a sword or cast a spell are legion. The number that, will offer guidelines for providing your character with a family (or even suggest that you should provide her with one) is infinitesimal. Last issue (SHADIS #20) we discussed the medieval family structure and how having families for player characters could help your fantasy campaign. This issue, as promised, we'll provide you with a handy set of titles for generating those families and charting their lives through the passing of the game years. For the inspiration for these tables, we owe a tip of the hat to Greg Stafford and his Pendragon game. Even if you've already invested your $27 in the Pendragon rules, though, you might want to use our tables instead of theirs. Ours take more time to use and are a bit more complicated, but they are also more comprehensive, more realistic, and (unlike their gremlin- plagued forerunner) carefully calculated to provide plausible results over the course of a long-running, multi- generational campaign. The emphasis here is on the word plausible, as it is impossible to be 100% historically accurate. Birth and mortality rates were affected by far too many different factors and varied far too greatly from time to time and ' place to place (even within the limited framework of feudal Europe) for us to create one authoritative set of tables to cover them all. Pendragon players will find that they can plug these tables directly into Steps 6b and 6c of the game's Winter Phase as a replacement for the existing rules. Generating a Clan There are two distinct uses that our Family Tables can be put to, though the tables behave in exactly the same manner in either case. The first use is for rolling up a clan for a PC to be a part of. Simply go back a few generations before the game starts (two should be adequate) and use them to chart the life of one of the PCs ancestors (a man if the clan is patrilineal, a woman if the clan is matrilineal) year by year, starting from the year that he would first be eligible for marriage. Ignore any results that would lead to the extinction of the clan, and simply keep rolling until the PC is born and ages to the point at Which he will start the game. In order to randomly determine a PC's specific descent, roll a d6 each time a child of the appropriate gender (male or female, as above) is born to a direct ancestor of the PC. If you roll a 1 or 2, that child is the next link in the chain. Of course if you're rolling for a child of the PC's generation, the "appropriate gender" will be that of the PC himself, regardless of the customs of the society, and you'll be rolling to determine whether that child is the PC. If you ever get to a point where no more children can be born in a given generation, but you still haven't determined the PC's specific descent, select randomly from among the living children of that genera. tion who are of the appropriate gender, assigning an equal chance to each. Once you have rolled out enough years for the PC to be the desired age to start adventuring, you've created the skeleton of a clan for him. You can flesh it out as needed or as desired by naming the clan members, assigning them jobs and homes, etc. Tracking a Clan During Play It is a common phenomenon among role-playing campaigns for time to have a very comic-book quality about it. Characters acquire vast wealth, skill, and power over the course of many adventures, yet age almost imperceptibly if they age at all. Neophyte game masters may try to keep meticulous track of time, but they soon learn that most campaigns grind to a halt long before it has any appreciable affect on player characters, even if the PCs adventure so intensely that they blow all the caps off the experience charts. Unless the PCs are working under a time limit, what reason is there to watch the clock, much less the calendar? If the PCs spend 365 days a year adventuring because they have no life outside the dungeon, then there really isn't much reason at all. On the other hand, if they have friends and family waiting at home; a manor that needs upkeep; a warm fireplace beckoning them to spend the cold winter months indoors; a feudal lord who expects them to be at his beck-and-call part of every year; tournaments and festivals inviting them to indulge in the sheer joy of sen. sual living... All these things and more place demands on the PCs' time that really add up, rarely leaving them opportunity to squeeze in more than two or three traditional adventures during a single year. Suddenly the days fly by and you find you're no longer straining your suspension of disbelief, wondering how yet another player character got to be an arch mage before she turned twenty-five. If you took this approach to a campaign, it would be ridiculous to let your PCs' clans stagnate. To allow them to grow and change, simply keep on applying the Family tables to them year after year as the campaign progresses. Set aside a regular time at either the beginning or the end of each game year to take stock of the past year's events. In Pendragon, this is called the Winter Phase, and it takes place during those inclement winter months when no one with half a brain should be out adventuring anyway. During the Winter Phase, Pendragon players pause not only to determine how their knights' clans are faring but to take a breather and put the entire game year into perspective. It is at this time that the effects of experience are tallied and characters are allowed a chance to train. It's a concept which could be put to excellent use in most any game system by only allowing PCs to gain new levels or otherwise spend their hard-earned experience points during the winter lull. In AD&D in particular it would provide a nice compromise between the instant acquisition of levels and outrageous demands for training - the only two official alternatives for raising your characters' expertise. It would also provide a solid gold guarantee in avoiding the child-prodigy arch-mage syndrome, since characters are never allowed to gain more than one level at a time, and thus could gain only one level per year. With the evolution of both their characters' families and of the PCs themselves waiting there for them, most players will be happy to hurry on to the end of the game year after just a few grueling adventures; character aging will become as much a reward as an inconvenience. The Family Tables Once each year, roll on these tables as directed below. GMs may wish to use these tables to chart the lives and families of important NPCs in their campaigns, as well the clans of player characters. Step 1: Childbirth. Roll on the Childbirth table for each married woman. Roll also for each unmarried woman who is known through game play to have had sexual relations with one or more men during the year. Non player women in a matrilineal society are automatically assumed to become sexually active once they reach marriageable age, though they take the -2 penalty on the Childbirth table for being only briefly sexually active during the year unless they are known to have a husband or a full-time lover. Men of any age may theoretically sire children, but do not bother to roll for women 55 or older; they are considered to have gone through menopause. If the parentage of a child is in question, create a simple table by assigning a value of 4 for a long-term sexual partner (husband or live-in lover), 2 for each part- time lover (much absent husband or discreet paramour), and 1 for each "one night stand" or other quick fling. Example: Beautiful, flirtatious, and generally naughty, young Lady Constance kept two discreet paramours and slept with three different young knights on a whim last year; the GM assigns the following values to them: 1-2 = lover # 1, 3 -4 = lover # 2, and 5, 6 and 7 are respectively the three "one- knight" stands; he then rolls a d8 to determine who the father is, being prepared to reroll any result of 8. In many cases, the GM may determine the father of a child for his own notes without ever revealing the result to any of the players, no matter how privy they were to who slept with whom when. In medieval times, poor nutrition meant that pregnancies rarely lasted the full nine months, and the exact length of a pregnancy was quite unpredictable, contributing to the high infant mortality rate. Unless there were several months between the time a new mother slept with the father and any other candidates, she herself would not know who the father was unless and until some of his father's distinctive physical traits started to show in the child. In the game, all this is left up to GM's discretion, being too complex a business to create tables for here. To determine the gender of a child when it is born, roll any handy die with an even number of sides (no d7s, please). If the result is an even number, the child is a boy. An odd number indicates a girl. Childbirth Table d20 result: 1-14 No birth. 15-20 Child born. Roll on Child Table. Modifiers: Woman had just one sexual encounter. during the year: -4. Woman was only briefly sexually active during the year (an unmarried woman with one discreet paramour or a few onenight lovers, a married woman with a much absent husband and no lovers): -2. Woman is over age 50: -1 per year past 50. Child Table d20 result: 1-4 Child is stillborn or dies shortly after birth. 5-18 Child is born healthy. 19,20 Child is born healthy, plus roll on Multiple Births table. Multiple Births Table d20 result: 1-19 No additional child. 20 Additional healthy child is born, plus roll again on this table. Modifiers Each parent who came from a multiple birth: +1. The Twins table should be rolled on once for each additional child in a birth. Identical twins are always identical to the child just before them. Example: quadruplets are born. The roll for the second child indicates that it's identical to the first. The third child is fraternal, and the fourth is identical to the third. The quadruplets; are essentially two pairs of identical twins. Twins Table d20 result: 1-15 Fraternal twins. 16-20 Identical twins. Step 2: Survival. Roll on the following tables for each non-player character whose life is being charted to see if he or she dies some time during the year. Cause of death could be anything from a warrior's death in combat to a woman's death from birthing complications to falling random victim to a fatal disease. No distinction is made here. Even the sons and daughters of a player character who are actively training to follow in his footsteps should roll on this table until such time as they actually go out and start adventuring, becoming player characters in their own right. With high infant mortality being a harsh fact of life for folk of all classes, very young children have been given their own survival table. All other non-player characters use the standard NPC Survival table. Infant Survival Table (for children age 3 or younger) d20 result: 1-2 Infant dies. 3-10 Infant is sick but lives. 11-20 Infant lives. Modifiers Infant raised by poor family (peasants, a poor knight, or oth. ers in bad but stable economic circumstances): -1. Infant raised by desperate family (in a bandit camp, by an impoverished knight, or others in poor and unpredictable economic circumstances): -2. During time of plague or war: -1 to -2, GM's discretion. NPC Survival Table d20 result: 1 Life threatened. Roll on NPC death table. 2-3 Character is sick or severely wounded, but lives. 4-20 Character lives. Modifiers Character is venerable (age 70+): 2. Character gave birth this year: Character involved in warfare during the year: -1 to -20 (GM's discretion, or -2 per 5x killed on NPC's side). During time of plague: 4 to -4 at GM's discretion. NPC Death Table d20 result 1-8 Character dies. 9-20 Character lives. Modifiers Character is a child (age 4-14): +4. Character is elderly (age 50+): 4. Economic status is superlative (important nobility or spectacularly successful merchant): +2. Economic status is rich (minor nobility or wealthy merchant): +1. Economic status is poor: -2. Economic status is desperate: -4 Character involved in. warfare during the year, during which his side was systematically slaughtered (more than 50x losses): -1 to -10 (GM's discretion). Step 3: Marriages. This roll should be made for each non-player family member currently eligible to be married, save for the sons and daughters of the player character. Though it is perfectly workable to use the Marriage table for a PC's offspring as well, the player should be allowed to arrange the marriages of any or all of them through game play if he so desires; arranged marriages were not only acceptable in the medieval world, they were the expected norm. Rebellious children who actively defy their parents' wishes in the matter should be few and far between, especially if the society is patrilineal. The age at which a character is first considered marriageable will vary from culture to culture, but 15-21 is the normal range. An optional practice which appears on this table is that of concubinage (discussed at length in Part I of this article). It is assumed that an arrangement of concubinage will endure until the man takes a wife or another concubine or until one of the couple dies. If you use concubinage, keep making yearly rolls on this table for the man (but not the woman) until something happens to terminate the relationship. If marriage is indicated for a man with a concubine and the couple has already produced one or more children, there is a 5 in 20 chance that the man will take his concubine as his wife. Otherwise, his marriage will be to somebody else, and the former concubine will be free to roll on the Marriage table herself if her life is worth charting in the campaign. Women who are over age 50 or who already have children from an actual marriage will not become concubines. NPC Marriage Table d20 result: 1-14 Character remains unmarried. 15-16 Character takes or becomes a concubine (optional). 17-20 Character marries. Modifiers Character is parents' legal heir: +2. Character has children from a previous marriage: -2. Character is age 50+: -2. To determine the age of a character's mate: a) Start the mate at minimum marriageable age. b) Roll on the Marriage table. c) If rolling for a spouse, if the result is marriage, proceed to step e. Otherwise, add one year to the spouse's age, then return to step b. d) If rolling for a union of concubinage, if the result is either marriage or "takes or becomes concubine", proceed to step e. Otherwise, add one year to the mate's age, then return to step b. e) Roll a d20. If the die roll is less than 19, you have determined the mate's age. Otherwise, this marriage or concubinage was to a previous mate. Proceed to step f. f) Roll a d20. If the die roll is a 1 or 2, the mate's previous mate dies now return to step b. Otherwise, age the mate another year and repeat this step. If these steps ever indicate that a man's concubine would be older than 50, ignore the result and start over again from the top. For added detail, you may, if you wish, roll on the Childbirth tables (Step 1) and/or the Scandal tables (Step 4) for the years of the mate's previous adult life to determine if he or she already has children. Unless the character taking a mate has an active part in actual game play, however, this will probably be more headache than it's worth. Regardless of whether the clan being rolled for is patrilineal or matrilineal, children from a mate's previous marriage will not be considered members of the clan you're generating. Step 4: Scandals. This roll should be made for each NPC clan member who is 15 or older. Ignore the "illegitimate child" result for married women and concubines, and for anyone in a matrilineal society. In the former cases, it's usually impossible to tell if a child is illegitimate; in the latter case, illegitimacy has no meaning; and in both cases, the women involved should already have rolled on the childbirth table. When an illegitimate child is born, roll again on this table, treating a second "illegitimate child" result as a "no scandal" result if the NPC concerned is a woman. Scandals Table 2d6 result: 2-10 No scandal. 11 Illegitimate child born. 12 Scandal rumored (optional). The "scandal rumored" result is included primarily for the sake of Pendragon players who wish to use our tables. When this result occurs, roll on the Scandal table on page 346 of the Pendragon rules (or page 112 of the third edition rules) for details. Alternately, GMs of any game system may use this result as a story hook, indicating that the NPC has gotten himself into a sticky situation and could really use his PC relative's help. Readers should notice that in some cases, if you are disregarding the "scandal rumored" result, the only possible outcome of a roll on this table would be "no scandal". When such instances arise, we don't encourage you to make the roll unless tossing dice is your only form of exercise. More Clans Part One: The Medieval Clan Part Two: Tables for Clan Management Back to Shadis #21 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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