Households¶
Households are family units and their dependents: the majority of any settlement.
A Common Household averages about 10 people: parents, children, and often a grandparent or an unmarried adult relative. Count roughly one Common Household per 10 souls of a settlement's population. When a settlement blueprint composes households aggregately ("15 Fisher Households"), leave the aggregate for population reference; compose a specific Common Household from this theme only when the party interacts with one directly.
Theme: Common Household¶
The everyday household of a settlement: farmer, artisan, fisher, laborer. The family lives together in a single dwelling and works the family trade. The Household Elder makes decisions and holds the strongbox key.
| Scale | Creatures | Features | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 1 Household Elder, 3 Adults, 4 Children | Trait: Personality, Dynamics, Size, Trouble, Magic Items | Residence: Shack, House, or Manor |
| Average | 1 Household Elder, 4 Adults, 5 Children | Trait: Personality, Dynamics, Size, Trouble, Magic Items | Residence: Shack, House, or Manor |
| Large | 1 Household Elder, 6 Adults, 8 Children | Trait: Personality, Dynamics, Size, Trouble, Magic Items | Residence: Shack, House, or Manor |
Theme: Aristocratic Household¶
The domestic household of a noble family: the family itself plus its personal servants, retainers, and household staff. Lives at a Manor House (rural), a Townhouse (urban), the Great Keep of a Stronghold, or a Palace. A Chamberlain runs the domestic staff; Attendants serve the family in specialized roles (tutors, falconers, houndsmen, etc.); Servants keep the house; Household Knights swear service to the family. When a fortification is held on behalf of an absent Lord, its Warden or Castellan may stand in as Head of House.
| Scale | Creatures | Features | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modest | 1 Head of House, 2-3 immediate kin, 1 Chamberlain, 4-8 Servants, 1-2 Household Guards | Trait: Personality, Dynamics, Trouble, Quests, Magic Items | Residence: Manor House or Townhouse |
| Established | 1 Head of House, 4-6 immediate kin, 1 Chamberlain, 2-4 Attendants, 12-20 Servants, 2-4 Household Knights, 4-8 Household Guards | Trait: Personality, Dynamics, Trouble, Quests, Magic Items | Residence: Manor House or Townhouse Fortifications: Great Keep |
| Grand | 1 Head of House, 6-10 immediate kin, 1 Chamberlain, 4-8 Attendants, 30-60 Servants, 6-12 Household Knights, 12-20 Household Guards | Trait: Personality, Dynamics, Trouble, Quests, Magic Items | Government: Palace Fortifications: Great Keep |
Details¶
Creatures¶
Adults. Grown children, siblings, and spouses. Use the Commoner stat block. Loot: day's earnings if intercepted.
Attendants. Higher-status household staff attached to individual family members or to specialized duties: personal valets or ladies-in-waiting, tutors for the children, a falconer, a houndsman, a family scribe, a chief steward's clerk. Ranked above the Servants; often trained in a craft or letters. Use the Professional stat block with proficiencies chosen by role. Loot: badge of office, day's earnings, personal effects; a scholar or tutor may carry books or letters.
Chamberlain. The head of the household staff, ranked above the Cook, valets, and other servants. Manages the daily running of the house, keeps the household accounts, hires and dismisses staff, receives visitors. Uses the Professional stat block with proficiencies in Insight, Persuasion, and calligrapher's supplies. Loot: ledger, keys to the household stores, signet of office, 3d10 gp coin purse.
Children. Non combatants. Use the Commoner stat block. Loot: none.
Household Elder. The family head at a Common Household. Makes decisions, holds the strongbox key. Uses the Professional stat block with proficiencies in Insight, History, plus one tool for the family trade. Loot: modest heirloom (1d100 gp), 3d10 gp saved coin, strongbox key.
Head of House. The senior member of an aristocratic family — a Lord, Lady, Knight, or other titled figure. Makes decisions, holds the household strongbox key, sits at the head of the table. Uses the Noble or Knight stat block. When a Court composes at the same place, the Head of House is the Court's Lord — same figure, two roles. See Rulers: Court (theme). Loot: signet or coronet (100-500 gp per rank), family heirloom, personal purse (5d10 to 5d100 gp per scale).
Household Guards. The family's rank-and-file guard, in the household's livery. Uses the Guard stat block. Patrol the manor or townhouse and grounds, escort family members on travel, keep order on court days. Distinct from Household Knights (elite retainers) and from a Lord's Royal Guard (Military axis; composes only when a Court is seated). Loot: spear or shortsword, shield, kit, a few silver.
Household Knight. A knight sworn to the family's service, living on the family's hospitality. Distinct from the household's Household Guards; a Household Knight is an elevated retainer whose sword and honor belong to the Head of House. Uses the Knight stat block. Loot: sword, shield, kit, family badge, personal purse (3d10 gp).
Servants. Household staff: cooks, maids, footmen, grooms, launderers, gardeners, kennelmen. Uses the Commoner stat block. Loot: livery (nominal), a few silver.
Features¶
Dynamics. The family's current situation. Pick or roll d8:
- Balanced — no active tension. Default.
- Succession — the Household Elder aging or ailing; one Adult is the scion positioning to take over. Other Adults choose sides.
- Feud — two branches at odds. A rival Household Elder is present. Marriages have fractured; kids caught in the middle.
- Debt — family owes a lender, gang, or faction. Named creditor and payment schedule.
- Broken — missing or dead member. Household Elder is a grandmother, uncle, etc. stepping in to replace.
- Alliance — bound to another household by marriage, oath, or trade. Terms binding and public.
- Scandal — public shame or open secret. Someone did something the neighbors know about.
- Ambition — rising family, upstart. Threatens established households.
Personality. Persistent trait. Roll d6.
| 1. Struggling (hungry, tense). | 2. Proud (chip on shoulder). | 3. Superstitious (reads the signs). |
| 4. Hardworking (rarely stops). | 5. Gossipy (knows every rumor). | 6. Clannish (defends kin fiercely). |
Trouble. Roll d6 or choose by theme.
Common Household:
| 1. Illness has swept the family; one member is bedridden and the family owes the herbalist. | 2. The Household Elder is being pressured to marry a daughter against her will. | 3. The strongbox was broken into last week; the thief is someone the family knows. |
| 4. A tax collector is coming and the family cannot pay. | 5. A son has fallen in with a rough crowd and been seen at the wrong tavern. | 6. A rival family is trying to run them off their land, plot, or fishing spot. |
Aristocratic Household:
| 1. A marriage negotiation with a rival house has stalled and both sides are looking for pretext. | 2. A poisoning attempt was averted; the culprit has not been found. | 3. The heir has fled the household in secret; the reason is guarded. |
| 4. A crushing debt to a lender is coming due and the family is short. | 5. A servant has been passing information to a rival house. | 6. The Head of House is dying and the succession is contested. |
Quests. typically offered by an aristocratic household. Roll a d8 or pick.
| d8 | Quest |
|---|---|
| 1 | Retrieve a stolen family heirloom, sealed contract, or ancestral relic from a rival's vault, a debtor's cache, or a bandit's hoard. |
| 2 | Escort a family member: a scion to a foreign court, a bride to a wedding, an heir home from schooling, a witness to a hearing. |
| 3 | Investigate a rival family: a suspicious death, a plot against the house, a leaked contract, a servant turned informer. |
| 4 | Deliver a sealed message, a betrothal token, or a marriage contract to an allied house, along dangerous roads. |
| 5 | Rescue a family member taken: a kidnapped daughter held in a bandit lair, a brother captive at a rival's stronghold, an envoy waylaid in a hostile hamlet. |
| 6 | Defend the family holding against a raid, a siege, or a trespass by rivals or bandits. |
| 7 | Assault a specific site: a rival's hidden hold, a bandit lair pressuring the family's tenants, a defaulting debtor's fortified compound. |
| 8 | Eliminate a specific person: a persistent thief, a blackmailer, a rival captain, a witness the family cannot afford in court. |
Size. Distribution of household sizes across a settlement, and a d6 for picking a specific family's size.
| d6 | Size | People |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Small | 8 |
| 3-5 | Average | 10 |
| 6 | Large | 15 |
Magic Items. Roll d6: on a 1-3, none; on a 4-5, one item; on a 6, two items. For each item, roll another d6 for the source: on 1-3, roll on Magic Item Table A; on 4-5, Table B; on 6, Table C.
Locations¶
Great Keep. See Fortifications: Great Keep (theme). When an Aristocratic Household is housed at a Great Keep, the Household occupies the Great Keep's residential floors. No separate Household residence.
House. Modest household's dwelling. Plank walls, thatched roof, one main room with a hearth, sleeping loft above. Single door with iron latch; shutters on two windows. Loot: strongbox in the loft with 3d10 gp; heirloom kept here.
Manor. Wealthy household's dwelling. Two stories, multiple rooms, sometimes a servant at the entryway. Strong lock on the front door; shutters on ground floor windows. Loot: strongbox with 5d20 gp; family heirloom of some value; silver plate and tapestries.
Manor House. The country seat of an aristocratic family. A manor house has:
- Great hall: the public heart. High-beamed room with a long table, a raised dais for the Head of House's seat, a great hearth, tapestries or banners of the family. Where the family hosts feasts, receives petitioners, and holds court over tenants.
- Solar: the family's private sitting room above the great hall. A hearth, comfortable chairs, needlework and books.
- Private apartments: the family's bedchambers upstairs. Master bedchamber, children's rooms, guest room for visiting kin.
- Steward's office: where the Chamberlain or Steward keeps the estate's books, tenants' rolls, and correspondence. A desk, ledgers, a locking chest.
- Attached chapel: small private chapel for the family; a shrine to the household's patron and space for daily prayers. A Chaplain resides here or in a room adjacent.
- Kitchens, pantry, buttery, and larder: kitchen wing; the household staff prepare meals here.
- Wine cellar: below-stairs. Casks and bottles; the family's private stock.
- Servants' quarters: back wing or upper attic. Small rooms for the live-in household staff.
- Library or study: the family's personal collection of books, estate records, family papers.
- Treasury: private strongroom. Strong lock; the Chamberlain and Head of House share keys.
- Home Farm: the estate's demesne, fields and pastures worked directly for the household rather than by tenants. Barns, granaries, dairy.
- Retainer Cottages: small houses inside the estate walls or nearby for household retainers, the head groom, the huntsman, the reeve, the falconer.
- Stables: the family's hunters and household palfreys. Tack, feed, farrier's tools.
- Gatehouse: the entry to the estate grounds. A guarded gate, a small porter's lodge, sometimes a modest wall or hedge around the immediate manor precinct.
- Defenses: Household Knights and Household Guards patrol the manor and grounds; the Treasury behind a strong lock; the family's private apartments are off-limits and the guards respond.
- Loot: the family's furnishings and plate (500-2000 gp); silverware (100 gp); tapestries and family portraits (50-500 gp); the treasury (5d100 gp) with heirlooms worth 2d100 gp more, behind a strong lock; the wine cellar (100 gp); the family's fine wardrobe; the estate's ledgers; the stables' horses (75-400 gp each); the Home Farm's stores and draft animals.
Palace. See Rulers: Court (theme). An Aristocratic Household housed at a Palace is the domestic side of the Court. When the Court is instead housed at a fortification, no separate Palace needed.
Shack. Poor household's dwelling. One room, dirt floor, thatched roof. Latched door, no lock. Loot: a few coppers stashed under a stone.
Townhouse. A fine urban residence for a noble family: multi-story stone or timber, formal front hall, sitting rooms, private apartments upstairs, kitchen and servants' quarters below or in a rear wing, small formal garden, stables for the family's mounts. Common in a wealthy area of a Town or City. Loot: family heirlooms and portraits (250-1000 gp), silver plate (100 gp), tapestries; the strongbox with 5d100 gp; the head of house's private study contains letters, ledgers, contracts, family records.