Passing the Torch - Vassal Knight Status and the Next Generation

[SaxBasilisk]

Some of my character knights are getting toward the point where they want to retire their characters and bring in their heirs as PKs. (We have some heir PKs already, but that was due to their parents' deaths.) How do you handle this situation in your campaign?

1) When can a firstborn heir be confirmed as a vassal knight? What happens if the PK parent decides to retire to their estate, or become a monk? Would this be possible when the parent becomes bedridden? Or does this only occur after the parent's death?

2) If the heir cannot become a vassal knight before the parent's death, is there a time when it would be reasonable for them to effectively step up into the role (e.g. taking care of the estate, participating in the Vassal Knight winter solo, etc.)? Or would their duties as a household knight keep them at court?

3) If the vassal knight status can be "handed off," can the parent knight "retire" and continue as an officer of the county?

Edited January 10, 2022 by SaxBasilisk

[Morien]

4 hours ago, SaxBasilisk said:

Some of my character knights are getting toward the point where they want to retire their characters and bring in their heirs as PKs. (We have some heir PKs already, but that was due to their parents' deaths.) How do you handle this situation in your campaign?

In our case, the usual way of passing the torch is by the parent dying in combat. However, we have had some exceptions to this, too.

4 hours ago, SaxBasilisk said:

1) When can a firstborn heir be confirmed as a vassal knight? What happens if the PK parent decides to retire to their estate, or become a monk? Would this be possible when the parent becomes bedridden? Or does this only occur after the parent's death?

Technically, the title shifts when the parent dies (or becomes a monk/nun). However, if they are unable to fulfill their duties as a knight (i.e. to answer the muster) due to being bedridden, they need to provide a knight as part of their servitium debitum. Having their own heir serve in their place would make sense, and would allow to groom the heir to take care of the manorial management as well (technically, as their own parent's household knight). If they are still able to serve (retired to their estates), then they keep the title and the lands, and the heir continues as a household knight.

The long period of being bedridden is one of the big faults of the KAP Aging system. Once you become bedridden, death should not be too far off. As said above, this has not been a huge issue for us, as we have had only one PK become bedridden (so far), but were it to happen again, I would most likely say that the character dies by the next winter phase anyway, just to make it quicker rather than have that former PK stick around as an invalid for a decade or two due to dice luck.

4 hours ago, SaxBasilisk said:

2) If the heir cannot become a vassal knight before the parent's death, is there a time when it would be reasonable for them to effectively step up into the role (e.g. taking care of the estate, participating in the Vassal Knight winter solo, etc.)? Or would their duties as a household knight keep them at court?

They would continue as a household knight if the parent is able to continue fulfilling their duties. However, I'd be more than happy to let the PLAYER continue overseeing the manor itself.

4 hours ago, SaxBasilisk said:

3) If the vassal knight status can be "handed off," can the parent knight "retire" and continue as an officer of the county?

Sure, if the liege (and thus the GM) is fine with it. In our game, this kind of situation has happened when there are multiple manors and the (NPC) father was still hale and hearty. The heir took over one manor, while the father kept control of the other one for himself.

 

Obviously, the main thing is to talk to the player and find out how they want to deal with the situation.  Their characters and all that. I generally try to be as accommodating as possible to make the transition smooth and easy. Besides, as a LazyGM, I don't really want to bother with their ancestral manor and playing their former PK as an NPK.

Edited January 10, 2022 by Morien

[SaxBasilisk]

Thank you!

As a follow-up, does becoming a monk or nun usually follow an endowment to the institution? Or are they just happy to have a famous monk in the community?

[Morien]

17 minutes ago, SaxBasilisk said:

As a follow-up, does becoming a monk or nun usually follow an endowment to the institution? Or are they just happy to have a famous monk in the community?

I believe historically, yes (or at least some donation of wealth). However, from the GMing perspective, I find it easier to handwave such things in the case of retiring PKs. After all, I want to make it EASY to remove those Too-Glorious-To-Die Heroes from the game, to give the younger generation a chance to shine and build their own stories.

Now if someone was using a nunnery as an easy way to avoid paying for dowries for their sisters/daughters, well then, I might be a somewhat stricter about that. (I seem to recall a forum thread where a GM described a player doing exactly that.)