http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/xlviewer.aspx
What does the file contain? Well I took the stead population (81), the age and gender distribution, the bloodline composition, and a few other bits and pieces and put them all together. I generated names straight from the Name Generator. While I'm sure there'll be tweaking and changes following discussion, it gives us a template for describing the entire stead.
While most of the characters are still effectively blank, I have filled in Iskalli the Gentle, our Helerite godi, and Koreng the Boat, our Poveri Ring member. Iskalli is unmarried, but I have assumed Koreng is married with children, and have filled in his wife and kids.
While there is certainly potential to change names, ages, bloodlines etc, as necessary, ages and bloodlines are derived from external figures, and should be preserved. So if we change an age-range or a bloodline for a character, we should swap it with another character rather than simply changing it.
Column by column we have:
Number:
The absolute reference number to keep track of characters, and to use as shorthand in describing parents, children, etc.
Age:
Taken from the Age Distribution Table for Swenstead that uses Nick's figures. Ages are still given as a range - "40-44" for example - as characters are generated exact ages can be filled in from the range.
Sex:
>From the Age Distribution Tables.
Name:
Derived more or less straight from the Heortling Name Generator at Questlines, these are intended as provisional only, and can be changed as necessary.
Epithet:
To be generated with the character.
Bloodline:
In our previous discussions, we talked about two bloodlines at Swenstead, the FOUNDER SWEN line and the HUNTING BROTHERS line. Bloodline membership was generated randomly: its possible to swap bloodlines between characters but we should preserve the overall ratio.
Marital Status:
To be generated with the character. Possibilities include Widow, Widower, Married, Single, Divorced, Betrothed, Courting, Promised, Child, and Other. ('Other' might include informal polyamory, same sex unions, spirit marriages, and weird ritual unions).
Married to:
Your partner (if applicable) will be of the same bloodline. Women (or in some cases, men) are 'adopted' in after marriage.
Children:
Your children (if applicable) will be of the same bloodline.
Parents:
In some cases parents will be living at Swenstead or elsewhere on the tula.
Cult:
To be generated with the character.
Status:
Chief, Thane, Carl, Half-Carl, Cottar etc. To be generated with the character. Wives usually (but not always share status with their husbands).
Occupation:
To be generated with the character.
Positions:
Special roles and duties recognised by the clan. Ring member, bloodline elder, godi, thanes, even fyrd membership. To be generated with the character.
Notes:
Misc. stuff.
If this format proves useful, we may want to include other categories, such as key skills, home hearth, fyrd membership, herd ownership, birth clan, physical description and plot hooks. In other words, to make this file a complete and detailed description of each character as it is generated.
Obviously, every character doesn't have to be generated down to the nth detail.
Doing some rough family trees should prove very useful in fitting people in to their generational places within a bloodline.
Lets discuss it and an tweak it a bit first. Are there alternative ways of approaching the task?
One of the next things to do might be to map fyrd membership against these steadfolk. We may also want to agree on guidelines for relative percentages of cottars, carl etc. cult membership, marriage types, percentage of specialists (uh oh :) ). Not necessarily in an absolute sense, but enough to provide rough and ready generation guidelines.
In doing this, I realised how useful the basic discussions and background tables have been, even though many of us are yearning to focus on filling out actual details and descriptions. We're creating a series of powerful tools, which if they stand testing, will be useful in generating a variety of different steads very quickly. In effect, with this first stead we are generating a template of what is it useful to include. In future steads, we can use the same template and get on with details very quickly and easily.
John
nysalor_at_cci3_cUbxpWlBNEHy47cx38sFtoCfh-5nAh1xj6qq3R8RG1SpIAXM8Xac2S1GC5UiZBr8ymriWFltF2U.yahoo.invalid John HughesQuestlines: http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/
There was many corpse cold on blood-blackened ground;
>From warriors ravens grew red
And the Kheldon Queen called clans to vengeance,
Hurricane Rebels! - I sing to their valour.
>From tulas harsh-stripped
streamed the strong called to battle, Spears each held ready, shield-clash they sought. Fyrd-fierce and fearless, from hearth called and harstings Fashioned they feasting for Humakt's dark-swans.
My kinsmen, my comrades, they budged not in battle Brought courage to combat, feat-strong and fierce. Like berries in harvest, bright red their bounty they made shame of armies, caused red moon to flee.
Until I am old and ailing,
waiting for the final journey,
I shall not be true to the winds
if I do not praise Kallyr.
KallyrKarla: The Song of the Betrayed.
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