Sir Ardan of Napaldy

[Durgil]

This character is created for the world of Hârn (http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/cfg/allharnitems.cfg). This is a magically weak, fantasy world that is very much modeled after Earth in the 10th to 12th Centuries. A campaign world that I think is perfect for a game system such as The Burning Wheel.

Background and History: Sir Ardan’s Father, Sir Drelan was born a commoner with a strong Járin ancestry to a moderately wealthy villain on a farm near Baseta Manor in the Kingdom of Káldôr. Not being the first son but having a strong build and being surprisingly agile, Drelan enlisted as a man-at-arms at the nearby castle. Shortly after taking up his new occupation, he was out on patrol with the Constable’s son, he soon found himself and the party he was with in a gârgún ambush (these are Hârnic orcs). During the fight, Drelan killed the gârgún leader and while the others in the party were running to save their lives, he risked his life to save the life of the Constable’s Son, who happened to be leading the party. For his bravery, Drelan was granted a knighthood and given Kerk Manor. While attending a tournament, he met and fall in love with Lady Alena of clan Lournay. They married in the spring of 694 and by the fall of that same year she was pregnant with their son Ardan. The following spring she died shortly after giving birth to their son. Sir Drelan was so heart broken over the loss of his wife that he has to this day never remarried.

Lady Alena was the daughter of Sir Taurael of Drilen Manor. She also had a younger brother whose name is Sir Allesa, a Remlana (Expert Knight) at the Sword Chapter House of Jenkald. This is a group of holy knights in the order of Our Lady of Paladins. Sir Ardan was sent to Drilen at a very young age to learn how to be a fine young nobleman, serve as page and squire, and to learn how to run his Father’s lands that he will someday inherit. At Drilen, Sir Ardan, and his Uncle, Sir Allesa developed a very close friendship and Sir Ardan looked up to his Uncle with great awe. Sir Ardan always dreamed of becoming a Knight in the service of The Lady of Paladins, but his feelings of responsibility to his Father as his only heir always took precedence. Now that Sir Ardan has become knighted, he now travels to all of the tournaments throught the land trying to raise money to increase the wealth of his Family and their lands, and to make a name for himself.

Character Makeup

Lifepaths
Born Noble
Page
Squire
Knight

Stats:
Perception B4
Will B4
Agility B5
Speed B3
Power B5
Forte B5

Age 25

Skills:
Riding/B5
Sword/B6
Mounted Combat/B5
Brawl/B3
Read/B3
Scribe/B3
Shield Training
Armour Training
Lance/B6
Knives/B2
Etiquette/B2
Mace/B3
Animal Husbandry/B2
Doctrine (The Church of Laráni and the Order of the Lady of Paladins)/B2
Mending/B2

Attributes:
Health B4
Steel B5
Faith B0
Reflexes B4
Mortal Wound B11

Beliefs:
It is the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak. No favor or wrong should ever go without being repaid in full. This later belief is actually the motto of his clan. Finally, it is through the laws of the land and the doctrine of the church that civil society is maintained, and no one is above that.

Instincts:
To be the best warrior and knight, I must continually train my mind as well as my body in my martial and non-martial obligations as a nobleman.

Traits:
Iron Will

Resources:

Contacts
Sir Drelan, his father is an important loyal contact
Sir Allesa, his uncle is a powerful loyal contact
Sir Taurel, his grandfather is a Powerful loyal contact

Reputation
Sir Ardan has a local reputation around the lands of his father’s manor and his grandfather’s manor of being a hard working young man that takes his station in society very seriously and honorably, and treats all others with respect.

Affiliations
He is a member and heir to his noble father’s clan, Napaldy, and a member of the noble clan, Lournay.

Gear

arms:
superior quality sword, dagger, mace, 5 jousting lances

armour:
mail hauberk (also counts as mail skirt), quilt gambeson (also counts as quilt skirt), mail coif, quilt coif, great helm (also counts as face and neck), heavy cloth leggings and surcoat, leather gauntlets, leather boots, sword belt

equipment & mounts:
traveling gear, spare clothes, 3 war mounts

[Kublai]

Now THAT'S a knight! Quite fearsome in every respect! Imagine a thousand of these guys plowing into the enemy! :twisted:

I love that his Speed is 3! That means on foot, in mail, he is moving at Speed 2! Like a slow-motion tank! However, this does mean he is VERY susceptible to peasants getting on his inside. Damnable peasants! But I suppose that's why he has 3 warhorses! I'd never get off of one if I was him! :)

His Beliefs are great but his Instinct needs refining. As it stands now, it is more of a Belief. It should be a particular, concrete response to a certain stimuli. Like, "Every night, before I go to sleep, I spend an hour training my Will." Forming Instincts as an "If/Then" statement helps a lot to understand their role in BW. "If it is bedtime, then I train my Will for one hour before sleeping." :? well, not the best example, but I am sure you understand.

[Durgil]

Thanks for the input, Kublai; I'm still trying to get a feel for those instincts. I'll try to think of a better one (or two) tomorrow. I didn't want to munchkin him out with some ubber instinct.

As far as the Skill exponents go, I originally had all of his skills 1 pt. lower but realized that the base of each skill is half the root stat, which in each case with Sir Ardan was 2, not 1. When I totalled up his Skill Points, it came up to 28 with 5 General.

Finally, having three war mounts came from a book that I have recently started reading from Frances Gies called The Knight in History. Historically, most knights had at least several horses, especially if they were currently training a squire. I recommend any of the Frances Gies or her husband, Joseph Gies books on medieval Europe; they're a must for anyone wanting to recreate that time period.

[eruditus]

truth be known i love harnmaster as well.

As much as I use the Wheel I also don't go for extra work if I don't have to. There are a handful of games that I would NOT convert and I think harnmaster is one of them.

[eruditus]

otherwise the knight is very cool. I developed a guy that used the knight and the military to get to Court Advisor.

Knights get ugly very fast. I wouldn't be surprised to find that, if left to their own devices, every group would have one.

The low speed is their only good self-imposed limitation. Could you imagine someone that well armored moving 5 times an exchange. ick!

[Durgil]

As much as I use the Wheel I also don't go for extra work if I don't have to. There are a handful of games that I would NOT convert and I think harnmaster is one of them.
HârnMaster is a great game system, as far as a straight percentile dice system goes, but since I found The Riddle of Steel and now The Burning Wheel, I really love dice pool systems and will never go back. Besides that, what's there to really convert? So the Shèk-Pvâr don't exactly operate the same way using the BW magic system; they're still a very secretive society with the same rules and isolate chantries. Also keep in mind that "magically weak" doesn't mean that the magic is weak, but that it is very rare.

Now, if I could just talk a few of you Easterners to move out here to lovely Indianapolis, Indiana, I could test some of these theories of mine. :wink:

[luke]

Tony, great character!

He's the kind of BW character that I love. Simple LPs, and a good history, fantastic beliefs and plausible well-balanced skills. His gear is great, too. I'm excited that you took three horses! Actually, I have in my hot little hands the rough draft of the Horse Burner written by mind friend Rich. Once I manage to patch it together you'll be able to purchase your Palfreys, Coursers and Destriers to your heart's content.

Since I liked your character so much, I'll give you a present of 2 skill points!
Actually, Mounted Combat is counted as a Training like Shield and Armor. So your B5 M/C (which cost you 4 skill points open and advance), actually only costs 2 skill points since it is a training skill. So take those two points as a gift and invest them well.

I really wish we could get a chance to play with this fellah. Perhaps at the next gencon. I didn't play nearly enough BW at the last one!

-L

[Durgil]

Thanks, Luke. I'm really looking forward to the chance of playing a full session of BW with you and Drozdal at next year's Gencon. Obviously, I'd also love to take a look at your Horse Burner when you get it finished. Maybe you could add elven horses to the list as well; the next character I plan to burn here at the womb is an Eldarin knight of the kingdom of Evael.

[Durgil]

I'm still trying to rack my brain trying to come up with some good instincts. I feel that if I make something up like he'll always do this certain maneuver or action when ever faced with a particular circumstance in combat, then that this will take away some of his freedom. Though he's a warrior, I see him as a thinker as well that relies a lot on his ability to reason. He's introverted, quit, and always self-assessing. The only thing I see him doing automatically out of habit is preying and training. He tends to always listen first and then talk or act (usually act).

[wattj]

I'm still trying to rack my brain trying to come up with some good instincts. I feel that if I make something up like he'll always do this certain maneuver or action when ever faced with a particular circumstance in combat, then that this will take away some of his freedom. Though he's a warrior, I see him as a thinker as well that relies a lot on his ability to reason. He's introverted, quit, and always self-assessing. The only thing I see him doing automatically out of habit is preying and training. He tends to always listen first and then talk or act (usually act).

Well, you seem to be working on a very straightforward chivalric knight concept here, so maybe some solutions from the chivalric code (or the equivalent in his native culture) would be suitable? Examples aren't coming to mind. Oops.

- Always open a horse-door for a lady. Or something.
- Always pay for dinner when on a date.
- Always turn cell phone or beeper off or set to 'vibrate' in theatres, at festivals, and in noble court.

(Okay, I'm feeling a bit punchy.)

Also, as several people have suggested: He should never be on foot when he could be horseback. This might be an instinct:

- When passing or standing in ridable terrain, mount a horse.

-Always know where my horses are and what condition they are in (is that a valid instinct? I don't know how to phrase is as an if->then without resporting to some somewhat abstract logic with limited bearing on actual behaviour, or a very complex chain...)

-When I dismount, tend to my horse(s) or see that they are tended to.


Mind you, I'm still quite new to this, and it's WAY past my bedtime, so take all this with a grain of salt.

[luke]

possible instincts:
-Pray at Dawn

-When confronted with leisure time, train.

-Assess.

Mechanically: Ardan would be considered to be practising his Faith (or Doctrine, depends on the character, the player and the gm for that one). Same goes for the second one, without your having to lay down a routine to the gm, your character will always been considered to be practicing when he has time. That way, when a week of down time happens while he waits for his friends to recover from their last outing, you just mark down a week of practice for his sword (not that he needs it), his mace, his brawling, or even his reading and writing, ettiquette and doctrine.

Lastly, a nice simple instinct like "Assess" should help you out in a lot of situations --getting you a Per roll, when everyone else was goofing off-- and it ties into your character description.

just some suggestions

[eruditus]

As an aside you can script two actions at once, just with a ob penatly, correct?

So you could have an instinct of "draw weapon/ look assess," no?

[luke]

As an aside you can script two actions at once, just with a ob penatly, correct?

So you could have an instinct of "draw weapon/ look assess," no?

this is completely off-topic. if you really need to discuss this, start a new thread in BW. the short answer is No.

[Durgil]

Since I liked your character so much, I'll give you a present of 2 skill points!

-LI totally had forgotten about this point, Luke. I think I'll make Aradan's Etiquette skill a B3 and his Mace skill a B4.

[Drozdal]

Just mine five cents - i do not know if you knew Durgil but Napadly in secret language of poles means "ambushing" :D

Drozdal

[Durgil]

That's interesting, Drozdal. I just pulled it out of the Kaldor Kingdom Module, page 11. Napaldy is the Clan Name of the holder of the fief of Kerk in Myaman Hundred in Meselynshire. That is just a sampling of what a great setting Hârn is.

[Drozdal]

That is just a sampling of what a great setting Hârn is.
I know i'm iln love with Harn myself (ask Abzu :P). and i know that they were playing with names from regions all over the world so probably this similarity came from there (there was one letter dealing with this topic in one of harnlore issues)

Drozdal

[Durgil]

One more thing that I forgot to include about Sir Ardan is the emblazoning of his heraldic achievement, which is Azure, a tressure argent. In chief a lion sejant and in base a molet of five points, both of the second."

I've got an electronic picture of it that I use as my Avatar on the HârnForum, but I could figure out how to do images on this forum.