Dowry = Cash on Hand or Goods?

[Caesar_X]

I have a character that is most likely going to get married very soon (DoW at the dinner table, anyone?) And the father is a pretty successful merchant who has set aside a dowry for his lovely daughter. Money that could come in handy for organizing an expedition into the unknown.

Should I be using Cash on Hand? Or considering this to be 'Property, Goods, Funds and Caches'? I'm tending towards 3D of the latter. But that will seem like an awful lot to someone (the betrothed) who only has B2 resources.

Thoughts?

[zabieru]

Concept and intent, homie!

If this is just incidental to the whole thing, make it 1d cash or something. Otherwise, make him work for it! If the whole idea was to marry for money (popular among medieval men) then you're looking at whatever wooing he's done as linked tests towards the final bargaining. If he's into her for other reasons, I'd suggest that you still stage a DoW with the father to set the dowry. You may already know what the dad wants out of that DoW, but if that's not clear from who he is and his relationship with the PC, he probably wants one or more of the following:
1. Favors and fealty (I'm giving you this huge dowry because it makes you more effective in your new position in the Legion of my Kin)
2. Stability (Here, buy a house and workshop, settle down, take good care of my daughter and be here to back me up when I'm old)
3. Connections (This payment is in earnest of the new alliance between our houses!)

Those could be stakes or compromises. Alternately, he might have something different that he wants.

I wouldn't hand out giant stacks of Goods without the PC working for it. Unless he started out with an expensive relationship to a Rich Merchant's Daughter or something, there should be a test or conflict with the Intent of scoring a good dowry to go with this marriage.

Don't scurry away from this one because "he's not marrying her for money." If the player really doesn't care about that, call it a couple dice of cash and let it go (just assume the negotiation happens offscreen and goes well, but no test means little reward). Otherwise, this sort of negotiation was part of medieval marriages. It doesn't mean the marriage isn't a love match (though those weren't common...) any more than a negotiation today about which family's hometown to hold the wedding in and who's paying would discredit the marriage. It's a necessary business matter that must be attended to in all marriages.

[luke]

Yup. It's a poor family (or a throw away encounter), then use cash.

If it's a wealthy family (or super important), use property/funds.

-L

[BobSlaughter]

I have a character that is most likely going to get married very soon (DoW at the dinner table, anyone?) And the father is a pretty successful merchant who has set aside a dowry for his lovely daughter. Money that could come in handy for organizing an expedition into the unknown.

Should I be using Cash on Hand? Or considering this to be 'Property, Goods, Funds and Caches'? I'm tending towards 3D of the latter. But that will seem like an awful lot to someone (the betrothed) who only has B2 resources.

Thoughts?

A dowry should be property, not cash-on-hand, because of what it is (Dowry at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry)). It's the money she'll live off of if her husband dies, as not to be a burden to his family. Or her gift to her children when she dies. Her husband can administer it on her behalf, but does not own it.

[Caesar_X]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Robert's scribe ended up having an impromptu marriage to his girlfriend before he left on his journey.

I set the dowry at 2 dice of 'Property, Goods, Funds and Caches', which he chose not to use his Haggling B4 on:)

And then he promptly lost half of the dowry on a failed Resource Lifestyle Maintenance test.

"Thanks, Dad"

[luke]

Nice!