The Aristocrat
An aristocrat is in media a member of a higher caste or ruling class that often has more education, status, or money than others in their town/kingdom/etc. While the cause for this can vary wildly depending on the character’s familial background, aristocrat characters will usually come with a higher amount of one of the above concepts than their “peers”. As such we have many ways of going about this build, so I will be touching on all of them.
It is difficult in game systems to portray oneself as more educated than one is outside of the game, so for an aristocrat who has a focus on being educated we will look to skills that allow us to gain knowledge if we do not have it. This means that truthfully if we are playing a well-educated aristocrat our build will not look too dissimilar to the Academic.
The build that truly moves us outside of the range of our previous build is the wealthy noble trope. Here we begin with the Merchant Category as it allows us access to most of our valuable skills for the build, and we will quickly spend the bulk of my starting 30 CP by picking up Holdings and Supply. These skills allow us to gain 2 leaves and 2 basic resources at game start, allowing us to make money simply by existing. This raises us slightly above the peasants and has our beginning sheet looking as such:
5 cp – Merchant Category
10 cp– Holdings
10 cp – Supply
25 cp spent.
Now at this point we don’t have a lot of CP left for my baseline build, so my personal flavor for an aristocrat is someone who cannot adequately defend themselves. As the Crestfallen weapon rules allow for any melee weapon to be used even if not proficient (as if the weapon had the broken condition) we can put on a false air of bravado should we like, but getting down to actual deadly combat we are gonna get out of there quickly I feel. For this I will round out our basic build with Cower, allowing us to cower away from combat causing most- but not all- enemies to ignore us. So, our baseline with half our CP spent looks like this:
5 cp – Merchant Category
10 cp – Holdings
10 cp – Supply
5 cp - Cower
30 cp spent.
As it stands this is a super basic build, with not a lot of flavor, which you will have to decide for yourself what such flavor entails or looks like. There are many routes to go from this point, do you increase Holdings or Supply with their Augmentation skills to gain more resources or money? Do you pick up Diplomacy to make sure the masses listen when you speak? My personal favorite is using your money and influence to ensure you are never without a good man for any job. For my advanced baseline build I’d add Know a Guy. This skill is one of the most versatile skills in the game, allowing a character to spend 4 stamina to instantly have an NPC connection for their needs or desires. While this skill is powerful it is always at the discretion of the plot runner and staff, and sometimes knowing a guy doesn’t mean that Lando is just going to GIVE you his ship, there may be costs or agreements involved. So with this our final baseline looks like this:
5 cp – Merchant Category
10 cp – Holdings
10 cp – Supply
5 cp – Cower
15 cp – Know a Guy
45 cp spent.
This gives us a well-to-do character who gains both leaves and resources at the start of an event, who may not be proficient with a weapon but can swing a blade to threaten or defend themselves, cowering ineffectually if their foes get the better of them, and finally having access through their money or influence to hire out any sort of help they are in need of at a moment’s notice.
For the final 15 CP there are many routes to go, including lineage skills or picking up a cheap skill from a second category, but of course feel free to tweak the build as it suits you.
To go back to the different archetypes of aristocrat power bases let’s touch on the final aspect, power.
In an aristocratic sense power speaks not to physical might usually, but influence. While Crestfallen does not allow for a player character to attain a rank of authority over another player, there is a system of rising in the ranks of the guilds to positions of power, which we cannot do solely through purchasing skills. For this reason, we need to look at the core of how one does such a thing and build for future investment.
There is a myriad of ways a player can gain renown with a guild or lineage; however, the easiest way is by completing quests each event, and to take these quests one has to be a member of a lineage or guild. While any category that allows for the joining of a guild will suit our purpose, my personal interest is with the Thievery category for two reasons, Thieves Guild membership, and Black Market.
The thieves’ guild membership allows us to begin gaining renown with the thieves’ guild by taking their quests, but it also grants us access to the reserve which houses emergency resources. With membership we may purchase or trade resources from the reserve as necessary for the benefit of the local community, giving us the feeling of being an influential person who can move resources as necessary.
In addition, the thieves’ guild handles all bounties placed on criminals, which also allows our influential aristocrat to know whom can be blackmailed into service, or outright bought if the price is right.
Black Market grants us another boon in the fashion that we can purchase in game items from the thieves’ guild stockpile without any limit to the number of items purchased as well as being able to use 1 ST to look at a guild or lineage item list that we normally would not have access to and may purchase items from them for two times the cost. So now our influential aristocrat can move resources from the reserve as necessary, and for the right price can find anyone looking for an item that other lineages may have the opportunity to buy it. These skills in conjunction already make for a shrewd schemer if played well. This has our baseline built as such:
5 cp – Thievery Category
10 cp – Thieves’ Guild Member
15 cp – Black Market
30 cp spent.
As with the above our schemer can always wield a blade clumsily if they need to fight, however this aristocrat is above begging. At this point if we were a human I’d add Know a Guy to our advanced baseline, or if we were an Orc I’d add demand to lower the cost of Black Marketed items from other lineages, but to avoid typecasting a build to a certain lineage we will avoid lineage skills. At this point we could either go for a second category and begin working towards more guild memberships to increase our sphere of influence, but for my build I’ll stay here and work on the manipulator aspect. For the advanced baseline I’ll add Diplomacy to allow us to distract any targets engaged in combat with us, causing them to become unaware of things happening around them and focus solely on us. And we will round out the build with Conceal Object, allowing us to hide an object on our person, so that if we are caught after acquiring an item for someone we do not wish to be caught with, we won’t be. This rounds out the build to the following:
5 cp – Thievery Category
10 cp – Thieves’ Guild Member
15 cp – Black Market
10 cp – Diplomacy
5 cp – Conceal Object
45 cp spent.
This brings our person of power to being able to move resources and sell off items and information to the highest bidder, distracting targets with their smooth talk and overbearing nature, and ensure that if they have something they shouldn’t that they are not caught with it. My personal suggestion for playing this character would also be to take out a sizeable loan from the in-game bank so that you have the funds to allow for your resource and item laundering, or even for a bribe to gain influence in the thieves’ guild (remember: it is 10 leaves for 1 renown with a guild, meaning your rise to journeyman in the thieves’ guild is a cool 100 leaf bribe.)
While the character truly shines based on the way you embody them in your acting, a solid skill set lends to the build. There are many ways to build a memorable Aristocrat character. This, however, is my build. How would you do it?
Bonus Tips:
Acting Tips.
My advice for playing an Aristocrat comes from two different lines of thinking: That either everyone is beneath you, or that you have not experienced such common things in your life. Either way, this comes from a place of unfamiliarity and ignorance. So my suggestion is whether you treat everyone “beneath” you with a general disdain, or finding joy in mundane things (“oh look! They eat PORRIDGE! How quaint!”), make sure that you keep in mind that you are disconnected from common folk. If you know as a player that a certain ne’er do well is dangerous, perhaps you enter into a bad deal with them because your aristocrat believes they are smarter. Combined with the above, remember that you are always the most important person in the room, and if you aren’t, why are you not making certain that you will be?
Costuming Tips.
Truthfully the advice that I gave for the Academic suits perfectly for the Aristocrat as well.
Keep your costume clean.
An aristocrat coming from the heart of the city would be in a place where damaged outfits can be mended and they could be readily cleaned. As such an aristocrat would look out of place on the frontier, showing up much more put together looking than a grizzled huntsman.
In addition, their attire may not be the most ideal for a frontier campaign so don’t be afraid to shy away from things that you’d normally want for a wildlands travelling character. As with all costume choices make sure you are comfortable and safe for the weather conditions.
The only addition to this is opulence. An aristocrat not only has wealth but wants everyone to KNOW that they do. Adorn yourself with brightly colored sashes or cloth, wear a bunch of jewelry or accessories. Where a mercenary wears wealth, an Aristocrat wears wealth brazenly. Remember, people knowing you’re wealthier than them is more important than how practical you show it off.
Prop Tips.
Truthfully the best idea I can have for embodying your Aristocrat is to make them look worse by comparison. This is really a great character to play alongside another player who highlights their shortcomings, either a common born swordhand, or a local farmer, or even one of the aristocrat’s hirelings.
This is also a character that I see frequently being played to the scene, rather than playing to win, as the character allows a massive growth opportunity and is a build that even someone new to acting can really chew a scene with. So I suppose my best tip is really go 110% with however you choose to play your aristocrat, whether you want people to love you, hate you, or tolerate you, at least they are talking about you.
Well with those tips I’d call this one a wrap! Is there anything you’d add? Are there any basic builds you’d like to see in the future? Make sure to come to the next Discord Hangout and let us know!