Aristocratic Families

Within the aristocratic caste it's all about the family. This makes the generation of the character's family a bit more complicated than other castes.

Family Title

It is first neccessary to generate the Family Title. This is done by rolling 2d6 and consulting the following chart. If this roll is a "12," the player has the option of rerolling using 3d6. [In this case leave the dice on the table.]

2d6	Family Title
2	None.
3	Household Knight/Courtier
4	Manorial Knight
5	Knight Bannerette
6	Baron
7	Viscount
8	Count
9	Marquis
10	Duke
11	Prince
12*	King
13**	High King
14**	Great King
15**	Minor Emperor
16**	Emperor
17**	Great Emperor
18**	World Emperor
* If a natural 12 is rolled on the first roll the player has the option to roll 3d6 instead. They must take this result, even if it is less than 12. ** If this title does not exist in the game then the family is of ancient royal blood.

If the roll is a "2" the family is considered of noble blood but there is no title or estate to inherit for whatever reason. As a result there is no need to continue the aristocratic family genration progress.

If the 3d6 roll gives a title that does not exist in the game, then take the lowest two dice of that roll (or roll 2d6 again) to determine the family's actual title. However the family is considered to be of "ancient royal blood." This attribute can be used to justify the family's claim on the crown.

Inheritance Rank

This is literally the number of people between the character and their inheriting the family title (not including the character). Roll 2d6 to determine this number. Remember that player characters are neither the heir nor the spare, which is why they have turned to the career of an adventurer to make their own fortune in the world.

Note that the title-holder (noble) will have an immediate family of 1d6+1 people that might potentially inherit the title.

If the Inheritance Rank is greater than the number of the immediate family then the character is considered a distant cousin. It is not unknown historically for such a cousin to discover they have inherited the title, especially after a "successful" peasant uprising. [Successful in this case means the peasants ambushed and killed the noble and their family, the uprising was supressed by the neighbouring nobles (who are generally not of an overly progressive bent), and a few token peasant "ringleaders" were hanged.]

As a reminder, eliminating the people between you and the title is generally frowned upon by polite society. [Even leavinbg aside that technically an adventurer has foresworn their birthright (although there are many cases of them claiming it anyway).]

Family Reaction

Technically the family reaction roll (2d6 + Cha bonus) to your choice to become an adventurer represents the reaction of the titular head of the family. If you are a cousin, you may also elect to make a reaction roll for your own immediate family (which will also consist of 1d6+1 siblings). This may substitute for the equippage roll if it is better than the noble family reaction.

Note that a Positive, Friendly or Allied reaction (9+) often comes with an unspoken understanding that the character is also supposed to support the family interests while acting as an adventurer. Failure to do so may reduce the family's reaction level (and the assistance that can be covertly obtained from them in the future).

A Quick Summary of Martial Arts

All classes in MyD&D have the capability to evoke "magical" effects. The magic-using classes (Mage, Cleric, and Adept) do this overtly with spells, sutras, and masteries. The combat-orientated classes (Fighter, Ranger, and Rogue) may do so using the various martial arts. The term is generic for all three classes, although each class has their own specialised forms of martial arts.

Like spells, specific martial arts must be learned from ancient treatises or from someone that already knows the technique. The same procedure is followed. The treatise must be studied for a week and then the student makes a d12 roll against the standard spell knowledge table. If they roll the number specified or less, then they have understood the techniques sufficiently to be able to invoke it. This base number is altered by the characteristics of the student. Any class may add their Willpower bonus to the number. If it is higher, fighters may add their Charisma bonus to this number instead, while rogues may add their Intelligence bonus to this number instead. Rangers may use either their Charisma bonus or their Intelligence bonus, depending on the nature of the martial art.

For example, Fred the 1st level Fighter has a treatise that teaches the first level martial art of hands of fire. From the table we see that the base chance of doing so is 1 in 12. However Fred has a Willpower of 9 and a Charisma of 16, which means that he gets a +2 bonus, meaning the chance is actually 3 in 12. After studying the treatise for a week, his player rolls the dice and gets a "2." Fred has learned how to focus his fire qi sufficiently to manifest flames from his fists, causing his melee attacks to also have the fire elemental effect.

Note that each repeated attempt of learning from the same treatise reduces the target number by 1. If you cannot learn the technique within that time, then the treatise is not suitable for you.

Note that a practioner may specialize in a specifc form of elemental qi. This makes learning techniques involving that qi easier to learn, while other techniques become harder to learn. As for specialising in a type of magic, this reduces the effective level of any technique using the qi the character has specialised in by 1, whilst increasing the effective level of any other technique by 1. This also applies to the cost of invoking the technique as well as learning it.

Fred is now a 6th level fighter who has specialised in fire-based martial arts. The 3rd level body of fire is considered to be a 2nd level technique for him. This means he has (assuming his bonuses have not changed) his chance of learning this technique is 4 in 12. Similarly the first level feet of water is also considered a 2nd level technique for him, again with a 4 in 12 chance of success.

Note that there is no difficulty in learning techniques that make use of different qi. However invoking techniques that make use of different qi may result in something called qi poisoning. This is particularly true if the qualities of the qi are naturally opposed, or the area of their affect overlap. If you can relate the qi in some manner then the chance of poisoning is much reduced.

Because of his specialisation, just having Fred invoke feet of water has a chance of causing qi poisoning, since water is naturally opposed to fire. If he also invoked hands of fire this chance would increase. And if he invoked body of fire it would almost certainly cause qi poisoning.

You will note that most martial arts are simply described using a body part and a form of elemental energy representing the qi of the martial artist. This makes it relatively easy to randomly generate a treatise; although there are many commonly known techniques as well, such as feet of air (allowing free movement over difficult terrain) and hands of fire (allows melee attacks to also have the fire elemental effect). In setting they almost certainly have much more poetic names.

The exact effect of the martial art is usually determined by the qi invoked. Note that qi is internalised elemental energies and will generally have the same effects. So hands of metal will cause the practioners hands to cause damage in a fight as if they were sharp weapons. The actual damage die used in this situation is determined by the character's level, so a 1st level fighter would do damage equivalent to a dagger (d4).

The level of the martial art technique generally determines the size of the body part that is affected. For example:

• 1st level: The hands, feet, eyes, ears, mouth, or heart.
• 2nd level: Legs, arms, tail, wings, or chest.
• 3rd level: Body.
• 4th level: Extrabody. For example having wings of fire when the character does not have any natural wings.

Martial arts are generally a lot more limited in level than spells simply because most practioners do not possess high enough SP to freely make use of higher level techniques.

Like spells, the cost to invoke a martial arts technique is equal to (the level of the technique + 1) squared in SP. So a 1st level technique will cost 4 SP to invoke. This will require an action, and usually involve some sort of performative activity to do so. The effect will last for the scene, or until dismissed.

The actual martial arts tend to be associated with the style of combat of the class. So fighters have martial arts that focus on melee combat, rangers have martial arts that focus on missile combat, and rogues have martial arts that focus on avoiding combat. As with spellcasters, the basic "cantrip" magic of each class is not actually considered a martial art. For fighters, for example, this is the ability to make a special attack (an attack that has some other effect than causing damage) for 1 SP.