As specified in the Errata a character has to provide his Typical Trappings by himself.

To become a pistolier you have to choose the affluent wealth status. Nevertheless this would be not enough to provide a horse, 2 pistols and some armor.

But without this equipment one is hardly a pistolier. How did you handle this in your group? Debts? No equipment? Gifted equipment? Super bad equipment?

Typical trappings are not a requirement for a career like they were in 2nd edition. They are merely there to give the player some guidance as to what kind of gear the career normally uses. In the case of the pistolier, the player should probably focus on investing in a horse and pistol and whatever armour he can afford at character creation and use any earnings to upgrade his equipment appropriately.

I plan on using trappings as they were in 2nd edition when transitioning to a new career.

Some thoughts...

A "poor" pistolieer might look like this:

• Poor riding horse, 1g
• 2 Crossbow Pistols, 80+80s
• Mail Shirt, 50s.

For a total of 3g 10s.

Another startup gear:

• Riding horse, 2g
• Poor quality pistol, 2g 50s
• Mail Shirt, 50s

For a total of 5g (I'd throw in some ball shots and powder for free).

Mail Shirt seems fitting as pistolieers are lightly armoured fast cavalery.

Something in the pistolieers background might explain why he/she doesn't have (all) the equipment typically associated with pistolieers. A few suggestions:

• The horse could have died in the latest battle.
• Just recently the pistolieer was unlucky enought that one (or both) of his pistols blew up due to their unreliable nature.
• He/she was knocked unconsious during a battle and his/her "body" was looted by the enemy. When waking up, alone, on the battle field the pistols and the horse was gone.
• Maybe he/she comes from a poor noble house, who could not afford top quality stuff. I do believe that the fluff in the Empire book for the battles game states that it is the noble families that pay for the pistolieers equipment.
• The reason for the pistolieer to go out on adventures might be to earn money to purchase good equipment after loosing some of it somehow.

There is still remaining the point that Pistoliers are young noblemen. I guess then that if Pistolier is not your starting career, and your character is not a noble, you have to find a good justification about "why" and "how" your character is accepted to join the Pistolkorps.

i have recently created a pistolier and ran into the same problem as you did.

i agreed with the GM to get myself a fancy background story on the character to explain every single piece of equipment i have/don't have.

my character had been sent to fight an army of greenskins in the south and was horribly injured in that fight. she lost her dear horse and is one of the few remaining fighters to even return. when she fled the scene of battle she took with her her best companion's hochland long rifle, because it was her dying wish for it not fall into the hands of greenskins.

the only weapon she could save from her arsenal of weaponry was a single repeater pistol, which she got from her grandfather when she joined the forces. the pistol is, because of it's age, unreliabe +1.

her armor, a fine breastplate, was heavily damaged in the fight and is barely held together by a few bindings. it is not wearable until repaired by a skilled blacksmith.

of course, she has not got alot of gold with her, as she was riding to war. so i think she ha like 1 gold with her, the rest is at her family's house, which she found to be burned down when she dragged herself home from battle. so now she is on a quest to find whoever did that to her family...

If they start out as "Noble," then they get paid 1 gold a week. If that's the case, I would just let them have the horse up front, and have their free starting weapon be a pistol. Otherwise, they'll have that stuff in a week or two anyway.

actually i think it is 1 gold a MONTH, and if they do not have direct acces to their "account", they won't even get that. a pistolier on an adventure does not recieve 1 gold automatically per month just because he is noble.

you would also have to detemine with "what" the noble makes that money. is it the land he owns, is it trading....? and therefor you can only collect that money you might have earned at a specific place, to me at least.

there have not been bank accounts and credit/debit cards in the middle ages ;-)

@nephtys: I think Doc is pretty aware of the socio-economic situation in WH ;-)

So there might be following situations suitable for a pistolier:

1. He is from a poorer Noble House, so his equipment is not that fancy.
2. He lost his equipment somehow.
3. He is not yet a member of the pistolkorps but has to proof himself (and get equipped).

I like situation 3 the most - because in my head profession and career are not the same. A player may have chosen the career as pistolier but this does not imply that he is automatically part of the pistolkorps.

nephtys said:

I don't have my books with me, but I'm pretty sure it's 1 a week. The bodyguard needs to be paid 1 a week, and it's kinda strange that only a Rank 4 noble could hire one (after spending all his earnings).

My point is, instead of having the party waiting around a week to gear up, just let the character have the gear and move on. It's not like having the horse and a pistol make things significantly easier for the group.

A landed noble has a income of like 4g per day (p. 96 Player's guide). The rule "noble rank = 1g per month" seems to work only for the landed noble's dependents (like a PC).
The head of a noble household is the person who makes all the money. He'll get the 5% of the family's riches per week (according to the moneycounter in Lure of Power).
If the PC has his own riches he could hire a moneycounter too but I think this will not be the case when starting a rank 1 noble career (like a pistolier).

But Doc is right: why not just give the player his **** equipment - the PC is bound to his family anyways.

i was not trying to tear down his idea, actually i like it.

of course a noble character has his income, no matter where it might be paid, and sure, why not have to player start with the gaer he wants so the game can go on.
i would handle it that way as well, if necessary

but i just did the story part more, because if the player has to make up a story behind his weaponry/armor etc he/she gets invested with his character alot more and alot fast, to me heaving a backstory is a must for anyone. that is what makes roleplaying

again, any idea given here is perfectly valid to me and works fine, no offense there, sorry guys!

Can anyone point me to a reference that characters with noble get 1 gold/X? That's news to me and would be helpful.

I was thinking about this just this week as one of my players was considering a pistoller. I was considering letting him spend a couple more creation points on additional wealth or something.

RARodger said:

It's in Lure of Power.

You get 1gold/X per Noble Rank. Your Noble Rank is equal to the number of careers you have completed or are currently in that have the noble trait.

That all applies if you are born a noble, which involves starting in a career with the noble trait, and allocating 3 advances to wealth (the highest) at character creation. If you weren't born a noble (like if you started as a Soldier, and then transfered into Captain), then your Noble Rank is reduced by 1 (so it takes 2 noble careers to get anything).

Teemeister said:

Don't forget that the incomes appearing in the Player Guide, are just that, incomes, they are not the savings. People, they still have to pay taxes (to a higher rank noble) and so on.

RARodger said:

Lure of Power pg. 28 under Benefits of Noble rank

"Characters receive a stipend of 1g per month per Noble Rank.
This wealth represents incomes from lands and titles (minus
taxes and other obligations), an allowance from his family, or
even gifts from lesser nobles or merchants hoping to curry his
favour. If cut off from his wealth, it accumulates during his absence
and he receive any monies owed when he returns home."

Doc, the Weasel said:

That's not true.

I have read but do not own Lure of Power so I can't give references but there is something in it about the menial trait cancelling out the noble trait... but to a minimum of a 'rank 1' noble. No matter how odd a noble is they are still treated with deference (and gain the appropriate benefits).

If you started with (or transferred to) a career with the menial trait it would take 3 careers with the noble trait to be considered a rank 2 noble but only 1 career to be a rank 1 noble.

Both is true.

To start as a noble with noble rank 1 you need the affluent wealth status and a career with the noble trait (pistolier, fop, courier and as a optional errata the dilettante, who trades the specialist trait for the noble trait). Each other career with the noble trait raises your noble rank but any career with the menial trait cancels one noble trait out. If you are already a noble (at least noble rank 1) you cannot lose your noble status due a menial career. A noble is still a noble.

Eg. you start as a fop (noble trait) and change to mercenary (menial trait) - you are still a noble (noble rank 1).

BUT: if you don't start as a noble you need two careers with the noble trait. Also each menial trait cancels one noble trait.

Example 1: you start as a soldier and change to captain (noble trait). Still no noble. After being a captain you change to ambassador (noble trait) - now you are noble (noble rank 1).

Example 2: you start as a mercenary (menial trait) and change to captain (noble trait). Still no noble. After being a captain you change to courier (noble trait). Still no noble. After being a courier you change to ambassador (noble trait) - now you are a noble (noble rank 1).

Example 3: you start as a fop (noble rank 1) and change to courier - now you are a noble rank 2. Afterwards you change to ambassador - now you are a noble rank 3.

I hope this is somehow understandable :-? The word "noble" is pretty often part of this chaotic posting.

Ignore

What a load of complete bollocks (not you, the rule).

Where's the fun in 'always' playing a noble who is affluent or of denying someone who is affluent to try and become accepted by society as a noble. Some of the best experiences are fish out of water scenarios, I think I shall try and get my GM to change it to either/or rather than and (giving an affluent noble a rank of 2).

anyway... pistoliers ay?

k7e9 said:

Our pistolier (this guy) started with a poor quality pistol, I don't know if mechanically he has poor quality horse but role play wise he does. I know he's a lurker on the forums but maybe he'll provide some insight on his character creation for us, otherwise I'll ask him what he did when I talk to him next. He started with a riding horse (poor quality?), poor quality pistol, chainshirt and two javelins.

Teemeister said:

This is how I thought it was too. In regards to the monthly stipend I view that as money you get for nothing basically, a PC noble may get a stipend from his family or the state or whatever but if he has eneterprises on his land and is involved in trading or manufacturing then he gets a lot more per month than his stipend, it is supplemented by his regular income (like a real stipend)

If a PC wants to get the retainers he shouldn't be able to get them by default off his noble rank, he needs industry and funds behind him to back him up.

In regards to a pistolier without a pistol a soldier is still a soldier whether he is out of uniform or not. The pistolier can still participate in recon and skirmishes and light cavalry engagements like he's supposed too, he just can't shoot a pistol while doing it. I know it's a bad example but take the American 7th Cavalry Regiment. They don't have horses but they still are more or less the same thing, fast deployed and maneuverable infantry. A pistolier without a pistol is the same thing, a quickly deployed and maneuverable horsemen to harass flanks, screen, raid and recon. I don't see a real reason why a PC member of the pistolkorps needs to have pistol, I'm sure they did at one stage but maybe they lost it or whatever and all of his pistol mates makes fun of him because of it, just my two cents.

I always thought there needed to be more flexibility with starting possessions. What about inheritance and such? I wanted to play a Hochlander hunter who started out with his father's hochland rifle but that's not possible. Perhaps there should be another category to spend character points in that would include such items.

Our group came across exactly the same issue with pistoliers when we started. We got and it by house ruling that characters could spend creation points on items of equipment that they could not otherwise afford - so 2 pistols = 2 creation points. Player was happy with this ruling.

I would say that since the Pistolier career used to be Advanced in 2nd edition that it may need special attention now that it's a basic career. If your player spends the required points to get affluent wealth I would allow him to have the required equipment for this career, perhaps having the player explain how he came to possess such fine equipment. He is a noble after all, or should be, so as long as he's playing the part and not taking the career just to powergame and gain lots of free equipment to sell off later, it should all be fine.

Thinking abou it, for a basic career I think the best solution might be to change the career ability to free pistols. Then an affluent character can afford at least a riding horse and some armor, I think. Or even better, swapping the career abilities of the pistoler and the outrider, so you start with a horse and then advance to not suffering penalties on it.

i'd rather roleplay that part and have the player make up a story for why he has all his gears already as mentioned above.

but switching abilities is also a decent idea!