Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Rules of the Game/Things to spend points on

The Life Cycle of Family Members

Having Children: Any woman of fertile age can have a child. For the direct line of the family tree this costs 4 points for a boy, 3 for a girl (I know it's not fair, but that is probably an over estimation of popular seventeenth-century thought on the relative worth of the genders). For junior branches of the tree (e.g. children of a daughter or second son) this costs 3 for a boy and 2 for a girl. An extra point will be added for children born outside of the normal fertility range for seventeenth-century people.

Additional Family members increase the costs of maintaining the family by 5% each.

Finding a Good Husband: If the gamemaster has said that a girl has found a suitor, you may be given the opportunity to have it be a good match with social connections. This is not certain, since other factors like the size of the dowry etc. come in to play. When your family is at rank 1 then it costs 5 points.

Dowry: We have now established that £1000 is a large dowry for parish gentry, and £500 is OK.

Marriage of Men

Families should choose between a good dowry, rank, and connections. If rank or connections are good, dowry will be low.

Bride's Rank	Dowry	Connections	Points
2	1000	Modest	5
2	3000	Modest	10
2	1000	Father in profession	10
2	100 plus some land	Modest	10
2	Heiress	Modest	30
2	1000	Political connections	15

Second sons are less likely to marry well. Add five points to any marriage for them. Note that an heiress will bring an estate equal to the one your family started with, plus will be rank 2.

Education

Grammar School: £200 plus 2 points.

Boarding school: For boys, £300 plus 4 points for a good school like Winchester or Eton. They can then use this experience as a source (once) for possible connections later. For girls, £200 plus 2 points for a 'finishing school', which will improve their marriage prospects.

Inns of Court: Entry is £50 plus £50 for bribes (if you have no connection in the legal profession). Per year £50. Points are 1 per year plus 2 to graduate.

University: Similar to Inns of Court for now, plus £100. BA thus = £400 plus 8 points.

Package Deal: Grammar school through university = £600 plus 8 points. If it is a good boarding school like Eton, then £700 plus 10 points.

Grand Tour: Send a young man to see Europe's sights for £600, no points needed.

Careers

Medicine: BA plus license, however we do not yet know how hard a license is to get or what it entails.

Titles

Baronet: The cost varies according the the exact year, but will be about £500. However, it also assumes that your family has 'suitable state and lineage', so families will have to make that case to me.

Home Improvement

Lawn, Garden and Stable: £1500

Mazes: £200. This is an upgrade to the 'lawn and garden' package.

Estate Improvement

Enclosure:

Investments

Publishing: A maximum of two families may invest £1000, and receive £50 per annum thereafter in returns.

Stock: Stock companies are more complicated. Families may invest any amount in companies that they have done research on. However, they also need to spend points. The number of points spent will impact the luck that these ventures have.

Ventures

The points required for businesses or other projects can be approximated by the following table. How plausible a project is can be modified by how much work a family has done for it already, through wikis or otherwise. It also is determined by past activities. Thus, it is more plausible for a family to move into an activity involving ships if they are already involved in a shipping business of some sort. The game also emphasizes gradual movement up the social ladder, so great changes are less probable than small ones. The cost of a project in money is unrelated to its plausibility.

Moderate Success means that the project succeeds in a minimal way. If it is an economic venture then it makes no money but does not fail and can be ongoing. It still may be very useful for a family in other ways, like connections, providing a job for a family member, or making a second venture more plausible. Profitability means that an economic venture will add modestly to a family's wealth in future stages, and non-economic ventures have comparable success. Great success is needed for windfalls or any other large increase to a family's fortune. Points must be spent in this category for any great stroke of luck.

Plausibility	Moderate Success	Profitability	Great Success
Easily Achievable	5	10	15
Average	10	15	30
Ambitious	20	30	50
Longshot	40	60	100
Wildly improbable	100	200	300