Who is Your Steward?

Be sure to have handy your Steward’s (or Wife’s, or Esquire’s) Stewardship skill. If your knight runs his own manor, then use his skill instead.

• No Steward

If no Steward is present, then the result on the Harvest Result’s Table is a Fumble. The peasants, left to their own devices, will simply not work his demesne; keep back their payments, etc. Be sure to add any Modifiers from the Manorial Luck tables.

• Stewarding Your Own Land

A knight can always steward his own lands. However, his absence will detract from his management. Each spring, summer and autumn season that he is absent for a month or more (Gamemaster discretion) modifies his Stewardship skill by -2. A longer absence does accumulate additional penalty: the maximum penalty for being away all three seasons is -6. His 40 days of service does count towards this penalty, but his regular, required visits to court do not (they are usually short anyway). If he is entirely unavailable for a year (off on the continent at war, in prison, lost in Faerie, etc.Stewardship roll are automatically a Fumble.

• Wife

The knight’s wife is normally the Steward of his manor. This privilege is jealously guarded by her, even she has to learn it on the job, or if she is less experienced than a professional might be. If she is refused this natural honor, surely the marriage will suffer in some manner (GM choice).

• Resident Steward

A knight can name a steward for his land. This is most likely an esquire who is an uncle or a brother. He can also hire a Steward as retinue (See: pg. 15). If for some reason the resident Steward is absent during parts of the year, use the guidelines for an absent knight (above) to determine the effect on his Stewardship.