James Maliszewski
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Alternatives to "Scion"
🕑 Added 2024-08-25 15:48:59 +0000 UTCI'm in the midst of completing a new draft of the player-oriented material for Secrets of sha-Arthan and I've decided to broaden the concept of the scion class.
As I originally imagined it, the scion was a aristocratic dabbler who'd taken up a peripatetic existence, wandering sha-Arthan in search of diversion and using his upbringing and status to do so comfortably. I'm starting to think the class would work better if it also included non-nobles engaged in a similar kind of life – somewhere between a dilettante and a con man.
If I go this route, what's a good name for the class? Does "dilettante" work? How about "wanderer?" Any other thoughts?
Comments
James Maliszewski
Venturer would be perfect, but it's a little close to "adventurer," which is too useful a word to give up in a RPG.
DominusCaveaVulpes
You could keep the scion name for your original idea as the term really does suggest a young (ie youngest in the family so likely ineligible for many positions), footloose member of the ruling class who doesn't fit into the "usual" noble "jobs", moving from household to household in order to (at least) keep boredom at bay. "Dilettante" is a good choice, too, but it suggests a person with wide, shallow, and disparate knowledge (and I don't recall whether or not you have a skill system in your game). A commoner who might do the same kind of thing (maybe a sub-class of the scion), depending on whether or not they try to impersonate nobles, could be referred to as a "wanderer" or "wayfarer" or "tinker"; I imagine they'd tend to stay with commoners or live out in the wilderness on their own. One of these commoners who'd try to fake their way into a noble household (not so much to commit thefts as to stay free of the usual lot assigned to most people in a feudal society) could garner names like "layabout", "parasite", "grifter", or "toady".
Andrew Scott
Venturer?
