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Jeivar
2010-07-13, 01:43 PM
I'm playing Vampire: Dark Ages for the first time in a few days and I'm trying to design my haven. The character is a minor noble (a knight's widow) with Resources 4, and lives in Leipzig. Thing is, I have no idea how to design a rich person's home at that era. All the floor plans I found online were for castles.

Suggestions? I'm thinking of a relatively small but definitely upper crust home.

hamlet
2010-07-13, 02:11 PM
Google is your friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manor_house

Typically, a minor landed knight or merchant would have a house roughly equivalent to an middle-middle class house in the US suburbs today in terms of floor space. Much of the space would be taken up by a "great hall" (maybe 30-40% total floor space), a kitchen and storage area for foods and sundries (always kept locked and key posessed by the lady of the house), bedrooms for family (likely one for the master/mistress, one for sons, one for daughters, possibly a spare for guests, while servants would likely sleep in outbuildings or in the kitchen), and likely 1-3 other "dedicated" rooms such as a library, conservatory, a chapel for the truly/seemingly pious, etc.

There will be outbuildings such as stables, work shops, and storage sheds, and the whole is likely to be surrounded by a low wall or possibly a palisade in unstable regions. The walls of the main building itself are likely to be constructed of thick stone and with heavy exterior doors, both to keep the warm in and the bad folks out in times of need.

Of course, this is all dependent upon how wealthy one was and the time period. Poorer or less well thought of folks managed with less.

The absolute best way to get a handle on what the period looked like is to watch a couple episodes of Cadfael. Can probably find them on Youtube. The aesthetic of the show is very good for about the 12th century. Of note for architecturaly interested folks are the episodes "The Sanctuary Sparrow" and "The Virgin in the Ice" (the latter only for a very brief time, however).

A note: Firewood was expensive, even then, and was not simply a matter of chopping down the nearest tree. For this reason, and for others, it became an architectural fad to create "double sided fireplaces," which were basically holes in the wall with a flue that served as a common fireplace between two adjoining rooms. One could, at times, look through the fireplace and into the next room and, occasionally, they were large enough that one could physically pass through the opening. This might be a decent way to create a hidden resting place maybe.

Accersitus
2010-07-13, 02:26 PM
First of all make sure the house has a basement to sleep in (if you have a ST who likes to mess with the players, checking how sturdy the shutters are can quickly become routine, and a solution should be available in any wealthy vampires home), and preferably a way to get unseen from the master bedroom to the basement bedroom.
Rule #1 for Vampire architecture is make sure you can sleep in a room where one open door/window doesn't make you burn.
Rule #2 make sure the signs of alterations for rule #1 are as hidden as possible in case of paranoid hunters.
Rule #3 Assume someone is going to try to kill you in your home and plan an escape route/panic room (unless you have high levels of Presence and social skills).

Jeivar
2010-07-13, 04:56 PM
Google is your friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manor_house


Ah, "manor house". English is my second language, so I wasn't sure what the proper term was. That is a good deal bigger than I was planning though.


A note: Firewood was expensive, even then, and was not simply a matter of chopping down the nearest tree. For this reason, and for others, it became an architectural fad to create "double sided fireplaces," which were basically holes in the wall with a flue that served as a common fireplace between two adjoining rooms. One could, at times, look through the fireplace and into the next room and, occasionally, they were large enough that one could physically pass through the opening. This might be a decent way to create a hidden resting place maybe.

Hmm. Interesting idea. And thanks for suggesting the TV show.



Rule #2 make sure the signs of alterations for rule #1 are as hidden as possible in case of paranoid hunters.


Except they aren't paranoid, are they? They're absolutely right. :smallsmile:

hamlet
2010-07-14, 07:24 AM
Ah, "manor house". English is my second language, so I wasn't sure what the proper term was. That is a good deal bigger than I was planning though.


The manor houses in the wiki article are from a later, richer period than you're talking about so they're quite a bit larger than would be common in the 11-12th centuries. For the time period that WOD:Dark Ages takes place, you'll want to reduce the size and scope a bit. At that time, most of the houses were one large room (a hall/dining room/meeting room) with a number of smaller living spaces leading off of it. The life of the home was centered on that central room.

Another thing to consider, especially for a noble character, is why you are only ever seen at night. This is, actually, an rather important consideration since it would be seen by just about everybody at the time as very abnormal. I recommend feigning illness. Hire or dominate a local physician, or get a decent actor (either hired or from within the party itself) to "attend" your sickness and put it about when inquired that you are ill with a chronic and life long sickness that makes you very sensitive to bright light and keeps you infirm and bedridden for long periods of time. The mention of illness will cut down dramatically on unwanted guests, too.