Table of Contents
- Specials and Agents
- Regular Components
- Living Component
- Receiving Component
- Dining Component
- Stables Component
- Library Component
- Atelier/Workshop Component
- Nursery Component
- Garden Component
- Security Component
- Billiards Room Component
- Special Location
- Secret Tunnel
- Special Components
- Ballroom
- Art Gallery / Museum
- Hothouse
- Society Headquarters
- Sailing Ship
- Country Estate
- Hunting Grounds
- Occult Laboratory / Workshop
An estate is a building or collection of buildings for your personal use. You can have as many estates as you want, but you need to pay upkeep for each. If you are no longer able to pay the upkeep, your estates will be repossessed and you will lose it.
To make an estate, select from among the components below. The exact details of the estate are still up to you, the below components each serve a clear function and if you want your estate to have that function, you need the listed component. For reasons of explanation, each component lists what it might include in terms of rooms, but the component is NOT the rooms, only the function. It is up to you to decide on the exact details or to include additional details or omit certain things.
For example, if you have a large house with three Living Components, you probably want one bigger kitchen instead of three small separate ones. However, please note that in order to give dinner parties, you still need the Dining Component.
Each component also describes a cost in terms of basic upkeep and necessary staff. Upkeep covers all material costs including taxes, mortgage payments (or rent, as the case may be), heating, repair, paint, etc. Staff describes the minimum number and type of staff required to run the component. Without staff for each component, the estate falls in disrepair.
Components include the necessary arrangements for the required staff (such as quarters and an area for them to eat). The cost of staff is not included in the upkeep, however
You may propose additional components for anything not covered, and the list may be extended later.
Specials and Agents
Certain components are 'special' components. Special components generally give you extra options or unique bragging rights, and players are encouraged to design their own. They generally work like normal components, but each estate you own may have at most a single 'special' component.
Please keep in mind that specials are supposed to be interesting additions to an estate and to fit into the whole. As such, make sure that your actual estate is in line with the special component. In general, design your estates so they make sense on their own.
Each estate that grants a special also grants you the ability to retain an Agent. Note that this is merely a mechanical representation of your general influence and status resulting from the estate; there is no actual link between the agent and the special, you don't have to actually have the special to employ the agent, and so on. However, you have to pay the agent's wage in either case (see Agents in the Servants section)
Regular Components
Living Component
Each living component provides generous living arrangements for up to two people. It includes such things as bedrooms, servant quarters, an office and a small kitchen to provide enough food to eat. If you want more room or extra guests, you need to take this multiple times
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: 2 Maids
Receiving Component
An area designed to entertain guests including a parlour and drawing room. May contain a piano or other instruments, though not big enough to host serious performances.
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: (1 Footman) OR (2 Maids)
Dining Component
A dining component provides a large sized dining room, an extensive kitchen and necessary staff, sufficient to host a proper dining party with guests. If you want to house exceptionally large dinner parties with multiple tables full of guests, you may need to get this component more than once.
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: (1 Cook, 1 Girl, 1 Footman) OR (1 Chef, 2 Maids, 1 Footman)
Stables Component
Proper stabling for horses and the necessary amenities to take care of them, as well as a place to store a carriage.
A stable component can house up to two carriages and four horses (see Horses)
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: (1 Driver, 1 Boy) OR (1 Groom)
Library Component
A library component provides a large room lined with bookshelves, and arrangements for comfortable reading including comfortable seating, a reading desk, and often a lectern. This component provides space for a single collection.
Unless additional effort is made, the component provides a generic collection of fiction and non-fiction, including only common topics and interests. Collections on specific topics or specialist knowledge need to be built up through effort.
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: 1 Footman OR 2 Maids
Atelier/Workshop Component
An area arranged for leisure crafts or an artist's activities. The atelier or workshop is well-appointed to both offer the tools and materials of the craft and look good to those visiting at the same time. The exact tools available and materials in stock depend on the craft or art the atelier is dedicated to.
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: (1 Footman, 1 Maid) OR (1 Assistant)
Nursery Component
Rooms for up to four children, including a playroom, toys, a room with a blackboard, teaching materials, etc.
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: 1 Governess, 1 Maid
Garden Component
A large garden with flowerbeds, statues, sitting area, etc where you can hold garden parties. Per component purchased, you may include one 'special feature' such as a decently sized gazebo, a big marble fountain (or a few small ones), a small greenhouse, a hedge maze, etc. If your estate simply has a small yard you don't need this component.
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: 1 Gardener, 1 Boy
Security Component
Significant security measures to protect the house from outside attack. It includes such things as staff to patrol your estate grounds with dogs to sniff out intruders, as well as defensive architecture. You do not need this component to have a solid wooden door and a butler with a shotgun, but you do need it to have regular security patrols, a barbican and crenelations or the likes. This component may include an armory room but does not provide an arsenal, and security staff will not fight for you offensively.
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: 2 Guards
Billiards Room Component
A billiard room is a larger recreation room, suited for gatherings to enjoy a drink in style and also engage in a little bit of friendly competition. These spacious rooms usually came with proper lighting and clearance to play the game, along with a small bar and an adjoining smoking room as well as a ladies' lounge.
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: 1 Footmen, 1 Boy, 1 Maid
Note: This component doesn't cover the costs for drinks in the bar (such as Whiskey) and cigars. These need to be bought separately.
Special Location
A special desirable location for your estate, such as being next to Piccadilly Circus, at a major river or otherwise prime real estate. An exceptionally large estate may, at the discretion of the storyteller, require you have this component twice.
Upkeep: 10 pounds / month
Staff: None
Secret Tunnel
An entrance disguised by portraits, or a fine wine rack that rolls out of place, an exit disguised in some bushes or leaving into the sewers. You have a way out of your estate that nobody will notice.
Do you have problems with people watching your estate, or do you wish to maintain inappropriate liaisons, look no further than a secret tunnel installed in your mansion.
If you tell everyone where the secret tunnel is, and tell them to use it as if it's a front door then the tunnel is no longer secret, though it may still be harder to watch.
Upkeep: 5 pounds / month
Staff: 1 Guard
Special Components
Ballroom
A ballroom and adjacent rooms sufficient to hold a large ball for an entire clan (over a hundred people), including housing an orchestra to play music, a fine dance floor, etc.
Your butler additionally will have the connections necessary to arrange an orchestra and whatever additional staff your balls require without you having to worry about it (though you may still get involved in it if you so desire).
Upkeep: 10 pounds / month
Staff: 2 Maids, 2 Footmen
Art Gallery / Museum
A large collection of paintings, antique vases, statues, etc to make your estate much more impressive, and which may impress visitors. Alternatively, this component can be a museum dedicated to historical artifacts.
All houses come with some amount of art. However, this component represents a serious collection some of which can be seasonally cycled and which includes such things as display rooms / galleries. This component also includes all the necessities to properly display major works by the great artists, or major archeological finds and can be used to properly store and display any such items you acquire during your adventures.
Upkeep: 10 pounds / month
Staff: 2 Maids
Hothouse
A large, heated greenhouse capable of providing an environment where exotic plants and flowers thrive. A few small exotic animals can be part of the hothouse's ecosystem. The hothouse's glass panelled ceilings and walls make the hothouse an impressive addition to the estate.
Your Head Gardener will have the expertise to care for exotic flora and has the connections necessary to acquire the right kinds of soil and fertilizer for the plants in the hothouse.
Upkeep: 10 pounds / month
Staff: 1 Head Gardener, 1 Gardener
Society Headquarters
A headquarters of a club, secret society, or other social organisation that counts the gentry and nobility amongst its members. A large receiving hall or other entrance befitting the society is adjoined by several rooms are furnished to match the activities and proclivities of the society's members.
The society's concierge arranges secretive transport, entertainment, members' private requests, and other things needed by the society. If you assign an agent as congierge, you and the society can task them with far-reaching jobs such as the acquisition of a unique item, rare materials, or the arranging of special guests.
Upkeep: 10 pounds / month
Staff: 1 Concierge (Skill 4), (2 Footmen OR 2 Maids)
Sailing Ship
Your estate is a sailing ship and can move across the world, weather permitting. Your ship includes a cargo hold to store cargo.
A ship cannot have female staff. When other modules require female staff, males of an equivalent rating must be hired instead.
If you assign an agent as captain, they can be sent with the ship to do such things as retrieve or deliver people and cargo and the captain will ensure that the masquerade is maintained for the transport. You can of course always act as captain yourself as well.
Upkeep: 10 pounds / month
Staff: 1 boatswain, 1 sailor per two full estate components, 1 ship's boy.
Country Estate
Your estate is far away from the business of the city, at least a full days travel by horse. It is generally located in a natural environment, with forest, hills etc nearby, but it is inconvenient in terms of connecting with broader society. It usually has a town or village somewhere nearby where one might hunt.
A country estate is not actively used most of the year, but can be used to summer (or winter, as the case may be) away from regular society.
Upkeep: 10 pounds / month
Staff: 1 groundskeeper
Special: The staff and upkeep generated directly by any component in the Country Estate cost only half as much per month (round any fractions up at the end). Note that extra staff generated (such as additional management) still cost full price.
Hunting Grounds
A large hunting grounds nearby the estate offers the ability to host hunting parties and drives. Dotted around the grounds are several lean-tos that provide some cover while waiting on prey, as well as one or two small huts that offer cover from inclement weather. There are several areas prepared for shooting.
Your game keeper will have the expertise, know-how, and contacts to ensure the presence of good game on the grounds. He can also call on his contacts to arrange for additional stalkers should a large party be hosted, though these are not necessarily in-the-know.
Upkeep: 10 pounds / month
Staff: 1 Game keeper, 1 Stalker
Occult Laboratory / Workshop
An area furnished for occult research and experimentation. To keep out those that would not understand, and prying eyes, the Occult laboratory is hidden from sight by means of architecture, can be completely closed to the outside world, and comes with a special or hidden entrance.
The occult laboratory or workshop consists of several well-appointed rooms for specimen and reagent storage, literature research, and research by experimentation. Additional rooms could be specifically conditioned rooms are available for the performance of undisturbed rituals, or rooms prepared as conductive places for summoning or conjurations, or the creation of mystically significant objects. The exact furnishings and trappings of the occult laboratory or workshop depend on the occult traditions the magus subscribes to.
Upkeep: 10 pounds / month
Staff: 1 Assistant
Note: The assistant must have a modicum of occult knowledge. They must be at least Skill 3, but may be higher without risk of being over-qualified.