One variant of the Goodwife template in Sword Worlds, that would work for wealthy families is secret(power behind the throne). I mentioned it before but I still think it interesting.
This is inspired partly by an old Victorian tradition in merchant families. When the husband was away someone had to mind the counting house. Thus those seemingly "frail" women could for several months in a year be queens. This was exemplified in the British cult TV classic, The Onedin Line by the loyal, shrewd, and very competant Mrs Onedin(also very adaptable: on one episode she was able to quickly learn navigation and run the ship when James Onedin was sick-and this is I think actually based on a historical episode).
Anyway wouldn't that work as a great way to spice up the "goodwife" template? It would certainly fit with Swordie culture. After all the head would be encouraged to have a "hands-on" style, while the wifes subtle-but-powerful contribution would work well without necessarily making her an "untraditional".
It would allow such skills as merchant, administration, negotiation, perhaps strategy(espionage),political, and whatever is appropriate.
It might be a challenging character but it has it's own appeal.
This is inspired partly by an old Victorian tradition in merchant families. When the husband was away someone had to mind the counting house. Thus those seemingly "frail" women could for several months in a year be queens. This was exemplified in the British cult TV classic, The Onedin Line by the loyal, shrewd, and very competant Mrs Onedin(also very adaptable: on one episode she was able to quickly learn navigation and run the ship when James Onedin was sick-and this is I think actually based on a historical episode).
Anyway wouldn't that work as a great way to spice up the "goodwife" template? It would certainly fit with Swordie culture. After all the head would be encouraged to have a "hands-on" style, while the wifes subtle-but-powerful contribution would work well without necessarily making her an "untraditional".
It would allow such skills as merchant, administration, negotiation, perhaps strategy(espionage),political, and whatever is appropriate.
It might be a challenging character but it has it's own appeal.