In 1857, J. H. Walsh, author of A Manual of Domestic Economy, suggested the number of servants (and horses) suitable for families with different levels of income.

Basically most CoC Gaslight players would have between 3 and 7 servants which is quite a lot of npcs who you start the game knowing by name and being able to suggest "do things"

As many of them wouldn't be running a household, you'd likely have a valet or butler.

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#ttrpg #gaslight #cthulhu

Affluent Investigator:

Butler, coachman or groom, housemaid (or two), cook, lady’s maid or nursemaid (or both). Two horses and a coach.

That's quite a bit of npc/transit to start the game with.

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@Printdevil That many? I would have assumed maybe two as they're quite often middle-class professionals. A maid and a Butler of some sort.

@Taskerland Well Walsh might be aspirational, but it is from 1857 that was the "high time"

By 1880 you'd probably have 3 servants. Manservant or parlourmaid, housemaid, cook. Two horses and a coach.

Still a reasonable bit of "starting information" to be filled out.

This just all struck me as interesting, because the Regency Cthulhu supplement deals with "and you might own a stately home" in barely a handwave of a page, so I'm looking for references for different points in time

@Printdevil He could well be aspirational. I am thinking of Sherlock Holmes where they have a housekeeper and that's it but they don't really entertain and it's just two blokes in a flat. I suspect staff inflation was a function of entertaining and having a larger house to run.

@Taskerland It might be a function of "setting up your house" though. Once you own a place and marry you are expected to acquire various people and roles.

Sherlock Holmes is again more to the end of the period.

By 1902 (and notable long before the war) the average family just had one domestic. There was much complaining about "having to pay wages"

@Taskerland Victorian Servants: A very peculiar history by Fiona McDonald summarises it all very neatly for a game, and has a good list of staff and duties both for a city dweller and what you'd expect to run a "a bit of an estate" which is not an uncommon wealth level in CoC Gaslight either.

@Printdevil I was also thinking about how common having a horse and carriage was. I grew up in an area that was somewhat affluent in the Victorian period and while some houses had spaces for stabling, and there were muses which were obviously where horses were kept at one point, I don't think every middle-class family had a carriage or a trap.

@Printdevil I was also thinking about how common having a horse and carriage was. I grew up in an area that was somewhat affluent in the Victorian period and while some houses had spaces for stabling, and there were muses which were obviously where horses were kept at one point, I don't think every middle-class family had a carriage or a trap.

@Printdevil That many? I would have assumed maybe two as they're quite often middle-class professionals. A maid and a Butler of some sort.

@Printdevil I was also thinking about how common having a horse and carriage was. I grew up in an area that was somewhat affluent in the Victorian period and while some houses had spaces for stabling, and there were muses which were obviously where horses were kept at one point, I don't think every middle-class family had a carriage or a trap.

@Taskerland There's a book on horses from 1893, called The Horse World of London. It seems quite jolly. I'm undecided if any of my players would have got that interested though

@Printdevil I bet you play horses too... You MONSTER