Re: 02: The Game and Regency Period Information.
Use of Surnames and Titles.
The rules regarding correct forms of address are too complex to list here, but there are two common usages that will be used frequently in our game - knights and gentlemen.
A knight, such as Sir John Smith, is always called Sir John, never Sir Smith, whether you know him or not. If you know him well, and you are of at least the same rank, you may eventually find yourself on first name terms, at which point you may drop the Sir, and just call him John.
A noble, such as Lord John Smith, Earl of Gloucester, would be known simply as Your Lordship by anyone of lesser standing, but other Lords would refer to him as Gloucester.
In a similar way, Gentlemen (and frequently knights) often refer to each other by surnames. Calling an acquaintance Rackwode is not an insult, it is less formal than calling him Mr Rackwode or Sir Richard, but not as intimately informal as calling him Richard - which would only happen in the case of close friends. Members of a club would generally address one another as Gloucester, Rackwode, Grey and Hood, which also serves to blur the ranks - which is the decent thing to do for fellow members.
Hopefully that hasn't created more confusion than it has dispelled...
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:25, Wed 09 Sept 2015.