ASoIaF RPG - A Tourney of Gulls [Recruiting]

[Cor Azer]

I'll make it easy on you.

Laton did his best to ignore his sister. Like the sound of the waterfall, her questions didn't stop.
"How long will you have to travel?"
"How long will you be gone?"
"Do you really think you can win?"
""Will the king be there?"
"Will you win some money even if you lose?"

He sighed, bucled the last strap on his saddle and turned around, looking sternly at the 8-year old girl.
"Lisa. You better hope I do not lose, because it is custom that the little sister of a disgraced knight will be wed to the pigsherd."
"IS NOT"
"But you needn't fear, little sister, a pigsherd will run away when he sees your freckels and red hair."


"OH, I WILL TELL MUM YOU SAID THAT"

He laughs as his little sister runs away yelling. A cough behind him startles him.
"You shouldn't tease your sister so."
His father looks over the packhorse, and the destrier.
and walks around 'em, limping heavily and leaning on his cane. His sure hand make some minute adjustments to the tack
"Curses. I wish I could go with you. Be strong, my son. Make us proud."

Looks good.

So... Is he the eldest son and heir? Is he good with sword and lance? Smart? Sneaky? Too honorable? Hot-headed?

I can't completely work up Laton's stats until the House itself is done up, but getting such ideas down can't hurt (but of course, aren't set in stone)

 

[DrZombie]

I was thinking in the lines of eldest son of a smaller house in decline. Father got a severe injury on the battlefield and lost the majority of his retainers and men-at-arms in the final battle protecting the king from a flank attack. The House has never recovered, lacking the finances and manpower to maintain the estates. King Robert, being the thankful and kind person he is, hasn’t bothered to check up on his old comrade-at arms.
The eldest (only?)son has now come of age. He is trained by his father and a Sergeant-at-arms in the martial arts, and by the magister in general education.
He is a good swordfighter, an open an honest person without any experience at life in a court. He grew up in a rough place (mountains? Forests?) so he'll have some outdoor skills. He is just slightly above a hedgeknight in status.

This is a very important occasion fort he family. If the son can make himself seen, perhaps even catch the attention of the king, the bad fortune of the family might turn around.

 

[Cor Azer]

I was thinking in the lines of eldest son of a smaller house in decline. Father got a severe injury on the battlefield and lost the majority of his retainers and men-at-arms in the final battle protecting the king from a flank attack. The House has never recovered, lacking the finances and manpower to maintain the estates. King Robert, being the thankful and kind person he is, hasn&#8217t bothered to check up on his old comrade-at arms.
The eldest (only?)son has now come of age. He is trained by his father and a Sergeant-at-arms in the martial arts, and by the magister in general education.
He is a good swordfighter, an open an honest person without any experience at life in a court. He grew up in a rough place (mountains? Forests?) so he'll have some outdoor skills. He is just slightly above a hedgeknight in status.

This is a very important occasion fort he family. If the son can make himself seen, perhaps even catch the attention of the king, the bad fortune of the family might turn around.

That gives me some stuff to work with.

And in fact, perhaps that works as a bit of a lead in to designing the players' house. Maybe a bit of action in that regard will bring in some more interest.

Well, the first few pieces of a house design are in place: Your house is in the Vale, with Bronze Yohn Royce as your liege (who serves Jon Arryn, who serves King Robert)

The next step is to select the starting resourses and modify them for the Vale region. For those unfamiliar with the house resources, they are:

Defense - Fortifications, castles, towers, etc... (+20 for being from the Vale)
Influence - More or less, how the other Houses in Westeros hold
your House in esteem; for each 10 full points, you get one "important"
characters in your House (+10 for being from the Vale)
Lands - The breadth of land your House holds, which you can
invest in terrain types (-5 for being from the Vale)
Law - The general lawfulness of your holdings - how the smallfolk
respect you and how prevalent bandits, clansmen, etc. are in your lands (-10 for being from the Vale)
Population - Abstractly represents the population density of your lands (-5 for being from the Vale)
Power - Military strength. Used to build guardsmen, knights,
warships, etc...
Wealth - Household wealth - not necessarily liquid assets but
including stuff like cattle, taxes collective, tithes from bannermen,
etc...

Each has a base of 7d6, and then each player can add one d6 to any resource. I'll (try) to roll the bases attached to this post, and then each player can use ENWorld's dice roller to add a d6 to any one resource in replies.

 

[DrZombie]

So ,that's a well-fortified lawless area in the vale. Land isn't worth much, sparsely populated. Probably some mining, and a fair few bandit problems.

I'll ad my D6 to the power base. That'll mean I'll have some guardsmen to go bandit-hunting

 

[Cor Azer]

So ,that's a well-fortified lawless area in the vale. Land isn't worth much, sparsely populated. Probably some mining, and a fair few bandit problems.

I'll ad my D6 to the power base. That'll mean I'll have some guardsmen to go bandit-hunting

That's a pretty accurate summary of the house's starting position, although we still have to roll for the modifiers from historical house events.


For those unaware of how Houses and house resources work - resources are invested or spent to improve the holdings and assets of the house. Up to once a month (but at least once every three months) the head of the house can make a house fortunes roll which can add.a bonus or penalty (usually 1 or 2 d6) to one or more resources; these represent abstract events such as a good harvest, flooding, poor tax revenue, etc. Higher rolls are generally better. If no house fortune roll is made, one resource gets +1.


What can these resources do?
Defense is invested into buildings such as a tower (10) all the way up to a superior castle (60).

Influence is invested to make significant family members - the head of house is free, but an heir requires investing 20 influence, a second son or first daughter 10, and so on; children beyond one or two male sons generally become free. Influence can also be spent during the game to add bonus dice to intrigue rolls.

Lands can be invested to describe the size, type, and features of the area the House oversees; each domain is generally 3 leagues in size, and a house can have multiple domains under their rule. Domains can be anything from a grassy plain (6) to a hamlet on a mountainous island (24). Each defensive holding is added to one domain.

Law and Population aren't invested; instead they provide modifiers to the house fortunes roll - low Law gives a penalty and high Law gives a bonus; Population gives a bonus only if it's middling - too high and too low both give penalties.

Power is invested in military units. There are a lot of configurations, but for example, a trained garrison of 100 men costs 5, a veteran group of cavalry (20 men with horses) is 10. Power can also be invested in Banner houses (which I would suggest we ignore for now) or be spent to add 1d6 to a house fortunes roll.

Wealth can be invested in a variety of things, but most give some sort of modifier to house fortunes, or increase the effects of the bonuses from house fortunes; a maester costs 10 wealth and gives +3 to house fortunes, a marketplace costs 15 and increases any house fortunes bonus to Wealth by 1d6. Generally, each point of Wealth can also be withdrawn as 200 gold dragons (4200 silver stags) for players to purchase stuff (to compare, a longsword costs 500 silver stags, a suit of full plate 3200 silver stags). Similarly, players can invest their own gold dragons back into their house (such as the purse won at a tourney) - each 200 gold dragons add +1 Wealth.


Generally speaking, invested costs can be recouped or repurposed (unless damaged in game), but spent resources are gone.

 

[DrZombie]

Are you looking for us to direct the house fortunes? I for one am perfectly willing to let the GM do all the housekeeping so I can have free hands to vanquish enemies and chase women .

What I would suggest is that the lord or maester occasionally asks the eldest son to make a decision involving the future of the holding? It would give me/us the chance to grow into the game and gives you enough possibilities to prevent us from doing anything stupid

HandOfMystra, do you have any problem with me playing the eldest son? I'm a bit too keen on playing lead roles, it wouldn't hurt my ego to play the loyal follower for a change.

 

[Cor Azer]

Are you looking for us to direct the house fortunes? I for one am perfectly willing to let the GM do all the housekeeping so I can have free hands to vanquish enemies and chase women .

What I would suggest is that the lord or maester occasionally asks the eldest son to make a decision involving the future of the holding? It would give me/us the chance to grow into the game and gives you enough possibilities to prevent us from doing anything stupid

HandOfMystra, do you have any problem with me playing the eldest son? I'm a bit too keen on playing lead roles, it wouldn't hurt my ego to play the loyal follower for a change.

Essentially, that is how it'll be done. The RPG actually recommends the players discuss together (OOC) what they want to do with the House; when/if a roll comes up, the Head of House (or his designated proxy) makes the roll with his stats and the House fortunes modifer.
Honestly, it's more of a background thing anyways; it might set up a plot hook or two, but the wenching, scheming, and bashing are the more fun parts of the game.

 

[DrZombie]

Good good. We're all set to go then
Might drop by my local store and see if they have a copy of the rules .
I swear, roleplaying is more addictive and expensive than crack

 

[Cor Azer]

Good good. We're all set to go then
Might drop by my local store and see if they have a copy of the rules .
I swear, roleplaying is more addictive and expensive than crack

I'm a gorram pusherman sometimes

Well, I'm going to move on to the next step of House creation. If more players join in, we can easily step back and add their d6 to a resource of their choice.

House History

Each house has an era in which it was founded, which determines how many major historical events happened to it. I already said that the house was founded during the Blackfyre Rebellion, which gives it 1d6-1 events. Rather than list out all the possibilities, I'll determine the broad strokes of the events, but the players can flesh out the exact details of what occurred.

 

[Cor Azer]

Historical Event 1 - Founding

The first major event that occurred to the House describes the circumstances of its founding.

Infrastructure adds 2d6 to two different resources of the players' choice. Generally, it means the house was founded during a peaceful period of expansion for a lord or king. Using those details, you players can determine the specifics of the House's founding, and choose two resources to gain the +2d6 boosts.