A Song of Ice and Fire RPG: Part 2

Game Premise

Adventure, War and Intrigue in George R.R. Martin's World of Westeros.

You are allied with one of the many noble houses of the Seven Kingdoms, drawn in by choice or against your will into the political intrigues and eventually, outright conflicts that will shape the world. There may be a tentative peace after the overthrowing of the incestuous Targaryens and the swearing of fealty to Robert Baratheon, but there are already murmurings of new conflicts taking shape. Remember, it doesn't matter whether your weapons are sword, coin, magic or word, when you play the game of thrones, either you win or you die.

Game Overview

So, last time we created an entire new House using the rules presented in Green Ronin's Song of Ice and Fire RPG: House Strongtooth, based in the Riverlands and the product of many years of leadership struggle and internal strife. Lord Holgar Strongtooth seeks specialists from far and wide to help increase his House's standing, with the help of his not inconsiderable personal fortune.

Now that we actually have Step 1 of character creation out of the way, let's get on with creating the actual character!

The Character

Step 1) House & Lands

Already done! House Strongtooth of Murthorpe, situated in the Riverlands. House words: To the Bitter End

Step 2) Character Concept

Now to determine who I am going to play. You're generally supposed to play either a member of the household or someone associated with them. I've outline a few possibilities in my last post, but I am going to settle of Brigardi Alesso, the half-Braavosi Steward, hired for his skill with managing the affairs of a noble household. He's the bastard son of one of the famed Iron Bankers and appears to have inherited his father's head for sums. He came to Westeros after the Baratheon uprising to seek his fortune, assuming that the new peace would leave many lords wanting to get their financial affairs in order, and was quickly snapped up by the ambitious Lord Strongtooth.

I have to pick my Age. Age is actually quite a significant stat, because it determines a whole bunch of other stats down the road, like how much XP you have to spend on abilities, how many flaws you have, how many fortune points and so on. Generally, the older you are the more abilities you have, but also more flaws. I think that Brigardi should be an Adult, but getting on towards Middle Aged. (which starts at 30 in the game). So I'm going to set his age at 27.

Next up is Starting Status. Status in this game is an ability that reflects your social standing among the nobility of Westeros and is used primarily in social conflicts. Like all abilities, it begins at a default of 2. I'm going to raise it to 3, which is the maximum status anyone of House Strongtooth can have as defined by it's Influence Resource. This is a bit annoying, because there's a table in this section that contradicts the maximum status section in the House Creation Guidelines. I'm going to stick with the guidelines here.

Next up is my Role. Roles don't really serve any purpose other than being a broad classification of your character's archetype and a way of ensuring there's a good spread of abilities among the party. I think Brigardi fits the Expert role quite nicely, specifically that of stewardship.

The final part of this step is Background, where you figure out your character's motivations, goals and defining traits. For Events, I'm going to pick the obvious, 'traveled across the narrow sea for a time'. Brigardi is a foreigner after all and has visited several of the islands. For Motivation, I'm going to pick Excellence. He takes a lot of pride in his work and wants the House to prosper, not out of any real loyalty but as a reflection of his skill. Finally, I'll define his Virtue as Wise (he's like Syrio Florel with less swords and more pocketbooks) and his Vice as Arrogant (He's the best there is at what he does and what he does is money). None of these have any mechanical effect, but they're good when thinking about how the character might act.

Step 3) Assign Abilities

In SoIaF RPG, skills and stats are kind of rolled into one thing called Abilities. Characters start with a 2 in all of them by default, meaning they roll 2 dice for everything (unless they have a flaw that reduces it to 1).

As an adult, I have 210 points to spend on abilities, with a maximum of 7 in any ability (only adults can reach that level, otherwise you're too inexperienced or too over the hill to be that good).

I have to start out by buying the Status I set for myself in step 2, which means I've already spent 10 of my points, 200 left. I want to have an awesome Cunning score, and later you'll see why. I'm going to sink 70 points into it, giving me a Cunning of 5, meaning Brigardi is in fact one of the most cunning folks in the world. My character should probably be able to speak the Common Tongue as well as Braavosi, so I'm going to spend 40 points so that he has Language (Common Tongue) 2 (experience costs for languages work a bit differently for normal skills). With my remaining 90 points, I'm going to spend 40 to give me a Knowledge 4 and 10 points each in Awareness, Deception, Persuasion, Will and Warfare, raising them all to 3 and making him generally shrewd, persuasive and knowledgeable in a number of areas, which any good steward should be.

Step 4) Assign Specialties

As I said in the last post, Bonus Dice allow you to roll extra dice, which aren't kept but give you a chance at a higher total. You get these primarily through your Specialties, areas of your abilities that you character is really good at. As an Adult, I have 80 points to spend in specialties, each 10 points giving you a bonus die. I'm going to start with spending 20 points in the Status specialty Stewardship, which seems pretty handy considering I'm a steward. I'm going to spend another 30 points in the Cunning specialty Memory. Brigardi is really good at recalling obscure facts and knowing obscure people, something his Lord has delighted in. What he can't recall from memory, he can use his 2 dice in the Knowledge specialty Research to figure out. Those final 10 points will go in the Deception specialty Bluff, because every steward needs to stall for their lord sometimes.

Step 5) Destiny Points and Drawbacks

In the SoIaF RPG, every character has Destiny Points. These serve two purposes. Firstly, in the game you may spend a point to get a minor bonus to rolls or alter the narrative of the story, or you may burn them, getting rid of them permanently for greater effect. The second use is to invest them in Benefits, which reflect special merits your character has or skills they posses, such as special maneuvers with an axe, a knighthood or even the powers of a Greenseer. As an adult, I start with 4 destiny points and may invest up to 4 in benefits.

I'm going to start by snatching up Head for Numbers. This benefit, with a prerequisite of a Status of 3 and at least 1 bonus die in stewardship, allows me to add my cunning rank to house fortune rolls and also re-roll a number of 1s equal to my bonus dice in stewardship when attempting to generate coin for the House.

The second one I pick will be Courteous, with a prerequisite of Persuasion 3. I get to add half my persuasion rank to deception tests (so, +1), and my full cunning to my passive deception whenever a target performs the Read Target maneuver during an intrigue, which would be them attempting to get a bonus against me by sussing out my motives.

I'm going to leave it there for now. Having a reserve of 2 Destiny Points seems handy.

Step 6) Flaws & Drawbacks

Every character of adult age or higher has at least one Drawback, some kind of mechanical penalty. In my case, I only have one, being an adult. I'm going to pick Flaw (Agility) , which gives me a -1 die penalty to agility tests. Brigardi may be smart, but he's certainly no Water Dancer.

Step 7) Starting Possessions

Firstly all characters get a set of clothes appropriate to their gender, some boots and a dagger. This next bit is actually pretty interesting, because I get to showcase the system to you. I roll a Status test, which determines the number of gold dragons my character has to buy equipment with, half of which I have to spend. Rolling my three in status, I get an 11.

Unfortunately there's not much to spend on in the book if you're not a warrior in need of some good armour and weapons. I'm going to start with a good Courtier's outfit, setting me back 100 Silver Stags (almost half a dragon).I'm going to grab a Myrish lens ( a piece of glass you can use to magnify writing, start fires and stuff) for another 20 stags, a far-eye (spyglass), that was a gift from his father for 300 stags. I still have some 4 dragons to spend, so I think I'll go with 'a whole lot of ink and parchment' to make the difference.

Step 8) Derived Statistics

Finally, we determine Brigardi's derived stats, similar to how it works in WoD.

First, there are his Intrigue Stats, the primary stats he will use in social interactions. His Intrigue Defense, the target number opponents need to beat if they want to persuade, intimidate or seduce him, is equal to the sum of his awareness, cunning and status, for a total of 11 (he gets a bonus to this when someone attempts the Read Target maneuver, remember). His Composure, which opponents wants to reduce to zero to achieve their goal of influencing him, is equal to his willx3, for a total of 9.

Now we have his Combat Stats which he will use in combat, an arena he is far less skilled at. His Combat Defense is equal to the sum of his agility, athletics and awareness, minus any armour penalties he may have (he has none), for a total of 7 (note, his flaw doesn't apply here, that only applies to tests when he is rolling agility). His Health (f this gets to zero, you are defeated) is equal to endurancex3, for a total of 6. Brigardi doesn't have an Armour Rating(which would reduce damage inflicted on him), because he only wears ordinary clothing and his Damage Rating for his dagger is equal to his agility-2 for a total of 1. He had best hope he not get in many fights.

The Finished Product

Brigardi Alesso

Adult Expert

Abilities

Agility 1

Awareness 3

Cunning 5; Memory 3B

Deception 3 (+1 for bluff); Bluff 1B

Knowledge 4; Research 2B

Language (Common Tongue) 2

Status 3 (+5 for house fortune); Stewardship 2B

Persuasion 3

Warfare 3

Will 3

Qualities

Destiny Points 2

Courteous, Head For Numbers

Attributes

Intrigue Defense 11; Composure 12

Combat Defense 7; Armour rating 0

Health 6

Attack: Dagger; 2; 1 damage, defensive +1, offhand

How I'd Run It

This game I'd run pretty much straight. Have my group make a house, get them right bang in the middle of the War of Five Kings (although probably involved in some background action, or stuff could get weird), and hopefully rack up a body count to make George RR Martin proud. This is one game where you might get ahead for a bit, but no happy ending is guaranteed.

A Song of Ice and Fire RPG: Part 1

Game Premise

Adventure, War and Intrigue in George R.R. Martin's World of Westeros

You are allied with one of the many noble houses of the Seven Kingdoms, drawn in by choice or against your will into the political intrigues and eventually outright conflicts that will shape the world. There may be a tentative peace after the overthrowing of the incestuous Targaryens and the swearing of fealty to Robert Baratheon, but there are already murmurings of new conflicts taking shape. Remember, it doesn't matter whether your weapons are sword, coin, magic or word, when you play the game of thrones, either you win or you die.

Game Overview

You are probably at least aware of George R.R.Martin's epic fantasy series Song of Ice and Fire, even if you haven't read it or watched the award-winning HBO series. Considering its popularity there is no surprise that there's a RPG for it - in fact there are two. The one I'm covering today is published by Green Ronin and uses its own system as opposed to the D20 variant produced by Guardians of Order (I don't have this one, nor do I feel the need for two SoIaF games, so you probably won't see me covering that one any time soon).

The SoIaF RPG uses a six-sided dice pool system, but instead of counting successes, it's about adding up the numbers. If I have 4 in athletics, for example, I roll 4d6, add up the total and there is my result. Degrees of success are also important. You get an extra degree of success for every 5 points by which you beat the total you're aiming for. This generally means you've achieved a greater success, done more damage, more persuasively convinced an opponent in your point of view, etc. The other major feature of this system is bonus dice. You roll bonus dice as part of your standard dice pool, but you don't get to keep them, instead keeping the best. So if I have 4 in athletics and 2 bonus dice in climbing, when I climb I would roll 6d6 and then keep the 4 highest dice.

As well as having a generally decent combat system, the SoIaF RPG has a fairly nifty social combat system and a mass combat system, both vital features for running a game of large scale diplomacy, intrigue and warfare between noble houses. But what I really love about this game is the House creation system itself, which allows you to build your own noble house randomly from scratch. It is this subsystem which I will be covering first, instead of the character creation system, for two reasons. Firstly, it is specified as the first step of character creation. Secondly, it is a delightful excuse to showcase this subsystem, one of my favourite in any roleplaying game. It's also almost completely random, which I'm quite excited about.

The Character

Step 1: The Realm

In this step, I determine which area of the Seven Kingdoms my House is located and by extension, which of the Lords my house owes fealty to. I roll 3d6 to determine this. Rolling an 8 means my House is located in the Riverlands, a fertile realm which unsurprisingly has a lot of rivers and streams. My House owes fealty to the Tullys.

Step 2: Starting Resources

Like a character, Houses have stats, which are known as resources. These represent how much the house can marshall in various areas and include Defense (defensive fortifications), Influence (Political influence), Lands (geographical size of holdings), Law (Stability and control of holdings), Population (how many people live in the holding), Power (military might) and Wealth (financial assets). To determine what these start as (as you soon see, these get modified out the wazoo), I roll 7d6 for each of them. I then apply my House Modifiers, so for example a House in the Vale gets a bonus to defense due to the terrain, but a penalty to law due to the bloodthirsty mountain clans. For my initial rolls, I get Defense 18, Influence 24, Lands 17, Law 20, Population 22, Power 23 and Wealth 32. After mods, that comes to Defense 13, Influence 19, Lands 23, Law 20, Population 32, Power 23 and Wealth 37. This isn't a bad start at all. Don't worry, I'll give some context for these numbers after the next step.

Step 3: House History

Now that I've determined the basic stats of my House, I have to determine how old my House is and what significant events happened between then and now (the War of the Five Kings). Each event modifies the stats, so they'll look quite different by the time we're done.

Rolling on the First Founding Table, I get a 3 meaning my House was founded roughly about the time of the Rhoynar invasion. Rolling on the same table, have determined that 6 significant events have happened to the House between then and now.

The first event I roll is Victory. I'm going to say that in ages past a mercenary captain lead a successful coup against his employer, founding the House Redmantle. This event gives me +5 to my defense, +1 to my influence and +3 to my power.

Event 2 is Doom. Balls. This one gives me -2d6 to all my resources. I decide that after a fairly long and happy life, the leader of the mercenaries passes away and a brutal leadership struggle ensues, right in the midst of a widespread crop blight on the cusp of winter. I get -5 to defense, -5 to influence, -1 to lands, -5 law, -3 population, -1 power and -4 to wealth. Lets hope things start to look up.

Next up we have Treachery. The ensuing struggle for succession lasts all throughout winter. Once a humble sergeant, Lord Waylor Strongtooth and his successors never quite manage to shirk the house's reputation for backstabbing. The event gives us -4 to influence and a -6 to law, but a +3 to power.

Following that is Decline, more bad news. Despite his best efforts, Lord Strongtooth can't do much as the house suffers from the long-term consequences of the run of bad luck the House endured. It doesn't get better for some time This event gives me a -3 to influence, a -5 to lands, -3 to power and -6 to wealth.

Next I get Glory. Finally, good news. Fast forward to Aegeon's conquest! Lord Wyven the Shrewd, sensing there's no point in opposing the invading Targaryen forces, signs up and opportunistically attacks several minor river lords. Not only do his forces achieve many great successes, he's rewarded once the River Lords swear fealty. This event gives me +5 to power, +5 to influence, +4 to law and +5 to power.

On my last roll I get another Glory! This time we'll have it happen during the Blackfyre rebellion, with House Strongtooth winning several important victories. This gives me +4 to power, +4 to influence, +6 to law and +2 to power.

Time to add all that up! As it stands, the Resources of House Strongtooth stand at Defense 13, Influence 17, Lands 17, Law 17, Population 28, Power 32 and Wealth 27. Like I said, they've fluctuated quite a bit. I've found in my experience you end up with lower scores than you began with, as there are some really terrible events situated at the centre of the bell curve. Unfortunately, there's nothing particularly extraordinary in terms of resources. In terms of notability I'm somewhere around the Glovers or Cleganes, but only when it comes to money and might. In terms of size, I'm more comparable to the Liddles.

Step 4) Holdings

Those resources aren't just abstract numbers. I actually get to spend them on stuff.

First, Defense Holdings. I only have a 13 defense, which is enough to get me a single Tower. This simple stone structure will be placed atop one of the hills in the region, overlooking the town I will (later) control

Influence Holdings has two uses. Firstly, you can spend it to give a bonus to your House Fortune roll, a roll you make every month which alters your resources based on the whims of good or bad fortune. It is also invested in your Heirs. At first I thought this meant the Lord could only have a number of kids limited by their influence scores, which is confusing because by that metric Lord Frey would be the most influential man in the Seven Kingdoms. Except it turned out what it meant is that you could only have a certain number of kids with a Status score of 3 or more (Status is one of your stats, which I'll cover in part 2). So basically, you can only have a certain number of important kids. Wit an Influence of 17, I can't afford a first-born son of any note, only a first born daughter (note, first born daughters cost the same as a first born son in Dorne, a little detail I like). As a side-note, my Influence score means all members of my House are limited to a Status score of 3 or less.

Land Holdings are the actual pieces of land my house controls. I really don't have much points here, and I'm going to go ahead and spend 10 on the biggest community I can afford, a hamlet, because otherwise I just have a poxy little tower and what good is that, amirite? Each holding also has to pick a basic Terrain Type, which in my case will be hills (Terrain types mostly affect travel time and mass combat). So, the hamlet of Murthorpe will be situated on some hills, which essentially take up all my points.

Law and Population don't really have any holdings, but they do both modify my Fortune rolls. A Law of 17 gives me -5 to my fortune rolls, while a Population of 28 gives me a +1, for a total of -4. Stupid heavily weighted Law score.

Now I get to pick my armed forces, who are my Power Holdings. The cost of a unit of soldiers is determined by their Unit Type and also their Training Level. Green troops are cheaper but more prone to fleeing in battle, while veteran troops are expensive but stand their ground. I'm going to start with two units of Veteran Cavalry for 20 points, descendants of the original forces way back from the coup that established the House. I'm then going to spend the remaining 12 points on Trained Raiders, light attack troops who sweep ahead of the cavalry, scout out enemy movements and draw back if met with stiff resistance.

Finally, I have 27 on Wealth Holdings. I don't want to spend all of this, because I want to keep some free during play to spend on things like gifts or tournaments. Sadly, my small holdings and poor Influence means the only thing I can purchase are Mines, which give my House a +5 on fortune rolls. I'm going to decide, just for the hell of it, that these are tin mines, because I can. Bitches love tin. I also have 17 free wealth, which could come in handy.

Step 5) Motto and Arms

Mechanics are done, now it's time to figure out the two things most folks in Westeros (or at least those educated in lordly matters) would know best about House Strongtooth, their motto and coat of arms.

The former should be something that reflects the House's history. I think I'll go with To the Bitter End, representing the history of hardship, determination and grim fortitude of House Strongtooth and its descendants.

The Coat of Arms is pretty awesome, because it's randomly generated! Sadly, I can't really show it here, but I'll do my best to describe it and if you approach me in person I'll do my best to draw it, promise. This post is long enough already, so I'm going to skip ahead to the finished arms. The Arms of House Strongtooth is a Silver tooth against five red chevrons pointed upwards on a black sable background. Each of the chevrons represents a Lord who died in the struggle that lead to the Strongtooth's assuming power, while the black is a symbol of the grim times the House endured.

Step 6) The Household

The final step is to outline the members of the household itself. Lord Holgar Strongtooth is an ambitious, cunning sort like his forebears. In an effort to boost the reputation and standing of the House, he has sent retainers far and wide to obtain individuals of great skill and value from all over Westeros. This includes their Steward, Brigardi Alesso, the bastard son of a Bravosi banker and Rogjar the Wide, a towering Northerner from the Neck who serves as the Castellan.

Tari Strongtooth is the already mentioned first daughter. Her father is hoping to wed her off the a nobleman of high standing, but she secretly has dreams of running away and visiting far-off lands, ironically being helped along by the foreign experts that her father brings to court. There are three more Strongheart children, his sons Gawyn and Alder and his other daughter Yiche. Their mother, Jessandra died giving birth to the latter child. I'm sorry about my lack of skill in regards to names.

The Finished Product

House Strongtooth of Murthorpe

Liege Lord: Hoster Tully of Riverrun

Defense 13: Duskwatch Tower (Tower 10)

Influence 17: Daughter (10), 3 expendable

Lands 17: Hamlet (Murthorpe)

Law 17: House Fortunes -5

Population 28: House Fortunes +1

Power 32: The Red and Black Outriders (2x Veteran Cavalry; 20 power; Automatic Disciple (0),), The Landsalt Brigades (2x Trained Raiders, 12 power; Challenging Discipline (9))

Wealth 27: Mine (10, +5 House Fortunes)

Total House Fortune Modifier: +1

The 'expendable' bit is how it's written in the book, I swear. Also, it's totally in character for the source material.

How I'd Run It

Since this is the first of a two part post, this won't be the actual 'how I'd run it' section, but rather how someone could use this house in a game. You're generally supposed to be members of the same Household or associated with each other in some way. I wanted to give players the chance to play any kind of character they imagined, thus Lord Holgar's outsourcing of talent to feed his ambitions. Characters could be Stalwart Northmen, Maesters of the Citadel, wily Dornish poisoners, barbaric Dothraki screamers or mysterious folk from the lands beyond Asshai.

Coming soon, part 2 of my special Song of Ice and fire RPG edition of Never See the Light of Play. We're going to use this house to create a character to enter the web of myriad schemes and see if he prospers or perhaps just becomes another casualty of the game of thrones.