Requesting help balancing house rules

[TheSmilingKnight]

Hi there, I'm new to this board and was wondering if anyone would be willing to assist me in balancing the rules I've typed up for a new campaign that I'll start narrating sometime this week. I know I should probably be sticking to the core rules for a the first time using this system, but I have a few years experience running D&D 3.5e and 4e campaigns, and my players have certain expectations going into the game. I will be starting the campaign with the Inn at the Crossroads from the quick-start book and I hope to lead that into Peril at King's Landing, however depending on my players' actions that may not happen.

Anyway, I created some house rules largely around creating new qualities and a new ability, Sorcery. I know that I am certainly not the first person to do so and the core rule book discourages this, but some of my players are interested in running magic using characters and I'd like to cater to their desires. Some of the other qualities I've included are intended to give players more "race" options and others are inspired by the Game of Thrones Cyanide RPG. Any input at all would be appreciated as I'm certain that some of these are either under- or overpowered. I've also included some ideas I found on this board. Also, if you spot any grammatical errors or think something is redundant or unclear, please let me know. My apologies is formatting as poor as I'll be copy and pasting the text from a Word document.

Edit: I should also specify that we may not be utilizing the House system in the game for the PC, they may be roleplaying as a sellsword company or other group. They haven't really discussed it yet.

Here it is:
House Rules for A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying (ASIFR) including the new ability Sorcery with specializations Blood & Fire and new qualities for characters from across the Narrow Sea and beyond. V1.1

New Ability Sorcery
“Sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it.” The Horned King

The new ability Sorcery measures a character’s competence with mysterious and otherworldly magical powers. The Sorcery ability has two specializations based on the key components of all magic in the ASIFR world: Blood & Fire. There is danger inherent to sorcery however both by necessity and from characters fearful of its implications. Many spells require a sacrifice, with stronger spells requiring greater sacrifices, and many people may become disturbed or threatened by magic being used openly if it challenges their beliefs.

Action types that sorcery can be used for vary, but most require a Greater Action. Unlike other abilities, sorcery requires the quality “Knowledge Focus (magic)” before ranks can be purchased. Characters at Rank 0 have no understanding of magical powers and may even doubt their existence. At Rank 1 a character has some concept of mystical powers, but they lack the required knowledge to perform rituals, and struggle to perform unpractical prestige tricks such as making a flame grow unnaturally for a moment or changing the shape of their shadow temporarily. Rank 2 sorcerers have learned some useful skills such as being able to communicate to other sorcerers through flames or place minor curses on their enemies. However, they may not be able to cast these spells with any reliable frequency until Rank 3, when their practice becomes more refined and abilities more formidable. A rank 3 sorcerer may regularly control a fiery weapon or conceal themselves in a supernatural shade. By Rank 4 and above, a character has mastered the fundamentals of their specialization, and now can begin effectively using the majority of their talents routinely, and discover some new skills. A sorcerer who has achieved Rank 7 is capable of spells with far-reaching effects that may very well change the course of history.

Sorcery Improvement Table
Rank: Experience Cost
1: 30
2: 60
3: 90
4: 120
5: 150
6: 180
7: 210
8: 240 (Requires Blood of Heroes quality)

Specialization Fire
“...[W]hen your enemies defy you, you must serve them steel and fire.” Tywin Lannister

The Fire specialization improves your chances at performing any and all spells that utilize flames to work, whether it is from roaring funeral pyre or a flickering candle. Red Priest of R’hllor such Melisandre of Asshai and Thoros of Myr all have some skills dedicated to fire, the embodiment of their god.

Examples of Fire Specialization
Difficulty: Description
Routine (6): Scry into a fire, revealing clues to future events.
Challenging (9): Bath yourself in warm light, restoring 1D HP
Formidable (12): Ignite a weapon with wildfire for 2D rounds
Hard (15): When being knocked out, immediately revive yourself with 25% health

Specialization Blood
“Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood." Rodrik "The Reader" Harlaw

Parallel to fire magic is blood magic, a dark art that is forbidden by most societies. Every blood ritual requires a sacrifice of life force, relative to the miracle being performed. Blood sorcerers are called by many different names in different cultures. To the Dothraki and Lhazarene they are maegi. In Asshai, they are called shadowbinders. The warlocks of Qarth are some of the most powerful blood sorcerers in the world. All of them are surrounded by superstition. Like fire magic, blood spells become exponentially more powerful as the wielder raises in rank; however without the proper components for the spell, the magic is useless. Luckily, blood is in plentiful supply although the blood of high status characters is most effective.

Examples of Blood Specialization
Difficulty: Description
Routine (6): Change the shape of your shadow temporarily.
Challenging (9): Become invisible, or reveal an object hidden, in darkness
Formidable (12): Take 1 Injury, inflict 2D damage to an opponent.
Hard (15): Take 1 Injury, create a shadow assassin minion.

New Qualities
It all goes back and back, to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads. Tyrion Lannister

Ambidextrous
Type: Martial
Prerequisite: Fighting 3
“You are particularly comfortable with a weapon in each hand.”
Keep your off-hand weapon’s defensive quality after making a two weapon attack.

Bloodlust
Type: Martial
“The sight of blood fuels your desire for battle.”
If anyone within 5 yards has a bleeding wound, add 2 to all damage.

Blood of the Free Cities
Type: Heritage
“You swear descent from the freed slaves from Old Valyria.”
You begin with 30 bonus experience. Choose any ability rank 3 or above besides Status and you may reroll a test for it once per day, taking the second role even if it is worse than the original. -1 to language (common), +2 to language (Valyrian).

Blood of the Lizard-Lion
Type: Heritage
“You hail from the Neck, a small stretch of land covered in swamps and bogs.”
Add 1 to the results of all Awareness and Survival tests. When afflicted by poison, decrease its toxicity by ½, rounded up.

Blood of the Stallion
Type: Heritage
“Your savage nature betrays descent from the horse people of Vaes Dothrak.”
Add 1 to the results of all Animal Handling and Athletics tests. Once per combat you may reroll a Fighting test, taking the second role even when it is worse than the second. -1 to language (common), +2 to language (dothraki).

Blood of the Harpy
Type: Heritage
“You can trace your roots to the culture of Slaver’s Bay.”
You gain +1 bonus dice when making Bargain or Intimidate intrigue rolls. Before an intrigue, your status counts as 1 lower towards influencing a target from Westeros or 1 higher towards a target from Essos. -1 to language (common), +2 to language (slaver argot).

Blood of the Great Shepherd
Type: Heritage
“With copper skin and almond eyes, you are descended from the people of Lhazar.”
Add 1 to the results of all Animal Handling, Survival and Deception tests. -1 to language (common), +2 to language (lhazareen).

Blood of the Red Wastes
Type: Heritage
“No matter where you go, you remember your early years spent in Qarth.”
Add 1 to all Deception and Persuasion tests. Before an intrigue, your status counts as 1 higher towards influencing a target. -1 to language (common), +2 to language (qartheen).

Blood of the Shivering Sea
Type: Heritage
“Hailing from the Isles of Ib, you are always prepared for Winter.”
Add 1 to all Survival and Athletics tests. Whenever you are attacked by cold, increase your passive endurance by 3. -1 to language (common), +2 to language (ibbenese).

Blood of the Summer Islands
Type: Heritage
“Your ebony skin shows your relation to the people of the Summer Sea.”
Add 1 to the results of all Marksmanship and Persuasion tests. You may reroll a Persuasion test once per day. -1 to language (common), +2 to language (Summer Islands).

Red Priest (I, II, III)
Type: Ability
Prerequisite: Sorcery 3, (Fire 1)
“Touched by the fiery hand of R’hllor, you’ve come to understand more about sorcery.”
+1D to all Fire specialization rolls. This skill can be taken a maximum of 3 times.

Shadowbinder (I, II, III)
Type: Ability
Prerequisite: Sorcery 3 (Blood 1)
“Your time spent studying the shadow has left you with terrifying knowledge.”
+1D to all Blood specialization rolls. This skill can be taken a maximum of 3 times.

New Drawbacks

Allergic
“Your allergies make you more acutely affected by poisons.”
Poison virulence and toxicity +1D when affecting you.

Cannibal
“You’ve developed a taste for human flesh.”
Anyone who knows of your peculiar hunger has 2 step lower dispositions to you in intrigue. In addition, you may choose to hunt humans for Survival checks. -1D to Persuasion tests other than Intimidate as well.

Gout
“This arthritic condition inflames your joints and makes moving difficult.”
You have -1 yard to movement speed and -1D to agility tests.

Greyscale
“This disease, which causes your flesh to harden, makes your dodges less effective.”
You suffer -1D to Agility and Status tests. +1 to Armor Rating.

Half Pint
“Due to your small frame, you're less able to shrug off blows.”
Combat defense -1. -1 to passive Agility tests versus Knockdown. This may be taken at character creation or a story objective before passing adulthood or after middle age.

Hemophiliac
“This condition hinders the clotting ability of your blood, meaning you bleed a lot. Best to avoid contact with sharp objects if at all possible.”
Injuries result in bleeding, leeching 1 HP per round during combat. Can be stopped with Great Action “Apply Pressure”.

Pyromania
“An uncontrollable urge to light fires has made you a danger to yourself and everyone.”
-1D to Awareness checks in the presence of fire. When in possession of a flammable material, such as oil or wildfire, roll a Challenging (9) Will test to keep yourself from igniting it.

Rule changes:

Blood of Valyria heritage quality now has prerequisite Bastard Born drawback.
Blood of Heroes is now an ability quality with prerequisite rank 7 in any ability.
Massive now considered a martial quality that may be taken at character creation or when aging up after a story objective before passing adulthood. It may not be taken in conjunction with the drawback Half Pint.

[Zorbeltuss]

The main problem is that once magic is let loose as a PC tool, well, you take away something from the world.

First comment: I would, for starters, not have any specialties for magic at all, what specialty dice does is to stabilize the average result such that it is more evenly spread around the average outcome (and do not forget that the average outcome goes up with those dices, but let's ignore that), the magic we've seen in ASOIAF doesn't seem wholly reliable, and certainly not without it's drawbacks.

Second comment: Create quality threes, like blood magic I, II and III, same with Shadow Magic and Flame Magic. Something like one benefit=one magic "trick". Though you might find it difficult to find enough examples in the books for them.

Further:

Ambidextrous could be quite strong, but not truly game-breaking, I think.
Bloodlust, there is no damage roll, there's either +1D on the attack roll or +1 or +2 to the damage roll which is the typical effect.
Blood of X's, all of them are horribly more powerful than benefits tends to be. Add +1 to the result of all tests in the chosen ability is the baseline. +3 is getting out of wack. 90 bonus XP is HUGE.
Secret Arts, that's kinda blurring the lines between benefits and abilities, I wouldn't want to do that.
Allergic, hmm, should be stronger, I think.
Cannibal, that's sort of a hard call, with some rather severe consequences should you be found out (like lynching).
Gout, half crippled and half flaw(agility), okay.
Greyscale, might be more prudent to give an AR bonus, though this drawback could probably be represented by others, such as marked and flaw(agility).
Half-pint, decent.
Hemophiliac, also decent, but near certain to kill you in combat without a decent healer near (needs rules for stopping it).
Hematophobia, there's already a drawback (fear) that covers this.
Inattentive, dunno, critical hits are primarily scored against characters that are screwed either way.
Pyromania, seems very week to me, flaw(awareness) does the same, only a lot worse.

The gods, there's a benefit for this (Pious) already.

[DaimosofRedstone]

New Ability Sorcery
“Sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it.” The Horned King

Problem is, with your rules, Sorcery is very much a sword and has a very good hilt.
The 'Routine'-results are already things that could be quite strong.
I would, in your place, turn that whole bit around and make it more like cantrips.
I dont know if you have ever read 'The Black Company' but that is what i am thinking about: Magic as useful, very limited tricks that you could also do in another way but which are nice to have.
Or turn the whole thing around and make magic really powerful blood magic but let it in turn eat up both a substantial amount of the XP (there are ways to rig things so that payoff only starts around 4 or 5 dice) and are a veritable danger to life and limb (either yours or other peoples which you have to sacrifice or leech off).




More later.

[TheSmilingKnight]

I'm back, and I'll be editing my house rules based on your comments in a little bit. I only have about an hour before I go to work, so I probably won't be able to post the edited version for about 10-12 hours, but in the mean time I wanted to respond to your posts.

The main problem is that once magic is let loose as a PC tool, well, you take away something from the world.

I have to disagree based on my experience playing the Cyanide RPG. I realize the game has suffered a lot of criticism but I found the story to be an excellent extension to the ASIF world. In particular, the Red Priest powers of one of the main characters, Alester Sarwyck, added a layer of complexity that I feel my campaign could benefit from.

First comment: I would, for starters, not have any specialties for magic at all, what specialty dice does is to stabilize the average result such that it is more evenly spread around the average outcome (and do not forget that the average outcome goes up with those dices, but let's ignore that), the magic we've seen in ASOIAF doesn't seem wholly reliable, and certainly not without it's drawbacks.

While I see your point about not wanting magic to be too reliable, I don't think that is entirely supported in the books. There are multiple characters who utilize magic with considerable efficiency starting in A Clash of Kings, such as Melisandre, the Warlocks of Qarth, the Three Eyed Crow, and Quaithe. Much of this is prophecy, of course, and some is fraudulent but the resurgence in magic due to the return of the dragons/Others is undeniable.

Second comment: Create quality threes, like blood magic I, II and III, same with Shadow Magic and Flame Magic. Something like one benefit=one magic "trick". Though you might find it difficult to find enough examples in the books for them.

I do like this idea, although I'm not certain yet how to implement it. I'm considering instead of having quality threes for Blood and Fire, I may include qualities like Red Priest, with prerequisite Pious (R'hllor), Shadowbinder and Maegi, each with corresponding benefits. I am hesitant to make them defined "powers" as I want to encourage my players to think of creative ways to use their abilities, ("What could I do?" as opposed to "What can I do?") instead having a standard D&D spellbook. Second, not all of my players have read the books, most only watch the show, and I don't want to spoil some of the big moments by letting them know exactly what their characters can do.

Ambidextrous could be quite strong, but not truly game-breaking, I think. Bloodlust, there is no damage roll, there's either +1D on the attack roll or +1 or +2 to the damage roll which is the typical effect. Blood of X's, all of them are horribly more powerful than benefits tends to be. Add +1 to the result of all tests in the chosen ability is the baseline. +3 is getting out of wack. 90 bonus XP is HUGE. Secret Arts, that's kinda blurring the lines between benefits and abilities, I wouldn't want to do that. Allergic, hmm, should be stronger, I think. Cannibal, that's sort of a hard call, with some rather severe consequences should you be found out (like lynching). Gout, half crippled and half flaw(agility), okay. Greyscale, might be more prudent to give an AR bonus, though this drawback could probably be represented by others, such as marked and flaw(agility). Half-pint, decent. Hemophiliac, also decent, but near certain to kill you in combat without a decent healer near (needs rules for stopping it). Hematophobia, there's already a drawback (fear) that covers this. Inattentive, dunno, critical hits are primarily scored against characters that are screwed either way. Pyromania, seems very week to me, flaw(awareness) does the same, only a lot worse.

Thanks you very much for this, it's the kind of insight I'm hoping for. I'll retool the Blood of X abilities to be less OP immediately, and I'm going to delete Secret Arts, hematophobia and inattentive. Instead of secret arts I'll just have Knowledge focus (magic) be the requirement for putting ranks into Sorcery. Bloodlust I'll correct to +2 to damage rolls and I'll consider deleting greyscale although I like having it being its own drawback. Hemophiliac and pyromania I'm not sure what to do about yet.

The gods, there's a benefit for this (Pious) already.

I knew I had the idea for that from somewhere! I must have forgotten reading it. I also mixed it up with ideas from this topic: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=10833
I may or may not use it anyway, with some tweaking. I like the idea of characters actually visiting septs and godswoods for the purpose of praying and receiving blessings, even without the pious quality which doesn't require that. It creates opportunities for story moments, like visiting the shrines in an Elder Scrolls game. Personally, I never went anywhere without the blessing of Talos.

Problem is, with your rules, Sorcery is very much a sword and has a very good hilt.
The 'Routine'-results are already things that could be quite strong.
I would, in your place, turn that whole bit around and make it more like cantrips.
I dont know if you have ever read 'The Black Company' but that is what i am thinking about: Magic as useful, very limited tricks that you could also do in another way but which are nice to have.

I see your reasoning, I suppose in making those examples I made the difficulties too low for the benefits they allow, and for the blood magic the sacrifice was not particularly significant. I will have to retool both to be more risky for the PCs. One thing to keep in mind is that players won't have a definite idea of what they can do with sorcery until they try it. Going off of what Zorbeltuss said regarding quality 3s, I may create qualities that when they take them, I'll give them some text that describes a ritual, such as the Last Kiss, and its history to inspire them to try things, without telling them blatantly what it will do. As I said, the majority of my players haven't read the novels and we've all been very careful not to spoil anything. Besides R+L=J.

Or turn the whole thing around and make magic really powerful blood magic but let it in turn eat up both a substantial amount of the XP (there are ways to rig things so that payoff only starts around 4 or 5 dice) and are a veritable danger to life and limb (either yours or other peoples which you have to sacrifice or leech off).

That is exactly my intention. As it is, they can't even get rank 1 sorcery without spending 2 ranks in knowledge and one destiny point. Still, any tips on how to rig it without making it totally broken would be appreciated.

Lastly, here are some links to more house rules I've found on the board I plan to implement to some degree:
www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=10605
www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=9894
www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=10860
www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=7743
www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=10780

I haven't really taken much time to look at warfare yet and I need to go into more depth with intrigue especially. They remind me of the systems from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games, particularly 12. I may look for ways to bring some aspects of those games over, as the medieval settings of both ASIF and RTK has always reminded me of each other, granted they're a universe apart from one another.

[Emerald Viper]

Blood of the Ghiscari
Type: Heritage
“You can trace your roots to the culture of Slaver’s Bay.”
Add 3 to the result of all Warfare and Animal Handling tests. Before an intrigue, your status counts as 1 higher towards influencing a target.

Blood of the Ghiscari should definitely not grant a bonus to Warfare.

From a Dance with Dragons:

"With their Generals its a wonder they dont march into the sea"

"The Yunkishmen were still running about in fluttering tokars trying to get their half-trained slave soldiers into some semblance of order as Unsullied spears came crashing through their seige lines."

"The Yunkai'i do not inspire confidence."

"Theirs is a patchwork host at best. These slavers are no soldiers. If we take them unawares..." Ser Barristan


I would suggest:

Blood of the Ghiscari
You gain +1 bonus dice when making Bargain or Intimidate intrigue rolls.

[TheSmilingKnight]

Blood of the Ghiscari should definitely not grant a bonus to Warfare.
From a Dance with Dragons:
"With their Generals its a wonder they dont march into the sea"
"The Yunkishmen were still running about in fluttering tokars trying to get their half-trained slave soldiers into some semblance of order as Unsullied spears came crashing through their seige lines."
"The Yunkai'i do not inspire confidence."
"Theirs is a patchwork host at best. These slavers are no soldiers. If we take them unawares..." Ser Barristan
I would suggest:
Blood of the Ghiscari
You gain +1 bonus dice when making Bargain or Intimidate intrigue rolls.

Agreed. I'm not sure what I was thinking there. I'll be using that plus "-1 Language (Common), +2 Language (Ghiscari)", I think, and I'll model the other heritage qualities around that as well. Thanks for the input.

Okay so I have finished editing the first post to reflect some of the suggestions that have been made. The major changes are that Sorcery now only requires Knowledge Focus (Magic) for the players to begin ranking up in it and that I've decreased the amount of benefits granted by the heritage qualities. I also left out some rules changes that were left out accidentally before. This time I forgot to included language penalties/bonuses for some of the heritage qualities though. After I do that, I'm going to begin working on ability qualities for maegi, Shadowbinders and Red Priests. I'm also considering creating some new Knowledge Focuses such as Engineering, Meteorology and Geology although I think those second two may fall under Nature. Then I'm going to expand the fate qualities to include positions in Essos such as khal, ko, and Merchant Prince.

[DaimosofRedstone]

Thoughts:
I would probably organize magic in two categories:
Cantrips that are useful but so unobtrusive that they could as well be runs of good luck or unusual knacks and real high-powered magic (controlling shadows or forces of nature, seeing past or future, slaying man from afar) that is ridicilously unreliable and dangerous (for the shadows you esentially rob somebody half his lifeforce, visions of the future or past are convoluted and unprecise even before anybody messes things up even further by trying to interpret them, etc.).

First i would require some sort of quality to be able to do magic AT ALL. I do not care whether it is of blood or training but i would like something akin to third eye.
Every bit of MAJOR magic requires another quality. Test ar rolled via a knowledge, called something like 'Magic' or 'Rituals'.
Skinchanger is practically unavailable during char creation and quite expensive (something like 120 points in skills and another 20 in specialisation IIRC).
Magic i would price even higher.

How does it work?
I would use symbolism and sympathy as the cornerstones of Westerosi magic.
Sympathy is the assumption that similar materials have a connection and that one can be influence by influencing the other.
Example:
If you have two knives which share a sympathic band you could heat one by holding the other into a candle flame.

So if you want to kill a man, kill a man. But you would then need to communicate this over the distance and target it somehow.
For that i would advise symbolism.
Example:
You want to slay Joffrey Baratheon by magic. You are no fancy shadowweaver like Melisandre so you need to make it crude. You acquired yourself a boy with golden hair. You dressed im up in princely fashion. Gave him a crown or at least a stand in. Got yourself a stag and maybe some stand-in for a lion.
Then you burn or ritually slaughter the whole mess. With a little luck this translate into something bad befalling Joffrey (though not necessarily death).
Bonus points for getting closer and closer to a twin. A boy whose father was gutted by a boar would give bonus points. As would a child born of incest, more for brother-sister incest, even more if it was only the SOCIAL father getting gutted and so on.

[TheSmilingKnight]

Thoughts:
I would probably organize magic in two categories: Cantrips that are useful but so unobtrusive that they could as well be runs of good luck or unusual knacks and real high-powered magic (controlling shadows or forces of nature, seeing past or future, slaying man from afar) that is ridicilously unreliable and dangerous (for the shadows you esentially rob somebody half his lifeforce, visions of the future or past are convoluted and unprecise even before anybody messes things up even further by trying to interpret them, etc.).

I won't be doing this formally at least. When players wish to utilize cantrips or prestiges, they will have lower difficulty tests while spells that are more blatant will have both a higher difficulty and require some ritual. But I won't be typing up a spellbook that says exactly what they can and cannot do, it will be entirely conditional.

First i would require some sort of quality to be able to do magic AT ALL. I do not care whether it is of blood or training but i would like something akin to third eye. Every bit of MAJOR magic requires another quality. Test ar rolled via a knowledge, called something like 'Magic' or 'Rituals'. Skinchanger is practically unavailable during char creation and quite expensive (something like 120 points in skills and another 20 in specialisation IIRC). Magic i would price even higher.

I've already done this, and I've actually made it less costly since the first draft. Currently Sorcery requires a player put two ranks into knowledge to raise it to 4, which costs 60xp. It then requires they spend 1 Destiny Point on the quality Knowledge (magic), the equivalent of 50xp. Only then can they start ranking up in Sorcery for 30xp per rank, So for rank 2 in Sorcery it costs a total of 170xp and rank 7 costs 320xp, and another 70xp to max out the specialties each for a grand total of 460xp. Compare this to Warg which costs 300xp or Skinchanger which costs 350xp. While I might be misguided in this, I'd have to say Skinchanger seems fair to compare to a rank 7 ability in terms of usefulness.

Thoughts: How does it work?
I would use symbolism and sympathy as the cornerstones of Westerosi magic. Sympathy is the assumption that similar materials have a connection and that one can be influence by influencing the other.
Example: If you have two knives which share a sympathic band you could heat one by holding the other into a candle flame. So if you want to kill a man, kill a man. But you would then need to communicate this over the distance and target it somehow. For that i would advise symbolism.
Example: You want to slay Joffrey Baratheon by magic. You are no fancy shadowweaver like Melisandre so you need to make it crude. You acquired yourself a boy with golden hair. You dressed im up in princely fashion. Gave him a crown or at least a stand in. Got yourself a stag and maybe some stand-in for a lion. Then you burn or ritually slaughter the whole mess. With a little luck this translate into something bad befalling Joffrey (though not necessarily death). Bonus points for getting closer and closer to a twin. A boy whose father was gutted by a boar would give bonus points. As would a child born of incest, more for brother-sister incest, even more if it was only the SOCIAL father getting gutted and so on.

Pretty much, no argument there, although acquiring all of those components would be a quest in and of itself.

[TheSmilingKnight]

Okay, so I've been working on this some more while also planning the campaign. We've rolled to create a house and characters, we simply haven't started actually playing yet. The players are House Hamil, a Northern house sworn to the Starks. The were founded by the current lord of house Hamil, Briggs, during the War of the Usurper. Briggs was a wildling who fled south of the Wall during the year the of the false spring, and found work as a sellsword with the Umbers. When Ned called the banners, he marched against the Targaryens and fought at the Trident. Afterward he was klnighted for bravery and continued to serve as a hedge knight, using a badger for his sigil, up until the Greyjoy Rebellion. Again he joined the fighting under the Stark banner, and for his service he was give a small plot of land as a bannerman to the Umbers. He was able to negotiate a deal between the Starks and the Night's Watch that allowed him to move north of the Wall, into the haunted forest. There he moved into a hall in the ruins of an ancient place called Castle Phantom, abandoned since the time of the Night King.

We have five players and I, although only one of the players is a noble. The rest are associates, primarily wildlings living under the protection of House Hamil. Alex is an heir and leader of the group, Chris, Rachel, and Justin are wildlings living as vassals to him, and Sarah is a dothraki pirate who was captured raiding East-watch-by-the-Sea, took the black, and now ranges in the Haunted Forest, often stopping at Castle Phantom to trade.

Anyway, as for house rules, I've made some changes to include qualities for Red Priest and Shadowbinder. Neither of them are particularly balanced so I'm sure I'll have to change them soon. I've also added a stipulation to Half Pint. Mostly I've been working on sets of rules to make House development more complex. This is definitely a work in progress however. I've included two new resources, Technology and Favor. Technology is more defined are basically serves as milestones for when the players are build new kinds of units and holdings. Favor is less defined as is more of a tool to illustrate which organization "likes" the player's house the most. I'll be back in a bit to post some tables.

[TheSmilingKnight]

None of this is finished, somethings are just lists of what I'm working on and not descriptive.

New Realms
Realm: Defense/Influence/Lands/Law/Population/Power/Wealth
Free Cities: 0/-10/-10/+5/+10/+0/+5
Dothraki Sea: 0/-10/+20/-10/+10/+10/-10
Slaver’s Bay: 0/0/0/-5/+5/0/+10
Beyond the Wall: +10/-20/+15/-10/+5/0/0

New House Resources Technology and Favor
Technology represents the advancement of knowledge amongst craftsmen in service of your house. Producing some holdings and units require a minimum level of technology. Technology cannot be reduced. Favor represents how well liked your house is by a certain organization, such as the Iron Throne, the Citadel or the Faith. Favor has hidden benefits that are determined by the Narrator.

Starting Attributes by Region
Region: Technology/Favor (Organization)
Kings Landing: +10/+10 (Iron Throne)
Dragonstone: +15/+5 (Iron Throne)
The North: +5/+15 (Iron Throne)
Iron Islands: +0/+20 (Seastone Chair)
The Riverlands: +15/+5 (Iron Throne)
Mountains of the Moon: +10/+10 (Iron Throne)
The Westerlands: +5/+15 (Iron Throne)
The Reach: +15/+5 (Iron Throne)
The Stormlands: +0/+20 (Iron Throne)
Dorne: +20/+0
Free Cities: +10/+10 (Iron Bank of Braavos)
Dothraki Sea: +0/+20 (Dosh khaleen)
Slaver’s Bay: +10/+10 (Sons of the Harpy)
Beyond the Wall: +0/+20 (King-beyond-the-Wall)

Technology
Score: Description
0: Your house is only capable of creating rudimentary of tools from stone or bone.
1-10: You’ve started working bronze, growing your own food and raising animals.
11-20: Your laborers are now trained to work iron forges and build ships.
21-30: The secret to forging good steel is known to your smiths.
31-40: Advanced technologies used in constructing siege engines are known to you.
41-50: You have one of the most advanced houses and most devices are available.
51-60: Your technological developments have brought you up to the level of Old Valyria.
61-70: Through groundbreaking research, you have created several new technologies.

Technology Requirements:
Castle (All): 30+
Tower: 20+
Hall: 10+
Artisan: 10+
Godswood: 0+
Guilds: 20+
Maester: 0+
Marketplace: 0+
Mine: 0+
Port: 10+
Sept: 0+

New House Holdings
Defense Holdings: City Walls, Barracks, Armory
Land Holdings: Wonder, Granary, Mill
Wealth Holdings: Tavern, Stable, Clinic, Shipyard

New Intrigue Techniques
Logic: Knowledge (Education) or Deception (Bluff)

New Unit Qualities and Types:
All produced units begin equipped with swords or longbows. Equipping them with new weapons enables new tactics and grants bonus dice against certain units.

Spear: Balanced attack and defense. (Strong vs. Cavalry, weak vs. Pike)
Pike: Weaker attack, stronger defense. (Strong vs. Spear, Weak vs. Cavalry)
Crossbows: Weaker attack and defense, but has a range of two squares.

Cavalry broken up into different types of mounts
Heavy cavalry: Stronger attack, weaker defense. (Strong vs. Pike, weak vs. Spear)
Elephants/Mammoths: No particular weakness, shares tactics with other cavalry but moves slower.
Garron cavalry: No punishment for movement in heavy snow or through mountains.
Light cavalry: Less armor but higher movement speed than knights.

New infantry units: Unsullied, Slaves and Giants

New Naval Units
Raft: A row of logs roped together, carries a small number of troops but no horses or siege weapons.
Barge: Boat capable of transporting supplies or troops but has no offensive abilities.
Boat: Fast ship with no sails, required to be rowed. Able to ram.
Ship: This is a stronger version of the boat, that has one sail and is able to ram.
Heavy ship: Can be equipped with a siege weapon, slower but still able to ram.
Warship: Fast and strong ships and can be equipped with a siege weapon.

[coldwind]

Just scanned those quickly, but your Intrigue technique Logic is covered by Convince, which is the action of using reason and logic to sway someone.

[TheSmilingKnight]

Just scanned those quickly, but your Intrigue technique Logic is covered by Convince, which is the action of using reason and logic to sway someone.

You're right, I'll take that out when I get around to the next edit. I haven't done anything lately since it seems my group is uninterested in full on war for now, so most of that can wait until there's a major event in the narrative.