Rough summary of my game so far.

[aprewett]

My game started with just my 16yr old son, as he was looking for a game were he controlled a manor. I thought about using Harn Manor but went with something fresh.
I have only read the first book and he has not read any.
I used the published characters from the adventures as the age for the Lord worked well.
I placed his holding on the coast of Ironman Bay bordering those hills that are to the north of Lannister lands.
I placed the time one year before the first book.
In his first game, he was doing a tour of his new holdings as the new lord when a raid was sprung while he was at his port/harbour town. It became obvious during the raid that they were specifically after him.
Next I introduced some elements of the Wedding plot.
Then several days after the raid, it was learned that his younger sister aged 14 had gone missing from a local religious site close to the hills on his southern border. Upon investigation it turned out that she had been abducted by Hillmen. I am using hillmen similar in feel to the ones just to the east in the Mountain of the Moon. Himself and several retainers went in pursuit to find her (Ser Merik and Rivers).
By now with a hiccup in my regular gaming group’s game, my other two players have decided to join in this and luckly the lord had only taken two retainers so it all worked out well.
They were ambushed by and killed a shadow cat.
They discovered a scene were the abductors look to have been attacked themselves, and the trail split in two. Following one trail they came across another post combat scene, were local hillmen farmer types had been slaughtered and along comes the killers, returning after scouting Hillmen holdings, some Ironmen raiders. They had killed the hillmen several days ago, and then gone on to scout the local hillmen village in preparation for an attack.
The PC’s are in hiding when suddenly one of the Ironmen comes out of the bushes with a squirming lad, the young brother of the lord aged 12, who had defied orders to stay at home and snuck after his older brother to also find his sister.
This caused the PC’s to launch into attack. Defeating the Ironmen, they then continued following the trail south, not the Ironmens trail which went west. They soon arrived at the Hillmens village, were with much distrust and using the Intrigue rules they have just gained entry. In the past there has been tension between the Lowlanders (PC's holding) and the Hillmen, they are the boggeymen.

So in the future two things can happen;
1; They need to still look for the sister. Which leads deeper into the hills and further plots (there is more going on here).
2; They can help the Hillmen fight off the Ironmen and save the village. (most of the Hillmen fighting force is currently away either defending there borders against another hillmen force or I prefer hunting). If you have read this far through my poor English, this is the reason for my other posts question about a suitable reward from the Hillman boss. DP was suggested.

So what is going on:
I started this with a raid to capture a young lord with no clear idea what I was doing.
My plan now is this.
Euron Greyjoy was banished (and the canon reason may have happened or it may just be a cover), with the grand plan of taking over those Hills, sorry they have no name, I have called them the Ridgebacks. I am assuming that the Hill land is not owned by any lord, no lord governs it etc etc. With this in mind I reason that the Greyjoys at the end of there rebellion were forced to agree not to make war on the King or his vassals or on any of his holding etc etc etc. But those hills are technically not owned by the king. Plus Euron is secretly backed by his family so they can deny any involvement.
Add to this Gold. House Westerling (The Crag) found Gold (maybe not much)and kept it a secret from there Liege and tried to smuggle some out , but the Ironmen found them out, and now have them under there control. Were there is one lot of gold there maybe more so the Iron men want to clear out the hills and get it.
The PC’s house with its nice harbour just to the north will make a great landing point . The holding has no further neighbours as its at the end of the road. So capture the Lord and force the holding to allow ship and troop access.
House Farman (Faircastle), may also be under, or moving to the Ironmens camp.
Euron wants to clear out the Hillmen, making them thralls, find more gold, eventually move across to the Mountains of the Moon were much of that is also unclaimed wilderness and then split the country in half.
I know its not very canon, but neither my son or the other players have read the books, they have only seen the TV series (bar my son as far as I know), and the book did say have fun and do as I would like. I would like to see the players house involved in foiling the Ironmens goal, forge an alliance with the hillmen and find gold. The King grants him lands in the hills and the Lannisters will be very upset.
Thanks if you got to the end of the ramble.
Allan

[aprewett]

Maybe my ramble was to rambling!!!

Allan

[Irontruth]

The other thing that comes to mind is information about the gold, or someone who knows something about it as a reward.

Another option is to ask te player, what do they think the hillman might give them.

Otherwise your plot sounds good, you've got lots of potential situations and things going on. I'd add another complication, perhaps completely unrelated to whats going on, basically add more pressure on the characters. Westeros doesn't wait for you to solve a problem before it heaps another one on.

[aprewett]

Thanks.
I had not decided on the Gold and the Hillmen, if they know about any and if they did, wether they could be bothered doing anything with it.
Is there any mention in canon about the type of gold, how it is found. If it requires skilled mining techinques then it may not be something they could be bothered with.
Maybe its considered a religious item, and therefore sacred and not to be sold.
Maybe its very rare and they don't have any.

I am not sure yet what works best, any idea's.

Allan