I’ve recently decided to run a game based on the world of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels. At first my group was looking forward to the GoO game based on the license, but as that got farther and father away I saw an opportunity to slip in HQ as a replacement. I’d been growing a bit leery of using either D20 or Tri-Stat to run the game anyway. Though I like both systems for some things, I thought that HQ would be a better match for the setting, as everything in the novels revolves around relationships and personality traits. Using my player’s desperation for the game, I managed to convince them to give HQ a try and proceeded to setup.

Setting wise the work was easy. Everyone in the group has read at least the first 2 novels, and most of them are fans of the CCG and board game as well. So their knowledge of the world is solid, and I felt no need to say anything beyond the following: “The game starts at the end of the first novel. The head hits the ground, the blood riders scream “My life for you!” and then your characters take over. Anything that happened in the first book can be considered cannon. Anything in the later books is relevant only for setting detail.” The players loved the idea, and so we moved on.

Theme wise I suggested that we focus on honor. What is honor’s place, and what its price, in the Game of Thrones? In the novels it often seems that lacking honor gives strength, and having it brings tragedy – but it’s also rarely that simple in the end. The players all loved this idea, and decided to make characters who could play with the theme.

System wise the work wasn’t actually that much harder. I wanted a different set of keywords to emphasize the setting a bit more, and ended up using 4 (partly because I wanted more competent characters, partly to balance the loss of magic). They are: Homeland (where you are from), Vocation (what you do as well as what your social status is), Religion (what you believe), and Allegiance (how you connect to the game of thrones). I drew up full keywords for the ones the PCs chose (partly using Mike’s advice in Improvising Keywords), but didn’t bother to write up ones for anyone else. None of the PCs have magical abilities, and so I didn’t bother with a full magic conversion. Everything else runs pretty close to the standard HQ rules, save that I let players take followers and sidekicks who were more competent than their PCs.

The PCs we ended up with are:

Allan of Tarth: Younger brother of Breanne of Tarth, this young Lordling was fostered by the Baratheons and developed a strong reputation as a negotiator who could help bring people to cooperative solutions. Optimistic and determined, he has set out on a mission to his old friends in the Reach in order to help quell the upcoming civil war. He believes that with hard work and practicality the upcoming storm can be controlled. His theme is the clash between honor and progress, looking at where the rules of honor actually stop people from doing the best thing. (Allan is a Tarthite 5m, Lord 20, Church of the Seven 20, House Tarth/House Baratheon 5m.)

Percival Reed: Younger brother of Howland Reed, Percy is the heir to his brother’s secret – the knowledge of Jon Snow’s true birth parents, and the terrible secrets of the last days of the civil war. His nephew has had the green dream, and unless Percival can unite the sons of Rhaegar Targaryen and Eddard Stark, the winter coming will never end. His theme is secrets and the role they play in maintaining and losing honor, and the price they bring. (Percival is a Crannogman 5m, Lord 20, Old Ways 10m, House Reed/House Stark 10m.)

Captain Aurane Storm of Driftmark: A bastard who has attained position and rank through capability and ruthlessness, Aurane is the half brother of Monford Velaryon, Lord of the Tides and leader of the fleet that keeps the trade between Westros and the Free Cities free of piracy. Loyal to the throne, but he cannot forget his family’s ties to the Targaryens, and his spies have informed him that Daenerys is about to give birth. His theme is a question of whether or not those who are seem by society as being honorless can make their own definition of honor and have it mater. (Aurane is a Velaryon Freeholder 5m, Captain 20m, Church of the Seven 17, House Velaryon 20.)

Our first game should be right before New Years, and I’m still hashing out initial encounters and bangs for the characters. Allan will almost certainly be brought into conflict with the Baratheon brothers, who’s stubbornness and rather quixotic but unshakable definitions of honor will test his dedication to negotiation and peace. Aurane is going to get caught between the Greyjoys, Stannis, and Daenerys as well as his own brother – who hates the fact that a bastard has such power in his House, drawing down the honor of his ancient blood. Percival is going to get drawn into the world of King’s landing, where his Crannogman status will get him oft dismissed and always underestimated, and where he’ll have to balance his innate honor with the need to find the secrets hidden in order to fight the coming winter.

All in all its shaping up to be a slobber-knocker of a game, and I’ll post more as we go.

Oh yes, some of the keywords I actually drew up:

Occupation Keywords

Lord

Abilities: Exert Authority, Grooming, Identify Social Status, Politics, Protocol, Ride, Sing (or Dance or Play Instrument), Sword Combat, Lead Mass Combat

Typical Personality Traits: Ambitious, Aristocratic, Elitist, Devoted to the People, Honorable, Cruel

Typical Relationships: Court Contacts, to Family, to nobles of other Houses

Typical Followers: Body servants, courtiers, grooms, a knight bodyguard

Standard of Living: Prosperous

Captain

Abilities: Sail [Ship], Cutlass Fighting, Climb, Endure Weather, Hold Drink, Know [Sea], Seamanship, Swimming, Tie Knots, Manage Ship, Exert Authority.

Typical Personality Traits: Cruel, Stern, Dour, Superstitious, Swashbuckling, Wanderlust

Typical Relationships: To Ship, to Crew, to Lord, to Other Captains

Typical Followers: Sailors, a body servant

Standard of Living: Well Off

Homeland Keywords

Tarth / Stormlands

Typical Abilities: Boathandling, Spear and Shield Combat, Storm Isles Geography, Net Fishing or Sheepherding, Storm Isles Customs, Swimming, Work Together.

Typical Personality Traits: Contented, Energetic, Fear Dragons, Hardy, Patient.

Typical Relationships: to Family; to Village, to Local Noble

Velaryon Freeholds

Typical Abilities: Crew Ship, Speak Old Valyrian, Know the Narrow Sea, Know Free Cities Customs, Know Westros Customs, Dagger Fighting, Swimming, Harpoon Fishing or Whaling

Typical Personality Traits: Guileful, Worldly, Superior

Typical Relationships: To family, to local Noble, to Nine Cities connections

Crannogmen

Typical Abilities: Spear Fighting, Net Fighting, Small, Fish, Hunt Frogs and Foul, Geography of the Neck, Swamp Survival, Find Hidden Ways, Handle Skin Boat, Swim, Jump.

Typical Personality Traits: Insular, Superstitious, Generous, Suspicious of Outsiders

Typical Relationships: Loyal to the Starks, to the Reeds, to Village

Religion Keywords

The Old Ways

Typical Abilities: Know Old God Myths, Worship Old Gods, Find Heartwood

Typical Personality Traits: Reverent, Respectful of Nature

Typical Relationships: To Heartwood, To Other Worshipers

The Church of the Seven

Typical Abilities: Theology of the Seven, Sing Hymn

Typical Personality Traits: Look Down on Other Religions, Respectful of Septons

Typical Relationships: Worship the Seven, Member of Sept

Allegiance Keywords

House Reed / House Stark

Typical Abilities: Know Stark Lore, Know Reed Lore, Escape Notice of Other Lords

Typical Personality Traits: Loyal, Pragmatic, Tight Lipped, Hate House Lannister

Typical Relationships: Member of House Reed, Loyal to House Stark, Respected by Crannogmen, Emnity of House Lannister

Typical Followers: Crannogmen scouts, wise woman/man, trained bird.

House Tarth / House Baratheon

Typical Abilities: Negotiate Settlement, Know Baratheon Lore, Recognize Noble

Typical Personality Traits: Romantic, Stubborn, Tough Minded, Fair

Typical Relationships: Member of House Tarth, Loyal to House Baratheon, Loved By Tarthites, Ally of [Noble]

Typical Followers: Infantry Soliders, Shepherds or Sailors, Maester Advisor

House Velaryon

Typical Abilities: Intimidate Pirates, Blood of Old Valyria, Know Velaryon Lore, Know Targaryen Lore, Of Highest Blood

Typical Personality Traits: Secretly Loyal to House Targaryen, Haughty, Impeccable Taste

Typical Relationships: Member of House Velaryon, Lord of [Island], Targaryen Spies, Distrusted by House Baratheon

Typical Followers: Sailors, Free Cities Mercenaries, Maester Advisor, Courtiers

Brand - you make me wish I lived in Toronto.
Sam.

I like your keywords a lot. How did you design them?

I've seen advice to go through a given text and highlight all terms that look like likely abilities (basically treating the text as if it were a 100-word narrative), but that method didn't work so well for me when I wrote keywords for the PCs in my Midnight game even though I at least had material written for a roleplaying game. Using a novel in this way must be infinitely more difficult I'd think - written stories use words to paint images, not as a basis for conversion into lists of abilities.

StalkingBlue wrote: I like your keywords a lot. How did you design them?

Hmm, nice. I really like the allegiance concept.

How are the players taking to the system so far?

Mike

Mike Holmes wrote: How are the players taking to the system so far?

First Session Report:

So with the madness of the holidays finally over, my group and I got together for our first session. Even though it was short, just over 3 hours, it was a success, if not a perfect one, and seems to have gotten the game off to a good start.

Because of various family issues we had it at the conference room of my building rather than at someone’s house. There were some good things about the space: plenty of table room, an easel with poster sized paper to use for diagrams and vis-reps, no phones or people moving through the room to distract. However, in general I found that I’ve become addicted to having a very comfortable and intimate space for running game. The office chairs rather than couches, the inability to use candles and incense or similar mood setters, and the rather industrial nature of the space all made it hard for me to get comfortable, and as a result I started the game late. I’m not too upset about this though, I figure either it will clear up with time or we’ll find a better space.

The game started with a storm coming down from the north. Our first scene was in the Fens, in the middle of the swamp in the family hold of the Reeds. As the wind howled outside Percival (PC) sat with his older brother, who had been in a melancholy since the news had come that Eddard Stark had been killed. Percy tried to shake his brother out of it, and ended up drawing out a confession. His brother told him the truth of Jon Snow’s birth, and the cost that secret had taken on him and Eddard – and even more importantly, the secret he had kept from Eddard. Eddard, you see, had a real bastard that had been hidden from him. Now the green dream had come, and the seers had divined that unless the two cousins (Jon Snow and Marcus Sand) could be united on the Wall, the Others would topple it during the coming winter. Percy and his brother then discussed and wrestled with the issue of following down these secrets or going to fight with the Starks, who had recently called their banners, as they were bound to by duty and loyalty. In the end Percy decided that the higher loyalty was to the gods and went to find Marcus Sand while his brother went to tell Jon Snow the truth of his birth. Percy’s brother gave him an ancient chest that contained a relic of the old gods, and told him that their father had given it to him and had told him he would know when to open it – and now he was giving it to Percy with the same instructions. He couldn’t tell him what was in it though, as he had never opened it himself – maybe he had missed his time.

This scene went very smoothly, with everything RPed out in high style. I do, however, wonder if I shouldn’t have tossed some personality based contests in. Percy’s brother telling him about Snow and Sand was the player’s kicker for the character, so I wanted it to happen smoothly. However, I couldn’t help but think afterward that it would have been better if the contest to bring the brother’s wounds out was rolled. The possibility for partial successes, and only part of the secret coming out, would have had a lot of potential for resonance later on. However, the early introduction of questions of honor and loyalty was solidly done, largely due to the player. He worked his own character in a full circle, debating with himself about his high loyalty to the Starks vs. equal loyalty to his own family and higher loyalty to the Old Gods, and ended up making a difficult choice that would come back to haunt him.

The next scene found Aurane Storm (PC) out at sea in the middle of the storm, his ship battened down to ride it out. In his cabin with his master, Aurane was doing his best to avoid looking at the three messages on his desk – each of them signed with the seal of a different king. His master gave him a fourth, bearing the seal of his Lord and brother, and suggested that they should open them now, while the storm gave them a few days to think before they had to send a reply. Aurane, pissed that he was being drawn into politics, called for his daughter, hoping that she could use her superior knowledge of royal politics to help him. She and the master engaged in verbal sparring, and the master let it be known that she had been messing with the messenger ravens – which Aurane didn’t follow up on. They then read the three letters, each of which was a command from the king to come to their court with his ships or else. The one from the Lannisters also contained a threat against his son, whom they held in fosterage/hostage, if he did not comply. Finally, the letter from his brother told him not to go to any of the kings, at pain of being disowned and hunted down by his own blood. After sending the master out, over his protests, Aurane and his daughter discussed what to do. She suggested she could pay off friends at court to smuggle her brother out safely, and Aurane trusted in this – giving her a large amount of money and deciding not to go to any of the kings. However, rather than doing as his brother wanted, he decided to start raising a fleet of his own.

This scene played out just about perfectly, as there were several contests used to give some nuance to the interactions. Aurane ended up rolling against his own daughter several times, as she got him to trust 18 year old her with her brother’s life. She and the master also both succeeded in keeping secrets back, both of them thinking they were doing it for Aurane’s good. Thus we got the very first contest of the game, which took a little time to explain augments, then get the player to decide which were important, and then doing the math – which I ended up doing a bit of to help the game move faster. I think I’m going to wean the players off that last part though, as by the end of the night they seemed to be coming to me to be the magic man with the mysterious numbers, which I most certainly do not want. The end result of this contest was pretty good though, as by the time we got around to rolling one of the other players made the comment “It feels like a real dramatic moment, after working all that out and seeing all the facets of the character that go into it.”

We then moved to the isle of Tarth, in the grip of the same storm, and a brooding father calling his son to attend him. The lord of Tarth sat at his council table, which was covered with maps. On top of all the other maps was a map of the lands of House Baratheon, to which House Tarth is sworn, torn in two right down the middle. Allan (PC) came in and quickly sussed out the situation and asked his father if Renly, with whom Allan was personally close, had gone against Stannis, to whom Allan’s official loyalty lay. The father confirmed that it was so, and not only that his older sister had joined Renly’s army flying their house flag, and was in serious danger of bringing the wrath of Stannis down upon the family’s head. He told Allan to go get his sister and bring her home, which they both knew would be difficult as she was famously stubborn. Allan then suggested that he take some men with him, a token force, and that his father send a similar force to Stannis – so that he could tell Stannis that the other troops were his disobedient children and that their true loyalty was with him. Meanwhile Allan would tell exactly the opposite story to Renly, and try to play both sides against the middle. Allan took his trainer, his sisters former master of the sword, and went to find Renly’s army.

Once again a well RPed scene in which I totally failed to take proper advantage of the HQ mechanics to reinforce the personality dynamics with mechanical support. Again, it was because it was a kicker scene that I wanted to go the “right” direction and because the player never pushed against the constraints of his father’s will hard enough to make it obvious that a contest was needed. This problem vanished in later scenes, but I’m pointing it out mostly to get myself to pay attention so that it doesn’t become an issue in future social-interaction scenes. Note to Brand: HQ supports personal interaction contests, and letting it do so can make things more interesting.

We then went back to Percy, who had taken a boat down river to get to a port, from where he planned to sail to Dorne. On the way he passed through the Twins, the infamous home of the Freys, who were searching the river for deserters from the Stark’s army. Percy made good use of his “Escape Notice of Other Lords” ability to bypass the checkpoint, and learned that Lord Blackwood, father to his loyal squire who was sitting right next to him in the boat, had lost two of his sons in the last battle. His squire begged to be able to stop at home to speak to his mother, and Percy agreed – even though the mission was urgent, family cannot be left in pain. So they went to the Blackwood castle and found Lady Blackwood under the Heart-Tree, as the Blackwoods are the only true Old God’s worshipers left in the South. There Percy prayed while Lady Blackwood and her son spoke and grieved. Lady Blackwood then came to ask him to release her son from service, as her son had refused to leave Percy’s side. Percy agreed and freed the boy to be with his family. Then Lady Blackwood begin to question why he was not with the Starks, and as Percy fended off the question she grew angry, subtly accusing him of treachery, cowardice, and dereliction of duty – after all if her sons went to a war that killed them, it wasn’t right that Percy should get a free pass. Percival kept his head though, handled himself nobly, and made his way back to his boat. Just as he got there, however, the villagers attacked him with rocks – nearly stoning one of his boatmen to death.

This scene was pretty solid all around. Percy’s player made solid use of some of his non-standard abilities, with “Escape Notice of Other Lords,” “Wise Eyed Coutier Method,” and “Be Silent When It Is Wise To + Tight Lipped” driving most of the action of the scene. We still got the “give the numbers to the GM and have him tell you what to roll” action though – which is odd as this player has a grad degree in science and a background as a gamist. I will have to take some steps to break that, as I think it leads to the players giving the GM undue mystical power over the system, and I want them to feel like they own it.

Our next scene was a bit of an odd duck, but went off very well in the end. Aurane spent the next two weeks of game time going to the Free Cities and pitching for aid in raising a fleet that would hold off pirates while the royal fleets were busy fighting wars. We did a lot of meta-chat with occasional quick dips IC to illustrate fine points, and then had a huge rundown for a contest in which the players really got the idea of augments for the first time. In the end Aurane ended up getting a full success for Total Community aid from 1000 people, and ended up with several new ships and money to pay his sailors courtesy of the merchant princes of Myr and Bravvos. We then went to the attempted rescue of his son, in which it was revealed that his daughter had not used any of the massive amounts of money he’d given her to help her brother – she’d sent it to Daenerys instead. She did, however, contact the other members of the Targ spies and the young knights at court whom she’d swayed in the past with her “hawt” ability, and they together tried to spring her brother. They were resisted by none less than Queen Cersei herself, and the roll resulted in a tie. I narrated this as being the Queen sending her pet knights to beat the son badly, only to have them come into the middle of a brawl staged by the young knights to serve as a distraction. The end result was a lot of injured men and Tyrion stepping down hard and putting the son under his protection. So the son wasn’t in immediate danger of death or injury, but was still hostage in King’s Landing – pieces moved around, but the situation didn’t change.

This scene was a lot of fun and it was the first one where I really felt that we got to use the HQ rules to full potential. The set up for the Community Support contest, and the player’s ability to use his daughter’s abilities in a contest that his main PC never would have gotten close to all played out well, and things were quick and fun – only things that mattered got detailed, everything else was left in the background. The one thing that I will do in the future is make sure that the player takes a more guiding hand in his daughter’s actions, as through the early parts of the scene (until he started rolling for her) he left all of her actions and decisions in my hand – despite her being a listed sidekick on his sheet. While we did agree that I’d RP her in scenes where they were together (so as to avoid the whole RPing with yourself thing) this had the unfortunate side-effect of both of us defaulting to the typical “GM owns the NPCs” setup. This will be fixed.

We rejoined Allan just as he came to the traveling circus that is Renly’s army. Allan had a huge surge of despair on seeing the gaudy tents and japing knights, telling his men that a real army would tear this carnival apart. As he came to the army he was greeted by an outrider, a haughty knight who challenged Allan to a joust when he found out that his sister was “The Beauty of Tarth” – the annoying, ugly upstart woman who can outfight just about any man in the army. Allan tried to put him off, and the two ended up in an argument about military tactics in which Allan’s contempt for lances and heavy cavalry got him roundly mocked by the men. Allan finally conceded to the joust, knowing he was going to lose, on the condition that the man face him in the melee the next day, knowing he could beat him there. The knight bought it, and rode off to ready while Allan’s men were shown where they would set up camp. Allan saw his sister win a joust, then got up and promptly got knocked off his horse. He did, however, manage to Find Victory in the Midst of Loss – and Renly himself mocked the other knight for beating up a man who didn’t even have a proper loss. Renly also invited Allan to dinner that night, which Allan of course accepted. When he got taken back to his tent to have his armor peeled out of his skin, Allan’s sister came to talk to him. They showed each other great affection, nearly got into a fight over her responsibility to the family, and eventually Allan figured out that she was in love with King Renly. She then asked him to come support her in her next joust, against the Knight of Flowers, because she “wouldn’t get support from anyone else.” His duty to his sister catching him by the shorts, Allan went to watch. There he met Catelyn Stark, come to try and make peace with Renly, and the two talked. He managed to impress her with his pragmaticism and devotion to peace and negotiation, and she asked to speak to him again later. Allan’s sister won her match, due to her augment from having her brother there supporting her, and Renly made her one of his Kingsguard. She hugged Allan after getting her cloak, and told him that she loved him, but the Kingsguard have no family, and her only loyalty was to the king now.

This scene was solid. Allan’s player decided on the joust because he didn’t like his odds at winning a trash-talking contest, and he figured that while he’d lose the joust he could pound the knight the next day. Once again, however, I didn’t make enough use of the system in the head-butting with his sister. I also don’t think I made it clear enough that she won because he was there to support her – which was an important point for the scene. Once again, note to self: use system.

We ended the game with Percy’s escape from the torch-bearing villagers. It became quickly obvious that Lady Blackwood had stirred them up, though not how deliberately she had done it, and that they considered Percy a traitor to the Starks. He fought his way free, and did a cool action where he flipped his reed boat upside down to use it as a shield, but he didn’t get enough success to get away. One of his men ended up stabbed, and in trouble, when his squire returned and shot the spearman with a crossbow. He then rejoined Percy, choosing his lord over his family, because his mother had been so dishonorable. When Percy told him that he would have to face his responsibility to his family some day the squire replied, “Well then sir, you’d best keep me alive.”

This scene went pretty well, but I fudged on my simple contests. I really should have done the escape as an extended contest, and when the first couple rolls resulted in ties I just started stringing together simple contests to make it work. I think this was partly due to time pressure, as I was worried that an extended contest would take to long. However, in the end it ended up undercutting the big deal I’d made about scene resolution rather than task resolution before the game. Another small thing to fix up in the future. Also, once again I don’t think I made it obvious enough OOC that the reason the squire returned was because of his loyalty rolls – to the players it may have looked like an arbitrary GM thing instead of a result of the dice.

Despite those quibbles the game went well, the players were happy, and I think we’re off to a good start.

I think you're beating yourself up senselessly over the personality thing. That is, I agree that they're fun, and use them a lot myself, but only when I sense that there's a real conflict that would benefit from the drama of the die roll. That is, if you or the players aren't identifying things as places to roll, they may just not need rolls.

That said, it may be that you and they are just not used to doing this sort of roll to some extent. But that's OK, too. The only imperative here is to get some of these in at some point (which you have), so that everyone gets in the mindframe that these are a possibility. That's when they're sure to come out at the most appropriate times. You'll find yourself sensing when a roll might be neccessary. At those times I find myself saying "Contest?" and seeing how the players respond to the proposal.

The "problem" with the string of simple contests is probably that you were asking for "task" actions, or getting those sorts of declarations - happens to me all the time. "I take a swing at him." When I'm on the ball, I remember to ask, "What are you trying to accomplish?" If I can't see the overall goal, I ask until I can. Actually sometimes I even ask after the fact. Once you see the overall goal, you can narrate all of the sub-portions of the conflict getting to that point without further rolls.

If you felt like it didn't merit an extended contest then it probably didn't - but when there's a even a question of which mechanic to use, and you use a simple contest, you have to be careful to get the goal of the action.

Mike

Mike Holmes wrote: If you felt like it didn't merit an extended contest then it probably didn't - but when there's a even a question of which mechanic to use, and you use a simple contest, you have to be careful to get the goal of the action.

I especially liked this very Martinesque Bang (or Kicker?):

Brand_Robins wrote: They then read the three letters, each of which was a command from the king to come to their court with his ships or else. The one from the Lannisters also contained a threat against his son, whom they held in fosterage/hostage, if he did not comply. Finally, the letter from his brother told him not to go to any of the kings, at pain of being disowned and hunted down by his own blood.

She suggested she could pay off friends at court to smuggle her brother out safely, and Aurane trusted in this – giving her a large amount of money and deciding not to go to any of the kings. However, rather than doing as his brother wanted, he decided to start raising a fleet of his own.

Precisely. That's the intent of a Bang. To know more about the character once it's over based on the player's decision. A good bang "reveals" the character in some way with regards to his values or instincts, or somesuch. You know it's worked because the player making the decision is smiling about having made it, and the other players are socially supporting by saying, "Aha. So that's how she is."

Mike

StalkingBlue wrote: Clearly a man who's prepared to take care of his own, and to fight for himself rather than rely on more powerful allies.