04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

Adventure along the Road NorthCHAPTER 1: The Night’s WatchThe trip to the North is ripe for adventure, and many recruits have their first taste of action before they ever reach Castle Black. This isalso an ideal time to introduce the themes of your campaign, or put the difficult morals of the Watch on display. The following seeds areideas for events that could occur during a trip to the Wall.BBBBBBThe Brothers and the recruits intercept a deserter from the Wall, come back to deal with a sick family member. Though the man isobviously in violation of his oath, the players will have to decide how to deal with him.A noble, hosting the group for the evening, offers to send a significant donation to the Wall, if only the Brothers will plant evidenceimplicating his rival in a crime against the King.A poacher kills a lord’s deer and is spotted by the players. Normally such a crime would get a men sent to the Wall, but the poacheris hunting to feed his children, now that his wife has died. To prosecute the man would leave the children orphaned, and certainlysentence them as cruel a life as anything on the Wall.It is even possible to work some of the published adventures into thejourney. Journey to King’s Landing (included with the SIFRP quick-startrules) is an obvious fit, with the only real change required being one ofdestination. Likewise, Wedding Knight (included with the Narrator’sKit) is easy to work the main characters into as either a resting pointalong the way to the Wall, or as friends of one of the families involved.Once at the Wall, the characters begin their training. While playingthrough endless drills and variations would quickly grow dreary, thereare several ways to include their evolution into men of the Watchas part of your game. The easiest method is to provide a “spotlightmoment” for each of the players. Work with each player to identifyan important scene in the character’s development and play throughthat scene for each character. If the other main characters wouldn’t bepresent at the scene, have their players take the parts of other Narratorcharacters for the short term. By doing this, you manage to keep allthe players engaged, and still allow one character to feel like he is thecenter of attention in the scene.It is also possible to use the travel and training motif to introduce agroup to the rules of SIFRP. Use the basic rules to handle challengesalong the road, introducing each mechanic or more advanced rule as partof a training scene. This helps players by introducing the rules slowly, whilestill allowing them to feel connected to the game and moving forward.Another method of working with the characters’ training in CastleBlack is in the form of flashback scenes. When a player or the Narratorfeel that the character’s feelings or beliefs in the current scene wereshaped by an event during their training, they can call for a flashbackscene to play through before continuing with the current scene. This canbe a particularly effective technique in Night’s Watch campaigns thatdo not feature the characters before they have sworn their oaths, andgives an excellent opportunity to explore relationships between charactersthat might have developed before the campaign’s start.Regardless of how the characters come through their training, theymust at some point receive their assignments in the Watch and taketheir oaths. The Commander of the Watch addresses each batch of recruitsbefore they swear their vows, and brings home the finality andimportance of the mantle they are about to take up.Depending on the group, a very effective tool is to have the playersactually recite the Sworn Brother’s Oath (page 12). Depending on thescope of a campaign, this can be the last act of a journey to the Wall,or the first act of a campaign among the Sworn Brothers of the Watch.Sworn Brothers“A man of the Night’s Watch lives his life for the realm. Notfor a king, or a lord, or for the honor of this house or that house,neither for gold nor glory nor a woman’s love, but for the realm,and all the people in it.”— Lord Commander Jeor Mormont,A Game of T hronesThe brothers of the Night’s Watch are bound to each other, not only bytheir oaths but by their commonality of experience. Who understandsa person better than someone who has faced the same trials, someonewho has the same fears? Unity stronger than mere words ties the menof the Watch together, and misfortune follows any person—SwornBrother or not—who fails to recognize this.Do not, however, assume that all men of the Watch view each otherwith the same sense of brotherhood and loyalty. They are men, andeach is shaped by both his experiences before coming to the Wall andthose that happen after. Cliques and rivalries form in the black brotherhoodas they do anywhere men gather. Regardless of their unity,the Watch is made up of men and it is a man’s flaws that drive theirrelationships.The Night’s Watch StructureThe Night’s Watch is divided into three branches—a point that, whilenot hidden, is not common knowledge further south. While eachbranch serves its own leader, or First, they are also responsible to theLord Commander himself. The rangers, the most well-known of theBrotherhood’s divisions, are tasked with patrolling the Far North anddealing with the wildlings on their own terms. In addition to the rangers,there are the builders, tasked with repairing and maintaining theWall, and the stewards, assigned a wide variety of tasks that allow theWatch to function from day to day. Like a three-legged stool, withoutany one branch the Night’s Watch would collapse.Included in the following pages are stock characters that can be usedas average members of each of the branches of the Night’s Watch.13