04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

CHAPTER 1: The Night’s WatchAlternate Settings & Changing History to ComeIn the default setting for SIFRP (just after the Usurpation) the Night’s Watch consists of roughly 1,000 men spread between three castleson the Wall. The majority inhabits Castle Black, with about 200 more in Eastwatch-by-the-Sea at one end of the Wall, and Shadow Towerat the other. This, however, is the nadir of the Watch’s power. Sixteen of the great castles lie empty, many of them in ruins.Should the Narrator feel like doing some additional research or invent a plausible alternative setting, it is certainly possible to set a campaignduring one of the heydays of the black brotherhood. There are many periods where there are multiple castles inhabited by scores ofbrothers, and these rules were designed to work equally well in these alternate settings, though the attribute modifiers would likely change.It is also possible to have the players build an entire castle of the Watch whole cloth for the default setting. It would add a few hundredmen to the Wall, but it would not greatly affect the timeline of events as they occur in the novels. Lord Commander Mormont would stillgather most of the Watch for his Great Ranging to search for Benjen Stark and the others as he does in A Storm of Swords.Likewise, the events leading to the election of Jon Snow as the new Lord Commander are unlikely to change. The relationship betweenSer Denys Mallister and Cotter Pyke indicate that they are no more willing to vote for a third castle commander than they are for eachother, and Stannis Baratheon is more interested in his own ends than the politics within the black brotherhood.On the other hand, your game is your game, and certainly doesn’t have to match the novels if you don’t want it to. Perhaps the players’characters save Mormont, or thwart Jon Snow’s allies’ intrigues and place one of their own as Lord Commander.pace than normal. Generate 1d6 historical events for your castle, usingTable 6-4: Historical Events on page 99 of the SIFRP core rules andapply the modifiers to your castle’s attributes.As you generate the historical events that helped shape your castle,work with the Narrator and the other players to tie them into the broaderhistory of the Watch itself. The Night’s Watch prides itself on its traditionand history, and cementing your castle’s place within that fabric adds alevel of detail and authenticity to your Night’s Watch campaign.Step Four: HoldingsDefining a castle’s holdings is the most central element of its creation.As with a noble house, invest your generated resources in your castle’sholdings. Because of the nature of the Night’s Watch, and the rules imposedsince their foundation, there are restrictions on what holdings areavailable to them. This section refers extensively to the holdings listedon pages 101-109 of the SIFRP core rules.Defense HoldingsThe defensive holdings available to the Watch are limited, as the blackbrotherhood is not allowed to build walls to defend themselves againstany attack from the south. While in the past this has been questionedby highborn lord and Lord Commander alike, it has prevented theNight’s Watch from ever being seen as a threat to the noble familiessouth of the Wall.Castles along the Wall can spend their defense attribute on Towersand Halls, but a Hall is the largest structure available to them. Thisrepresents the number of sound, defendable structures possessed bythat castle, since even at Castle Black a number of the towers are onthe verge of collapse. It is important to remember that this relates todefensible structures other than the Wall—to the north of the castle,there is still a 700-foot tall structure of stone and ice to defend againstthe wildlings.Sally Port (5 pts): Many castles along the Wall maintain a gated, defendabletunnel through the Wall to the north. These are designed to bedefensible against wildling raids, while allowing units of troops throughthe Wall to engage the raiders directly.Influence HoldingsThe Night’s Watch has very little influence in the south, and has few waysto make their needs known to the other houses. What influence yourcastle has can be spent on fortune rolls, to represent the Watch exertingpressure on holdings within the Gift and desperate entreaties to the King.As the Watch is not a hereditary structure, and its positions are electedfrom within the brotherhood, influence can never be spent on heirs. Unlikeother noble houses, status along the Wall is independent of influence:it is based instead entirely on a person’s deeds and role within the Watch’sstructure. This is outlined fully in the character creation section of thischapter, specifically in Table 1-2: Status Within the Watch.Land HoldingsA castle’s land holdings represent the areas within the Gift over which itexerts direct influence. The domain-sized package described in the corerules (1 league) works well within the brotherhood as well; though theNight’s Watch receives tributes from the Gift as a whole, it is sparselypopulated and the inhabited areas over which a specific castle has influenceare rather small.The greatest difference lies in the available types of terrain and featuresavailable in the sparsely populated lands so far to the north. Ruins,for example, are plentiful in the Gift, while coastline is nonexistent awayfrom Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Castles along the Wall use Table 1-12:Terrain & Feature Costs on the Wall rather than the tables in the SI-FRP core rules, though the descriptions remain the same. Features notlisted in the cost table are unavailable along the Wall.As with the core rules, if a castle cannot afford to invest in a domain,then it is only able to exert its influence over the areas immediately surroundingit, and extend less than a league.Law & Population HoldingsA castle’s holding in Law and Population represent the amount of controlit has over the lands it controls and how many people remain tosupport the Watch. There are no true ‘holdings’ to be purchased, butrather the attribute provides a modifier for the castle’s Fortune rolls.37