CHAPTER 1: The Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>Wealth HoldingsA castle’s Wealth holdings represent those small comforts and resourcesover which it maintains direct control. Wealth is invested in these holdingsas normal for a noble house and as described in Chapter 6: House& Lands of the SIFRP core rules.MaesterEven the <strong>Watch</strong> can benefit from the wisdom of a maester.Requirement: SpecialInvestment: 10Time: 1d6 MonthsDue to age-old agreements with the Citadel in Oldtown, should a castleof the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> request a maester, every effort is made to provideone. In game terms, this waives the normal rule requiring an Influenceof at least 20 to recruit a maester for a noble house.Step Five: Motto & ArmsThe Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> and its castles bear no arms, and carry no motto.Even despite the tendency towards pride in their individual castles,nothing is allowed to foster the idea that the black brotherhood is anythingother than a unified fighting force dedicated to its common goal.Step Six: The Castle CommanderIf one of the players will not be taking on the role of castle commander,it will be important to define him and any other NCs that will turn upin the game. Use the rules for character creation that start on page 29to shape the creation of the commander, as well as the castle’s maester,chief builder, steward, and ranger.Campaigns & ImprovementThe Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>, for all its vaunted history, is not static. The popularityof the <strong>Watch</strong> with the houses of the South waxes and wanes overtime, and the importance of the separate castles along the Wall followthese trends, much as a banner house’s fortunes rise and fall with thoseof its liege. For players whose characters serve the black brotherhood itcan be frustrating to see the hard work they have put in collapse as amuch needed supply is rerouted for a different castle. It’s worse still tosee men they have trained and supported shuffled to other areas on theWall to make up for losses and dwindling resources.There are two ways to handle this interdependency in your Night’s<strong>Watch</strong>-oriented campaigns. The first, and easiest, is to ignore it completely.Allow the castle commander, or its acting chief steward to makea Fortune roll just as though it were a full-fledged house, and apply theresults normally.The other, slightly more appropriate version is to treat each of thecastles along the Wall as banner houses to Castle Black. The Lord Steward,in his role as the first steward of the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>, makes thefortune roll for the <strong>Watch</strong> as a whole, and then distribute the benefits orpenalties to the castles as he sees fit. Either of these methods still allowa Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> castle and its associated brethren the ability to interactwith noble houses on a roughly equal level, and the particulars of eachmethod are discussed in detail in the rest of this chapter.The Castle TurnTime, for a castle, is measured in weeks and months, just as they are forhouses in a default SIFRP game. Regardless of how you plan to handlethe relationships of a castle to the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>, using the four-weekmonth allows for an even translation should you ever need to compareyour castle to a noble household.Treating the Castlesas Banner HousesIf you choose to run the castles as banner houses of Castle Black, then afew things must be kept in mind. The players will have a lot less controlin what happens to their castle overall, with the fortune roll being madeby the Narrator at the end of the month, rather than by the players.Secondly, the Lord Steward must distribute resources equally across theWall, rather than play favorites, so without outside influence, the playersare likely to receive fewer benefits of a particular Fortune roll.The Narrator will also need a character sheet for the Lord Steward,as he is central to this method, and the players must interact with himregularly. For players and Narrators using the default time of SIFRP,Lord Steward Bowen Marsh’s statistics can be found on page 49.Making the Fortune RollWhen treating the castles as banner houses of Castle Black, the Fortuneroll at the end of the month is made by the Lord Steward, who is likelyto be an NC. Make the roll using his Status (5) and bonus dice for39
CHAPTER 1: The NIght’s <strong>Watch</strong>“Rats and ruins. Your own man Yarwyck saysit will be half a year before the castle can bemade fit for habitation. …It makes no matter.T hey are all we have. T here are nineteen fortsalong the Wall, and you have men in only threeof them. I mean to have every one of themgarrisoned again before the year is out.”—Stannis Baratheon,A Dance With Dragonsstewardship, and compare it to Table 6-18: House Fortunes on page118 of the SIFRP core rules.The result of this roll can then be applied to Castle Black or passedoff to one of the other castles of the <strong>Watch</strong>, should the Narrator, in theguise of Lord Steward, so choose. The <strong>Watch</strong> tries to be fair, however,and the results of the roll should be spread across the inhabited castlesroughly equally, with any extra remaining with Castle Black.As with liege and banner houses in the core rules, the Lord Stewardcan spend a Destiny Point to shift the entire results of a roll to one ofthe other inhabited castles along the Wall. This becomes especially importantas the various castles try to curry favor with the Lord Stewardin an effort to see more resources directed their way.ExampleThe Lord Steward rolls badly for his Fortune roll, getting a 17. Accordingto the chart, this is a Decline. As this is 1-point change to asingle resource, Castle Black adjusts their Power down by 1 point (afew too many rangers have disappeared north of the Wall). Had theLord Steward wanted, he could have spent a Destiny Point to allocatethis decline to one of the other castles instead of Castle Black.The next month, the Lord Steward’s roll indicates a Blessing. Thiscan adjust any attribute by up to 3 points. Castle Black keeps 1 pointto restore the loss it took to its Power, and then raises the Power ofEastwatch by the Sea and the Shadow Tower as well.Influencing the Lord StewardAs the players are entirely dependent on Castle Black’s fortune and whatsmall changes they can make by managing their resources and projects,an important addition is the ability to petition the Lord Steward foradditional funding. A character that undertakes the journey to CastleBlack during the month can attempt to influence the Lord Steward topass the entire benefit of a Fortune roll to their castle. This is accomplishedby beginning an Intrigue against the Lord Steward. Should theplayer manage to convince the Lord Steward of their cause, the resultsof the next Fortune roll are applied solely to their castle.This can only be attempted once per quarter without risking the ireof the other castle commanders, who view this sort of activity as attemptingto bypass the merit-based system of the <strong>Watch</strong> even as theysend their own stewards to plead and cajole for more. In game terms,making more frequent attempts lowers the starting disposition of theother castles towards the player castle by one step for each attempt.Treating theCastles as IndependentThe other option, while less appropriate for a more unified organizationsuch as the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>, is to run each of the castles independently ofeach other. Each castle’s steward makes a Fortune roll for his own castle,and is not as impacted by the whims of fortune that affect the other castles.While this does a poorer job of reflecting the nature of the <strong>Watch</strong>, it hasthe bonus of being identical to the system that is already in place for noblehouses in the SIFRP core rules. It also allows the players to feel more incontrol of their fate than they would being treated as banner houses.Using this option, the castle’s chief steward or the castle commandercan choose to make a Fortune roll at the end of the month, with a minimumof one roll every 3 months. Unlike noble houses, who have morecontrol over their fate than the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>, a castle along the Wallcannot choose to increase a resource by 1 point instead of rolling. Fortunescome to the Wall in fits and starts, but there is seldom steady progress.Obviously, because the castle has no banner houses, it has no wayto mitigate the effects of a particularly devastating Fortune roll. Thismakes for a more irregular progression than comes to a noble house,with stretches of growth and long periods of decline, but better representsthe fact that the <strong>Watch</strong> is beholden to the whims of the King,which can change from month to month.Decline & AbandonmentThe castles along the Wall did not fall into disrepair and abandonmentovernight, but rather through long years of decline and neglect. Withthe impact to their Status that comes from being a member of theNight’s <strong>Watch</strong>, players running a castle are at a distinct disadvantage.Even the most well placed of them within the <strong>Watch</strong> is only able tomuster 3 test dice for a Fortune roll—a quick glance at Table 6-18:House Fortunes in the core rules shows that only two Blessing results,two Growth results, and a Boon are available in that range of numbers.Statistically, a player’s castle is almost twice as likely to end up with anegative effect to their resources as a positive one. The Wall is harsh,and the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> is constantly struggling to meet their needs withdwindling resources. Castles that want to maintain Power and Defenseoften have to sacrifice Wealth holdings and Land Holdings to do so(see Manage Resources below), and several months of ill fortune canleave a castle teetering on the brink.Castles that end up with a rank of 0 in any resource can be abandonedby the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>. When this happens, its remaining resourcesare distributed to the other castles as equally as possible, withthe following adjustments: First, the castle’s remaining power holdings,if any, are distributed among the remaining castles of the <strong>Watch</strong>. Up toone-half of the Population resource can be convinced to move to newlocations, closer to the remaining castles. The rest drifts southward outof the Gift, or remains but refuses to move and thus is not available asa resource. One-third of the castle’s Wealth resource is allocated to theother castles as raw points; the holdings, if any remain, are considereddecommissioned and unavailable. Law and Lands resources are lost, asare any remaining Defense holdings. Though the terrain is unlikely tochange from the loss of the castle, some features, such as settlements,are likely to dry up and be abandoned themselves once the <strong>Watch</strong> isn’tthere to support them.40
Change language