04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

CHAPTER 1: The NIght’s Watch“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 Watch, should the Narrator, in theguise of Lord Steward, so choose. The Watch 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 Watch 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 Watch, 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 Watch, 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 Watch, 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 Watch 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 Watch, players running a castle are at a distinct disadvantage.Even the most well placed of them within the Watch 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 Watch 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 Watch. 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 Watch. 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 Watch isn’tthere to support them.40