Westeros

(All our rules are adapted from the game Divus Ex, pt out in free .pdf by Three Fates Gaming. It's a great system.)

[edit] Attributes

Houses (and other organizations) in Westeros have four basic attributes, named for the four suits in a Tarot deck: Swords, Chalices, Wands, and Pentacles. Each attribute has two properties: a number, representing your strength in that area, and an orientation (Upright or Inverted) representing more or less your House's philosophy or approach to the relevant attribute.

Upright Chalices represent your House's social rank in Westeros. Inverted chalices represent social rank in the Free Cities.

Swords represent your military might. Upright swords represent a House with a balance of offenseive and defensive strength. Houses with Inverted Swords forego some offensive power for greater defense.

Upright Pentacles represent your House's sway over the common folk of Westeros. Houses with many pentacles see errant knights flock to their banners, raise armies with ease, and have its members repeatedly immortalized in song and story. Inverted pentacles represent your House's control of the land itself. Houses with many inverted pentacles find their ships less often caught in storms, are more likely to have strong harvests, and less likely to suffer from a natural disaster.

Upright Wands represent your House's alignment with the deep magical and religious forces of the world, and with luck, chance and chaos. Inverted wands represent your House's commitment to and ability to benefit from order, reason and logic. Wands are involved in the use of Arcana, which we'll discuss in a moment.

Each of the Great Houses (Stark, Lannister, Tully, Arryn, Baratheon, Martell, Tyrell, Greyjoy) will be given 14 points to divide among their four statistics as they see fit. Minor Houses (Frey, Umber, Bolton, Baelish, etc.) will receive 9. (Other entities, such as the Maesters or the Band of Brothers, should consult the GMs to determine their starting points.) These attributes are recorded on your House Sheet, and may be expended and purchased in a number of ways, as detailed below. PLEASE NOTE that once you spend an attribute point, it is GONE FOREVER. You may purchase attributes with earned experience points.

[edit] What do these crazy things do, you ask?

--You may purchase the following items with Pentacles:

Army: 1 Pentacle, 1 turn Armies allow you to wage war and ravage. They take time to move from place to place.

Fleet: 1 Pentacle, 1 turn Effect: You may use a fleet to move an Army, or any character for that matter, more quickly than they might travel on land. You need a fleet to travel to the Free Cities, the Iron Islands, or any other location not on the mainland of Westeros. NOTE: You must control a port to make use of a fleet.

Port: 1 Pentacle, 1 turn Effect: A port allows you to control a fleet, and in cases where water routes are feasible decreases your travel time. NOTE: A Port can only be built at a town bordering on water, e.g., Lannisport. Sunspear, etc.

Keep: 1 Pentacle, 1 turn Effect: Built at a town, a keep grants +1 Reversed Sword to the defenders of that town. If the bonus Sword and Chalice are expended in defense of the town, the keep is destroyed. If If the town is surrendered before the keep is destroyed, the keep is transferred to the House that occupies it.

Castle: 2 Pentacles, 2 turns Effect: Built at a town already containing a keep, a castle grants an additional +1 Reversed Sword to the defenders of that town. If the bonus swords and chalices are expended in the defense of the town, the castle is destroyed. If only half are destroyed, the castle is damaged. The cost of repair is one Pentacle, and takes one full turn to complete. If the town is surrendered before the castle is destroyed, the castle is transferred to the House that occupies it.

Sept: 1 Pentacle, 1 turn Effect: Grants +1 XP to the controlling House each turn. Only Houses with Upright Pentacles may purchase a Sept. Great Sept: 2 Pentacles, 2 turns Effect: Grants additional +1 XP to the controlling House each turn. Requires a Sept. Only Houses with Upright Pentacles may purchase a Great Sept.

Godswood: 1 Pentacle, 1 turn Effect: Grants +1 XP to the controlling House each turn. Only Houses with Inverted Pentacles may purchase a Godswood. Great Godswood: 2 Pentacles, 2 turns Effect: Grants additonal +1 XP to the controlling House each turn. Requires a Godswood. Only Houses with Inverted Pentacles may purchase a Great Godswood.

--They let you fight wars, taking or destroying towns, ports, Septs, Godswoods and keeps. You must have an army to wage war. Wars proceed as follows: the attacker must send an army to the tactical point it wishes to take. The attacking House may then expend a Sword to reduce the defender's Chalices by one. If the defender has the Swords Reversed attribute, he or she may opt to lose a Reversed Sword instead of a Chalice. Once this exchange occurs, the defender becomes the attacker and combat recommences. If the attacker has Swords Reversed, he may only expend half of his Swords Reversed attribute in attacking.

The original attacker may back off at any time, but the original defender gets a parting shot at them. The original defender may back off at any time if the territory does not contain a keep. That territory is given to the original attacker. If the territory does contain a keep, the defender can still abandon it at any time, but all named characters present that do not have PC protection are taken hostage by the original attacker. (The character with PC protection may slip away.) If the original defender abandons the territory, they must surrender either one Pentacle or one Chalice directly to the original attacker.

If either side loses all of its Chalices, it must surrender. The losing House must either lose an attribute point of any type or offer an acceptable favor to the victor, usually the use of an Arcana. Alternately, they may give up a character of the victor's choosing as a hostage against future hostilities. These are merely examples of typical terms of surrender: the warring Houses may negotiate as they see fit. Unless otherwise specified by the terms, the contested territory is granted to the victor and the army opposing him destroyed. The victor may choose to destroy any ports or keeps present in that territory or take them for himself.

If a House refuses to accept the Victor's terms of surrender, it is seen to have fought to the bitter end. It no longer has the capacity to maintain any of its holdings and its surviving members must seek asylum with the King or with one of its allies. The restoration of a House from such a state will be handled on a case by case basis.

--They let you wreak havoc on an opponent's peasantry or resources. This is called Ravaging. Each turn, you may expend one Sword (or Reversed Sword) to destroy one village (100-600 people) or one structure (keep, port, sept or godswood). The Ravaging House may choose the village to be destroyed. Only one village may be destroyed at a time. You must have an army to Ravage, unless your Pentacles are Inverted, in which case the destruction may be accomplished by a freak act of nature. If your opponent has an army stationed where you want to Ravage, you must default to the rules for war.

--They allow and govern the use of Arcana.