Anvil/Hammer Lord Traits & Circles

Burning Empires General Questions
1

An interesting thought occurred to me last night during a BE session. I’m not sure it’s all that important, but it made me think.

I’m playing a Forged Lord, so I have the Anvil Lord & Hammer Lord traits. With each of those I’m able to bring characters into play with no circles roll. At one point I wanted someone to get access to an GM FoN’s files and thanks to some color, I knew he fancied himself quite the ladies’ man. So I decided to bring in an attractive Anvil Scout to get into some party the FoN was throwing then slip away and get some evidence.

Anyhow, after the fact I decided she could be useful in the future, but since there was no circles roll, how could I turn her into a relationship?

Then the GM made the point, well if you don’t need to roll to bring her in, do you really need a relationship?

So I guess it comes down to with the Hammer/Anvil Lord traits do I have to bring in a nameless NPC from my ranks? Or if I come up with a cool character I like can I give them a name and continue bringing them in? Should they get bumped into a relationship at some point?

2

Can you ever have a relationship with your inferiors?
I’m only half serious.

She counts as a Circle until you use some other means to make her a full-fledged relationship. Use a social skill test building scene or a Duel of Wits compromise to snag her as a relationship.

3

Excellent. That should work wonderfully.

Thanks.

4

Wait, you can use a social skill test in a building scene to create a relationship?