I am about to start my first campaign with Burning Wheel, playing a 1-on-1 Game of Thrones setting. For this I would like to adapt the Domain-section ("House & Lands) of the Song of Ice and Fire RPG to Burning Wheel.
But before I beging working on a hack, I would like to ask if anyone else has done this before and could share his way of fitting it in the BW rules (Ressources, Circles, Lifestyle maintenance etc.)? I really like the elements the Domain-system of the SoIaF-RPG has, but lack the experience in merging it with BW. Maybe someone of you can?
Just this short and simple question for now - help would be much appreciated.
What do you envision will be the interaction between the character, his or her Beliefs, and the holdings? How do you foresee play incorporating the house and its lands?
I want the holding to be the base of operation for the character - who most likely will be a minor lord - and the starting point for most plots. Primarily it should serve as a better anchor in the world (“How does my land look like, how big is my houshold guard, where does my money or my levies come from etc.”) but it would be nice if it would be also felt in the mechanics. For example, Ressources or Circles could be determined or at least modified/influenced by the holding, thus taking good care of the domain should give boons to the individual character.
Concerning beliefs, the holdings should pretty much be the home of the characters, as well as the location, where his loved ones live. (I plan using the GoT house-mottos as beliefs).
Therefore, the castle and the land should develop during the game: new buildings can be erected, new areas lost and won, wars devastate the countryside etc. The scope of the game would encompass several years and decades, maybe even more, letting the player form a dynasty and player over several generations with different characters of the family.
In this regard my idea of using the holding would be quite similar to Pendragon, I think (although my first inspiration was the GoT-Mod for Crusader Kings II).
I was hoping some other people would chime in, but . . . I would represent the minor lord’s holding as a combination of Resource expenditures, Affiliations, Reputations, and Circles. The character should start off well-know amongst his or her subjects, and I imagine not wanting for much. If he does want for something, however, that would make the foundation of a good Belief. Perhaps you could burn up a Call-on Trait that allows the player to re-roll dice on Circles test when in his holdings, with the thought that he’s powerful and influential in that realm, but loses this advantage when away from home.
Seasonal lifestyle maintenance would echo Pendragon somewhat. Burning Wheel Headquarters is a fan of Pendragon, but I don’t think anyone would suggest you bolt its manor rules on top of Burning Wheel. I’d keep the action in your campaign revolving on the character and his Beliefs, Traits, and Instincts. Use the holdings as a way to express what’s important about the character, and also as something to threaten or to take away as a consequence of compromises or failures.
Daniel, thanks for your help. If I should not to implement any “A Song of Ice and Fire”-RPG stuff, I will do it this way.
But in the meanwhile, I came up with a quick-and-dirty way to tie the House & Lands-subsystem to Burning Wheel. Here is the plan:
(whoever knows both the ASoIaF and the BW-RPG is encouraged to tell me what they think about it!)
Change to Burning Wheel
Ressource Points (the ones you get at character creation from your lifepaths) are no longer used to buy anything. Not Gear, not Relationships, not Affiliations, not Reputation. Thus it does neither determine the Resources Exponent nor affects the Circles Exponent. All this will be managed through the stats of the House the character is tied to (see below).
Change in ASoIaF
The House Creation (rolling out the stats with 7d6 each) remains unchanged, with one exeption: The number of Bonus Die which normally derives from the number of the players (e.g. 4 Players = 4 bonus dice) is now dependent on the number of BW-Ressource Points the character (luckily i just have one) has from his lifepaths (e.g. 1 bonus die for every 50 rps). Thus, a mightier character has a mightier domain right from the start.
where to go from there …
The main task is to tailor the ASoIaF-House-stats to BW needs. Here what I came up with:
Defense: remains unchanged, for it just determines the size of castles etc., which transfers without problems.
Influence: determines the points for BW-Relationships (instead of just “buying” heirs, as in ASoIaF Vanilla).
Lands: determines BW-Affiliations. The Dice granted for being a member of the family is dependent on the size of the domain.
Law: remains unchanged (is primariliy tied to the ASoIaF house-maintanance, a.k.a. Fortune Roll)
Population: remains unchanged (is primarily tied to the ASoIaF house-maintanance, a.k.a. Fortune Roll)
Power: remains unchanged, for it just determines the number of vassals, troops etc., which transfers without problems.
Wealth: determines BW-Ressources. The higher the wealth, the higher the Ressources exponent of the lord (e.g. 30 Wealth = Ressources 6 or so). Lower members of the house get fractions of this (e.g. Hier 75%, Captain 50%, Smith 25% etc.). Advantage dice for Ressources can be drawn from here on expense of the domains stats. On the other hand, Cash or Funds earned by the character can be put into the domain’s coffers, raising it’s wealth.
The ASoIaF-Fortune Roll for the house get’s tied to the intervals of the BW-Lifestyle Cycle but otherwise remains unchanged, as it just affects the stats of the houses.
Finally back to Burning Wheel: The Lifestyle Cycle for each individual character remains unchanged, but now their Ressources are directly tied to the Wealth of the house, which I consider a good thing. Nontheless, it is possible that the individual character’s Ressources get taxed without immediatly compromising the Wealth of the house.
That’s it, mainly. When you’ve read all this: congrats! Do you think it will work?
Do you think it will work?