As far as character concepts, I have a few...some might be marginally changed by the house creation process.

The first is a young adult head of house...parents just died. Has to struggle with people questioning his ability do to age and the fact his heir is most likely an older uncle. (Any HoH position requires acceptance by full cast of characters)

Other ideas revolve around a wealthy, attractive seductive type. This is pretty open ended and can easily be adjusted by house results.

I can always create warrior types, but I tend to do them often...warfare might be another interesting option.

I'm perfectly amenable to starting with an Established House (1d6 events).

As far as my character, I don't have too much in the way of a detailed sketch, as a lot of it will depend on how we build the House - though as stated earlier, I do wish to play a member of the family (as opposed to a retainer, etc.).

I did have a couple of notions I wanted to incorporate into my character's background:

1. Forbidden Romance - a relationship with someone from a rival House (or at least, a House that would piss off the Brackens).
   
2. Unavenged Death - That somewhere in the history of my character, our house, or that of our liege lord or ally, there has been a death which has not yet been avenged

Of course, those are negotiable and just thoughts at this point. I'm not set on playing a Head of House, which works just as well as it seems at least Four has expressed an interest in that.

The Three Events for your Established House are:

Ascent
Decline
Glory

This has resulted in an overall very positive impact on your initial rolls as follows:
+2 Defense
+4 Influence
+3 Lands
+4 Law
+3 Power
+3 Wealth


This has left you with the following resources [still subject to change via player d6's]

Defense: 22
Influence: 27
Lands: 27
Law: 30
Population: 32
Power: 29
Wealth: 34

Looks like we made off far better than I usually do.  So a pretty solid place to start all things considered!  I s'pose the next thing to do is start rolling d6s and see where we can place things.

I got a 4.

That said, concepts.  I'm not in love with a PC head of house, especially since we don't know each other yet.  Seen it go poorly too many times is all?  An heir tends to be less of an issue.  Granted, I know folks can get frustrated about having an NPC telling them what to do, so I'm not unsympathetic?

If we do go the HoH route, I might see about spinning off and playing a banner house for us, if only to play off the whole young untested leader thing?  Would make for interesting dynamics, that's for sure.

I'm currently leaning towards someone fight-y, largely because I like the changes I've seen that really slow combat down.  Was also going to lean into Warfare a bit, since that's a very real possibility on the horizon, and I've never actually seen those played out.

I always find that rolling a charge for the house symbol provides some inspiration and direction. I suggest we roll on the "Animals & Mythological Creatures" table and the "Objects" table. We pick the one we like best or combine the two for our house symbol.


I rolled a 3 for my bonus resource.

I have three character concepts, but each is dependent on us spending resource points.

1. If we spend 30 points of influence I will play a scheming second son.

2. If we spend 20 points of power I will play a bannerman tourney knight.

3. If we do not have a banner house and spend 10 points of power I will play uncle & master of horse.

Before we go any further I think it would be good to discuss the history of the Home House, its name, its motto etc.

The key parameters would be that your House was established in the years following the fall of House Justman, the only Andal House local to the Riverlands to ever rule it entirely, which was brutally crushed by House Hoare of the Iron Islands after refusing to pay tribute. This would have been a time of great chaos, with various Riverland Houses trying to establish their own thrones, and the Ironborn raiding and pillaging far inland.

Your house was raised to the nobility through ascent, which means that they started as smallfolk and performed some great deed in battle or married directly into a noble line [like the Spicers marrying the Westerlings]. Presumably this ascent was at the behest of House Bracken, but I'm open to alternatives.

Your second major event, Decline, is described as essentially the opposite - a series of scandals, or "marrying down". This could be to a merchant house, or perhaps even one of the sellsword captains loyal to House Teague, as the timing would fit for a second event.

Your final event "Glory" happened some time in the last few centuries and relates to the personal achievements of a key House figure. Their achievement [military or otherwise] was significant enough to reshape the image of your house in a positive way.

Events from the house history are likely to shape how its members are viewed, and also the relationships of members of the house - for example Lord Tytos Lannister's "decline" is what made Lord Tywin so ruthless.

Storyline Context
1. Your house is a vassal of House Bracken and therefore unlikely to be of the Old Faith.
2. Aside from you, House Bracken has one other key noble Vassal - House Serbera. I'll be stealing House Clegane's heraldry for this house. They are known as militaristic and unsophisticated, but loyal to House Bracken.
3. House Bracken also numbers half a dozen landed knights, including two cousins of House Serbera [there may be others, but these are the ones with significant holdings].
House Bracken's holdings are split between the south side of the Red Fork, and the North. The North side is heavily contested with House Blackwood and its vassals, and has led to war in the past. The game map is currently depicting this.
4. Whether you end up on the north or south side of the Red Fork, your neighbours are likely to be Bracken vassals and, to the East, House Lychester of Lychester Castle. There may have been some past conflicts with House Lychester, but you are currently at peace.
5. Like all Noble Houses of the Riverlands, your house is currently being taxed heavily by the Storm King. In game this will manifest as a -1 penalty to gains and losses to wealth from House Fortunes Rolls. The King's Tax Man is Ser Jasper Wylde of Fairmarket.

The Next Steps
1. Elaborate on House Events
2. Generate a House Name, Motto, and Sigil
3. List any preferences you have for House Resources before resources get locked in.
This message was last updated by the GM at 00:17, Wed 23 Sept 2020.

Work has been kicking my butt. Will probably be tomorrow evening for a good post.

Having a thought...of a man, a hunter, a survivor. He may have had a name, but he was called Skinner by all that knew him. Skinner just happened to be in the right place and saved Lord Bracken (or his son) from an ambush. He was rewarded with a modest holding and a new house was borne. I can expand on that. Just something ccg floating around in my head.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:44, Wed 23 Sept 2020.

With the blessing of The Many Faced God I rolled a 43 on the Animals & Mythological Creatures table fish. I also rolled 43 on the Objects table dice. If we stuck with one or both of these rolls for inspiration here are my initial thoughts.

So that fact that I rolled a 43 on 13d6 and 15d6 seemed meaningful. Also 4+3 is 7 so we rolled two sevens both craps. Also that seemed lucky, so I googled lucky fish and the first result was arowana also known as dragonfish. So here are a few ideas to get us started.

House Chance

"Roll the dice"
"Rather be lucky than good"
"Make your own luck"

House Blackfin

"Give a man a fish"
"Set the hook"
"The tides are always changing"
"Always swim upstream"
"Go with the flow"
"Never be without a paddle"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:16, Wed 23 Sept 2020.

Hah!  That's quite amusing mate!

I like House Blackfin, and "The tides are always changing" personally.  Seems fitting?

In reply to Player One (msg # 19):

The only thing that just doesn't ring is the tides words. We aren't coastal so not sure tides would be something we'd associate with.

Change it to currents?

Blackfin does provoke some kind of nefarious connotations. Naturally I approve.

Perhaps, to build on Player Four's idea of Skinner - your ancestor was a River Pirate Captain who by some manner of good fortune was able to save the life of Lord Bracken from a Blackwood trap hundreds of years ago. He was ennobled, and his thugs became law-abiding retainers, collecting taxes along the rivers, rather than pillaging them.

07:55, Today: Player Five rolled 6 using 1d6.  Bonus resource.

You're welcome. My work is done here.

All hail the glorious bringer of six!

10:07, Today: Player Three rolled 4 using 1d6.  Bonus Resource.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:18, Thu 24 Sept 2020.

I really like the idea of the house being founded by river pirates. I think this adds a lot of flavor. I believe it could be combined with Player Three's suggestion about Ascent.

Also I like Player One's idea of substituting in currents.

I am not trying to push for this, just checking in with the group. How does everyone feel about House Blackfin and "The currents are always changing"?

I will get some history posts up when I get home from work. Think I have some ideas that meld some of our posts.

Ok with house name, but I am still not sure I like the words. They sound like our loyalty can change whenever. I am good with river pirate, just not sure on the imagery of the words.

Whereas I think it's a very good commentary on the house's fortunes, politics, and the like.  It just doesn't feel like it's talking about our loyalties, at least not to me?

That said, yes, river pirates gives a lot of flavor, I like it!
This message was last edited by the player at 11:02, Thu 24 Sept 2020.

I have posted a draft for the House's History under a new thread, please feel free to post any feedback on it here. Hopefully events mentioned in that thread [and others]  can help us fill out this relatively sparse period in Riverlands History.

I have tried to incorporate suggestions [such as the fish/dice/changing currents], and I think between the ingenuity of Captain Skinner, and the heroism of Lord Brandomyr Blackfin, there's a solid bedrock to build the House on.

I think it's great, amazing work mate!  Gives the house a lot of flavor, and as you say, helps flesh out the history quite a bit.

I've mentioned this to a few of you elsewhere, but my apologies for continued quietness. I'm hoping to soon have more time to devote here.

What I've read so far looks fantastic. I'm excited about this game - we seem to have a lot of great players here, and a GM that really knows the material well.

As a reminder, I did roll a 6.

Just got a chance to read through the history, and I love it. It does set a great tone for us to build on.

I'm great with the House name and the suggested motto. I'm also fine with the rolled up heraldry, though perhaps a tweak there? I know that fish was rolled, though I think a particular type of fish might be more apt to a river pirate: a river shark - and that perhaps in our setting canon, the blackfin is a type of river shark native to the Riverlands - and thus the chosen moniker for our House's founder.

I'm pretty open on colors, though I think black should feature somewhere.

Hmmm I like the idea, but it being an actual shark might be hard, as river sharks are only found in the tropics if I remember correctly.  Though maybe the Blackfin is a legend and not actually real?

I think we're just waiting on rolls from 2 and 4 then we can start chatting about stats?

Currently we have two 4s and a 6.

No pressure, two and four.

Haha don't mess up the curve my friends!