Untitled

Introduction

De s i g n : Robert J. Schwalb and Steve Kenson AD D i t i o n A l Wr i t i n g : Jesse Scoble eD i t i n g : Kara Hamilton

De v e l o p m e n t : Steve Kenson Ar t Di r e c t i o n A n D gr A p h i c De s i g n : Hal Mangold

co v e r Ar t : Christophe Swal cA r t o g r A p h y : Andrew Law

in t e r i o r Ar t : Mark Evans, Pat Loboyko, Christophe Swal and Mike Vilardi

Green Ronin President Chris Pramas

Green Ronin Staﬀ Bill Bodden, Steve Kenson, Nicole Lindroos, Hal Mangold, Chris Pramas, Evan Sass, Robert J. Schwalb, Marc Schmalz

material in no way constitutes a challenge to the respective copyright holders of that material. A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Green Ronin,

and their associated logos are trademarks of Green Ronin Publishing, LLC. Printed in the U.S.A.

“He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”

—A Clash of Kings

Ours Is the Fury!

Welcome to the beginning of A

Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying!

Many diﬀerent paths may have

brought you here, and we’ll take

a look at them before we dive

into the world of adventure, excitement, opportunity, and betrayal that is the

Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

ese Quick-Start rules and the adventure Journey to King’s Landing are

mean to be your introduction to both the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying

game and to the fantasy world detailed in George R.R. Martin’s best-selling

series of novels.

What Is Roleplaying?

In a roleplaying game, you and other players take the roles of characters in an

adventure story. One of the players, called the Narrator, takes on the job of

starting the story and telling you about the situations your characters ﬁnd

themselves in. e players decide what their characters do, and the game rules

determine how successful they are. e Narrator then moves the story along

by describing what happens next, and so forth. As the game unfolds, you

detail an entire story involving your characters, like the chapters of a novel

or the episodes of a television series.

Roleplaying games are unique in that no one player “wins” the game, since

the goal is for everybody to have fun creating the story. A roleplaying game

also has no predetermined

ending; play can continue for

as long as you and the other

players wish, and your story

can stretch over many diﬀerent

play sessions, just as a novel does over many chapters, and even many books

in an ongoing series.

What Is A Song of Ice

and Fire Roleplaying?

A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying (or SIFRP for short) is a game based on the

best-selling fantasy series by George R. R. Martin, a sweeping epic of war

and the struggle for political power and survival set in the Seven Kingdoms

of Westeros. e series encompasses the novels A Game of rones, A Clash

of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and the forthcoming A Dance

With Dragons.

In this world, seasons last for years, not months, and family generations can be

traced back for thousands of years to the Age of Heroes. Ancestral weapons

may be worth more than a lordling’s only daughter, and castles may have

ﬂown a score of banners in their storied histories.

Magic lives mostly in the myths and faded dreams of earlier generations. e

learned maesters say it died out a lifetime ago, with the last of the dragons,

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Introduction

A World of Ice and Fire

e events of George

R.R. Martin’s saga,

A Song of Ice and

Fire, take place on

the island continent

of Westeros, a realm known as the Seven Kingdoms. e Targaryen dynasty

ruled Westeros for centuries, but ﬁfteen years before the series begins, they

were overthrown in a bloody conﬂict remembered as the War of the Usurper.

A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying focuses on the period leading up to the

ﬁrst book, A Game of rones. e new king, Robert Baratheon, has presided

over a decade of uneasy peace but change is in the wind. Few know it yet,

but winter is coming.

History

Aegon Targaryen, known to history as the Conqueror, invaded and united

Westeros. His forces swept across the land, wresting control from the

Andal lords, who themselves had conquered the First Men thousands of

years ago. e dynasty King Aegon founded lasted for nearly three hundred

years. Despite many tumultuous upheavals, including civil wars, uprisings,

and rebellions, the Targaryens survived, but all things end, and so did the

Conqueror’s dynasty when King Aerys II ascended to the throne. Known

as the Mad King, he ushered in the fall of this once great and mighty

house.

A Madman’s War

Aerys II was cruel and insane. He saw enemies in every shadow and turned

his subjects against him through inhumane acts of despotic power. In the

end, Robert Baratheon, Lord of Storm’s End led an uprising against the

king after Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen abducted Robert’s betrothed.

Known as the War

of the Usurper, or

Robert’s Rebellion,

this conflict saw

Robert unite many

of the great houses behind his cause and launch a terrible crusade to kill

the Targaryen family, root and branch.

e war was bloody and brutal, but it was short-lived, with the Targaryen

death knell rung on the banks of the Trident. ere, Robert Baratheon

slew Crown Prince Rhaegar, shattering his breastplate, and turning the

tide of battle. As Robert and his allies marched toward King’s Landing,

Tywin Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock, approached the city. e Mad

King, thinking his old ally returned to save his reign, threw open the gates,

welcoming the enemy to sack the city.

While his home crumbled around him, Aerys II seized on one last hope

and plotted to burn the city to ashes. Before he could enact his plan, a

member of his Kingsguard, Jaime Lannister, betrayed his oaths. Within

sight of the sinister Iron rone, seat of power over all of Westeros, Jaime

Lannister murdered King Aerys II. With that one betrayal, the city was

saved and the war was ended. Robert Baratheon was named King of the

Realm and wedded Tywin Lannister’s daughter to gain her family’s great

wealth and support.

Upon the Iron Throne

It is now the reign of Robert Baratheon, the First of his Name, King of the

Andals, and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms

and Protector of the Realm. His ascent brought renewed stability to Westeros,

reviving the Seven Kingdoms after the madness of Aerys II. at said, these

last years have not all been peace, and Robert’s reign has seen its fair share

A World of Ice and Fire

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”

—Cersei Lannister, A Game of T hrones

but others say it still exists amongst the maegi and warlocks of the exotic

eastern lands.

A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying is about Machiavellian court politics, family

alliances and enmities, the rise and fall of kingdoms, and the clash of armies,

but it is also about honor and duty, family, the responsibilities of leadership,

love and loss; tournaments, murders, conspiracies, prophecies, dreams, war,

great victories, and terrible defeats. It’s about knights, both false and true…

and it’s about dragons.

Welcome to the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, and remember the words of

House Stark: “Winter is coming.”

How to Use This Book

A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Quick-Start is intended to give you a taste

of the SIFRP game and how it plays. Included in this book is a summary

of the game’s rules and how it is played, along with a short introductory

adventure, “Journey to King’s Landing,” wherein a small band of characters

travel through the Seven Kingdoms and face danger at one of their stops

along the way. You’ll also ﬁnd a complete set of pre-generated characters for

playing this adventure.

Would-be players should read over the material other than the adventure,

becoming familiar with the game’s rules. One player, the Narrator, should also read

the adventure in order to get the game started. e players (up to six) choose which

characters they wish to play—roll dice if there’s a conﬂict, with the highest roll

getting to pick ﬁrst. en the Narrator starts oﬀ the adventure by describing the

ﬁrst scene to the players and letting them choose how their characters react.

You may wish to pause the action of the game from time to time to consult

the rules found in this book until you’re familiar and comfortable with them.

ere’s nothing wrong with this, and you may need some practice before

you’re completely familiar with how everything in SIFRP works. e character

sheets in this book include summaries and quick references of important

game information for ease of use during play.

Most of all, have fun spinning out your ﬁrst A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying

tale! Use your imagination and, if the game strikes out in an unexpected

direction, run with it! Make things up and spin scenes and events out as

necessary to make the story fun and interesting for everyone.

Introduction

A World of Ice and Fire

of rebellion and uprising, and there are whispers of corruption, plots, and

treasonous talk spilling from King’s Landing, the seat of Robert’s power.

Worse, not all the Targaryens were slain in Robert’s war. Rumors of

the last heir exiled to the Free Cities drift into the ports of the

Seven Kingdoms, where those still loyal to the old dynasty

cling to their vows in the hopes of one day restoring the

rightful rulers to the throne.

The Seven

Kingdoms

e Seven Kingdoms are greater than the man seated

on the Iron rone, and these mighty realms have stood

since before the Targaryens. ey trace their lineage back

to the Age of Heroes, when magic permeated the land, dark

things crept in the light of the winter moon, and the greatest deeds of

mortals were done.

The North

Far from King’s Landing is a wild and untamed region

known simply as the North. Distance allows the people

of this land to preserve the customs passed down since

the days of the First Men. Bounded by the Wall, a

continent-spanning barrier constructed of solid ice

to the north, the Bay of Ice to the west, the Bay of

Seals to the east, and the boggy wetlands of the Neck

to the south, it is oft-regarded as an uncivilized land,

where men worship strange gods and hold to stranger

beliefs. Ruling the North is Lord Eddard Stark of

House Stark, who governs his lands from his sprawling

castle Winterfell.

The Vale of Arryn

South and east of the North is the Vale of Arryn, surrounded by the

stony peninsulas of the Fingers, the rocky and barren Bay of Crabs, and the

foreboding Mountains of the Moon. Lord Jon Arryn, Warden of the East,

Defender of the Vale, and Hand of the King rules these lands

from his mountain fastness called the Eyrie.

The Riverlands

e Kingsroad, which runs all the way from the Wall

to King’s Landing in the south, passes by the western

border of the Vale, paralleling the mighty waters of

the Green Fork of the Trident. e Trident marks the

Riverlands, a lush and bountiful region ruled by House

Tully from Riverrun. It contains the lake called Gods

Eye, which holds the Isle of Faces, the site of an ancient

pact between the First Men and the mysterious children

of the forest. e Riverlands are bordered by the Neck to

the North, the Vale to the east, the Westerlands to the west,

and King’s Landing and the Reach to the south.

The Westerlands

e Westerlands are home to the Lannisters who rule from

Casterly Rock. e region is also home to some of the richest

gold and silver mines in all the Seven Kingdoms. It is a small

region, dominated by Lannisport and the Rock, the seat

of power for Lord Tywin Lannister, Warden of the West

and father of Queen Cersei.

The Reach

South of the Westerlands sits the Reach, the largest region

next to the North. Its northern boundary is the Gold

Road, which runs from the Rock to King’s Landing, and it

includes everything to the southwest of the Stormlands and

Dorne. e Reach contains the Shield Islands, the Arbor, and

the vast city of Oldtown. It is rich and vibrant, warm and bountiful,

and ruled by the Tyrells of Highgarden.

The Stormlands

e Stormlands, south of King’s Landing and Blackwater Bay and

east of the Reach, stretch down to the Sea of Dorne. e

Stormlands are small, but ﬁlled with thick forests of the

rainwood and the kingswood. e Stormlands also include

Shipbreaker Bay, Cape Wrath, and the Isle of Tarth. e

Baratheon family seat is at Storm’s End, held by King

Robert’s younger brother, Lord Renly Baratheon.

Dorne

is region, the most southern and hot-blooded realm of

Westeros, lies between the Sea of Dorne and the Dornish

Marches, where the Red Mountains form a natural border

with the rest of Westeros. Dorne also forms the shore of the

Summer Sea. It is ruled by the Martells from Sunspear.

The Iron Islands

e Iron Islands sit most apart from the other realms, lying oﬀ the western coast

of Westeros, but touching the edges of the North, the Riverlands, and

the Westerlands. e Iron Islands lie in Ironman’s Bay, west of the

Trident and the Neck, and contain seven notable islands and

many sea-swept chunks of rock. e ironmen follow their

own religion, the Old Way of the Drowned God, and this

makes them distinct from the other peoples of the Seven

Kingdoms. House Greyjoy of Pyke rules the ironmen

King’s Landing

Home to the king and queen and seat of the Iron rone,

King’s Landing is the heart of the Seven Kingdoms.

Once seen as the territory of the Targaryens (whose home

and seat were on the isle of Dragonstone), King’s Landing

remains the capital under King Baratheon and Queen Cersei.

It is the largest city in the Seven Kingdoms, and the center of

trade, politics, and adventure.

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st e p i n t o t h e W o r l D o f We s t e r o s ,

A n D t r y y o u r h A n D A t t h e gA m e o f th r o n e s !

Characters

In A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, each player controls one or more

characters, sometimes called player characters or PCs, to diﬀerentiate them

from the other characters in the game. A character is your alter ego; it’s your

door to the Seven Kingdoms, your persona, avatar, or proxy in the game.

Characters have various deﬁning game traits, but a character is more than

just a set of numbers; your character has a history, personality, goals, outlooks,

ambitions, beliefs and more. It’s up

to you to decide what your character

looks like and how he or she behaves,

since creating, deﬁning, and playing

your character go a long way toward

making the game fun. is section provides an overview of how SIFRP deﬁnes

characters, using abilities, qualities, and destiny.

Abilities

Abilities deﬁne how the characters interact with the world. ey describe

those areas in which a character excels and those in which he could use a

bit of help. A character’s abilities also provide a glimpse of style, possibly

motivation, and strategy in surviving the game of thrones or the battleﬁeld. Of

course, to the untrained eye, abilities

look very much like a collection of

numbers, but these numbers have

meaning and in them is where lives

your character.

Ability Rank

A character’s rating in an ability is measured by rank, a number listed after

the ability, like “Athletics 2” or “Fighting 4”. e greater your rank, the better

you are at using that ability. Rank says a lot about your character and knowing

what it means can help you translate the numbers into useful descriptions.

Abilities are ranked from 1 (the lowest) to 7 (the highest), as follows:

Rank 1 — Deficient

is rank in an ability means you’re deﬁcient. Routine tasks are a challenge.

Generally, an ability at this rank is the result of some other physical or mental

deﬁciency.

Rank 2 — Average

Most folks in Westeros have abilities at this rank. Having rank 2 in an ability

means you can handle routine tasks and manage challenging things given

enough time. Certain things, however, are beyond your ability. Abilities start

out at rank 2 by default.

Rank 3 — Talented

A cut above the average, having rank 3 in an ability means you have a special

knack or a minimum amount of training, such as a few hours put in with a

practice sword or having ridden a horse a few times in your life.

Rank 4 — Trained

At this rank, you combine your natural talents with extensive training.

Your skill exceeds that of the average individual. You can conﬁdently tackle

challenging tasks without trouble and, with a little luck, can pull oﬀ some

pretty impressive stunts.

Rank 5 — Accomplished

Intensive training coupled with natural talent places you far above the

common man. In fact, people with rank 5 are often the best at what they do

in an area, having surpassed their peers in their craft.

Rank 6 — Master

By rank 6, you are considered one of the best in the world at the ability. People

use you as an example, seek you out to learn and improve their training, or

simply to meet you.

Rank 7 — Paragon

Rank 7 is as high as any can hope to achieve. So rare is this rank, people with

this level of ability are considered legends, once in a generation, if that.

Specialties

Where rank represents talent combined with training, Specialties reﬂect a

narrowing of an ability’s focus, the result of speciﬁc development in one of

Characters

“[H]ard places breed hard men, and hard men rule the world.”

—Balon Greyjoy

Important Terms

e following terms are used regularly in A Song of Ice and Fire

Roleplaying.

ability: One of the deﬁning game traits of a character. Abilities

are measure by rank.

ability test (or simply test): Using an ability to attempt an action

where the outcome is in doubt. A test involves rolling a number

of six-sided dice (the test dice) equal to the tested ability’s rank

and adding them together.

bonus die: A bonus die is an extra die rolled during an ability

test, but then a number of low dice equal to the number of bonus

dice rolled is dropped from the test before the remaining dice are

added to determine the result.

character: A player’s assumed persona in the context of the game.

degree (of success): A measure of how successful an ability test is,

beyond mere success or failure.

Destiny Points: A measure of a character’s future potential, used

by players during the game to inﬂuence fate and outcomes where

that character is concerned.

dice: Randomizers used to determine the outcomes of uncertain

events in the game. SIFRP uses six-sided dice, sometimes

abbreviated “d6”.

drawback: A character quality with a negative aﬀect on the

character, such as a disability.

modiﬁer: A bonus or penalty that applies to the result of an ability

test, expressed as +# or –#.

penalty die: A die subtracted from the test dice (starting with the

lowest ﬁrst) after any bonus dice have been discarded, before the

dice are summed to determine the result.

quality: A positive character quality, providing a particular deﬁned

game advantage.

rank: A measure of a character’s ability, ranging from 1 (impaired)

to 7 (legendary). Abilities have an average rank of 2 by default.

result: e value arrived at by adding up all of the test dice rolled

for an ability test.

SIFRP: An abbreviation for A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. Refers

to the game, as opposed to the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series.

test die: A die that is rolled and added as part of an ability test.

Characters

the many areas an ability encompasses. Specialties, like abilities, are ranked

from 1 to 7. ey are designated as a number followed by a B (for “bonus”).

So, if you had rank 2 in the Axes specialty, you’d note it as Axes 2B. Your

specialty rank cannot exceed your ability rank.

Your rank in a specialty provides a number of bonus dice toward your ability

test. Also, when an opponent tests against your passive test result, you may

add the rank of a specialty that most closely applies to the passive test. For

example, if a spy tries to sneak past you, he rolls a Stealth test against your

passive Awareness test. Assuming you have Awareness 4, your passive result

would be 16 (4 times rank 4). If, however, you had a Notice 2 specialty, your

passive result would be 18 instead (16 + 2 for the specialty rank).

Ability Descriptions

e following are brief descriptions of the abilities and what they do. e

SIFRP rulebook, naturally, provides more detailed descriptions and guidelines

for using the various abilities.

Agility

Agility measures dexterity, nimbleness, reﬂexes, and ﬂexibility. In some ways,

it describes how comfortable you are in your body, how well you master your

movement, and how well you react to your surroundings.

Animal Handling

Animal Handling encompasses various skills and techniques used to train,

work, and care for animals. Whenever you would regain control over a

panicked mount, train a dog to serve as a guardian, or train ravens to carry

messages, you test this ability.

Athletics

Athletics describes the degree of training, the application of physical ﬁtness,

coordination, training, and raw muscle. Athletics is an important ability in

that it determines how far you can jump, how fast you run, how quickly you

move, and how strong you are.

Awareness

Awareness measures your senses, how quickly you can respond to changes in

your environment and your ability to see through double-talk and feints to

arrive at the truth of the matter. Whenever you perceive your surroundings

or assess another person, use Awareness.

Cunning

Cunning encapsulates intelligence, intellect, and the application of all

your collected knowledge in a practical way. Typically, Cunning comes

into play whenever you might recall an important detail or instruction,

work through a puzzle, or solve some other problem such as researching

and deciphering codes.

Deception

Deception measures your gift at duplicity, your ability to lie and deceive. You

use Deception to mask your intentions and hide your agenda. You also use

Deception to pretend to be someone other than who you really are, to aﬀect

a diﬀerent accent, and pull oﬀ a disguise.

Endurance

Endurance measures your physical well-being, your health and hardiness.

Your Endurance determines how much punishment you can take as well as

how quickly you recover from injury.

Fighting

Fighting describes your skill at arms, your ability to wield weapons eﬀectively

in combat. Whenever you would attack unarmed or using a hand-held weapon

you test ﬁghting.

Healing

Healing represents skill with and understanding of the accumulated

medical knowledge throughout the world. Rank in this ability reﬂects an

understanding of health and recovery, with the highest ranks representing

talents held only by the greatest of maesters.

Knowledge

Knowledge describes your general understanding and awareness of the world

in which you live. It represents a broad spectrum of subjects, ranging from

history, agriculture, economics, politics, and numerous other subjects.

Language

Language is the ability to communicate in a tongue, usually through speech,

but among the best educated, also through the written word. e starting

rank you have in this ability applies to your knowledge of the Common

Tongue spoken throughout Westeros. When you improve this ability, you

may improve your ability with the Common Tongue or choose to speak

other languages.

Marksmanship

Marksmanship represents your skill and accuracy with ranged weapons.

Whenever you make an attack using a ranged weapon, you test

Marksmanship.

Persuasion

Persuasion is the ability to manipulate the emotions and beliefs of others.

With this ability, you can modify how others see you, shape their attitudes

towards others, convince them of things they might not otherwise agree to,

and more.

Characters Playing the Game

Status

Status describes the circumstances of your birth and the knowledge those

circumstances grant you. e higher your rank, the more likely you will be

able to recognize heraldry, the better your reputation, and the stronger your

knowledge of managing people and lands.

Stealth

Stealth represents your ability to creep about unseen and unheard. Whenever

you would move without being noticed, you test Stealth.

Survival

Survival is the ability to get by in the wild—hunting, foraging, avoiding

getting lost, and following tracks. e Survival skill is important for a variety

of people in that hunting remains an important method of providing food for

one’s family, especially in the more remote corners of Westeros.

Thievery

ievery is a catchall ability for any skill involving larcenous activities.

Examples include picking locks, hand tricks, and general robbery.

Warfare

Warfare describes a character’s talents at managing the battleﬁeld, ranging

from the ability to issue commands, strategic knowledge for maneuvering

armies, to tactical knowledge for dealing with small engagements.

Will

Will is your mental fortitude, reﬂecting the state of your mind’s health and

endurance. It represents your ability to withstand fear in the face of appalling

violence or supernatural phenomena, and also serves as the foundation for

your ability to resist being manipulated by others.

Destiny

Destiny is the ability to shape the outcomes of your experiences by subtly

altering the story in ways to let you overcome adversity and lift yourself above

the ﬁckle fortunes of mere luck. As your character grows older and more

accomplished, you may invest your destiny into qualities, which manifest

as speciﬁc advantages, but also ground you, binding you to the fabric of the

setting. Each time you acquire a quality, you bring yourself closer to realizing

your destiny. Of course, you might resist, you might ﬂee your fate, but then

who’s to say that your ﬂight wasn’t planned all along?

Your fate lives in Destiny Points. rough them, you take control of the

story, create opportunities where none exist, escape near certain death, or use

them to advance you own cause. You may use your Destiny Points in one of

three ways: spend, burn, or invest. You spend a Destiny Point to change the

game in a minor way. You burn a Destiny Point to change the game in a

signiﬁcant way. Or, you invest a Destiny Point to acquire a permanent beneﬁt.

Younger characters have more Destiny Points, while older characters have

fewer, because they have invested more of them. Investing Destiny Points is

detailed in the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying rulebook, while spending

and burning Destiny Points are describe here.

Spending Destiny Points

e easiest and most conservative use of Destiny Points is to spend them.

Whenever you spend a Destiny Point, you adjust your circumstances. You

might alter the outcome of a test, or assume narrative control over the story

in some minor way. Once you spend the Destiny Point, you cannot use it

again until you achieve a story goal, the climax of a particular chapter in your

character’s life. Since you should be able to achieve a story goal in one or two

game sessions, you are rarely without your Destiny Points for long.

You can spend a Destiny Point at any time, even when it’s not your turn,

though it’s polite to let other players ﬁnish their turns ﬁrst. You may only

spend a single Destiny Point at a time for any one of the following eﬀects.

• Gain+1bonusdieonatest.isdiecanexceedthenormallimitson

bonus dice.

• Convertoneofyourbonusdiceintoatestdie.

• Remove–1penaltydie.

• Bestowa–1penaltydieonanopponentforonetest.

• TakeanextraLesserAction.

• IgnoreyourArmorPenaltyforoneround.

• Improveorworsenanothercharacter’sdispositionbyone-step(seethe

Intrigue section).

• Negateanothercharacter’suseofaspentDestinyPoint.

• Addaminordetailtoascene,suchasashoddylock,aminorclue,orsome

other useful but small element that can help move the story along.

Burning Destiny Points

When spending a Destiny Point is not enough, you can “burn” a Destiny Point

for a much greater eﬀect. Burning a Destiny Point permanently reduces the

number of Destiny Points you have. In eﬀect, they function like extra lives,

giving you much more control over the dice when they turn against you.

Destiny Points are rare and precious commodities, so burn them wisely.

As with spending Destiny Points, you may only burn one at a time. A burned

Destiny Point can achieve any one of the following results.

• Convertallofyourbonusdiceintotestdiceforonetest.

• Add+5tooneofyourtestresults.

• AutomaticallysucceedononetestasifyouhadrolledtheDicultyexactly

(without any extra degrees of success).

• Removealldamageandinjuries(thoughnotwounds).

• Whendefeated,decidetheconsequencesofyourowndefeat.

• Transformanothercharacter’ssuccessfultestintoafailedtest.

• Automaticallycompelanothercharacterinanintrigue.

• Permanentlyremovethepenaltiesassociatedwithanegativequality.

• Negatetheeectsofanothercharacter’sburnedDestinyPoint.

• Addasignicantdetailtoascene,suchasgainingamajorclue,ndinga

way out of a nasty predicament, or some other signiﬁcant and useful

element that shifts the story in your favor.

• Avoidcertaindeath.Whenyouusethisoption,youcharacterispresumed

dead and is removed from the story until such time as the Narrator

deems it appropriate for the character’s return.

Qualities

A primary use of Destiny is acquiring various qualities, innate advantages,

ranging from prowess in combat to social graces to wealth or even rare

supernatural gifts. Several qualities are described for the characters in this

book, and many more are presented in the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying

rulebook.

Drawbacks

e characters of the A Song of Ice and Fire saga are often ﬂawed, some fatally

so. Others struggle to overcome the setbacks fate has dealt them. us some

SIFRP characters have drawbacks, negative qualities, imposing some penalty

ordicultyonthecharacter.Youcanseeseveraldrawbacksdescribedfor

the sample characters in this book, including Bastard Born and Flaw. Other

drawbacks in SIFRP include things like Craven, Crippled, Debt, Nemesis,

and Outcast.

Characters

Playing the Game

The Dice

Like many roleplaying games, SIFRP uses dice to resolve the success or failure

of dramatic actions and choices that crop up during game play. SIFRP uses

six-sided dice, the same kind you’ll ﬁnd in many family games, but widely

available just about anywhere. To play this game, you’ll need at least ten

dice, but having more can’t hurt. Players may want their own set of dice or

can share dice.

Using Dice

e number of dice you roll describe your chances of success at any given

task. e ability that best describes the action you’re attempting to perform

determines how many dice you roll. When rolling dice to try something, you’re

said to be testing the ability or

rolling an ability test. ese dice

are called test dice and when you

roll them you add them up to get

a result. So, if you test a rank 3

ability, for example, you roll three six-sided dice. Say you get a 2, a 3, and a

5. You add the numbers up to get a result of 10.

Sometimes, you’ll get to roll additional dice called bonus dice. Bonus dice

are not added, but instead improve your chances at getting a better result.

You never roll bonus dice by themselves, but roll them along with your test

dice and then keep the highest dice equal your test dice. Bonus dice are

abbreviated with #B, with the # describing how many bonus dice you get to

roll. So, in the previous example, if you test a rank 3 ability with two bonus

dice (2B), you roll ﬁve six-sided dice, and add up the highest three numbers

(equal to the number of test dice).

Modifiers

A modiﬁer is a bonus or penalty applied to a test result. Modiﬁers are

expressed as +# or –#, with the # telling you what to add to or subtract from

your test result. Modiﬁers are gained as a result of situational factors, such as

smoke or fog, being injured, and so on.

Penalty Dice

Penalty dice are drawbacks imposed by wounds, ﬂaws, or certain actions.

Each penalty die cancels one test die when adding up your result, starting

with the lowest remaining die. You apply the penalty die after you roll and

after you drop any bonus dice. Penalty dice are abbreviated as #P, so when

you see –1P, it means you have one penalty die.

Example: Steve’s character, Reinhart, suﬀers a wound, imposing 1 penalty

die on all tests. In the thick of combat, he shoots an arrow from his longbow

at a charging Wildling. Steve has Marksmanship 4 (Bows 2). He rolls six

dice and gets a 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, and 1. He drops the 1 and 3 for his bonus dice.

He must also drop one of his 4s because of the penalty die from his wound,

giving him a result of 15.

Testing Abilities

Whenever you attempt something with dramatic consequences or when the

outcome of the action is not certain, you test your abilities. A test is a roll

ofthedicewiththeaimofexceedingtheaction’sDiculty.enumberof

dice you roll is determined by the most relevant ability, so if you try to stab

a Gold Cloak with your sword, you use Fighting, or if you’re trying to scale

a keep’s wall, test Athletics. Testing abilities is easy once you get the hang of

it, with a few simple steps.

Step One: Declare the action

Step Two: Choose the ability

Step ree:SettheDiculty

Step Four: Roll the dice

Step Five: Sum the dice and apply modiﬁers

Step Six:ComparetheresulttotheDiculty

Step Seven: Describe the outcome

Step One: Declare the Action

Before you roll the dice, declare what it is you want to do. e Narrator

determines whether the action requires a test. As a rule, if the intended

action has no signiﬁcant risk or

no consequences for failure, there’s

no need for a test, though the

Narrator is the ﬁnal word on what

requires a test and when. Actions

that might require tests include, but are not limited to, ﬁghting, climbing,

jumping, recalling a bit of useful information, addressing the king, sailing a

ship through inclement weather, and so on. In short, if the action’s outcome

isn’t certain or may have dramatic consequences, it probably requires a test.

Example: Nicole’s character, Lady Renee, happens upon a pair of conspirators

discussing their plans to kill her father, Lord Tybalt. Clinging to the shadows,

she strains to hear their whispers.

Step Two: Choose the Ability

Once the Narrator decides whether a test is appropriate, determine the ability

to be tested. Abilities are ﬂexible, allowing both you and the Narrator to use

a variety of methods to overcome challenges in the game. A particular action

may use one ability in one set of circumstances, and another in a completely

diﬀerent environment. For example, you might use Persuasion to bluﬀ your

way past a guard or Status to fall back on your notoriety and standing to

remove the guard from your path. Even though these are two distinct methods,

the intended outcome is the same—getting past the guard.

Generally, the Narrator determines the ability, but you do have some say in

what ability you’d like to use. Just state what you want to use and how you

intend to use it, and, if reasonable enough, the Narrator ought to allow it.

Obviously, using Language to scale a wall or stab an enemy is ridiculous, so

common sense must prevail.

Example: Since Renee eavesdrops on the conversation, the Narrator decides

the relevant ability is Awareness.

Step Three: Set the Difficulty

Oncetheabilityisdetermined,theNarratorsetsthetest’sDiculty.e

Dicultydescribesthecomplexityandchallengeoftheaction.Tohelpassess

howhardataskis,aDicultynumberhasadescriptor,suchasRoutinefor

Diculty6,ChallengingforDiculty9andsoon.SeeDiﬃculty later in

this section for details.

Example: e Narrator considers the scene. It’s dark so Renee can’t see the

conspirators, can’t see their body language. ey’re also a bit oﬀ and whispering.

e Narrator decides the Diﬃculty is Formidable (12).

Step Four: Roll the Dice

KnowingwhichabilitytouseandtheDicultyofthetask,yourollanumber

of test dice equal to the ability. Many times, you may roll additional dice in

the form of extra test dice or bonus dice.

Playing the Game

“Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.”

—Varys

Playing the Game Fighting

Example: Lady Renee has Awareness 3, giving her three dice oﬀ the bat.

However, she also has 2B in Listening, a specialty of Awareness, so she has

two bonus dice. She rolls ﬁve dice, but only adds up the highest three.

Step Five: Sum the Dice and Apply Modifiers

Once you roll the dice, sum the highest results equal to your test dice and

add or subtract any modiﬁers. e total is the test result.

Example: Nicole rolls ﬁve dice (three test dice and two bonus dice from her

specialty) and gets a 6, 6, 5, 2, and a 1. She discards two dice, the 1 and

the 2, since they count for her bonus dice and adds up the rest, getting a 17

as her result.

Step Six: Compare the Result AND Difficulty

Nowthatyouhaveatotal,comparetheresulttotheaction’sDiculty.Ifthe

resultequalsorexceedstheDiculty,yousucceed.Iftheresultislessthan

theDiculty,youfail.

Example: e test Diﬃculty was Formidable (12). Since Nicole beat the

Diﬃculty with her 17, she succeeds!

Step Seven: Describe the Outcome

Once the outcome of the test is determined, the Narrator describes the results,

providing any relevant consequences of success or failure.

Example: Nicole’s roll was good enough for Renee to hear most of the

conversation, which the Narrator summarizes. Although both conspirators

are careful to keep their identities concealed, Nicole now knows how they

intend to go about their treachery and with this information, Renee may be

able to stop their foul plan.

Types of Test

Rolling tests is more or less the same no matter what you’re attempting.

How you interpret success varies. In all cases, you roll a number of test dice

equal to the ability rank, plus bonus dice gained from a specialty, plus or

minusanymodiersandcomparetheresulttotheDicultytodetermine

success or failure.

Basic Test

A basic test is the default for just about every action. If the game or situation

doesn’t indicate another type of test, use a basic test to resolve the action. e

process is as outlined under Testing Abilities, previously.

Extended Test

Some actions are so involved, or try to achieve so much, they require multiple basic

tests to determine success, an extended test. A character climbing a steep cliﬀ may

have to test Athletics several times to reach the top, while a maester researching

the lineage of a family purported to come from the Blackfyre pr etenders might

need several successful Knowledge tests to ﬁnd the evidence he needs. When

the situation demands, the Narrator may inform you that you need two or more

successful tests to complete your action. Each test covers a particular span of time.

Once you achieve the required number of successes, your task is complete.

Competition Test

Competition tests occur whenever two characters work toward or compete

forthesamegoal.BothcharactersrolltestsagainstthesameDiculty.e

characterthatbeatsthedicultybythegreatestdegreewins.

Example: Chris and Hal are in a foot race. Both will eventually cross the

ﬁnish line, but they’re competing to see who crosses it ﬁrst. e Narrator calls

for both players to roll Automatic (0) Athletics competition tests. Chris has

Athletics 3, while Hal has Athletics 2 (Run 1). Chris rolls and gets a 6, 4,

and 1, for a total of 11. Hall rolls and gets a 5, 2, and a 2. He drops one of

the 2s for his bonus die, leaving him with 7. Chris wins the race.

Conflict Test

Conﬂict tests are used most commonly in combat, warfare, and intrigue. A

Conﬂict test is always used to resolve anything that would function as an

“attack.” For these purpose, an attack might be a swing of a sword, sneaking

past a guard, or using your wiles to seduce a noble; eﬀectively, anytime you

would “do” something to someone else, you roll a Conﬂict test. Unlike a Basic

test or Competition test, where you are testing against the challenge and

complexity of the action attempted, a Conﬂict test pits your ability directly

againstyouropponent.eDicultyofthesetestsisyouropponent’sDefense.

Generally, your opponent’s Defense is equal to four times the rank in the

ability used to oppose your attack; Awareness

against Stealth, for example. However, in the

case of combat, your opponent’s Defense is

the sum of his ranks in several abilities. For

details, see Fighting.

Who Rolls?

When faced with a Conflict test, it can

sometimes be confusing about who rolls

and who “defends.” Consider, for example, a

character hiding from a guard. To determine

who rolls the test, consider who is the active

opponent. If the guard is actively searching

for the character whose simply standing in

the shadows or in a wardrobe, it falls to the

guard to roll the test. On the other hand,

if a character attempts to sneak past an

unobservant guard, the player rolls the Stealth

test against the guard’s passive Awareness.

Simultaneous Conflicts

Sometimes, opponents “attack” each other at the

same time. In these cases, both characters test

and the one with the highest result wins the

conﬂict. Going back to the hidden character and

the searching guard, if the hiding character tries

Playing the Game

Fighting

to sneak past an actively searching guard, both would test their respective abilities

and the victory goes to the character with the highest result.

Difficulty

Every action has a Diﬃculty, a number that describes how hard the action

istoaccomplish. If yourtestresultequals or exceedstheDiculty, your

attemptsucceeds.Dicultiesarerankedinthree-pointincrements,starting

at 0 for automatic actions and climbing all the way to 21 (or higher) for

nearly impossible ones. See the Diﬃculties table for details on the diﬀerent

levelsofDiculty.

Difficulties

De s c r i P t i o n ra t i n G

Automatic 0

Easy 3

Routine 6

Challenging 9

Formidable 12

Hard 15

Very Hard 18

Heroic 21

Degree of Success

Youneedonlyequalthetest’sDicultytogetasuccess.Beatingthediculty

by a signiﬁcant degree, however, can produce greater results. For many tests,

you complete the action bit faster or with slightly improved results. For some,

such as Fighting or Marksmanship tests, you can deal additional damage with

a greater degree of success.

Degree of Success

te s t re s u l t ex c e e D s Di f f i c u l t y b y … De G r e e o f su c c e s s

…0–4 One, marginal success

…5–9 Two, great success

…10–14 ree, incredible success

…15+ Four, astonishing success

Using Degrees of Success

Many times a marginal success is all you need. However, the Narrator may

require a success by a particular degree for an action to succeed, especially when

time and quality are factors. For example, successfully singing a dirge for the

fallen son of a powerful lord may be a Challenging (9) test, but if the character

wishes a private audience with the lord, he may need an incredible success (three

degrees) on the same test, eﬀectively making it a Very Hard (19) test. Of course,

not achieving the required degree of success doesn’t mean the character didn’t

perform well, just not well enough to achieve the desired goal.

Fighting

Fighting is a fact of life, and death,

in the Seven Kingdoms. A liege-

lord must be prepared to ﬁght to

defend his lands, a bannerman

to defend his liege-lord, and the

smallfolk to ﬁll out the ranks of their armies. Brutal exchanges of sword and

axe, and the deadly consequences of these battles, are the ﬁerce action of the

game of thrones. Combat is dangerous and can leave characters dreadfully

wounded, captured, or even dead.

Rounds, Turns,

and Actions

When a combat begins, SIFRP breaks up game play into discrete moments

called rounds, each lasting approximately six seconds. us ten rounds of

combat equals about a minute of game time.

During a round, each player and each opponent gets a turn to act. A turn is

an opportunity to do something signiﬁcant (or not) that may aﬀect how the

combat develops. While there’s only six seconds in the round, each character

acts in order, so a character going ﬁrst applies the eﬀects of his or her choices

before characters going later in the round.

On a character’s turn, the player may choose any of a variety of actions. Most

fall into one of three types: Greater, Lesser, and Free.

A Greater Action consumes the largest chunk of a combatant’s turn,

representing a furious series of sword blows, running across the battleﬁeld,

and so on.

Lesser Actions are similar to Greater Actions, but they take up less time

allowing you to combine two Lesser Actions on your turn instead of taking

one Greater Action. You can’t save unspent Lesser Actions for the following

round, so be sure to use them up before the round ends.

Finally, Free Actions consume

very little time. Usually, these

things include shouting orders

to men under your command,

drawing a weapon, and just

about anything else that consumes little or no time. Generally, you can

perform as many Free Actions as you like, but your Narrator may judge

extensive conversation or rooting around in a saddlebag more time-

consuming than a Free Action allows.

Damage and Defeat

e object of every combat is to defeat your enemies. Defeat usually, but not

always, means killing your foes. However, if your opponent yields, ﬂees, or is

knocked unconscious, you’ve still defeated him. e currency of defeat is damage

and most combat actions are geared toward dealing damage enough to kill,

maim, or force your enemy to yield. Since healing and recovery are uncertain

in the world of SIFRP, rare is the combat that goes to the bitter end.

The Conflict Test

e primary method for dealing damage is through Conﬂict tests. You test

Fighting or Marksmanship against your opponent’s Combat Defense. A

success deals damage determined by the weapon you’re using with extra

damage gained by getting more degrees of success. e opponent’s Armor

Rating reduces the damage, but any left over comes oﬀ your opponent’s

Health. Once you reduce an opponent to 0 Health, you defeat him and decide

the consequences of his defeat.

Combat Statistics

From certain key abilities, you derive vital combat statistics such as your

Combat Defense, Health, and movement. What follows is a summary of the

game’s combat statistics and the methods for coming up with their values.

“Oak and iron, guard me well or else I’m dead and doomed to hell.”

—Old Saying

Fighting

Combat Defense

e ﬁrst line of defense against attack, your Combat Defense equals your

ranks in:

aG i l i t y + at h l e t i c s + aW a r e n e s s

+ De f e n s i v e b o n u s (f r o m s h i e l D s o r P a r r y i n G W e a P o n s )

– ar m o r Pe n a l t y (f r o m W o r n a r m o r )

Example: Hal calculates his hedge knight’s Combat Defense. He has

Agility 3, Athletics 4, and Awareness 3. His base Combat Defense is 10.

When armed with a large shield, he increases his Combat Defense to 14

and when wearing his full plate armor, he drops his Combat Defense to

8. A large shield has a Defensive rating of +4 and full plate has an Armor

Penalty of –6.

Health

Health is your ability to absorb damage and keep ﬁghting. It doesn’t matter

how much damage you’ve taken to Health; so long as you have at least one

point left, your abilities aren’t reduced and you can keep on ﬁghting.

he a l t h = en D u r a n c e r a n k x 3

Example: Hal’s hedge knight has Endurance 4, so his Health is 12 (4 x 3).

Move

Move describes how far your character goes when you use an action to move

on your turn. Most characters move 4 yards when unarmored or unburdened

by bulky items. For every two bonus dice of the Run specialty, you move an

extra yard on a move, but if you have only Athletics 1, your move is only 3

yards. Characters wearing armor may move slower. Every two points of Bulk

armor has reduces move by 1 yard.

Example: Hal’s character has 2B in Run, so his movement is 6 yards.

However, his full plate has Bulk 3, reducing his move by 1 to 5 yards.

Armor

Armor signiﬁes a warrior’s status, wealth, and prowess, but even though armor

serves to reinforce or diminish a warrior’s reputation, armor is fundamentally

for protection. All armor has three abilities, as shown on the Armor table:

Rating, Penalty, and Bulk.

Weapons

We a P o n sP e c i a l t y tr a i n i n G Da m a G e Qu a l i t i e s

Battleaxe Axes — Athletics Adaptable

Hand Axe Axes — Athletics–1 Defensive +1, Oﬀ-hand +1

Cudgel/Club Bludgeon — Athletics–1 Oﬀ-hand +1

Quarterstaﬀ Bludgeon — Athletics Fast, Two-handed

Warhammer Bludgeon — Athletics Bulk 1, Powerful, Shattering 2, Slow, Two-handed

Fist Brawling — Athletics–3 Grab, Oﬀ-hand +1

Gauntlet Brawling — Athletics–2 Grab, Oﬀ-hand +1

Knife Brawling — Athletics–2 Fast, Oﬀ-hand +1

Braavosi Blade Fencing 1B Agility Defensive +1, Fast

Bastard Sword Long Blade 1B Athletics+1 Adaptable

Longsword Long Blade — Athletics+1 —

Buckler Shield — Athletics–2 Defensive +1, Oﬀ-hand +1

Shield Shield — Athletics–2 Defensive +2

Shield, Large Shield 1B Athletics–2 Bulk 1, Defensive +4

Shield, Tower Shield 2B Athletics–2 Bulk 2, Defensive +6

Dagger Short Blade — Agility–2 Defensive +1, Oﬀ-hand +1

Dirk Short Blade — Agility–2 Oﬀ-hand +2

Stiletto Short Blade 1B Agility Piercing 2

Spear Spear — Athletics Fast, Two-handed

Tourney Lance Spear 1B Animal Handling+3 Bulk 1, Mounted, Powerful, Reach, Slow

Bow, Double-Curved Bow 1B Agility+1 Long Range, Powerful, Two-handed

Longbow Bow 1B Agility+2 Long Range, Piercing 1, Two-handed, Unwieldy

Crossbow, Light Crossbow — Agility+1 Long Range, Reload (Lesser), Slow

Crossbow, Medium Crossbow — Agility+1 Long Range, Piercing 1, Reload (Lesser), Slow, Two-handed

Hand Axe rown — Athletics Close Range

Javelin rown — Athletics Close Range

Knife rown — Agility–1 Close Range, Fast

Spear rown — Athletics Close Range

Fighting

Armor Rating

Armor oﬀers some amount of protection, represented by its Armor Rating.

When you take damage in combat, you reduce the damage taken by your

Armor Rating. Damage can be reduced to 0, but not below 0.

Armor Penalty

Armor can turn aside killing blows, but it does so at a cost. Heavier forms

of armor interfere with your movements, making you slower to react to

opponentsandmakingitmorediculttomaintainyourbalanceintheheat

of combat. All forms of armor impose a penalty you apply to the results of

Agility tests and to your Combat Defense.

Armor Bulk

Heavier armors impose Bulk. As mentioned, every two points of Bulk reduce

your move by one yard and every point of Bulk reduces your sprint speed

by one yard.

Weapons

Weapons are more than just tools. Like armor, they are symbols of status,

training, and expertise. A combatant armed with a Braavosi blade ﬁghts

differently from a warrior wielding a greatsword. The Weapons table

provides summaries of the most common weapons found in Westeros and

used in the Quick-Start rules. Like armor, weapons have their own abilities

to describe them.

Specialty

e Specialty entry shows which Specialty applies to your Fighting test when

wielding this weapon in combat.

Training

Some weapons are easier to wield than are others. To reﬂect the weapon’s

complexity, some weapons require a minimum rank in its specialty to use

properly. For each rank you lack, you take a penalty die on your Fighting

Test. If you meet the rank required by the weapon, you lose those bonus dice

on your Fighting Test.

Damage

e damage a weapon deals is derived from both its construction and the

ability of its wielder. e base damage is equal to your rank in the listed ability.

Many weapons include modiﬁers as well, which you add to or subtract from

your rank in the associated ability. Most Fighting weapons use Athletics and

most ranged weapons use Agility, but there are exceptions.

Multiply this base damage by the degree of success on your attack test; so a

marginal success (one degree) does the base damage, two degrees do double

that, three degrees triple, and so forth. Only after you have totaled the damage

by degree do you reduce it by your opponent’s Armor Rating.

Qualities

Weapons have qualities, much as characters do. Weapon qualities can take

the form of advantages that provide a tactical beneﬁt in combat, while others

impose drawbacks to make up for improved damage or an advantage. Most

weapons have at least one quality.

Adaptable

An Adaptable weapon is designed for use with one or two hands. When you

wield this weapon with two hands, increase the weapon’s damage by +1.

Bulk

Some weapons are heavy or unwieldy, and thus slow you down in combat. If a

weapon has a bulk rating, it applies toward your total bulk for the purposes of

reducing your movement.

Armor

ar m o r ar m o r ra t i n G ar m o r Pe n a l t y bu l k

Clothing 0 0 0

Robes, vestments 1 0 1

Leather, soft 2 –1 0

Leather, hard 3 –2 0

Ring 4 –2 1

Mail 5 –3 2

Breastplate 5 –2 3

Scale 6 –3 2

Plate and Mail 7 –4 2

Full Plate 10 –6 3

Fighting

Close Range

A Close Range weapon has an eﬀective range of 10 yards, meaning you can

attack opponents within 10 yards at no penalty. You can attack opponents

beyond this range, but you gain a –1 penalty die for every 10 yards beyond

this range. us, attacking an opponent that’s 11 yards away imposes a –1

penalty die on your attack test.

Defensive

Defensive weapons serve a dual function. ey can be used as weapons,

but they are often more eﬀective in knocking aside your enemies’ attacks.

When armed with a Defensive weapon and not attacking with it, you add

the weapon’s Defensive rating to your Combat Defense. Many Defensive

weapons also have the Oﬀ-Hand quality, allowing you to wield them and

a primary weapon at the same time. If you choose to add your Oﬀ-Hand

bonus to your damage, you lose the Defensive bonus until the start of your

next turn.

Fast

A Fast weapon is designed to slip past your opponent’s defenses and to strike

rapidly. When you make a divided attack using a Fast weapon, you gain +1

bonus die on each test. Bonus dice, as always, cannot exceed the number of

test dice rolled per attack.

Grab

Grab weapons let you grab and hold onto an opponent, preventing them

from moving away from you. Whenever you successfully hit an opponent

with a Grab weapon and your attack test result also equals or beats the

opponent’s passive Athletics result (Strength applies to this), you may, if

you choose, grab that opponent.

A grabbed opponent cannot move until you release him (doing so is a

Free Action) or until that opponent beats you on an opposed Fighting

test (Brawling applies to this test, and it is a Lesser Action). A grabbed

opponent can only make attacks using Brawling weapons or Short Blades.

Finally, grabbed opponents take a –5 penalty to their Combat Defense (to

a minimum of 1).

Usuing a Grab weapon does have its limitations. While you grab an opponent,

you cannot move and may only make attacks against that opponent using a

Grab or Oﬀ-hand weapon.

Long Range

Provided you have a clear shot, you can ﬁre a Long Range weapon at targets

up to 100 yards away. For every additional 100 yards of distance (or fraction

thereof) between you and your target, you take a –1 penalty die on your

Marksmanship test.

Fighting

Mounted

Mounted weapons are too large and bulky to be used on foot and are intended

for use while mounted on a horse or some other steed. Using these weapons

on foot imposes –2 penalty dice on your Fighting tests.

Off-Hand

An Oﬀ-hand weapon can be wielded in your oﬀ-hand, allowing you to add

your Oﬀ-hand modiﬁer to your primary weapon damage on a successful

Fighting test. To gain this beneﬁt, you must make a Two-Weapon attack (see

Two-Weapon Attack, page 14).

Piercing

Piercing weapons bypass armor. When you hit an opponent with a Piercing

weapon, your damage ignores an amount of Armor Rating equal to the

listed value.

Powerful

Strong characters can put more muscle behind Powerful weapons and thus

deal more damage with it on a successful hit. For every bonus die you have

in Strength, you can increase a Powerful weapon’s damage by +1 when you

sucessfully hit.

Reach

When armed with a Reach weapon, you can attack opponents that are not

adjacent to you. You can roll a Fighting test with a Reach weapon against

any opponent up to 3 yards away. However, attacking a foe inside three yards

withaReachweaponismorediculy.Doingsoimposesa–1penaltydie

on your Fighting test.

Reload

A Marksmanship weapon with the Reload quality requires an action to reload

the weapon after it has been ﬁred. e quality speciﬁes what sort of action is

required to reload the weapon, either Lesser or Greater.

Shattering

Shattering weapons are designed to smash through shields, parrying

weapons, and armor. Whenever you get more than one degree of success

on a Fighting test using a Shattering weapon, you reduce the opponent’s

Defensive bonus or Armor Bonus by the amount indicated by the quality.

e Shattering weapon aﬀects weapons with a Defensive bonus ﬁrst.

Reducing a weapon’s Defensive bonus or an armor’s Armor Bonus to 0 or

less destroys it.

Slow

ASlowweaponiscumbersomeanddiculttowieldwithspeedandgrace.

You may not make Divided Attacks using these weapons.

Two-Handed

Large weapons, you need both hands to use a Two-Handed weapon in combat.

If you use only one hand, you take–2 penalty dice on your Fighting test.

Combat Sequence

All combats use the same series of steps, repeated over a number of rounds

until the combat ends. is procedure is quite simple and after running a few

combats, you won’t even have to reference these steps; they’ll become second

nature. e sequence is:

st e P on e : in i t i a t i v e

st e P tW o : ac t i o n

st e P th r e e : re s o l u t i o n

Step One: Initiative

Initiative sets the order of when each combatant takes his turn. Each

combatant (or group of similar combatants) tests Agility (bonus dice from

Quickness apply). e Narrator then arranges the results from highest to

lowest. e character with the highest result goes ﬁrst, followed by the next

highest, and so on until every combatant has had a turn to act.

Ties

If there’s a tie, compare ranks in the Quickness specialty. If there’s still a tie,

the characters test Agility again to see who goes ﬁrst. e result of this second

test doesn’t change the order in the initiative as it relates to other combatants;

it only determines which tied combatant goes ﬁrst.

Delaying

e Agility test result describes the earliest a character may act in the round.

You may always wait until later in the round to act, but you cannot interrupt

another character’s turn once it begins. You may only take your action after

another character has completely ﬁnished his turn.

Step Two: Action

Combat lives in actions. e choices combatants make, the success or failure

of their rolls, and how they interact with the battleﬁeld all work together to

simulate the thrill and danger of battle. Your imagination is the only limit

on what you can attempt in battle, but this extensive section covers the most

likely and most successful actions a character might attempt.

Each character, in order of highest initiative to lowest, acts, taking one Greater

Action or two Lesser Actions. A Lesser Action could be moving, attacking,

standing up, or diving for cover. A Greater Action includes dodging, charging,

knocking a foe to the ground, pulling a rider from his horse, and so on. As a

rule of thumb, a Lesser Action takes about 3 seconds of time, while a Greater

Action takes 6. So, if you want to try something not described in this chapter,

your Narrator will judge how long the eﬀort will take and whether or not

your action qualiﬁes as a Lesser or Greater Action.

Attack (Lesser)

e attack is obviously the most common action in combat. Anytime you are

armed with a weapon, unarmed (but feisty), or when wielding an improvised

weapon, you may attack an opponent.

When armed with a Fighting weapon, you must be adjacent to your opponent.

is is called being engaged.

When armed with a Reach Fighting weapon, you can attack foes up to three

yards away.

When armed with a Close Range Marksmanship weapon, you can attack

foes within 10 yards at no penalty.

When armed with a Long Range Marksmanship weapon, you can attack

foes within 100 yards at no penalty.

If you meet the conditions, roll a Fighting or Marksmanship test and compare

the result to your opponent’s Combat Defense. A successful hit deals base

damage and any degrees gained on the test allow you to deal extra damage.

Once you have totaled the damage, your opponent reduces the damage by

his AR and applies any that’s left over to his Health.

Example: Gerald attacks a sworn sword to his rival’s house. Gerald has

Fighting 4 and Long Blades 4. His opponent has Combat Defense 8. Gerald’s

player rolls eight dice and keeps the best four, getting a result of 19. A hit by

11. Normally, a longsword deals damage equal to the attacker’s Athletics rank,

plus 1. Gerald has rank 4, so a regular successful attack (with one degree of

success) would deal 4 damage. However, Gerald got three degrees of success

Fighting

(he beat the test by at least 10), and so deals three times this damage (4 x

3) for 12 damage. His foe wears ring mail (AR 4) so the armor reduces the

damage to 8, a solid and ugly hit.

Divided Attack (Greater)

When faced with multiple opponents, you may attempt to attack more than

one at a time, a divided attack. When doing so, you divide your Fighting

test dice in any way you wish between your chosen opponents. You may also

need to split your bonus dice, if any, as bonus dice on a test cannot exceed the

number of test dice. Resolve each attack separately, as normal.

Example: Seeing Gerald strike down the sworn sword in short order, two

hedge knights come barreling toward the warrior to get revenge. Now faced

with two opponents, Gerald decides to attack both in the same round. He

splits his attack evenly, so his ﬁrst attack uses two test dice plus two bonus dice

from his specialty and his second attack is the same. e hedge knights both

have a Combat Defense of 9. On Gerald’s ﬁrst attack, he gets a 10, which

hits. e hedge knight wears mail (AR 5), which reduces the damage (4) to

0. Gerald’s next attack is a 10 as well, which hits but is not enough to get

past the knight’s armor.

Two-Weapon Attack (Greater)

Whenever you wield a weapon in your primary hand and an Oﬀ-hand

weapon in your other hand, you can combine them to make a more powerful

attack. Simply add the weapon’s Oﬀ-hand modiﬁer to your primary weapon’s

damage. You deal this damage on a successful Fighting test. If your Oﬀ-hand

weapon has the Defensive quality, you lose its beneﬁt until the start of your

next turn.

Example: Mikala is a vicious mercenary from beyond the Narrow Sea.

Favoring the ﬁghting style of Braavos, she wields a Braavosi blade in her

right hand and a dagger in her left. She’s toyed with the brute for a few

rounds, nicking him here and there, but has ﬁnally grown weary of the

conﬂict and decides to go for the kill. She drops the +1 Defensive bonus from

her dirk to add +1 to her damage. She attacks and hits with three degrees.

Normally, she would deal 4 damage with her Braavosi blade, but because

she also attacked with her dirk, she deals 5. After her degrees, she inﬂicts an

impressive 15 points of damage.

Combining Attacks (Greater)

Although divided and two weapon attacks all require Greater Actions, you

can combine them into a single attack as follows. You may split your Fighting

dice between multiple opponents. Resolve the attacks as normal, but increase

the damage of every attack by your Oﬀ-Hand weapon.

Other Actions

In addition to attack, there are a number of other actions you might perform

in combat.

Assist Lesser

As a Lesser Action, you can assist an ally on a test. If assisting on an attack,

you must be adjacent to your ally’s opponent. For other tests, your ally must

be able to clearly see and hear you and may need to be adjacent, depending

on the task to which you’re lending your assistance. You grant one-half your

ability rank as bonus dice (with a minimum one die) to the ally you are

trying to help. As normal, the number of useable bonus dice cannot exceed

the character’s test dice.

Catch your Breath Greater

You can take a quick rest as a Greater Action to catch your breath. Roll an

Automatic (0) Endurance test. Success removes one point of damage. Each

additional degree removes an additional point of damage.

Charge Greater

rowing caution to the wind, you surge forward to destroy your enemies.

A charge allows you to combine movement with an attack. You can charge

any opponent that’s up to twice your move away. At the end of your charge,

make a standard attack. You take a –1 penalty die on the attack, but increase

the weapon’s damage by +2.

Dodge Greater

In the face of overwhelming odds, sometimes it’s best just to get out of the way.

When you take the dodge action, you may move up to half your movement

if you choose, usually to reach cover. Roll an Agility test. e result replaces

your Combat Defense (even if worse) until your next turn. Add any Defensive

bonuses gained from weapons to your test result.

Interact Lesser

Manipulating an object includes picking something up from the ground,

moving an object, retrieving a stowed possession, drawing a weapon from a

Mounted Attacks

A mounted attack occurs whenever you attack from the back of a

steed. Fighting from horseback provides a variety of advantages,

including enhanced mobility, the advantage of height, and, if the

mount is trained for war, the steed’s own hoof and bite attacks.

When riding a steed, you gain the following beneﬁt:

• Usethemount’smovementinplaceofyourown.

• Gain+1bonusdieon Fightingteststoattackunmounted

opponents.

When riding a steed trained for war, you also gain the following

beneﬁt:

• Ifyourmountdoesn’tmoveduringyourturn,increaseyour

damage on a successful Fighting test by +2.

Attacking Steeds

Although deemed dishonorable to attack a rider’s steed, your

mount is still at risk of injury when you ride it into battle. Enemies

may choose to attack you or your steed. Should your mount’s

Health fall to 0, it dies. You may spend a Destiny Point to give

your steed an injury or wound to remove this damage as normal,

however (see Injuries later in this section).

Slain Steeds

Should your mount die, you must immediately make a Formidable

(12) Animal Handling test. If you succeed, you leap clear of the

collapsing steed and land within a yard of the poor beast. If you fail,

you take damage from the fall (ignoring armor) equal to the mount’s

rank in Athletics and you are trapped beneath the dead animal.

Freeing yourself requires a Greater Action and a Challenging (9)

Agility or Athletics test (bonus dice from Contortions or Strength

apply). Other characters may assist as normal, or pull you out by

succeedingonatestagainstthesamediculty.Whiletrapped,you

take a –5 penalty to your Combat Defense.

Pulling a Rider from a Mount (Greater)

In addition to a straightforward attack, you can also try to pull a

rider from his mount. You may do so only if you are armed with

a Grab weapon or a pole-arm. Roll a Fighting test against your

opponent’s passive Animal Handling result (plus Ride specialty).

If you succeed, you pull your opponent from his mount and he

lands prone on the ground adjacent to his steed.

Fighting

scabbard, and so on. It also includes opening doors or windows, pulling levers,

and anything else you would move, shove, or pull in the environment. Interact

also allows you to mount a horse or climb inside of a vehicle.

Some hard to reach items, such as a small item at the bottom of a pack, may

require more time as determined by the Narrator.

Move and Draw

You can draw a weapon while moving, but you take a –1 penalty die on all

attacks until your next turn.

Move Lesser

A move is a brisk walk and you may move a number of yards equal to your

Move. If you spend both Lesser Actions to move, you can move up to twice

your Move.

Sprint Greater

You may also sprint. Sprinting allows you to move up to four times your

Move.

Drop Prone/Stand Up Lesser

You can drop to the ground or get to your feet as a Lesser Action. If your Bulk

Rating is 2 or more, it requires a Greater Action for you to stand.

Drive or Ride Varies

When mounted on a steed, your mount’s action is spent moving or attacking,

however you must spend a Lesser Action to control your beast if it is trained

for war or a Greater Action if not. If your steed is injured, regardless of its

training, controlling the animal is a Greater Action.

Vehicles drawn by animals work much in the same way as riding the animals

themselves. Driving a vehicle requires a Lesser Action each round. If the

driver is slain or leaves his post, the vehicle moves as long as the animal

is inclined to pull it, usually in the direction it was pointed last. Other

characters on the vehicle may move about normally, but the vehicle counts

as treacherous terrain. If moving would carry a passenger out of the vehicle,

he or she may take damage from the fall. A fall from a slow moving vehicle

deals 1d6–3 points of damage, while a fall from a fast moving deals 1d6+3

points of damage.

Prepare Greater

If you spend your entire turn preparing to take an action on your next turn,

you gain +2 bonus dice on the test, subject to the normal limits on bonus

dice. Any excess bonus dice are lost. Multiple rounds spent preparing are not

cumulative, and if circumstances prevent you from taking the action you’ve

prepared for and you do something else, the bonus dice are lost.

Use Ability Varies

You may use abilities not directly related to the ﬁght. You might use Athletics

to break down a door, Awareness to look for an exit, Agility to catch a swinging

rope,andsoon.etest’sdicultydependsontheactionintended,butsome

tasks may be harder, given the distractions of the combat.

In addition, many abilities can be used in one round, but some are more

involved and may require several rounds or longer to complete, indicating

you have to spend the time working toward completing the task while the

conﬂict rages around you.

Destiny Points

Destiny Points grant you a bit more control over your fates letting you modify

circumstances in minor and major ways. Spending or burning a Destiny Point in

combat is not an action. For details on using Destiny Points, see page 6.

Step Three: Resolution

Combat proceeds over a number of rounds, with each participant acting on

their turn until the combat ends. Each round gives each combatant a new

set of actions and an opportunity to spend them in whatever way they wish.

Repeat this step until there is a clear victor.

Once one side has ﬂed or has been defeated, the combat is at an end and the

victors determine the fates of the losers.

Damage

Whenever an opponent hits you in combat, you are at risk of taking damage.

Any damage taken in excess of your Armor Rating applies to your Health.

Damage doesn’t reduce your eﬀectiveness in any way unless it reduces your

Health to 0 or less, at which point you are defeated.

Reducing Damage

Although you have a small pool Health, there are ways to remove damage

and thus enable you to avoid defeat. Reducing or removing damage in any of

the following ways does not count as an action. Furthermore, you can reduce

damage at any time, even if it’s not your turn. ese methods are in addition

to the catch your breath action.

Generally speaking, unimportant characters — nameless soldiers run by the

Narrator, for example — do not use these options or the catch your breath

action; they simply suﬀer Health damage and are defeated when they reach

0 Health. is tends to simplify matters, limiting the more involved options

to important characters in the story.

Damage Outside of Conflicts

Certain situations may result in injuries that do not directly result from conﬂict. For example, a captured character noted for his skill at swordplay

might have his sword-hand severed (like a certain famous member of the Kingsguard). Such a loss has repercussions throughout the character’s

life, possibly across a wide number of abilities, more than would normally result from a permanent injury. In these cases, the character burns a

Destiny Point and gains a ﬂaw rather than dying.

Aside from lasting injuries, any damage a character takes in or out of combat can be reduced using the normal rules. A character who catches

ﬁre, for example, could reduce the damage by taking one or more injuries (burns) or wounds (severe burns). Likewise, a character that falls from a

height could reduce the damage by breaking a bone (injury) or shattering a leg (wound). If damage exceeds the character’s Health, the character

usually dies—nature isn’t forgiving. As damage is removed at the end of the encounter, any damage sustained out of combat has no eﬀect unless

it results in an injury or wound.

Some threats are so deadly not even a wound is enough to avoid death. A fall from hundreds of feet, being dipped into a pool of lava, or drinking

a tankard full of wildﬁre are so lethal that surviving them requires the intercession of fate. Whenever you are faced with certain death, you can

only avoid it by burning a Destiny Point.

Fighting Intrigue

Injuries

An injury is minor, but lasting compared to damage. Anytime you take

damage, you can accept an injury to reduce the damage taken by an amount

equal to your Endurance rank. Each injury you accept imposes a –1 penalty

to the results of all of your tests. You cannot accept more injuries than your

Endurance rank.

Example: Battling a savage warrior of the Burned Men, Mikel is hit for 7 points

of damage. Knowing he can’t take all the damage, he opts to take an injury. His

Endurance is 3, so he can remove 3 points of damage per injury. He takes two,

reducing the damage by 6 to just 1 point. For the duration of the combat, however,

he reduces all test results by –2, and can suﬀer only one more injury.

Wounds

Some attacks are so brutal, so deadly, the only way you can avoid defeat is

by accepting a wound. A wound removes all damage from a single attack in

exchange for a –1 penalty die on all tests. You cannot accept more wounds

than your Endurance rank. If your number of wounds exceeds your Endurance

rank, you die.

Example: An assassin leaps out of the shadows and strikes Roberk with a

dagger, dealing 20 points of damage, more than enough to defeat him outright.

Knowing the assassin intends to kill him, Roberk cannot accept that outcome.

He could reduce the damage with injuries, but they would cripple him for

the duration of the ﬁght. Instead, he accepts a wound, gaining a –1 penalty

die on all tests, but taking no other damage.

Defeat

If at any time your Health drops to 0 or lower, you are defeated and removed

from the combat. e opponent that defeated you decides what happens to

you. Common choices include any of the following.

Death

is is the most common outcome of defeat. You are dead. Depending on the

era in which you play as well as where you died, your corpse might stir into

unlife, becoming a wight… if you believe in that sort of thing.

Maimed

Your opponent might leave you alive, but with something to remember.

Examples include a wicked scar across the face, the loss of an eye, thumb,

or some other body part. Permanently reduce one ability of your opponent’s

choice by one rank.

Ransom

Your opponent holds you or some possession for ransom. In tournaments,

this usually means the victor gains the loser’s armor and horse. In war, it

mightmeancaptivityuntiltheloser’sfamilycanoerupsucientcoinora

valuable hostage of their own.

Take the Black

ose who see honor in service to the Night’s Watch may allow their enemies

to take the black and join the rangers on the Wall. For many, this is a fate

worse than death as it means being stripped of status, family, and worldly

possession. For those who value life above such minor things, taking the

black oﬀers a change to live.

Unconscious

You are knocked out and left for dead. You awaken two to twelve hours later

(roll two dice and add the results). While unconscious, you are helpless and

may be killed or eaten by someone or something else. is fate is often the

same as death.

Yielding

You may choose to yield in order to choose the outcome of your defeat. If

you fear imminent defeat, you may, on your turn, oﬀer the Narrator terms

by which your character will go down to defeat, including

the outcome. So, for example, you can oﬀer to have your

character defeated and left unconscious, or taken for

ransom. e Narrator has the option of accepting your

terms, making a counter-oﬀer, or rejecting them. If you then

reject the Narrator’s counter-oﬀer, you cannot yield.

Destiny and Defeat

You may also burn a Destiny Point to choose a fate other

than the one your opponent chooses for you. If your family

is particularly poor, you might choose maiming or death

over a ransom. Similarly, if your opponent would see you

dead, you might opt for unconsciousness instead.

Recovery

e injuries and wounds you sustain in combat heal…

eventually. e rate at which you recover depends on the

type of injury you sustain. Damage to Health vanishes

rapidly. Injuries take longer, sometimes as long as a week

or more. Wounds can plague you for months. Such are the

perils of battle.

Damage

Damage is little more than cuts, scrapes, and bruises. At the

end of the combat, you remove all damage to your Health.

Injuries

Injuries are more signiﬁcant than damage and take longer

to heal. One day after gaining an injury, you may roll an

Fighting

Intrigue

wound. If you cannot accept another wound (your wounds already equal your

Endurance rank), you die.

Healing

e best way to recover from an injury is to receive Healing. e Healing

ability can help to speed recovery from injuries by allowing the healer to

substitute the Healing test result for the Endurance test. Since injuries and

wounds impose penalties on all tests, including recovery, the presence of a

healer can greatly improve a character’s chances to recover. To use Healing, a

healer must devote at least four hours per day to treat the injured character.

When the character would roll an Endurance test, the healer rolls a Healing

test instead. A failed Healing test does not result in the worsening of

injuries.

Endurancetest.edicultydependsonyouractivitylevelduringthatday.

Reference the Injury Recovery table, above. A successful test removes one injury.

Each additional degree removes an additional injury. A failed test, however, means

you don’t recover at all. If you fail the test by 5 or more, you gain another injury.

If you cannot accept another injury, you gain a wound instead.

Wounds

Wounds are serious injuries, taking the longest to heal and causing the most

lasting harm. One week after gaining a wound, you may roll an Endurance

test.edicultydependsonyouractivitylevelduringthatweek.Reference

the Wound Recovery table, above. A successful test removes one wound.

ree degrees of success remove an additional wound (for a total of two).

If, however, you fail the Endurance test by 5 or more, you gain another

Intrigue

Bold deeds and heroic acts live large in the minds of the young and naïve, but

behind them, behind the endless ranks of knights and soldiers, are the true

movers and shakers of the land. e swords and those who wield them are

potent weapons, but they are tools all the same, used and discarded as need

be. e ones who guide these weapons are those playing the game of thrones,

the political machinations that can ignite a war or bring peace to a ravaged

land. Intrigue and its masters hold true power in Westeros, and their cunning

is just as deadly as the greatest knight in the Seven Kingdoms.

Intrigues have two essential components: the exchange and influence.

Exchanges are the framework in which the intrigue unfolds, while inﬂuence

describes the objective of each participant in the exchange.

The Exchange

An intrigue is broken up into loose units of time called exchanges. An exchange

is not a ﬁxed amount of time: One exchange might last just a few seconds,

while another might extend for hours. e Narrator assesses the time that passes

during each exchange based on the amount of time spent roleplaying, while also

accounting for the circumstances surrounding the intrigue as a whole.

During an exchange, each participant has a turn to act. On a turn, the player

rolls ability tests or performs some other maneuver to shift the intrigue in

their favor. Once each player has had a turn, the exchange ends and either

the intrigue resolves or a new exchange begins.

Influence

e aim of every intrigue is to gain enough inﬂuence to compel your

opponent to say, reveal, do, or act as you wish. Whether you’re trying to

change a person’s mind, pass yourself oﬀ as someone or something else, or

even just get them into bed, the process is the same. In a way, inﬂuence

functions a lot like damage. As with combat, you roll a conﬂict test—using

Deception or Persuasion, rather than Fighting or Marksmanship—against

your opponent’s Intrigue Defense. A success generates an amount of

inﬂuence applies to your target’s Composure. When Composure reaches 0,

your opponent is defeated

and the victor chooses the

outcome.

Intrigue Statistics

Several abilities describe your eﬀectiveness in an intrigue. What follows is a

summary of the game’s intrigue statistics and the methods for determining

your derived statistics.

Intrigue Defense

e ﬁrst line of defense against inﬂuence is your Intrigue Defense, combining

your perceptiveness, intelligence, and social standing. Your Intrigue Defense

equals your ranks in:

aW a r e n e s s + cu n n i n G + st a t u s + ci r c u m s t a n t i a l bo n u s e s

Example: Nicole’s noble has Awareness 3, Cunning 4, and Status 5. Adding

up her ranks in these abilities, her Intrigue Defense is 12.

Composure

Composure is your ability to withstand the pressures of negotiation and

persuasion. When an opponent successfully inﬂuences you, reduce your

Composure by your opponent’s inﬂuence. You are not aﬀected adversely unless

your Composure falls to 0, at which point you are defeated.

co m P o s u r e = Wi l l r a n k x 3

Example: Nicole’s noble has Will 4, so her Composure is 12.

Disposition

Disposition is a particular outlook as it relates to your opponent in an

intrigue, describing whether your character sees that person in a good

light or bad, intends that person harm or wishes to help them. Disposition

establishes the parameters about how you intend to play your character

during the intrigue. Moreover, your disposition acts as a form of “armor,”

protecting you from your

opponent’s inﬂuence. It’s

far harder to convince a

person who hates you to

“Some battles are won with swords and spears, others with quills and ravens.”

—Tywin Lannister

Injury Recovery

ac t i v i t y ex a m P l e Di f f i c u l t y

Light or

none

No ﬁghting, riding,

or physical activity

Routine (6)

Moderate Travel, some physical activity Challenging (9)

Strenuous Fighting, riding,

hard physical activity

Formidable (12)

Wound Recovery

ac t i v i t y ex a m P l e Di f f i c u l t y

Light or

none

No ﬁghting, riding,

or physical activity

Challenging (9)

Moderate Travel, some physical activity Hard (15)

Strenuous Fighting, riding,

hard physical activity

Heroic (21)

Intrigue

help than a person who loves you. us, whenever your opponent applies

inﬂuence to your Composure, you ﬁrst reduce the amount of inﬂuence by

your Disposition Rating (or DR).

Disposition also interacts with your eﬀorts at Deception and Persuasion,

byprovidingmodierstoyourtestresults.Itcanbediculttomaskyour

disdain when trying to befriend a long-time enemy, just as it’s hard to deceive

someone you love. e eﬀects of disposition on your words, body language,

and other elements of the intrigue cannot be understated. You might armor

yourself in scorn, but ﬁnd yourself powerless to change your thinking about

those around you.

ere are seven ranks of disposition, much like the ranks of abilities. ree

are favorable, three are unfavorable, and the seventh is indiﬀerence, neither

favorable nor unfavorable. Descriptions of each follow while the relevant

Disposition Rating and modiﬁers to Deception and Persuasion tests are

given on the Dispositions table.

Dispositions

Di s P o s i t i o n Dr De c e P t i o n mo D i f i e r Pe r s u a s i o n mo D i f i e r

Aﬀectionate 1 –2 +5

Friendly 2 –1 +3

Amiable 3 0 +1

Indiﬀerent 4 0 0

Dislike 5 +1 –2

Unfriendly 6 +2 –4

Malicious 7 +3 –6

Affectionate

Aﬀection implies love and adoration, feelings of obligation and strong loyalty

such as that shared between most spouses, parents and their children, and so

on. A character of this disposition gives into most requests even if the request

is to their detriment. Aﬀectionate characters are likely to overlook faults in

the person they adore and they would give their lives for that person.

Friendly

A friendly disposition suggests feelings of kinship and goodwill, found

in most siblings, long-time allies, and members of the same household.

Friendly can also serve to deﬁne the relationship between knights bound to

a common cause and the ties that bind the closest members of the Watch to

each other and their commanders. Friendly characters are willing to do you

favors and may take risks on your behalf. ey won’t betray you, and that’s

what counts most.

Amiable

Amiable characters see you in a positive light, and consider you an

acquaintance, but not necessarily a friend. Such characters are unlikely to

put themselves at risk for you, but are helpful if it beneﬁts them. An amiable

character may betray you, but only for a good reason.

Indifferent

An indiﬀerent character has no strong feelings toward you, one way or the

other. He may be convinced to help you, following orders out of duty, and may

consent to other favors if he gets something in return. Indiﬀerent characters

won’t take risks to help you unless suitably compensated.

Dislike

Dislike indicates a general unfriendliness, a certain uncomfortable frostiness.

Whether this disposition originates from distrust, reputation, or some

past misdeed, the character will not take risks for you and may entertain

conspiracies against you.

Unfriendly

Unfriendly characters simply do not like you. ese feelings may be

grounded in good reason or not, but regardless they hold you in disdain.

Such characters will not seek to actively hurt you, but they won’t interfere

with those who would and can be convinced to conspire against you with

little trouble.

Malicious

Malicious characters actively work against you, doing whatever they possibly

can to harm you, even if it means putting themselves at risk. Malicious

characters would wage war against you, harm your family, and do just

about anything else they can to destroy or discredit you. Such characters

are your direst enemies.

Starting Disposition

At the beginning of an intrigue, all participants set their starting disposition.

e default is indiﬀerent when dealing with new characters, but players are

free to choose whatever disposition they like for their characters. e choice

of disposition should always be based on what the character knows about their

opponent, past encounters with the character, and their feelings regarding

the character’s behavior.

While it may be tempting to think in game terms, weighing the mechanical

beneﬁts of each disposition, avoid doing so and try to choose honestly based

on how you think your character would feel. Your character’s disposition may

also have unforeseen consequences. For example, if a representative of another

house engages you in intrigue and you automatically set your disposition to

malicious, you’re bound to make an enemy of that character by your rudeness

and hostility. Conversely, simply defaulting to aﬀectionate when trying to

persuade another character is risky, as it leaves you open to manipulation. In

short, consider how your character ought to feel and pick a disposition that

best ﬁts your character’s perspective.

Evolving Dispositions

Over the course of an intrigue, a character’s disposition is bound to change.

e events of an exchange, coupled with roleplaying, allow players and the

Narrator to adjust their characters’ dispositions in response to what happened

during the previous exchange. At the start of every new exchange, each

participant may improve or worsen their disposition by one step.

e only exception to this is when a character was successfully inﬂuenced on the

previous exchange. Such a character cannot worsen their disposition towards the

inﬂuencing character during the next exchange, although they may improve it.

Intrigue Sequence

Whenever a social situation arises that cannot be resolved through simple

roleplaying alone, an intrigue occurs. Such encounters can include negotiations

and interrogations, but can also represent seduction, forging alliances,

provoking attacks and a variety of other actions. All intrigues follow the same

sequence of steps, described in detail in the following sections.

st e P on e : ob j e c t i v e

st e P tW o : in i t i a t i v e

st e P th r e e : te c h n i Q u e

st e P fo u r : ro l e P l a y i n G

st e P fi v e : ac t i o n s

Step One: Objective

e core of every intrigue is your objective, what you hope to achieve. An

objective is your motivation, what you want your opponent to do, say, or a

development you want to prevent. Without an objective, you don’t have an

Intrigue

intrigue—you’re just roleplaying, which, of course, has a place in the game,

but doesn’t often advance the story in any signiﬁcant way.

Objectives tend to live in the background of the intrigue, not revealing

themselves until one side achieves victory. Your objective colors your

roleplaying and gives you a position from which you can argue. What follows

is broad selection of objectives that prompt intrigues. is list is by no means

complete, but it gives you a good foundation for coming up with objectives

relevant to your situation in the game.

Note that your objective is the immediate desired outcome for the intrigue.

Many intrigues in the game of thrones have far-ranging objectives. So you

might ultimately have your eye on the throne of the Seven Kingdoms, but it

will take many lesser intrigues, and smaller objectives, before you can reach

so very high.

Friendship

Many intrigues involve cultivating alliances, forging friendships, whether

for the short-term or long. Your expected outcome is to foment feelings of

kinship with your target to make future exchanges easier or even unnecessary.

Friendship, obviously, covers a lot of ground and with this objective you

might seduce someone, arrange a marriage, build an alliance, or simply gain

a new friend.

Information

Knowledge is power, and information stands as one of the most common

objectives for engaging in an intrigue. With this objective, you hope to acquire

information, learn rumors, gossip, or anything else you might need to gain

an edge over your enemies. Information might involve maneuvering in the

royal court or trawling the streets and taverns of King’s Landing listening for

useful whispers. Regardless, information is a valuable commodity and vital

for navigating the perils of the game of thrones.

Service

When a service is your objective, you want your opponent to do something

for you. What that something is can be just about anything, from loaning you

a few gold dragons to spying on the Queen, giving you a good deal on a new

sword, or sparing your life when your opponent has every right to take it.

Deceit

You may also engage in intrigues to dupe your opponent, feeding false

information, setting up your foe for a potential double-cross, and masking

your true intention behind a deceptive façade. When deceit is your objective,

you gain inﬂuence by rolling Deception tests instead of Persuasion tests.

Changing Objectives

ere are bound to be times when you enter an intrigue hoping to come

away with one thing and discover something much more interesting. At the

start of a new exchange, you may change your objective, but if you do, your

opponent automatically recovers an amount of Composure equal to his Will

rank as you subtly change course.

Step Two: Initiative

To determine who tests when, each participant in the intrigue rolls a Status

test (bonus dice from Reputation apply). e Narrator records each result

and arranges them in order from highest to lowest. e highest result goes

ﬁrst, followed by the next, and then the next highest until everyone has acted.

Note that the test result does not require a character to act in this order; it

merely describes the earliest they can act. A participant may wait and see

what other participants do before acting.

Step Three: Technique

If dispositions are armor for intrigue, techniques are weapons. Techniques

describe the tactics a character employs during an intrigue, but more than

just provide descriptive features, techniques indicate how much inﬂuence a

character gains with a successful test and the consequences of defeat.

Deception

You may substitute Deception for Persuasion tests to simulate any of the

following techniques. You may only do so when trying to deceive your

opponent, such as charming under false pretenses or bargaining with no

intention of making good on your promises. You make this decision when

you choose your objective. When testing Deception, roll bonus dice from one

of your Deception specialties most appropriate to the technique you’re trying

to emulate. If you have bonus dice in the Persuasion specialty, you may use

those dice or the listed Deception specialty, whichever is greater.

Using Techniques

Whenever you roll a Deception or Persuasion conﬂict test to inﬂuence your

opponent, you may roll bonus dice from a specialty corresponding to the

technique.edicultyisyouropponent’sIntrigueDefense.Asuccessfultest

inﬂuences an amount determined by the technique you used (usually equal

to your rank in an ability) multiplied by your degree of success. You need not

choose the same technique each exchange and may select a diﬀerent technique

that best matches how you portrayed your character during the exchange.

Techniques

te c h n i Q u e in f l u e n c e

Pe r s u a s i o n

sP e c i a l t y

De c e P t i o n

sP e c i a l t y

Bargain Cunning rank Bargain Bluﬀ

Charm Persuasion rank Charm Act

Convince Will rank Convince Act

Incite Cunning rank Incite Bluﬀ

Intimidate Will rank Intimidate Act or Bluﬀ

Seduce Persuasion rank Seduce Bluﬀ

Taunt Awareness rank Taunt Bluﬀ

Bargain

When you Bargain, you are asking the target to do something in exchange

for recompense in some form. Bargain can be used to bribe a guard, form

alliances, attain services, and so on, but it only works so long as you live up

to your side of the bargain.

Bargain is used to negotiate a service in which the target does something

for you in exchange for something you provide. is can be as simple as a

monetary transaction, exchanging gold dragons for some good or service, or

it could be some other form of arrangement.

Charm

Use Charm whenever you would cultivate a friendship, improving the target’s

disposition to make him or her more amenable to your position in future

intrigues. When you use this technique, you ply your target with complements,

empathizing with their plights and conditions, and work to adapt yourself

to your subject’s desires.

When you defeat an opponent using charm, you improve the target’s

disposition by one-step. e improved disposition lasts until circumstances

would worsen their disposition against you—such as a betrayal on your part

or a rival inciting the opponent against you. In addition, you gain an extra

test die on all Deception and Persuasion tests during your next intrigue

against this opponent.

Convince

Sometimes a forceful argument can get your point across where charm or

seduction might fail. Convince imparts your position or idea by simply putting

the idea out there in a reasoned and logical manner. It is often less eﬀective

Intrigue

because it isn’t backed up by a threat and there may not be something in it for

the subject. us, it often takes longer to convince a subject of your position

especially when they are ill-disposed against you.

A use of convince does nothing to improve the target’s disposition, but instead

gets them to support your position or grant you assistance. Even dire enemies

canbeconvincedtohelpprovidedtheyhavesucientcause,thoughthere’s

nothing to say the enemy won’t use the opportunity to betray you later. A

convinced target assists you through the particular trial but no further.

Incite

Incite is used to make your subject angry, to ﬁll them with loathing or rage

against someone or something. Incite is risky since the unchecked emotion

created can cause the subject to react brashly.

Inciting a target involves turning the opponent against another opponent,

usually by producing evidence of betrayal, vile acts, or revealing any other

sordid details your opponent might ﬁnd repugnant. Incite is powerful but

it produces short-term eﬀects. An incited target’s attitude to the individual,

organization, or house you indicate shifts a number of steps down equal to

your Persuasion rank. Each day after, the target’s attitude improves by one-

stepuntilitreturnstoitsstartingdisposition,unlesscircumstancesarm

the new disposition.

Intimidate

One of the most powerful techniques, Intimidate uses bluster and threats used

to frighten or cow your opponent. A successful use of intimidate either drives

oﬀ the target if he can ﬂee or improves his disposition to amiable (or one-step

better if already amiable), for as long as you remain in the target’s presence

if the target cannot ﬂee. e target does as you ask, reveals information and

possibly lies if he believes he has no other recourse to escape your presence.

An intimidated target’s disposition in future intrigues is always unfriendly

or worse.

Seduce

Of all the techniques, seduction is the most subtle. Use of this technique

requires patience and practice, a keen eye for body language and innuendo to

guide your own words and behavior. If you defeat an opponent using Seduce,

you ﬁll the subject with feelings of desire or at the very least the willingness to

give into your advances. You improve the target’s Disposition by a number of

steps equal to your Persuasion rank. If the target is attracted to you, capable

of physical love, and as it least friendly, he or she gives in. As such, it may

take several intrigues to seduce a target properly.

Each day after the encounter, the target’s disposition shifts down one until it

falls to one step below their starting disposition. You can sustain the feelings

of attraction by courting the individual and using charm to create a more

permanent improvement in disposition. Characters with dispositions that

started at dislike or worse but who are seduced pretend to be attracted and

even go so far as to engage in lovemaking or some other act of passion. ey

only follow through if they believe such an act will advance their position or

give them some advantage over you—whether it’s to plant a bastard in the

womb or a knife in the throat.

Taunt

Taunting is risky. You goad another character into action based on barbs and

insults. You can use taunt to provoke the character to do something but at

the cost of worsening their disposition toward you. An opponent who has

an amiable or better Disposition does what you want but after completing

the task, Disposition worsens by one step. An opponent whose Disposition

is indiﬀerent or dislike may or may not perform the task based on the

danger posed to them. Again, their Disposition worsens by one-step. Finally,

opponents with dispositions worse than dislike attack you, or ﬂee

if attacking is not an option.

Step Four: Roleplaying

Roleplaying is the heart of intrigue. During this step, the players

may argue and debate, connive and negotiate, discussing their

options and making their case. ere is no clear order of action

here, but rather this step is intended to be freeform and loose,

lasting as long as needed until the Narrator opts to move toward

the next step, usually occurring at a dramatic moment when a

player makes clear their desires, but before the answer to that

desire is revealed.

Of course, not all groups are comfortable with improvised acting

and may prefer a more mechanical approach to resolving these

scenes. If this is the case, or if the intrigue is particularly small

and insigniﬁcant to the larger scenario, the Narrator may skip this

step and move onto the next.

The Effects of Roleplaying

SIFRP is a roleplaying game and therefore strong portrayals of

your character as well as convincing arguments can and do have

an eﬀect on intrigues. Good roleplaying modiﬁes your chances by

granting bonus dice, usually one or two, but sometimes as many

as three for extremely convincing performances. Naturally, some

roleplaying sequences may result in saying the absolute wrong

thing at the wrong time, which may aﬀect a character’s eﬀorts

by applying penalty dice or imposing a ﬂat penalty of –1 to –5

depending on the seriousness of the gaﬀ.

Not all groups include talented actors and some players may be

reluctant to participate in such an immersive roleplaying scene.

e Narrator should not penalize players if they are not suited

for this sort of game-play.

Intrigue

Step Five: Actions

During an exchange, a player may choose and perform one of following

actions. Each participant has but one action.

Assist

You may support another character’s arguments, encouraging them as they

debate and argue. If you succeed on a Challenging (9) Persuasion test, you

can lend one-half (round down) your rank in Persuasion as a modiﬁer to your

ally’s next conﬂict test result.

Consider

You give up your action for the exchange. You gain +2 bonus dice on any one

test you take during the next exchange. Bonus dice gained in this way cannot

exceed your rank in the ability you’re testing. Once you roll a test and use

these bonus dice, excess bonus dice are lost.

Fast Talk

You can unleash a stream of nonsense in the hopes of distracting your opponent

and putting them oﬀ guard. Make a Persuasion test against the target’s passive

Will result. If you achieve at least one degree, the target loses his Cunning rank

from his Intrigue Defense until the end of the next exchange.

Influence

Inﬂuence is the most common action in an intrigue. It reﬂects your eﬀort to

modify your opponent’s behavior. Roll a Deception or Persuasion test against

your opponent’s Inﬂuence Defense, gaining bonus dice from your chosen

technique. A successful test indicates you inﬂuence your opponent by an

amount described under your technique, multiplied by your degree of success.

Reduce the total inﬂuence by your opponent’s Disposition rating. Remaining

inﬂuence applies to your target’s Composure. An opponent reduced to 0

Composure is defeated.

Manipulate

You try to manipulate your opponent’s emotions by goading them into using a

speciﬁc technique. You must beat or equal your opponent’s passive Will result

(of Will x 4) with a Persuasion test. If so, you may choose your opponent’s

technique for the next exchange.

Mollify

During an intrigue, you can restore someone else’s Composure by rolling

a Formidable (12) Persuasion test to mollify a target. Your test is modiﬁed

by the target’s Disposition as normal. Success restores Composure equal

to your Persuasion rank; each additional degree of success restores an extra

point of Composure.

Quit

You need not suﬀer the indignity of an aggressive opponent and provided

there’s an avenue of escape, you can quit an intrigue. Upon doing so, the

intrigue ends, but there are often repercussions as determined by the Narrator,

especially if there are witnesses to your weakness.

Alternatively, when an opponent proves uninterested in discussion or

negotiation and resists your eﬀorts, you may quit the intrigue without trouble,

though questions and information oﬀered may raise suspicions and have

other consequences.

Read Target

In lieu of coercing a target, you can hold back and read your target’s disposition

and technique. Make an Awareness test against your target’s passive Deception

result. If you equal or beat your target’s test result, you learn the target’s current

disposition and technique for this exchange. As a result of this insight, you

gain an extra test die on all Deception and Persuasion tests for the duration

of the intrigue. You may use this action just once per intrigue.

Shield of Reputation

You can fall back on your reputation and status to inﬂuence your opponent.

Make a Status test against your opponent’s passive Will result. If you succeed,

the target’s disposition improves by one-step. You may use this action just

once per intrigue.

Switch to Combat

On your turn, you can abandon the intrigue and attack your opponent.

Clearly, this may not be an option in every intrigue and attacking may have

other consequences. Once you switch to combat, the intrigue immediately

ends and combat begins.

Withdraw

You may shore up your defenses and set yourself against your target. Roll a

Will test (bonus dice from Discipline apply). e result of the test replaces

your Intrigue Defense until the end of the next exchange.

Influence

When an opponent successfully inﬂuences you in an intrigue, you may lose

some of your Composure, bringing you closer to falling under their sway. Any

inﬂuence in excess of your Disposition Rating applies to your Composure.

Loss of Composure doesn’t aﬀect you unless it reduces your value to 0 or less,

at which point you are defeated.

Frustration

e primary way to reduce inﬂuence is through your Disposition Rating. You

subtract this value from the inﬂuence your opponent earns with a successful

Deception or Persuasion test.

e other way to reduce outside inﬂuence upon you is to accept a measure

of Frustration. Each point of Frustration gained removes an amount of

inﬂuence equal to your Will rank. However, each point of Frustration gained

imposes a –1 penalty die all Deception and Persuasion tests for the duration

of the intrigue. If your accumulated Frustration exceeds your Will rank, you

are defeated because you lose your Composure. At the end of the intrigue,

win or lose, all accumulated Frustration is removed.

Defeat

If your Composure is reduced to 0 or less, or your accumulated frustration

exceeds your Will rank, you are defeated, and the victor achieves the stated

goal of the intrigue.

Yielding

You may choose to yield to an opponent, oﬀering a compromise outcome,

rather than going down to defeat, if you wish. You can only yield on your turn

in an exchange, and your opponent may accept, oﬀer a counter-proposal, or

refuse. If you in turn refuse a counter-oﬀer, then the intrigue continues and

you may not yield. Yielding is an option for when defeat seems certain and

you want to oﬀer an opponent an immediate, lesser, victory to put a quick

end to the conﬂict.

Destiny and Defeat

You may also burn a Destiny Point when defeated to choose an outcome

other than your opponent’s stated goal. e Narrator must approve the new

outcome.

As with combat, unimportant character in the story generally don’t avoid

inﬂuence through Frustration, and they tend to yield quickly when the

intrigue goes against them. is allows the Narrator to dispense with such

minor intrigues quickly when it becomes clear the character has the upper

hand (assuming the intrigue was important enough to test the characters’

abilities to begin with).

Journey to King’s Landing

Journey to King’s Landing is a short, introductory adventure story for A Song

of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, intended to introduce new players and give them

a feel for how the game, and the world of Westeros, work. It can also serve

as a lead-in to the adventure series Peril at King’s Landing, available in Fall

2008 from Green Ronin Publishing.

Summary

e characters are on their way to the great city of King’s Landing, ostensibly

to attend a tourney declared by King Robert Baratheon. Along the way,

they stop for the night at an inn, encounter some local ill-will, and have an

encounter with a group of bandits, which may or may not include one or

more characters being kidnapped and taken to the bandits’ encampment.

ey must deal with the bandits, one way or another, and continue along

their way to King’s Landing.

In Scene One, the group encounters evidence of the bandits’ work along the

road to King’s Landing. As night comes on, they ﬁnd a local inn and make

arrangements to stay for the night.

In Scene Two, the party hunkers down at the inn for the night, allowing

time for the players to try out various game systems in the events that play

out around the late afternoon and evening. Various things may pass in the

night between characters.

In Scene ree, the bandits attack the party along the road, attempting to

take all their goods, or else the characters (alerted to the bandits’ spy at the

inn) follow and attack them at their camp. Either way, the characters must

deal with the threat and continue on their journey.

The Characters

Six pre-generated characters are provided for use with this adventure, all

members of a minor noble house; the young heir and his entourage. Provide

copies of their character sheets (photocopies, scans, or the actual pages taken

out of this book) to the players. If you have the full A Song of Ice and Fire

Roleplaying rules, you can have players create their own characters for this

adventure, if desired. is is the best option if you intend to use this adventure

as a lead-in to the events of Peril at King’s Landing.

e character sheets come complete with background information and

descriptions. Encourage players to roleplay the characters based on this

information. Not all of a character’s background information may come into

play in this short adventure (indeed, it’s unlikely for much of it to come up),

but the information can still add to the players’ roleplaying and enjoyment of

their characters and a good opportunity may arise for unexpected revelations

and character development!

Scene One: On the Road

In this scene, the characters make their way along the road towards the

crossroads where they will take the Kingsroad south to King’s Landing. Along

the way, they ﬁnd evidence of trouble in the area as the day grows late and

they are in need of a place to stop for the night.

Journey to King’s Landing

Read the following aloud to the players to set the scene:

A tourney. King Robert Baratheon, ruler of the Seven Kingdoms,

has declared a tourney and festival in the great city of King’s

Landing. All the lords and bannermen of the Seven Kingdoms are

invited to attend, where there will be feasting , merriment, and great

jousts for the finest knights in all the land to prove their mettle, along

with a grand melee to claim the rich prizes offered by the crown (to

say nothing of the adoration and cheers of the crowd).

It is also not lost on you that this tourney represents an important

opportunity for your house: to forge alliances, learn all the latest

news and gossip of the court, and to meet those men and women

who represent the great houses of Westeros. In the years to come,

some of these noble folk will be your allies or liege-lords, others your

enemies. It pays to know which way the wind is blowing, so the riches

won in this tourney may be far more than mere gold.

You’ve set off on the long journey to the Kingsroad that will take you

southward to King’s Landing itself. What started out as an exciting

adventure on a bright summer morning has taken a gray turn, as a steady

drizzle has begun to dampened your spirits as much as it has your sodden

clothing. Even heavy wool cloaks only do so much to keep out the damp

and the subsequent chill. There is supposed to be an inn at the crossroads

and you fervently hope so, as a warm fire and some dry clothes and decent

food would go a long way towards improving your mood.

Give the players an opportunity to brieﬂy introduce and describe their

characters and what they’re doing with the party headed to the tournament.

You may want to allow the players the opportunity for a little roleplaying to

get into character, talking to each other about the unpleasant weather, what

they can expect to ﬁnd when they reach King’s Landing, their hopes for the

tourney, and so forth.

If you have fewer than six players for the game, you can either exclude the

characters the players did not choose, or else you can have them as part of

the party and run them as Narrator characters. is is helpful as it provides

you with a “voice” for communicating in-character with the rest of the group

and allows you to encourage roleplaying among the players.

If you have a full compliment of players and still want to introduce a Narrator

character among the group for this purpose, copy Nicholas Rivers’ character sheet

and select a suitable name for a scout or woodsman who accompanies the party.

is character can end up a victim of the bandits later in the story, if you want.

A Crows’ Feast

Once the players have gotten settled and had the opportunity to introduce

their characters and roleplay a bit, read the following aloud to them:

A shiver not related to the rainy chill passes through you as a murder

of crows takes wing, cawing and squawking, from along the road

ahead. Overlaying the damp smell of leaves is the stench of death

wafting towards you on the wind.

Alongside the road in a shallow gulley the bodies lay: three men,

although one of them barely more than a boy. They’re clothed

in little more than their undergarments and a layer of mud and

blood, and their wounds bear witness to the fightt before they

died. Whoever killed them must have stripped them of all their

goods before dumping their bodies alongside the road, and their

dark eye-sockets, eaten out by the crows, bear mute testimony of

the evils of men.

Let the characters react to the bodies as their players see ﬁt. ey may wish

to investigate further, to try and see that the murdered men receive a proper

burial, or they may choose to harden their hearts to the unfortunate tableau,

focusing on the road ahead, and whatever dangers might await them.

If the characters examine the bodies further, have the players roll an Easy (3)

Cunning test, and provide them with information based on the result:

fa i l u r e : ey learn nothing more than was described to them initially.

su c c e s s (o n e D e G r e e ): Rust stains on their clothing show all of the men

once wore armor, although it is nowhere to be seen. Even their boots

have been taken. From the condition of the bodies, they can’t have

been dead for much more than a day or so.

su c c e s s (t W o o r m o r e D e G r e e s ): e older men’s hands are calloused and

their arms developed such that it is clear they were knights, the young

man perhaps their squire.

Septa Alanna and other characters may wish to see the bodies properly

buried, or to at least pray to the gods for their souls. Digging graves is slow,

messy work in the muddy ground, but so is gathering enough stones for a

cairn, while a pyre of any sort simply isn’t an option in the damp weather.

e characters can also decide to take the bodies with them (slinging them

over the back of their horses) or to ride on to the inn ahead and come back

with help and proper tools to bury the bodies. More importantly, whatever

they choose, if the characters disturb the bodies or spend any time near them

before moving on, they’re surprised when one of them moves!

The Squire’s Tale

Jodrell, the squire to Ser Tymon, one of the slain knights, still clings to life. He’s

severely wounded, however, and dying. His gut wound is already badly infected,

he’s lost too much blood, and he’s beyond even the skills of Maester Rudolphus

to save (as any attempt at a Healing test shows the would-be healer).

e presence of the characters, and any activity around the bodies, causes

Jodrell to stir and moan in pain. Any further attention from the characters

brings him to bleary consciousness, barely able to speak.

rough cracked and bloodied lips, Jodrell can tell the characters the following.

Paraphrase the information in Jodrell’s voice based on what the characters do

and say and whether they ask the dying squire any questions.

Jodrell, his master Tymon, and fellow knight Ser Roddik, were also traveling

to King’s Landing for the tourney. Late in the evening, they were set upon

by some bandits, a group of four rough-looking men, who attacked from

ambush. e men must have been sell-swords or former soldiers themselves,

as they were well armed and did not ﬁght like brigands. ey unhorsed

both knights and slew them. Jodrell was stabbed and ﬂung into the ditch.

He lost consciousness and doesn’t remember anything more until the

characters arrived.

Once he has told the characters the previous information, Jodrell expires. For

some added poignancy you can have the squire ask his “rescuers” to see to

it that the men are buried as beﬁts knights, to avenge their deaths, or both.

Although he bears no sign, Jodrell is a faithful worshipper of the Seven, and

will take comfort from the spiritual ministrations of Septa Alanna, should she

oﬀer them. Attempts to move Jodrell merely aggravate his wounds, causing

him to lose consciousness and die immediately.

Scene Two:

At the Crossroads

In this scene, the party reaches the inn at the crossroads. eir reception

depends somewhat on the condition of their arrival, but they may ﬁnd more

than just a warm meal and bed for the night.

Journey to King’s Landing

After the characters leave behind the carnage of the bandits’ attack and headed

for the inn, read the following aloud to the players:

The sight of the timbers and thatched roof of the inn are welcome

in the unending drizzle, even more so is the curl of blue-grey smoke

from the fieldstone chimney, speaking to you of a warm hearth and,

hopefully, some warm food and drink as respite from your travels.

As the shadows grow long, and you are fatigued from the day’s ride,

to say nothing of your encounter with the bandits’ handiwork a way

back, you spur yourselves onward towards the inn’s muddy yard.

e innkeeper is an old woman named Masha Heedle: gray-haired, her

teeth stained red from the sourleaf she’s constantly chewing. She has some

youngsters to help out with the work around the place; it’s never quite clear if

they’re relations or just cast-oﬀs who have found a home with her. Although

she’s all business with travelers and customers, Masha has a soft spot for

children. Also present are:

br e n n a : A comely servant girl in her late teens; she brings food and drink to

the guests and spends the rest of her time cleaning up (and occasionally

ﬂirting with attractive strangers).

Da v i n : A stout lad who serves as the inn’s stable-hand and general porter

for things too heavy for Masha or Brenna to handle.

ho r a c e : A traveling tinker resting up at the inn, Horace is an old greybeard

who has traveled a great deal. He is also on his way towards King’s

Landing, but is stopping over and trading his services ﬁxing things

at the inn for food and lodging.

co r v i n : A sell-sword who claims to be headed for King’s Landing, although

he says he has been laid-up at the inn for a while, having caught cold

in the foul weather. He tends to keep by the hearth, sniﬄing and

coughing quietly, while drinking hot tea. Not surprisingly, people

tend to avoid him. In truth, Corvin is working with the bandits and

staying at the inn to watch out for potential marks.

Feel free to add other characters to the mix at the inn, as suits your ideas for

interactions and the like. You can even have the players suggest a few more,

providing ideas for people they want their characters to meet.

is is a fairly free-form scene where the characters can spend a bit of time at

the inn, and rest for the night before heading out again to continue their journey.

Exactly what happens depends on what opportunities the players choose to take,

although you can encourage them in certain directions as need be.

Some Needed Practice

One opportunity the stopover at the inn presents is a chance to practice playing

the game. For example, when the party arrives, damp, muddy, and chilled, in

the common room of the inn, you can give the players the opportunity to try

out the intrigue system by running a quick negotiation with Masha over the

cost of their food and lodging for the night. Look over the Intrigue rules

starting on page 17. Masha’s disposition is indiﬀerent towards the characters

(and, presumably, they towards her). Her intrigue statistics are:

ma s h a he e D l e : Pe r s u a s i o n 3 / Ba r g a i n 2B, in t r i G u e De f e n s e 6,

co m P o s u r e 6

Itshouldn’tbetoodicult foracharacter(Rhys, Rudolphus,or Alanna,

most likely) to negotiate a reasonable price with the innkeep. Other potential

opportunities to try out some of the game systems at the inn include:

• Acharactermighttryseducingaservantgirlorstable-hand,orjustanother

passing traveler. Play out another intrigue for the attempt. is can

get particularly interesting if a Narrator-controlled character takes

an interest in one of the party and initiates the intrigue, more so if its

someone interested in the squire Jonah (who is actually a girl!).

• Acharactercouldengageinadicinggamewithsomeothertravelers;play

out an intrigue using Deception to see if the character can pull oﬀ a

successful win.

• CharacterslikeRhys,Merik,Nicholas,

and Jonah might take arms practice in

the yard either in the early evening or

the following morning. is provides

a chance to try out the combat system,

pitting characters against each other. In

this instance, defeat is deﬁned as being

ﬂat on your back in the mud with a

sword-point at your throat rather than

death. You may also bar players from

taking injuries or wounds to lessen their

damage, unless they want to chalk them

up to accidents that take place during

the practice, in which case any real

injury (much less wound) puts a stop

to things right way. It also leaves that

character the worse for wear when a real

ﬁght happens later (see Scene ree).

• Similarly, the fighting-men of the

party might take up archery or

throwing practice out behind the

inn, allowing for a chance to try out

the ranged combat rules as well.

The Inn at the Crossroads

e Inn at the Crossroads has a place in the Song of Ice and Fire

saga. If you choose, this inn may be the same one described in

the novels, or a diﬀerent place along the road to King’s Landing.

Certainly, there are a great many inns along the major roads, any

one of them often the same as any other, so it’s a fairly simple

matter to make this a diﬀerent inn. Likewise, inns are known to

change hands from time to time, outlasting their keepers. ere’s

always a need for an inn along a busy road, but innkeeps sometimes

meet with unpleasant fates. is, too, may be the case for your

version of the inn.

Journey to King’s Landing

At heart, Ander is a bully and a coward, brave when ﬁghting from ambush

and backed up by his men, but more likely to fold when truly challenged.

“Ser” Ander

Abilities

an i m a l ha n D l i n G 3

at h l e t i c s 3

fi G h t i n G 4 1B Lo n g BL a d e , 1B La n c e

Attributes

co m b a t De f e n s e  (8 with large shield) / ar m o r ra t i n G  (mail)

he a l t h  / mo v e  

lo n G s W o r D 4+1B / 4 damage

Wa r la n c e 4+1B / 6 damage; bulk 2, mounted, powerful, reach, slow

he a v y sh i e l D 4–1P / 1 damage; bulk 1, defensive +4

Wort and Cole, Bandits

Wort and Cole, along with Corvin, make up the rest of Ander’s band of

brigands. Wort and Cole are ex-soldiers and sometime poachers who simply

ﬁnd it easier to take what they want, and to follow the orders of men like

Ander. ey’re unshaven, unwashed, and not overly clever, but ﬁnd none of

that matters so long as you know how to swing an axe. Corvin is more of a

sell-sword and considers himself sophisticated; he is, at least in comparison

to the company he keeps.

Wort and Cole

Abilities

fi G h t i n G 3 1B ax e s

st e a l t h 4 1B sn e a k

su r v i v a l 3

Attributes

co m b a t De f e n s e  / ar m o r ra t i n G  (mail)

he a l t h  / mo v e  

ba t t l e a x e 3+1B / 2 damage / adaptable

hu n t i n G bo W 2 / 2 damage / long range, two-handed

Ambush!

If Corvin left the inn unnoticed the previous night, or the characters prevented

him without ﬁnding his encampment, then the bandits ambush the party

just a mile or so away from the inn at a convenient spot along the road. See

the Ambush Site map for details.

Ander and Corvin sit astride horses around the bend in the road, weapons

at the ready, while Wort and Cole ﬁre their bows from the concealment of

the woods alongside the road before wading into the ﬁght with their axes.

Whether the bandits attack immediately or attempt to parley with the

party depends on Corvin’s assessment of their strength and willingness to

negotiate. If Ander thinks he can win without ﬁghting, he’ll try it, signaling

for a bowshot from the woods to emphasize the strength of his bargaining

position, if necessary. He also won’t hesitate to threaten Alanna or Rudolphus

(as the non-warriors of the party) if he thinks it will gain him something.

If Corvin has reported the party is unlikely to negotiate, then the bandits strike

ﬁrst, looking to take out Merik and Nicholas Rivers (as the most dangerous

looking ﬁghters). Ander underestimates Rhys, dismissing him as “just a boy”

initially, which may well prove a fatal mistake.

If Ander or at least two of the other bandits are defeated, the rest ﬂee unless

they have an overwhelming advantage. e brigands are not above taking

The Trouble on the Road

Chances are, the characters may inquire about the victims of the bandit attack

they encountered on the road to the inn, either to ﬁnd out more about what

happened, or to seek assistance in burying the bodies and, possibly, dealing

with the problem.

Unfortunately, the folk at the inn are not particularly inclined to help with

either request. Davin is the only able-bodied young man and he’s not really

a ﬁghter. He could help move or bury the bodies, but Masha prefers he stay

close to the inn. She suggests, “Let the dead attend to themselves.” Horace

begs oﬀ because of his age, while Corvin complains of his illness, having no

desire to worsen it out in the cold and the damp.

If the characters press the matter, they can engage in a short intrigue with the

chosen character(s) to persuade them to cooperate. Although he conceals it,

Corvin is unfriendly towards the characters (regarding them as targets) while the

others are indiﬀerent. Brenna or Davin might even be amiable, if you feel either

is taken with one or more of the characters (there being a certain romance to a

group of important strangers on their way to the King’s own tournament).

What Passes in the Night

After the party has retired for the night, Corvin slips away from the inn to

tell the other bandits about them and anything he has learned from carefully

observing and overhearing them throughout the course of the evening.

Unless one or more of the characters stay awake on watch at or outside the

inn, they do not notice Corvin’s departure. If some of them are on watch, or

sleeping out in the stable, for example, they might notice something; secretly

roll a test of Corvin’s Stealth 4 (with a bonus die for Sneaking) against their

Alertness. Someone who notices Corvin slipping away can try and follow,

rolling a Stealth test against Corvin’s Alertness 2; he’s on his guard and

watching for signs that he’s being followed. Alternately, the character can

confront him.

If confronted, Corvin either lies about wanting some air (curious given how

much he previously insisted on remaining indoors) or simply makes a break

for it. If he thinks he can lull a single character and catch him or her oﬀ-guard,

the brigand attacks. If defeated, the character is taken hostage and brought

back to the bandit camp for ransoming or to use as a bargaining chip.

More likely, Corvin goes unseen and returns to his compatriots, who decide

to prepare a suitable “welcome” for the party when they leave the inn in the

morning.

Scene Three:

The Bandits’ Challenge

One way or another, the party will have to deal with the bandits troubling

this stretch of the road before moving on. Either they take note of the spy

watching the inn and manage to follow him back to the bandit camp (allowing

them the opportunity to turn the tables and surprise the brigands), capture

him and force information about the bandits from him, or else the bandits

ambush them along the road not long after they’ve left the inn.

“Ser” Ander, Rogue Knight

e leader of the small group of bandits is a rogue hedge knight who has

turned to banditry. “Ser” Ander (although he is no longer worthy of the

title), still has the armor and weapons of a knight, but he has no lands, no

title, nor much in the way of scruples. He has it in his head to raid along

the road to King’s Landing while the getting is good, then perhaps moving

on to better territory. He even holds the private fantasy of going on to the

King’s tourney himself, perhaps winning in the lists or the melee and gaining

royal favor, once he has the money he needs to buy himself arms ﬁtting of

a man of his prowess.

Journey to King’s Landing

Quick-Start Characters

e following pages present a set of characters for playing the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Quick-Start adventure, “Journey to King’s Landing.”

You may photocopythese pages for your own personal use. Each character is complete and ready to play, and uses the following format:

Character Name

is section discusses how the character ﬁts in the household, deﬁnes some of the character’s responsibilities, and what role the character might

ﬁll in an adventure. In addition, some salient personality and historical features are included to give you a sketch of the character’s background.

Abilities

Characters are deﬁned by their choice of abilities and specialties, those areas in which the character has some degree of talent. Each character lists

all abilities possessed by the character that exceed 2. Attached to the ability is its rank, expressed as a number such as 3. If the character has any

specialties related to the ability, they are listed beneath the ability and indented to set them apart. Specialties also include the number of bonus

dice invested and are expressed with a number and a B, 3B for example.

Attributes

is section describes the salient features and derived abilities needed for playing through intrigues and combats. At the top, you’ll ﬁnd the

character’s Awareness rank and passive result. Next are the Intrigue attributes including Defense and Composure. Finally, you’ll ﬁnd Movement

and Sprint, followed by Combat Defense, Armor Rating, and Health. e last section lists all the weapons, armor, wealth, and important personal

possessions the character has at the start of the game.

Qualities

Qualities, including Destiny Points, follow, along with descriptions of their game eﬀects.

defeated characters hostage (or much else, for that matter). ey use any

captured party members as bargaining chips.

Keep in mind that Ander and Corvin are mounted and their horses are

trained for combat. See the Mounted Attacks section of the Fighting rules

for details.

The Bandit Camp

If the characters manage to follow Corvin from the inn, or capture him and

force the information from him, they can ﬁnd the bandits’ encampment, just

over a mile from the inn and the crossroads in

the surrounding woodland. It’s a simple, rude

camp in a forest clearing where the men sleep

under tents and tie up their horses. It’s also

where they stash what they’ve taken from

their victims thus far: 24 copper pennies,

87 silver stags, 4 gold dragons, a shield and

longsword, plus the horses and their tack,

harness, and supplies.

If the party approaches the bandit camp

cautiously (a Stealth test against the bandits’

passive Awareness of 8), they can take them

unawares. If they do so, the characters all gain

an extra test die on their attack tests in the

ﬁrst round of combat. Otherwise, the bandits

detect the approaching characters in time to

take action, and there is no modiﬁer.

Still, attacking the bandits at their camp

may allow characters to gain the upper

hand. In particular, none of the bandits will

be mounted. If the party strikes swiftly, they

can score a decisive win. As in the ambush

encounter, if Ander or two or more of the

other bandits are defeated, the rest either

yield or ﬂee, depending on the options open

to them.

Further Adventures

Although this adventure is over, the story of the characters, and A Song of

Ice and Fire Roleplaying, is just beginning! What will they ﬁnd awaiting

them when they arrive in King’s Landing? Why has King Robert called this

tourney (apart from an opportunity to ﬁght, feast, and wench)? Who will

be in attendance and what schemes and agendas will they bring with them?

Is there more to the bandit attacks along the road to King’s Landing than

there ﬁrst appears?

Journey to King’s Landing

All your life you have known you would one day assume the leadership of

your house: you have trained for it since you were old enough to speak and

walk. You just always hoped it would not be as soon as it has been. Although

you are only fourteen, you are “Lord Rhys” and your father is months dead

and buried.

It was a hunting accident: a chase through the thick woods near your home,

the barking of the hounds, and the thundering of the hooves. A low-hanging

branch, they said, a blow to his head and a topple from the saddle at speed. For

nearly two weeks he lay, out of his wits, in his bed, force fed water and honey to

sustain the thinning thread of his life. Towards the end came fever, ﬁts, and cries

in the night of enemies attacking him, confusion over what year it was and who

was speaking to him, until death was a merciful release from his pain.

Since then, you have done what was needful, tried to be strong for your house

and your family. Your mother Alanna took your father’s death especially hard,

seeking solace in her faith, leaving you to look after your younger siblings,

Lord Rhys

your brother Kellin, only ten, and your little sister Brianna, called “Bree,”

just turned seven.

You’re most grateful for the aid of your closest advisors, who were also your

father’s men. Your Uncle, Ser Merik, is a seasoned knight who fought at

your father’s side in wartime, and has been his loyal bannerman. His level

headedness and stable presence gives you conﬁdence. Maester Rudolphus,

who has been your teacher since you were a child, is a voice of reason and

understanding for you, giving you sage advice. You once thought there was

nothing he did not know, but learned otherwise when he was unable to save

your father’s life. It was not his fault, you mother said the Seven chose to

call your father to them, and it would not be fair to begrudge your beloved

teacher... though you still have to tell yourself that from time to time.

Now you and your entourage are on your way to the fabled King’s Landing,

a journey you had hoped to make one day at your father’s side. Now you go

on your own, to proclaim your right to lead your house before King Robert,

and to do honor to the memory of your father and your ancestors. You know

they are watching over you and so you will not—you must not—fail.

Abilities

an i m a l ha n D l i n G 2 ri d e 1B

cu n n i n G 3

en D u r a n c e 3

fi G h t i n G 3 Lo n g BL a d e s 1B

la n G u a G e (co m m o n to n G u e ) 3

ma r k s m a n s h i P 3 Bo w s 1B

Pe r s u a s i o n 3

st a t u s 6 Br e e d i n g 1B, st e w a r d s h i p 1B

Wa r f a r e 3 co m m a n d 1B

Wi l l 3

Attributes

aW a r e n e s s  ()

in t r i G u e De f e n s e  / co m P o s u r e 

mo v e  / sP r i n t 

co m b a t De f e n s e  (5 with shield) / ar m o r ra t i n G  / he a l t h 

at t a c k L 3+1B (3 damage)

at t a c k S 3 (1 damage; defensive +2)

at t a c k H B 3+1B (2 damage; long range, two-handed)

Pe r s o n a l

Ge a r

mail, shield, longsword and scabbard, longbow, quiver with 10

arrows, signet ring, courser, saddle, 24 gold dragons

Qualities

De s t i n y Po i n t s : You have two Destiny Points to spend during the

game. See Destiny Points for a brief summary of what you can do

with them.

he a D o f ho u s e : You command your house and are responsible

for the upkeep of your lands, the security of your people, and

the dispensation of your fortunes. Add +2 to the results of

all Status tests.

he a D f o r nu m b e r s : Whenever you roll for household events, you may

add your Cunning rank (3) to your Status test result. In addition, when

testing Status to generate funds for you or your household, you may re-roll a

number of 1s equal to your rank in Stewardship (or one, in your case).

We a P o n ma s t e r y : When you wield a longsword in combat, you

increase its damage by +1.

Your older brother Nolan was always heir to your house and you were glad

enough of it; you never aspired to lordly title or the fealty of vassals. You have

always been more comfortable among simpler men: ﬁghting men, craftsmen,

and the smallfolk of your house’s lands. Even as a boy, you found more friends

among the sons of your father’s vassals and the castle’s tradesmen than among

the landed sons and daughters of your father’s peers. Nolan was always the

one with the gifted tongue, who knew the right things to say and do, so you

were pleased and proud to support him in his rightful rule.

Indeed, the only thing you ever envied your brother was the hand of the

beautiful Alanna, his wife. Although Nolan was the mind and strong

hand of the castle, Alanna has long been its heart and soul. She brought

joy and color and laughter to its halls, and delighted in music and fêtes.

You never spoke of your love for her—she was your brother’s betrothed,

and then wife!—but you swore to defend her with your life, if need

be. Since Nolan’s passing, you have longed to reach out to Alanna,

to comfort her, but propriety has stayed your hand and choked oﬀ

your voice. Any road, she seems to have found her solace in the

Sept, praying to the gods.

You were married yourself, but only for a short time. Her name was

Shawna, a shy young thing; the daughter of a house that wished

to curry favor with your father by the match. She died less than

a year after your wedding, in

childbirth, the babe she

bore along with her.

You never remarried,

although you

Ser Merik

have had your dalliances and distractions from time to time. You preferred

instead to focus your time and attention on serving your house, ﬁrst your

brother, and now his son, Rhys. Although the lad is gifted, and much like his

father, you know he will need you in the months and even years to come if he

is to grow into the strong leader and lord you know he can be.

Now comes this summons to the tourney at King’s Landing. Ordinarily, you

would welcome such an opportunity: to joust and test your mettle against

the ﬁnest knights in the Seven Kingdoms, but now you have other concerns,

and must look out for your young lord and for the Lady... that is, for Septa

Alanna, who has chosen to accompany you.

Abilities

aG i l i t y 3

an i m a l ha n D l i n G 3 ri d e 1B

at h l e t i c s 3 st r e n g t h 2B

aW a r e n e s s 3

en D u r a n c e 4: re s i L i e n c e 2B

fi G h t i n G 5 Lo n g BL a d e s 2B / sp e a r s 1B

la n G u a G e (co m m o n to n G u e ) 3

st a t u s 4

Wa r f a r e 3

Attributes

aW a r e n e s s  ()

in t r i G u e De f e n s e  / co m P o s u r e 

mo v e  / sP r i n t  (with lance, Move 2 / Sprint 1)

co m b a t De f e n s e  (5 with shield) / ar m o r ra t i n G  / he a l t h 

at t a c k B S 5+1B (4 damage; adaptable)

at t a c k S 5 (1 damage; defensive +2)

at t a c k T L 3+1B (6 damage; bulk 2,

mounted, powerful, reach, slow)

Pe r s o n a l

Ge a r

plate armor, shield, bastard sword and scabbard, tourney lance,

saddle, destrier, 16 gold dragons

Qualities

De s t i n y Po i n t s : You have one Destiny Point to spend during

the game. See Destiny Points for a brief summary of what you

can do with them.

an o i n t e D : Add +2 to the result of all Status tests. You may

draw strength from your commitment to the knightly virtues.

Once per day, as a Free Action, increase both Defenses and all

passive ability results by +5 for 1 round.

fl a W : You take a –1 penalty die on all tests involving the

ievery ability.

lo n G bl a D e fi G h t e r i: When armed with a Long Blade, you

may sacriﬁce your Long Blades bonus dice on a Fighting test to

gain +1 degree of success if you successfully hit your opponent.

In addition, adversaries wielding non-shield parrying

weapons take a –1 penalty to their Combat Defense

against your attacks.

sP o n s o r : A person of quality (in this case,

Lord Rhys), vouches for you and serves as

your patron.

Although arms and iron may rule the Seven Kingdoms, you have always

believed reason and lore are the means to rule wisely and well. Perhaps this is

because you’ve never had any aptitude for arms or ﬁghting—a fact drilled into

you as a lad—but you were always clever and a quick study when it came to

books and learning. So you were able to earn yourself a place at the Citadel, to

train as a maester. You still fondly recall your days there, when boundless vistas

of knowledge opened up to you, and you found the companionship of like

minds. You think wistfully of long nights discussing history and philosophy

over cups of mulled wine. ose were ﬁne days, indeed.

Not at all like the dark days of Robert’s Rebellion, when war split the Seven

Kingdoms and arms and iron once again decided the future. Your own family

paid dearly for King Robert’s victory: your father and brothers dead on the

battleﬁeld, your house gone in all but name, married oﬀ with your older sister

to some bannerman of Robert’s, your lands joined with his (if he even had

any to begin with), his sons now ruling over it.

Still, such was no longer your concern. You took commission with a noble

house and a lord who, if he did not fully appreciate the value of learning

himself, at least sought it for his children. You become the tutor to young

Rhys, and later to Kellin and even little Brianna, and quietly swore you would

teach them to appreciate history, philosophy, and all the learned arts and

sciences in addition to force and skill at arms. It was the way to change the

world, or at least your small corner of it, for the better.

You’ve always found Rhys an apt pupil, certainly more open to learning than

his father or uncle. You’ve no quarrel with Ser Merik, save that he seems to

think a young man can learn everything he needs to know in the arms-yard,

the stables, and the whorehouse. Still, Merik is a loyal and honorable man, if

perhaps a bit thickheaded and stubborn. Similarly, you have generally found

Lady Alanna an ally in your quest to educate her children. Her sole blind spot

has always been her unquestioning faith, whereas you are a man of reason.

e gods, whatever their names and visages, have little to do with aﬀairs in

the world in your experience.

Maester Rudolphus

Abilities

an i m a l ha n D l i n G 3

cu n n i n G 4 de c i p h e r 1B, me m o r y 1B

he a l i n G 3 tr e a t ai L m e n t 1B, tr e a t in j u r y 1B

kn o W l e D G e 4 ed u c a t i o n 2B

la n G u a G e (co m m o n to n G u e ) 3

la n G u a G e (an c i e n t va l y r i a n ) 2

Pe r s u a s i o n 3 co n v i n c e 1B

st a t u s 4 st e w a r d s h i p 1B

Wi l l 3

Attributes

aW a r e n e s s  ()

in t r i G u e De f e n s e  / co m P o s u r e 

mo v e  / sP r i n t 

co m b a t De f e n s e  / ar m o r ra t i n G  / he a l t h 

at t a c k Q 2 (2 damage; fast, two-handed)

at t a c k D 2 (1 damage; defensive +1, oﬀ-hand +1)

Pe r s o n a l

Ge a r

robes, quarterstaﬀ, dagger with sheath, maester’s chain, writing

kit, 2 ravens, bag of corn, tomes concerning the subject of

heraldry, history, and legends, 16 gold dragons

Qualities

De s t i n y Po i n t s : You have one Destiny Point to spend during the game.

See Destiny Points for a brief summary of what you can do with them.

fl a W : You take a –1 penalty die on all tests involving the Marksmanship

ability.

kn o W l e D G e fo c u s (he r a l D r y ): When testing Knowledge of heraldry,

convert your Education bonus dice into test dice.

kn o W l e D G e fo c u s (hi s t o r y a n D le G e n D s ): When testing Knowledge

of history and legends, convert your Education bonus dice into test dice.

ma s t e r o f ra v e n s : You may dispatch ravens to bear messages. When

doingso,makeanAnimalHandlingtest.edicultydependsonthe

distance the raven must travel. For distances up to 50 miles, you must

succeed on an Easy (3) test. For every additional 25 miles, increase the

dicultyby3.eNarratorrollsthesetestsinsecretonyourbehalf

to determine whether or not the raven arrives.

Although you grew up in the halls and yards of a castle, you have always felt

the most at home beyond its walls in the wilds. e serenity of the forest calls

to you, along with the thrill of riding at full gallop, and the excitement of the

hunt and the chase. e sole stain upon that experience for you is the death

of the Lord Nolan, a good liege and a man you have known and respected

since childhood. He always treated you kindly and well, although you did

not know why until fairly recently.

You were born a bastard, you see. Your mother, Elen, worked as a servant in

the castle. She chanced to meet a young man at a festival and fell pregnant

by him, but never saw him again. So she raised you on her own, with the

aid of friends and relations. Lord Nolan was kind enough to ensure she

kept her place in the castle and that her son was looked after and, when the

time came, given work in the stables with the Master of Horses, since he so

loved working with horses himself. It was not until your mother lay on her

deathbed from sickness that she told you, and you alone, your father was

Lord Nolan, from a dalliance before he married. You hoped, perhaps one

day, to reach out to your father but he, too, was taken, and may have never

known that you knew of him.

For your part, you are content with your place in the world. You certainly

have no aspirations to claim title and lands, for you are no lord, nor suited

to the courtly life. Give you the open sky, a stable yard, and a horse under

you, and you are happy. You hope to be named the new Master of Horse

one day, under Lord Rhys, your half-brother, you have come to realize. You

struggle from time to time with this knowledge, and whether to reveal it

to anyone, but then you wonder: why

upset the hay cart? Let the past remain

the past. Rhys is lord now, and the

house and lands are his, and rightly

so. You should be content with

the good fortune the gods have granted and leave well enough alone, even

though there are times when it would be a comfort to have a brother to share

the simple pleasures of the ride and the hunt.

Abilities

aG i l i t y 4

an i m a l ha n D l i n G 3

at h l e t i c s 4 ru n 1B / st r e n g t h 1B

aW a r e n e s s 3 no t i c e 1B

en D u r a n c e 5 re s i L i e n c e 1B

fi G h t i n G 3 ax e s 2B / Br a w L i n g 1B / sp e a r s 1B

ma r k s m a n s h i P 3

st a t u s 3

Wi l l 3

Attributes

aW a r e n e s s  (12 base, 13 Notice)

in t r i G u e De f e n s e  / co m P o s u r e 

mo v e  / sP r i n t 

co m b a t De f e n s e  (11 with shield) / ar m o r ra t i n G  / he a l t h 

at t a c k B 3+2B (4 damage; adaptable)

at t a c k S 3 (2 damage; defensive +2)

at t a c k S 3+1B (4 damage; fast, two-handed)

at t a c k D 3 (2 damage; defensive +1, oﬀ-hand +1)

Pe r s o n a l

Ge a r

ring mail, shield, battleaxe,

dagger with sheath, spear, livery, 10

gold dragons

Qualities

De s t i n y Po i n t s : You have one Destiny

Point to spend during the game. See

Destiny Points for a brief summary of

what you can do with them.

ar m o r ma s t e r y : Armor you wear ﬁts like a

second skin. Increase your armor’s AR by +1 and reduce

the Bulk (if any) by 1.

ax e fi G h t e r i: Whenever you are armed with an axe and roll a Fighting

test to attack a foe, you can sacriﬁce a number of bonus dice to threaten

a bleeding wound. A damaged foe takes additional damage at the start

of his next turn. e amount of damage is equal to the number of bonus

dice sacriﬁced. is damage ignores AR, as it comes from an already

existing wound.

ba s t a r D bo r n : As a bastard, you take a –1 penalty die on all Persuasion

tests when interacting with characters with a higher Status.

We a P o n ma s t e r y : When you wield a battleaxe in combat, you increase

its damage by +1.

Nicholas Rivers

Never before in your life have you been so excited and so nervous as to journey

to King’s Landing. Only in your wildest dreams did you once dare to hope

to travel to a king’s tourney as the squire of a noble and seasoned knight, to

see the greatest knights and names of the Seven Kingdoms come together

for a display of valor, arms, and prowess. ose who know you think it the

youthful fancy of a wide-eyed country boy, but they do not know—no one

knows—how “Squire Jonah” was not that long ago betrothed to a man nearly

three times her age.

From the time you were little, you wanted nothing to do with dresses and

dolls and learning to behave like a proper lady. No, you preferred getting dirty

playing with boys and dreaming of one day taking up sword and shield yourself

as a brave knight. Nothing your beleaguered parents did could dissuade you,

Squire Jonah

including punishments and stern lectures. Everything just hardened your

resolve to become a great ﬁghter, like the stories of the ancient warrior-queens

like Nymeria. Still, your parents were just as stubborn, and did whatever they

could to force you into the mold of a proper young lady.

e last straw was when they sold you oﬀ in marriage to some old landed

knight twice widowed and nearly three times your age. You hated the

disgusting old man from the moment you laid eyes on him and swore you

would rather die than marry him. at very night, while the rest of the

household slept after the feast to celebrate your engagement, you gathered

a few items and slipped out your window and into the night. Cutting your

hair short and wearing a boy’s clothes you stole oﬀ a wash-line, you passed

yourself as “Jonah” rather than “Jhenna” and eventually found service in Lord

Nolan’s household as a stable-boy and now squire.

Abilities

aG i l i t y 4 Qu i c k n e s s 1B

an i m a l ha n D l i n G 3 ri d e 1B

at h l e t i c s 3

aW a r e n e s s 4

en D u r a n c e 3

fi G h t i n G 3

st a t u s 3

st e a l t h 3 (+4 when sneaking) sn e a k 1B

th i e v e r y 3 st e a L 1B

Attributes

aW a r e n e s s  ()

in t r i G u e De f e n s e  / co m P o s u r e 

mo v e  / sP r i n t 

co m b a t De f e n s e  (11 with shield) / ar m o r ra t i n G  / he a l t h 

at t a c k S S 3 (3 damage; fast)

at t a c k H A 3 (2 damage; defensive +1, oﬀ-hand +1)

at t a c k B 3 (1 damage; defensive +1, oﬀ-hand +1)

at t a c k T H A 2 (3 damage; close range)

at t a c k L C 2 (5 damage; long range, reload

lesser, slow)

Pe r s o n a l

Ge a r

soft leather, buckler, small sword, hand axe, light crossbow,

quiver with 12 bolts, livery, 8 gold dragons

Qualities

De s t i n y Po i n t s : You have three Destiny Points to spend during the

game. See Destiny Points for a brief summary of what you can do with

them.

fa c e i n t h e cr o W D : You can make a Stealth check to blend-in as a

Free Action. In addition, you add your Cunning rank (2) to your Stealth

test result to blend-in.

fa s t : Your starting move is 5 yards. When running, you move ﬁve

times your move.

fu r t i v e : When testing Stealth to sneak, you may re-roll any 1s. In

addition, you may add your Agility rank to your Stealth test result

when sneaking.

“e gods are mysterious, by turns kind and cruel, and they do not explain

themselves to the likes of mortals, in much the same way as kings and lords

are mysterious in their ways to the smallfolk.” So you learned when you were

only a child and your momma perished from a fever. You were raised by kindly

Septas in the service of your father, brought up to be a proper lady and taught

all the skills you would need one day when you ran a household of your own.

Although you feared the stony faces of the Seven as a child, you learned to

love and respect them, and to understand they loved you and wished for you

to lead a proper and righteous life, pleasing in their sight.

How they smiled upon you when they chose Nolan for your husband: a

dashing and brave man, wise and gentle and kind to you. Although your

marriage was arranged, you loved him from the moment you ﬁrst beheld

his handsome face, felt your hand in his as he raised it to his lips. e years

following your marriage were ones of great contentment. You made a good

home for your husband, and gave him three wonderful children, including a

son and heir, your ﬁrst baby, Rhys. How strange it seems now to look at the

serious-faced young man in armor sitting astride a horse, remembering the

tiny babe that suckled at your breast. Rhys is a man now, and you a widow.

e house is his and will rightly pass to his wife when the time comes. e

Seven give, and then they take away.

You grieved for a long time after Nolan’s death. You grieve still, in some

ways, and probably always will, but you no longer seek to follow him into the

embrace of death. at time will come soon enough, as it does for all mortal

creatures. For now, your children need you, and the gods have demanded a

diﬀerent kind of service. Although you are still young, you have passed from

the embrace of the Mother and heard the call of the Crone.

Abilities

aG i l i t y 3

aW a r e n e s s 3 em p a t h y 1B

cu n n i n G 3

he a l i n G 3

kn o W l e D G e 3 ed u c a t i o n 1B, re s e a r c h 1B

la n G u a G e (co m m o n to n G u e ) 3

Pe r s u a s i o n 3 Ba r g a i n 1B / ch a r m 1B / co n v i n c e 1B

st a t u s 4

Wi l l 5 co o r d i n a t e 1B / di s c i p L i n e 1B

Attributes

aW a r e n e s s  (12 base, 13 Empathy)

in t r i G u e De f e n s e  / co m P o s u r e 

mo v e  / sP r i n t 

co m b a t De f e n s e  (+12 with shield) / ar m o r ra t i n G  / he a l t h 

at t a c k M 2 (2 damage)

at t a c k L S 2 (1 damage; bulk 1, defensive +4)

at t a c k H C 2 (5 damage; long range, piercing

2, reload greater, slow, two-handed,

vicious)

Pe r s o n a l

Ge a r

robes, large shield, mace, heavy crossbow, quiver with 10 bolts,

icon of the Crone, 9 gold dragons

Qualities

De s t i n y Po i n t s : You have one Destiny Point to spend during the

game. See Destiny Points for a brief summary of what you can do with

them.

fa v o r e D o f t h e sm a l l f o l k : When interacting with characters Status

3 or lower, you gain a +1 bonus die on all Persuasion tests.

Pi o u s : Once per day, you may call upon your faith to help you and your

eﬀorts. You gain +1 test die on a single test.

st u b b o r n : Add the number of bonus dice you have in Discipline to

your Composure.

Septa Alanna