Changelog Thread

[Poach]

Hello and welcome back to GoT.

Since last we played, there have been some alterations of the rules and systems we use, in some ways major and in some ways minor. This thread will highlight, in brief, the changes so you can quickly get to grips with them and avoid making mistakes as you apply potentially outdated or removed rules to your characters.

Character Changes

1. The first thing you'll do is create characters, and there have been changes to this. Characters now start with 3 trait points per decade of life: 10-19 you have 3, 20-29 you have 6, and so on. You no longer gain more as you age: the ones you start with are the only free trait points you character will receive. Instead, if you survey the new traits in the rules, you'll see your characters will gain traits automatically as they journey through the RP and accomplish certain actions.

2. You'll note that Duels have been split in two: Mounted, and Dismounted. This will make the Jousting trait far more desirable and will also introduce a new dimension to duels: characters that are skilled on foot are not automatically skilled on horseback, meaning no character is 100% safe behind a high 'Duel' trait, should be find himself battling on horseback.

Military Changes

1. Everyone used to procure large standing armies: they have now been capped in the absence of stability. Look for the 'Standing Forces Caps' in the rules to see the new limitations.

2. Your levies are now all points-based. Every level of points levy has a 'standard' levy attached to it, for AI purposes. Players are free to change their levy composition, but keep an eye on the caps: you can't have all Heavy Infantry levies, for example.

3. Raids have become far simpler and very rarely will be rolled as proper field battles.

4. Sieges have been significantly beefed up. Old versions of the game had castles as nothing more than minor inconveniences in the path of advancing armies, which is not at all true to history or lore. Castles now gain +8 as standard to their defence rolls, and the +Siege skill has been removed entirely. As a trade-off, castles will now automatically surrender after one week if entirely surrounded.

Other Changes

1. Stability has been scrapped completely. Other systems, such as simple caps, have replaced it.

2. With Stability gone, look for 'AI Reactions' in the rules. AI Lords will now react to requests (such as raising levies) based on a simple opinion system. Oweing you loyalty greatly improves their chances of obeying you, being bound by marriage now represents the strongest possible tie you can have to an AI House, and the new Charisma trait offers added bonuses. Asking an AI High Lord to fight his own kin is now a major obstacle, as is trying to convince him to betray his Lord Paramount (if you're a foreigner). As the example in the rules show, rebellions are now far more likely to be a fight between the Lord Paramount and the rebels, 1 vs 1, and not a case of the Lord Paramount summoning a gigantic army to destroy the small rebel force. The lesson is this: having marriages into powerful families in your own territory may secure your reign or make you a potent contender for power. There is also a new rules section dedicated to Rebellions that you can read for further context in that regard.

3. Trade goods have been altered slightly due to the removal of Stability.

4. A few new buildings have been added into the building tree, allowing people to build up their own small version of a Town Watch.

5. Sellswords have a new ruleset revolving around 'Contracts', which must be finite in nature, to combat the old way of a Sellsword becoming the exclusive employee of a single character for the entire game. In addition, their power has been scaled back somewhat, with the transition to points-based, rather than soldier-based, army caps. A maxed-out Sellsword will now always be slightly stronger than AI High Lords but weaker than Player High Lords. Merchant Princes have now been given a generous points cap, as well as the ability to freely hire spies, to increase their political leverage.

6. We have added a new RP mechanic, the Ruined Holdfasts, as a way for players to rebuild castles that were destroyed or abandoned in lore to their former glory.

7. Escape rolls have been reworked to have a lesser chance of escaping. In order to successful escape, outside help or other RP will be required.

8. Regional Bonuses have been reworked to reflect the changes to the point system. A few bonuses (outdated and ineffective) were removed while others were inserted (not necessarily in the same place as the ones that were removed.)

Excel Calculators

We have prepared an Excel Calculator for you guys that will allow you to do most of the math related aspects of GoT, like determining your yearly income, movement (with trait and other movmeent bonuses factored in), and points, etc. Use the following link to download it.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hbhrnolrj...tgURN9rfdlHNga

Building Changes

Tier One Cost: 20,000 Dragons Build Time: 1 week (from the date you ordered it, eg order on the 7th and it's available come the 14th) Keep Expansions: +25% castle garrison size permitted Militia Armoury: +250 Land Levy Points Market Square: +10% income Wall Reinforcements: +1 Siege Defence rolls City Watch Quarters: 400 Light Infantry permanently stationed in your home territory. Cannot be moved elsewhere. (Coastal Only) Dockyard: +100 naval points, +10% income Tier Two Cost: 40,000 Dragons Build Time: 1 week Keep Expansions: +50% castle garrison size permitted Town Watch: +250 Land Levy Points, 5% cheaper professional troop hire. Merchant's Square: +10% province income Citadel Towers: +1 Siege Defence rolls City Watch Barracks: 200 Archers permanently stationed in your home territory. Cannot be moved elsewhere. (Coastal Only) Large Dockyard: +150 naval points, 5% cheaper naval mercs, +5% income Tier Three Cost: 60,000 Dragons Build Time: 1 week Keep Expansions: +100% castle garrison size permitted. Barracks: +500 Land Levy Points, 10% cheaper professional troop hire. Trade Hub: Allows owners of the province to gain an additional trade route. Holdfast: +1 Siege Defence rolls. Holdfast acts as a second castle within the first, which has the basic +siege bonus plus the Tier I and Tier II bonuses. Will survive a 6 month (3.5 day) siege from when the outer castle falls. City Watch Fortifications: +2 to detection rolls against enemy armies entering your home territory. 100 Heavy Infantry permanently stationed in your home territory. Cannot be moved elsewhere. (Coastal Only) Major Dockyard: +250 naval points, 10% cheaper naval mercs, +5% income (Buildable only with at least 1 Tier 3 building constructed) Whisper House: -2 on Spying and Assassination rolls in this province when conducted by enemies, +2 when conducted by province owner. Tier Four You may only have one Tier Four building per province. Cost: 150,000 Dragons Build time: 1 week Keep Expansions: +200% castle garrison size permitted, +1 to seige defense rolls Army Barracks: +500 Land Levy Points, 10% cheaper professional troop hire, if the province is beseiged a garrison of 300 light infantry and 300 archers is hastily conscripted to aid in the defence. Military Port: +500 naval points, 10% cheaper naval mercs. Ships from this region can move 15 rather than 10 Hexes per day: for RP purposes your ships can be regarded as of superior construction giving them a speed bonus over other ships as their well-crafted hulls break the waves more efficiently. Center of Trade: Your province income is increased by 40,000 dragons. Spymaster: -4 Spying and Assassination rolls by enemies, +4 for province owner. Only applies to within the province. Fortress City: +1 Siege Defence rolls. +1 year to siege hold out time, +6 months to Holdfast hold out time.

[Ganbarenippon]

First of all, outstanding work on the new rule set, in particular the rebel mechanics. I just had a few things:
1. Some of the religious character traits still make reference to stability, I'm assuming that it's just an oversight.
2. No mention of a Siege trait, has it been scrapped?
3. Something I have been meaning to ask for ages; duels on the field of battle: is there a mechanism for this to happen or is it simply a matter of the two players wishing to rp it?
4. Perhaps the some clarification about what an LP may do to rebels might be in order too. In other words it'd be an extreme case, and need heavy justification and RP for and LP to go all Reynes of Castamere on a rebel vassal. The head of the House may be killed for a major rebellion but likely his heirs will inherit, for a minor rebellion he might be punished in other ways. I don't know, something like that. A counter-balance to your rules about how it is very unlikely that there will be a change in LP's just because a rebellion is successful. Remember, Balon Greyjoy was allowed to live after his rebellion. Plus it might remove some of that fear-of-getting-killed-by a-vengeful-player syndrome that stops players being willing to do...anything really.
5. A suggestion to possibly provide a further way to bond Houses to one another. Why not formalise the ward/squire system? Here is my suggestion:

A character may send one of his children to ward at another player's castle or that of an NPC. Alternatively they can attach them as a page/squire to an individual character. All wardships end by the child's 16th year and squireships would end by the child's 18th year, or on an agreed-upon age by the parties involved.

Wards.
1. A ward would be based in the castle and not leave this stronghold.
2. If a player sends his children to another player House: after the child has spent long enough as a ward (perhaps 3 years?) they can receive one extra bonus point in either: wealth, charisma, spymaster, counterspying, assassin, logistician or pathfinder. There is only one bonus point received per wardship so six years as a ward would not come to two extra trait points. A ward cannot gain a trait point in something the lord of the castle does not have proficiency in. (E.g. they cannot gain +1 to spying if the Lord has no such trait)
3. If a player sends their children to ward at an NPC House: it can have a positive impact on things like how likely this house is to do what the other wants after the child completes their wardship. (E.g. Trade agreements, be more reluctant to fight/side against the your House, be more likely to join in rebellion etc.). This may be especially useful for LP's with their High Lords and High Lord's with their vassals.
4. Upon the completion of a wardship a child will receive a gift of 10,000 dragons or a tempered steel short weapon or armour to the value of 10,000 dragons from their adoptive family.
5. A family can take on a maximum of 4 wards, with no more than 2 being from outside the region.

Squire/page.
1. A squire is attached to an individual character rather than to a stronghold.
2. Children under the age of 14 will be considered a page.
3. Once over the age of 14 a page becomes a squire and will be expected to accompany his master on the field of battle (in other words they would take part in combat).
4. Upon becoming a squire, the child gains one extra bonus trait point in either: duels, jousting, survival, battles, naval battles, scout or pillager. Again, only one point is available and it can only be chosen from the skills the squire's master possesses. (E.g. no choosing to give your child a +1 in jousting if your master has no jousting ability).
5. At the age of 18 and having been a squire for at least 2 years the squire may be knighted. They will receive a horse (purely RP) from their master and one more extra bonus point in a different skill to the one they improved as a squire. If they are a younger son they may even gain a place in the court of their master's Lord (as an example).
6. Only a knight, or a sitting Lord may take a squire. (No Littlefinger or Varys having a squire). The Ironborn and Northerners can still adopt squires even though they don't follow knighthood, call them shield bearers or something!
7. A knight may have no more than two squires at any given time.
8. Squires cannot be attached to NPC characters or auxes.
9. To prevent abuse; squires can only be sent to other player characters. No attaching your children to uncles or second sons as squires in order to gain cheap bonus points!

What do you think? It would give Houses another mechanism for engagement, make having a few children more interesting and strategic, and offer the chance to further customise your younger characters. Of course, just because you have a child attached as a ward to somebody doesn't mean they can't squire later on. And of course characters can still become knights automatically, just the squireship adds something extra. Finally, a player would not have to RP everything as a squire or ward e.g. just because their master is in a conversation in a tavern doesn't mean they have to take part. They can if they like, and it might give characters that don't have a lot going on (e.g. no action in their home threads) the chance for some RP with their wards to keep things ticking over.

[Honors Bastion]

First of all, outstanding work on the new rule set, in particular the rebel mechanics. I just had a few things:
1. Some of the religious character traits still make reference to stability, I'm assuming that it's just an oversight.
2. No mention of a Siege trait, has it been scrapped?
3. Something I have been meaning to ask for ages; duels on the field of battle: is there a mechanism for this to happen or is it simply a matter of the two players wishing to rp it?
4. Perhaps the some clarification about what an LP may do to rebels might be in order too. In other words it'd be an extreme case, and need heavy justification and RP for and LP to go all Reynes of Castamere on a rebel vassal. The head of the House may be killed for a major rebellion but likely his heirs will inherit, for a minor rebellion he might be punished in other ways. I don't know, something like that. A counter-balance to your rules about how it is very unlikely that there will be a change in LP's just because a rebellion is successful. Remember, Balon Greyjoy was allowed to live after his rebellion. Plus it might remove some of that fear or getting killed by a vengeful player syndrome that stops players being willing to do...anything really.

1. Yes, it is an oversight on our part. We only just noticed this problem right before we revealed the Rules Thread to the public. It will be corrected eventually but rather than wait until we did so, we decided to release it without the changes which we edit in later.

2. Yes, it has been scrapped as part of our reworking of the siege mechanics. We wanted sieges to actually be important and not something that was an automatic victory like it had been in the past where garrisons were at most a 10th of the provincial levy (at most a few hundred men) against an army that outnumbered then at least 10 to 1 (closer to 25 to 1 for most sieges from my own experience). Now siege should be very difficult. You don't want to attack the Eyrie, for example, as it has a +6 regional siege bonus with the standard +8 castle bonus giving it an amazing and scary +14 siege defense.

3. I don't actually know this answer myself but I assume that its the latter rather than the former. I'm guessing its only up to the players who fight the battle if they want a duel or not.

4. In my own opinion, I think this is an area that we can safely leave under the filed of moderator discretion mainly because it would be very difficult to try to quantify all of the options that can happen as a result of a rebellion. We certainly won't allow an entire House to be eliminated unless the RP merits it to be and we will prevent backlash/revenge punishments.

However, that does not mean that we cannot include a list of possible punishments that an LP can dish out on a failed rebellion. I will try to create such a list and I would welcome any ideas/suggestions for it.

5. A suggestion to possible provide a further way to bond house to one another. Why not formalise the ward/squire system? Here is my suggestion:

A character may send one of his children to ward at another player's castle or that of an NPC. Alternatively they can attach them as a page/squire to an individual character. All wardships end by the child's 16th year and squireships would end by the child's 18th year, or on an agreed-upon age by the parties involved.

Wards.
1. A ward would be based in the castle and not leave this stronghold.
2. If a player sends his children to another player house; after the child has spent long enough as a ward (perhaps 3 years?) they can receive one extra bonus point in either: wealth, charisma, spymaster, counterspying, assassin, logistician or pathfinder. There is only one bonus point received per wardship so six years as a ward would not come to two extra trait points.
3. If a player sends their children to ward at an NPC House then it can have a positive impact on things like how likely this house is to do what the other wants after the child completes their wardship. (E.g. Trade agreements, be more reluctant to fight/side against the your House, be more likely to join in rebellion etc.). This may be especially useful for LP's with their High Lords and High Lord's with their vassals.
4. Upon the completion of a wardship a child will receive a gift of 10,000 dragons or a tempered steel short weapon or armour to the value of 10,000 dragons from their adoptive family.
5. A family can take on a maximum of 4 wards, with no more than 2 being from outside the region.

Squire/page.
1. A squire is attached to an individual character rather than to a stronghold.
2. Children under the age of 12 will be considered a page.
3. Once over the age of 12 a page becomes a squire and will be expected to accompany his master on the field of battle (in other words they would take part in combat).
4. Upon becoming a squire, the child gains one extra bonus trait point in either: duels, jousting, survival, battles, naval battles, scout or pillager. Again, only one point is available and it can only be chosen from the skills the squire's master possesses. (E.g. no choosing to give your child a +1 in jousting if your master has no jousting ability).
5. At the age of 18 and having been a squire for at least 2 years the squire may be knighted. They will receive a horse (purely RP) from their master and one more extra bonus point in a different skill to the one they improved as a squire.
6. Only a knight, or a sitting Lord may take a squire. (No Littlefinger having a squire).
7. A knight may have no more than two squires at any given time.
8. Squires cannot be attached to NPC characters or auxes.
9. To prevent abuse; squires can only be sent to other player characters. No attaching your children to uncles or second sons as squires in order to gain cheap bonus points!

What do you think? It would give Houses another mechanism for engagement, make having a few children more interesting and strategic, and offer the chance to further customise your younger characters. Of course, just because you have a child attached as a ward to somebody doesn't mean they can't squire later on. And of course characters can still become knights automatically, just the squireship adds something extra. Finally, a player would not have to RP everything as a squire or ward e.g. just because their master is in a conversation in a tavern doesn't mean they have to take part. They can if they like, and it might give characters that don't have a lot going on (e.g. no action in their home threads) the chance for some RP with their wards to keep things ticking over.

Hmm, this is a very interesting suggestion Ganb I will be bringing it before the other mods. It sounds like a wonderful potential for some good RP and I cannot see why we wouldn't implement it into the game. Oh, interesting, I can imagine a squire suddenly begin turned into a hostage or maybe murdered to spark a war or something similar. (Is it bad that I immediately came to the thought of murdered squires as an RP avenue?)

I do have a change though as I think the normal age for Knighthood would be 16. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Well, I would say an individual becomes eligible for knighthood at that age. There's the sticky detail of how one is knighted that we have to address.

[Honors Bastion]

I just realized that we never actually put out a list of the revised buildings since the new Bull's Ware Thread has not been created yet. It's now finally in the OP of this thread for all to see.

[Ganbarenippon]

Glad you like the idea of wards and squires. The reason I have put the age for knighthood up to 18 is to give players an opportunity to have their children be both a ward and then a squire, but I'm sure there could be another mechanism for that (though there doesn't have to be any mechanism for it I suppose). As for obtaining knighthood I figure nothing needs to be done save for the age to be reached and for the character to have at least two years as a squire (I basically thought this would stop people making a 17 year old child a squire and power-levelling after a week). Feel free to kick the idea around and tweak as you go.

[Pericles of Athens]

I still think the rules should further limit the creation of 'professional armies', probably just a personal problem on my part but 20,000 point for an LP seems a little above and beyond the reasonable. Professional forces, in my mind at least, should be more of a lord's retinue than a personal army, man power should be a resource that lords need to take care not to waste.

I suggest,Lord Paramounts and Merchant Princes may have 7,500 points worth of Professional Soldiers (= to a Very Large Levy)
High Lords may have 5,500 points worth of Professional Soldiers (= to a Large Levy)
Lords and Merchants may have 3,500 points worth of Professional Soldiers (= to a Medium Levy)
All below the Lord or Merchant rank (except Sellsword characters) may have 2,750 points worth of Professional Soldiers (= to a Small Levy)

This will allow LPs to field reasonable armies with a max of 7,500 men (if they're all LI), instead of spam armies 20,000 men which the current-new-ruleset will allow. This keeps levies as a viably important reasource but allows for the formation of professional forces to a reasonable degree.

If a Lord loses all his levies in battle it needs to be a shattering blow, it can't just be a minor set back where you just say "oh don't worry I got three times that number in professional troops". If all their young men are levied and die they simply won't have replacments to that degree, even if they have the gold they just don't have the manpower to feild an army multiple times what their land initially supports.

[Xion]

Wards.
1. A ward would be based in the castle and not leave this stronghold.
2. If a player sends his children to another player House: after the child has spent long enough as a ward (perhaps 3 years?) they can receive one extra bonus point in either: wealth, charisma, spymaster, counterspying, assassin, logistician or pathfinder. There is only one bonus point received per wardship so six years as a ward would not come to two extra trait points. A ward cannot gain a trait point in something the lord of the castle does not have proficiency in. (E.g. they cannot gain +1 to spying if the Lord has no such trait)
3. If a player sends their children to ward at an NPC House: it can have a positive impact on things like how likely this house is to do what the other wants after the child completes their wardship. (E.g. Trade agreements, be more reluctant to fight/side against the your House, be more likely to join in rebellion etc.). This may be especially useful for LP's with their High Lords and High Lord's with their vassals.
4. Upon the completion of a wardship a child will receive a gift of 10,000 dragons or a tempered steel short weapon or armour to the value of 10,000 dragons from their adoptive family.
5. A family can take on a maximum of 4 wards, with no more than 2 being from outside the region.

Squire/page.
1. A squire is attached to an individual character rather than to a stronghold.
2. Children under the age of 14 will be considered a page.
3. Once over the age of 14 a page becomes a squire and will be expected to accompany his master on the field of battle (in other words they would take part in combat).
4. Upon becoming a squire, the child gains one extra bonus trait point in either: duels, jousting, survival, battles, naval battles, scout or pillager. Again, only one point is available and it can only be chosen from the skills the squire's master possesses. (E.g. no choosing to give your child a +1 in jousting if your master has no jousting ability).
5. At the age of 18 and having been a squire for at least 2 years the squire may be knighted. They will receive a horse (purely RP) from their master and one more extra bonus point in a different skill to the one they improved as a squire. If they are a younger son they may even gain a place in the court of their master's Lord (as an example).
6. Only a knight, or a sitting Lord may take a squire. (No Littlefinger or Varys having a squire). The Ironborn and Northerners can still adopt squires even though they don't follow knighthood, call them shield bearers or something!
7. A knight may have no more than two squires at any given time.
8. Squires cannot be attached to NPC characters or auxes.
9. To prevent abuse; squires can only be sent to other player characters. No attaching your children to uncles or second sons as squires in order to gain cheap bonus points!

I do not like this primarily as it seems to be a way for people to get free points without any rp besides arranging the child becoming a ward or squire to another player. Also why would the adopted family give the ward a gift?

I still think the rules should further limit the creation of 'professional armies', probably just a personal problem on my part but 20,000 point for an LP seems a little above and beyond the reasonable. Professional forces, in my mind at least, should be more of a lord's retinue than a personal army, man power should be a resource that lords need to take care not to waste.

I suggest,Lord Paramounts and Merchant Princes may have 7,500 points worth of Professional Soldiers (= to a Very Large Levy)
High Lords may have 5,500 points worth of Professional Soldiers (= to a Large Levy)
Lords and Merchants may have 3,500 points worth of Professional Soldiers (= to a Medium Levy)
All below the Lord or Merchant rank (except Sellsword characters) may have 2,750 points worth of Professional Soldiers (= to a Small Levy)

This will allow LPs to field reasonable armies with a max of 7,500 men (if they're all LI), instead of spam armies 20,000 men which the current-new-ruleset will allow. This keeps levies as a viably important reasource but allows for the formation of professional forces to a reasonable degree.

If a Lord loses all his levies in battle it needs to be a shattering blow, it can't just be a minor set back where you just say "oh don't worry I got three times that number in professional troops". If all their young men are levied and die they simply won't have replacments to that degree, even if they have the gold they just don't have the manpower to feild an army multiple times what their land initially supports.

I highly doubt any lord would end up fielding 20,000 soldiers as I (think) professional soldiers are still recruited in blocks of 200/300/500 depending on the unit, which would make the cap more dependent on composition of the force and upkeep of the army. As elite inf/cav are not in the levy and are 900/1,050 points respectively, I can see a force not numbering more than 10,000 if balanced. Of course if someone can afford to raise 20,000 points worth of light infantry that is another story.

Those numbers are far too small imo, I'd say 12,500 for the King, 10,000 for LPs, 7,500 for High Lords, 5,000 for Lords, and 2,500 for anyone below the rank of lord to equate roughly to levies(or perhaps have the limit tied to whatever levy size the player's seat has. If say Sunspear has a large levy, the Martells can only raise an equal number of troops to that point amount) as only having less than a thousand between minor lords and non-lords is too little in my opinionthe minor lords should be capable of raising a larger force than some knight in theory. Or have a building chain added to potentially allow players to increase their professional cap by a set amount(250, 500, 1,000 as a example of Levels 1,2,3)

Again, the 20,000 cap would only be 20,000 men if someone could afford to spam enough light infantry to reach the quota. Levies are still viable anyway since they technically are free troops in comparison to having to pay upkeep and purchasing costs for the professionals.

I don't see players losing all their levies as a shattering blow as they can use professionals and mercenaries to fight defensively during the replenishment period of their levies, or if a Lord Paramount, have their vassals' levies and professionals to potentially use(if said vassals are loyal) that the loss of their own over the course of several battles(I believe there is a casualty cap of 50% at the most in a single battle barring specific circumstances) wouldn't be that great of a loss.

[Iron Aquilifer]

I do not like this primarily as it seems to be a way for people to get free points without any rp besides arranging the child becoming a ward or squire to another player. Also why would the adopted family give the ward a gift?

Personally I like the idea of having wards/pages/squires even simply because it was a commonplace thing in RL and aSoIaF, however I also think that automatically getting "free" traits is not really something that should be pursued.
A suggestion: roll (I know it gives the mods even more to do but there it is) each year to decide if a ward gains a personal trait from their host. (with chances of a certain trait increased/decreased by the level of the host's traits)
Pages would be the same as the ward, except as Gan said, they would be attached to a person and not a settlement.
And then, for squires, the same as a page but instead it is in the military skill list that they can claim their trait. (and they would have much higher chance of ending up in combat/dead)

The limit of wards and pages/squires (a distinction for gameplay purposes) could be 2-1 or something for minor lords, with it increasing to 2,2 for High Lords, 3,2 for LPs and 4,3 for Kings (just a initial draft idea).
Yearly finances would need to be provided by the child's parents, the cost to be a page higher than a ward, and a squire more than a page.
There would be an obvious initial increase in relations between the two (or more) participating in the wardship/squiring, but that will be judged by the amount of RP (which is how squires/wards can possibly gain extra traits)

As Wards/Page/Squire:
Every two or three years (decided upon by those with more exp. than I), regardless if they already earned the yearly trait or not, the lord who has the wards/page/squire can open up some RP, to either train the children in any of his fields (a trait the lord has) the chances being a bit better than the yearly one (as this will only happen once or twice per ward)
This would see future RP, where wards/squires who had been neglected by their lords fee bitter towards them. And those who paid attention and attempted to be a father figure to their wards, gain strong allies.

I dunno, it does rely a good bit on the mods and player participation

[Pericles of Athens]

@Warsystemideathing Sounds good to me, tbh.

Those numbers are far too small imo, I'd say 12,500 for the King, 10,000 for LPs, 7,500 for High Lords, 5,000 for Lords, and 2,500 for anyone below the rank of lord to equate roughly to levies(or perhaps have the limit tied to whatever levy size the player's seat has. If say Sunspear has a large levy, the Martells can only raise an equal number of troops to that point amount) as only having less than a thousand between minor lords and non-lords is too little in my opinion the minor lords should be capable of raising a larger force than some knight in theory. Or have a building chain added to potentially allow players to increase their professional cap by a set amount(250, 500, 1,000 as a example of Levels 1,2,3)

I actually like both of these suggestions a lot. I personally prefer the latter, that available points for professional troops will equal the levy, but I think the former, with set numbers for set positions, might be more 'fair' and better received by the player-base.

[Ganbarenippon]

It's a good, healthy debate we have going on here and some good suggestions. Let me try clarify my thinking behind some of these points.
1. I only intend for any child to gain 1 extra point for the entirity of their wardship or 2 extra points for their squireship.
2. The gift at the end of the wardship was intended to offset the lack of an extra point received at the end of the squire path. I suppose it could be left to RP rather than mandatory, but you would imagine that after a child has loved with a family for a number of years they will receive a gift as they leave.
3. The major aim I had in mind when I brought this up was as a further way to increase interaction between house that wasn't just trade/marriage agreements. I would like it to be a boost to RP rather than a hinderance. That is why I beleive only a point or two as a bonus is necessary; to prevent just leaving a character to gain 3 extra points for nothing. That being said perhaps there does need to be some mechanic to determine if the ward/squire learns anything once they are eligible? If they fail then they can try again a year later?

[Honors Bastion]

@ Xion/Stannis/Ganb.

The only way I would approve of adding the warding system is to add safeguard measures in order to prevent it from being abused by the players who only arrange for the warding but do nothing else. My idea is something along the lines of requiring the ward/squire and the lord who he is under must actively RP with each at least once every week with each other for the duration of the warding. This can be within its own thread or within several different locations (as long as they are linked to).

Skipping a week may be allowed if either there is sufficient Rp in the other weeks to cover for the missed week or that you have posted that you had to be inactive for a time and as a result, you could not start or finish the RP for that week.

In order to actually get the trait point awarded, players must provide links to the posts containing the Rp. If the moderators think that enough RP has been done to actually deserve the trait point, then we will award it. There is no set amount of posts that need to be made (some posts are worth more than others). If not then the ward will not get the trait point and basically the time would have been wasted. This would guarantee that simply arranging for the warding gets you nothing but a potential hostage.

[Ganbarenippon]

I think that could work. The same would go for squiring and then knighthood I suppose, though it wouldn't just be combat training but anything. I wouldn't attach knighthood per-se to RP but the extra points. We can assume that, unless the squireship ends in disgrace, knighthood will naturally follow. And for a ward it would not have to be the Lord of the keep they interact with but the septon or maester would make acceptable substitutes too.

Edit: Perhaps with the squire path there is also a mechansim for early knighthood due to valour on the field of battle? This would be subjective and mod based.

[Xion]

That resolves my only issue with the warding system, so I think it's fine.

[Ganbarenippon]

Hmm...just realised that a simple tweak to the ward system would ease things a little. Instead of the gift at the end of their wardship why not offer another trait point like the squire path? If we do that we can provide for a ward to receive a weekly income. In the rules there is already a provision for a squire to make 5,600 dragons per week. So why not add another stipend income for wards of around 3,000 dragons per week? This would also give young characters that may not have any income once they return to their families a nice little boost at the start of the game.

Also whilst it's in my mind I have a further question; we all know that family members cannot gain independent income from stipends and only gain whatever money their head of House spends on them. Sworn swords on the other hand have a stipend. So my question, are sworn swords only considered to be non-family member retainers of a landed lord e.g. a master-at-arms from another house or a foreign captain-of-guards?

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

I have an idea/suggestion for the Merchant/Trade system.

To make Merchants more valuable to the game instead of just themselves why not have a system whereby a Lord can increase the amount of trade they can have/goods they have to trade/money earned through trading by going through a Merchant character who can then charge a fee/takes a cut of the goods/whatever etc.

[Ganbarenippon]

I have an idea/suggestion for the Merchant/Trade system.

To make Merchants more valuable to the game instead of just themselves why not have a system whereby a Lord can increase the amount of trade they can have/goods they have to trade/money earned through trading by going through a Merchant character who can then charge a fee/takes a cut of the goods/whatever etc.

Good shout. However, this sort of thing has already been built in. You can find it under the trade section in the rules.

[Honors Bastion]

I have an idea/suggestion for the Merchant/Trade system.

To make Merchants more valuable to the game instead of just themselves why not have a system whereby a Lord can increase the amount of trade they can have/goods they have to trade/money earned through trading by going through a Merchant character who can then charge a fee/takes a cut of the goods/whatever etc.

This is already in the rules but we do need to expand it/rework it slightly. As it is right now, the merchant actually comes off financially worse if he sacrifices his trade ship to aid the Lord unless he etiher trades with one of the high trade income players or only sacrifices a Tier 1 ship.

I think we need to redesign it so that the merchant player comes out a little better on the high end ships (possibly instead of losing the entire trade income for that ship, like the merchant losing only half of the income for a Tier 2 ship while he is using it to trade for a Lord, 25% for Tier 3, and 0% for tier 4 ship, etc.)

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

I'll have to re-read the rules.

[Ganbarenippon]

Or you could leave it. The merchant, in a way, is trading their resources for political favours. It's a form of bribery really.