RPG: Game of Thrones Crossroads Saloon OOC Chat

[Pinkerton]

No one likes this idea anymore?

I really like the idea of being a zoomed-in "county", with landed knights and a look at the foundations of feudalism on the rural level.
But everyone loves their Lannisters and Starks eh?

Wheel of samsara indeed, over and over and over again..

I do like it. And I think we should try that format, but I don't think many other are interested in it.

When this restart fails and some of us still wanna play, we can do the zoomed in setting

 

[Lord Dread]

Ugh, was I honestly the only one, who did not really like the Dance of Dragons setting at all?

It had barely any dynamics, was an entire Blacks VS Green feast and limited me as an LP player to simply keep to orders, as else I would either face major problems than regulary (dragons) or make the boring main plot explode, which people wanted to keep up
(since I was before moveing against the forces of the North mid-war as they occupied one of my keeps and kinda wanted my lovely revenge). Plus the setting was even more sad to play, as I RPed the command of the High Lordship, but had barely any chance to do RP with my Tully family (sadly because war was more important, but it also put me into a situation, where I miscalculated my own RP skills too much - so that one was more an error of mine than intended) and the exiled Tully I implemented was sadly not turning out as well as I hoped him to do. Even my castellan with the pun name Mance Vance had more soul than this character due to previous deeds.

Oh and please no warm-up of the Past-Blackfyre-Rebellion RP.
I loved Blackfyre RP, but Past-Blackfyre was really my worst Tully impression, even worse than Dance.
First of all my main mistake was to not do any RP around Daryn Tully senior, who was just retireing his former glory. Of course nothing bad happened with him, but not RPing him at all was neither good.
Furthermore I definitly regret the mistake of marrying off his daughter (Targaryen offspring by matrilineal marriage) to Adamat's Arryn. I desired swords and an own Lord Paramountship under my disposal to overthrow both Targaryens and Blackfyres when the time would be ready, not become the unmentioned wife of another King Arryn, who solely dictated the demands, while I had to take what I got. If anyone seems to have a history in ursurping failures, it seems to be me (except for Robert Baratheon, but that one was anyways no fair competition, judgeing by how many troops I got to coordinate around).
And the other son of Daryn was unlucky as - that entire Oldstones mission was promising, but it neither was original due to LM doing similiar things with Summerhall and it also lead to nowhere - in short, I started an expedition while not knowing the goal at all. Apart from creating a new province, which I didn't want to found at some point anyways, leading me to the main issue on the setting:

Edric Tully - he's sadly the worst as my best played character within the Past-Blackfyre setting.
The best played as I could kinda re-consider my debts of the previous games by makeing Edric getting some personal peace with Lefford + finishing his buiseness with Blackwood in a fair way,
the worst because I wasted the chance to get into the civil war and also got too excited about this entire North-trade roleplay that I kinda ruined the character in a way, where I let him consider to move against his own landlord Frey by makeing the Twins less rentable. I shouldn't have acted dualistic and clearly said no to the plans of the North, as there was no need to keep up these relationships.
His son, Daryn the Younger was solely a filler - in fact I hoped that Edric would die by a death, either executed by myself or high age, so he could take over and be like "All Rivermen hail the Order of the Kraken", so he could be the one to tear apart, what his forefathers build up within the Riverlands and get it back divided and less unified.
The sister... ugh... well, Blackfyre spouse, so Tullys shall always have a bloodline in both Targaryen branches. Either way, this decision solely happened, because of LM trying to get a political alliance, I denied him by getting closer in the end to one of his chars in Essos.

So, in short: Entire House Tully became even more a desaster in this one, as it was just boring to watch. I enjoyed even the Mormonts in this game more than I did my main house, as I could at least act with her Lady as a Brienne/Lady Spicer mixture on court of Poach's Karstarks, which I honestly liked a lot. One of the strongest Houses in the setting RP-wise, way more potential and opportunities for a more power-hungry and menaceing North. Kinda what kept me alive in these times.



Either way, I'm fine with most settings, which contain no dragons. Dragons make every setting feel like Targaryens get more important than your own characters will ever become and also make possible rebellions, even as LPs feel unlikely to happen.
Actually don't know whether I would aim to play a specific LP, but if I'm not mistaken my unfinished GoT RP list says I have to:
-play at some point a Lannister (Master-of-Laketown-style from second Hobbit movie - about the third I don't talk )
-do an Arryn family
-make a fresh turn on Greyjoys (Hengest kinda showed how to do it, probably would experiment on similiar tides while giveing a about reaveing)

And mayhaps some other fun stuff, I won't write down to still give you some surprises.
I know that this entire post is narcistic as , but I tried to RP already as a lot of stuff, so whatever we do, either on small or big scale might turn out more original than previous attempts.

Still think Robert's Rebellion or similiar settings with no dragons worked out so far the best in GoT universe, as even the last Robert's Rebellion we had wasn't bad, but simply lacked of LPs willing to use given chances for their own success or had LPs, willing to do stuff locked down on Royal Court (both Martell and Greyjoy were chained) - hence why one of my characters supported the entire Queen's restructureing of the capital during his grace's illness.

 

[Gandalfus]

I will play this whatever setting we choose, but I don't really fancy Dance of Dragons. As I wasn't involved in the Blackfyre scenario I probably won't get too invested in that either, would probably only join as a more minor house. So I have to go with something new.

 

[Lucius Malfoy]

Why not make up a new setting then?

I have been experimenting with various post-Blackfyre Rebellion Targaryen Kings and there could be some interesting SLs.

Like for instance:
- What if Aelor, son of Rhaegel, grandson of Daeron II, who was named Prince of Dragonstone after the death of his father had become King of the Iron Throne after Aerys I?
- What if Viserys II ruled longer or if Aegon IV was a different King than what he canonically was known as?
- What if Duncan 'the Small' were to reign in place of Jaehaerys II after the death of Aegon V? Or perhaps Daeron who was the youngest of the three sons that Aegon V sired?
- What if Maegor, son of Aerion Brightflame, ruled instead of Aegon V?
- What if Maelys 'the Monstrous' had been successful and reigned on the Iron Throne after seizing it from Jaehaerys II?
- Or, as suggested before, what if Rhaegar defeated Robert and became King after the death of Aerys the Mad?
- What of Aerion Brightflame? Daeron the Drunken? Rhaegel Targaryen, son of Daeron II? Aemon the Dragonknight?

These characters, most of which are barely known, had a chance to become King of the Seven Kingdoms and yet we never saw how they could have acted as such a ruler. They also have the potential to be recreated by the players who desire to be them and the same with the timeline and the scenarios surrounding them.

We had a pretty successful and dynamic reign with Baelor II, roleplayed by Oz, which turned out to be one of our best scenarios, the Blackfyre restart. We had, at least, 4 Targaryen Kings (Daeron II, Baelor II, Matarys, and eventually Maekar I) and 2 Blackfyre Kings (Daemon I and Haegon the Cruel). We have never, ever, had such a change in power like we did during that restart and each of these rulers had a different personality. Baelor II went from noble knight to a man who was sometimes forced to bend to the whims of his dominant Queen and her creatures. Maekar became the Unyielding King through his reputation. Matarys, who was viewed as stubborn by those around him, became obsessed with ruling on his own, and not under the influence of others like his father, and, one day, reclaiming the throne of his father and forefathers. Daemon, brilliant and mighty as Aegon the Conqueror, made some crucial decisions while under influence of Meldred, the Kingmaker, who was once a silent and reserved member of Baelor's Council.

That dynamic scenario was all possible because we went with an alternative approach. We had Baelor become King instead of dying, we had Daemon live instead of being slain on the battlefield, and so forth. So why not try that similar magic again but, this time, with similar characters who had a chance to rule one day, but could not for various reasons (most common being death).

 

[Pericles of Athens]

"Rhaegar defeated Robert and became King after the death of Aerys the Mad" I'm soooo down, we've never actually taken this direction with a post-Robert's Rebellion RP - everyone thought he'd be a great King, what if he wasn't? What if he was? What if he went mad like his father, after all Aerys was a good King up until he started burning people alive. "What if Maelys 'the Monstrous' had been successful and reigned on the Iron Throne after seizing it from Jaehaerys II?" This would be interesting too.

 

[Lucius Malfoy]

There are a great number of Targaryens who could have had a chance at one day becoming King, all of whom have the potential of creating the dynamic roleplay we encountered with the first Blackfyre Restart.

Heck, I would gladly even throw Grand Maester Aemon in that lot. What if he was never sent to the Citadel and became king after his father's death?

Both scenarios would have very few Targaryens:
For the Rhaegar setting, we would only have Viserys, Daenaerys, Aegon and Rhaenys, all of who are still very young (children to infants).
For the Maelys setting, Jaehaerys would probably die from illness after being locked up in a dungeon, but beyond that, there is Aerys and his sister-wife, as well as the infant Rhaegar. The CK2 mod has Maegor, son of Aerion, live on through this setting and I would like to include him as we don't know when he dies. He would be around 30 years of age.

So for each setting, there would be about 4 - 5 Targs and 1 Blackfyre.

 

[Oznerol]

No Rhaegar, no Robert Rebellion settings, those are quite bad as rpg's. I vote for our Blackfyre or a Jaehaerys/Maelys setting. Or whatever, but no Robert Rebellion, worst scenario available to rp with.

 

[Alexandrine]

I do like it. And I think we should try that format, but I don't think many other are interested in it.

When this restart fails and some of us still wanna play, we can do the zoomed in setting

I agree.


And I would take one of the new scenarios proposed by Lucius, and leave the ones we tried before behind.

 

[Pinkerton]

I'm up for the new scenarios or "our" Blackfyre thing. Just wanna get it started soon as possible

 

[Alexandrine]

You know that my char is dead in the Blackfyre game

 

[Lucius Malfoy]

- What if Aelor, son of Rhaegel, grandson of Daeron II, who was named Prince of Dragonstone after the death of his father had become King of the Iron Throne after Aerys I?
- What if Viserys II ruled longer or if Aegon IV was a different King than what he canonically was known as?
- What if Duncan 'the Small' were to reign in place of Jaehaerys II after the death of Aegon V? Or perhaps Daeron who was the youngest of the three sons that Aegon V sired?
- What if Maegor, son of Aerion Brightflame, ruled instead of Aegon V?
- What if Maelys 'the Monstrous' had been successful and reigned on the Iron Throne after seizing it from Jaehaerys II?
- What of Aerion Brightflame? Daeron the Drunken? Rhaegel Targaryen, son of Daeron II? Aemon the Dragonknight?

So all these settings basically right? These are all between Dance of Dragons when the last of the dragons die off (post reign of the Dragonsbane) to before Robert's Rebellion.

If I was gonna throw my support behind any of these, I would wanna see... Maelys the Monstrous, Aelor, Duncan the Small or Maegor, son of Aerion. Especially the last three as we only know of them as sons of princes/kings who died prematurely or very little about their backgrounds save their parentage (Maegor and Aelor).

 

[Pericles of Athens]

I agree with Pink, we should get this going as soon as possible. I also agree that we don't really have the player base to do the Dance justice right now, not after the amount of people I've seen interested in a restart.

So we've got to narrow down what of LM's suggestions we want to seriously consider. My personal favorite is alternate rebellion.

 

[Gandalfus]

Done the Robert's Rebellion a few times. I'd be interested in Maelys the Monstrous and the other settings though.

 

[The Mad Skylord]

I'd like to do the Rhaegar setting, seems like a bloody good idea.

 

[Lord Dread]

Also would be in for any of the alternate settings, preferably one leaveing room for more than just one claimant within the entire war.
Which one doesn't matter - they all sound better than Dance or our own Past-Blackfyre setting.

 

[Pinkerton]

You know that my char is dead in the Blackfyre game

2 years have passed and I still mourn Valena

 

[Jokern]

I would throw my support behind Maelys the Monstrous, though I think we'll have to shake some things up in the power structure of the different regions. Betrayals, intrigues and other wonderful things during the War of the Ninepenny Kings would be required to make the background of the setting more believable.

I would suggest that our timeline deviates from regular lore with the battle on the Stepstones. Instead of losing, Maelys Blackfyre and the Band of Nine are able to crush the Targaryen army and the Greyjoy fleet. Several lords and knights are captured and/or killed, like Lord Ormund Baratheon (Hand of the King) and Steffon Baratheon, Tywin Lannister, Lord Hoster Tully, Lord Roger Reyne, Lord Quellon Greyjoy and Aerys, Prince of Dragonstone. This would give Maelys huge leverage over the Iron Throne, and several lords would switch loyalties as the news of the Golden Company landing on the continent and seizing Storm's End as a foothold.

Then he'd march right up to the walls of King's Landing, besiege it while civil war rages in Westeros, and then take it with Blood and Fire. Then he'd march through the different regions, putting down the last loyalist lords and rewarding those who swore allegiance to him. Places like the Iron Islands, the Vale, the North and Dorne would be left alone for now because of them being able to cut off themselves from Westeros.

What would happen in the different regions:
Westerlands - With the capture (and/or death) of several of his sons, the weak-willed Lord Tytos Lannister would buckle under pressure (especially from the powerful House Reyne) to swear loyalty to Blackfyre.
Iron Islands - With the destruction of the Greyjoy fleet and the capture or death of Lord Quellon, the Iron Islands would keep out of "Greenlander squabbles" for as long as possible, at least until a winner was declared.
Riverlands - The Riverlands, having lost their Lord Paramount, would quickly descend into chaos and civil war as the petty riverlords would fight for one side or the other to ensure their own supremacy over the Riverlands
Dorne - Dorne would probably support the Targaryens and be a regular thorn in Blackfyre's side until the Iron Throne was secured, and probably even after that.
Stormlands - The Stormlords would probably be split in half between those supporting Blackfyre and those supporting the Targaryen. However, considering that their lord paramount led the royal forces to the Stepstones, a large chunk of the army should have been made of of Stormlanders, so their military power
North - Not sure, I can't find anything about them fighting in the war, so maybe neutral?
Crownlands - Most likely loyalist until the end, but with a depleted military after the Stepstones.
Reach - Don't know, probably split in two with a new house (Florent?) taking power once Blackfyre was king. Didn't fight on the Stepstones as far as I know.
Vale - Don't know, seem like loyalist. Don't know if they fought in the war on the Stepstones.

For some of these, I'd like to see a new great house take charge as the new Lord Paramount, though we don't have to kill off the previous rulers.

 

[Zeus Almighty]

Mayhap a minor role for me. My memory is either shot or I missed out on the Blackfyre setting in general so I will just keep tabs for now.

 

[Lucius Malfoy]

This is a different Blackfyre setting, Zeus. Its not a continuation of the previous ones. It would be an alternative to the canon War of the Ninepenny Kings where, instead, Maelys has managed to take the fight to the Westerosi mainland and Jaehaerys II, or Aerys II, is desperately trying to keep a hold of the Iron Throne as the Seven Kingdoms descend into chaos. It will prove to be a good setting since, no matter who wins, there will be a period in which the victory (Blackfyre or Targaryen) are forced to rebuild royal authority by re-stabilizing the Seven Kingdoms. Especially with how Jokern suggested, it could be a lot of fun!

A suggestion, Jokern, perhaps the Reachlords, that originally supported Daemon Blackfyre, rise up and aid Maelys in the hopes of regaining what was taken from them by the victor, Daeron II and exact revenge upon the Targaryens for their cruel treatment of their forefathers by removing ancestral lands rightfully theirs. Those would be House Costayne, House Strickland, House Osgrey, and House Peake.

 

[Oznerol]

We should remember all the houses exiled with the Blackfyres, like Stricklands. Some of them could have taken over their old seats or someone's elses, that should create quite an unrest among nobility, also, there're could be exiled branches returning home and displacing those who were loyal, like seemingly happened with Peake. Butterwells could also make a return, rewarded by their loyalty to Daemon's sons. Maybe Tyrell could have been replaced by Florents for the first time ever. Baratheons should be pretty mauled and we could have a female ruler somewhere, like the North or the Vale. Dorne could act independently or support Targs. I bet Tytos surrendered pretty easily and maybe the good-humored and witty Gerion is going to inherit the West, with Tygett and Kevan as hostages or dead like Tywin. Reynes could be eyeing the Paramountcy. Greyjoys are Greyjoys. And we can't forget about Maegor, Aerion's son, who could be an interesting wildcard. Moreso, he could be the Targaryen claimant. Into consideration should be taken the Essosi supporters of Maelys.

 

[Lucius Malfoy]

Since I will wanna take a lesser role in this roleplay, I will either go with a minor house or roleplay Maegor Targaryen. He is a relatively neglected member of House Targaryen after the Great Council, that elected Aegon V, completely disregarded his claim due to his name alone. Perfect for me to work my magic and create him the way I want to be. Plus, gives me a chance to roleplay someone without any land and mostly assume a role as a familiar face within the Red Keep as a courtier to a Blackfyre or Targaryen.

I took into consideration the support for Maelys and I believe I figured out a good balance: 20 - 30k troops with two fleets (to be determined in number). This is because Maelys has the support of Tyrosh, the Golden Company, three Sellsword companies and two pirate fleets canonically. Plus you would need some serious troop numbers to take Storms End as a foothold for Maelys to launch his campaign from. And his large number also makes sense for his resounding success at defeating the loyalist forces and taking a number of notable hostages.

 

[Oznerol]

Maelys would be a pleasure to rp as.

 

[Pericles of Athens]

As someone who'd like to play as the North I do not want to RP a female ruler.

 

[Dirty Chai]

I want to be a powerful merchant, like a leader of a city or town's merchant guilds or something

These guys weren't joking around

 

[Pinkerton]

I want to be a powerful merchant, like a leader of a city or town's merchant guilds or something

These guys weren't joking around

Merchants are fun

 

[Zeus Almighty]

Merchants are fun

Ah Ive had some fun going the merchant route for sure.

 

[Dirty Chai]

Ah Ive had some fun going the merchant route for sure.

Join the cartel

 

[The Mad Skylord]

Jaeherys or Aerys sounds like a blast.

 

[Poach]

Absolutely always up for more GoT games. Also, hello again everyone, I moved house and had no internet for 3 weeks, good times. Life's been pretty full on since January actually, but I'm in and settled and nothing crazy is happening, so GoT RP yeah!

 

[Pinkerton]

So, we've got two problems:

Who will be the mods for this game?
Which will be the setting?

Once we deal with that, we can get started.