I have a player in my DW game who has just inherited a barony.

I have a player in my DW game who has just inherited a barony.

I have a player in my DW game who has just inherited a barony. He has seriously stepped in it story-wise but I wonder if anyone has ever used any particular rules for running a keep? It’s an abandoned keep, he has no money, and no retainers (just the other PCs who are ready to leave now, thanks). Is there stuff about this in Perilous Wilds?

34 thoughts on “I have a player in my DW game who has just inherited a barony.”

  1. Id use the hard holder stuff from AW. With a lot of stuff in want, maybe be able to build it up in the fiction to something respectable? Otherwise I’d use the system to hit on the wants often.

  2. Id use the hard holder stuff from AW. With a lot of stuff in want, maybe be able to build it up in the fiction to something respectable? Otherwise I’d use the system to hit on the wants often.

  5. If I remember right, perilous wilds has a way of handling it. I would probably make it more simple, either by creating a move for his character that could be triggered once a session or once a series where he could tap it as a resource to gain things with a 6 minus condition that disabled it as a resource until he made some fiction justification for how he had repaired or otherwise remedied why it was disabled. Or else by making up a CC to the same effect that was upgrade able through selecting new moves.

  6. If I remember right, perilous wilds has a way of handling it. I would probably make it more simple, either by creating a move for his character that could be triggered once a session or once a series where he could tap it as a resource to gain things with a 6 minus condition that disabled it as a resource until he made some fiction justification for how he had repaired or otherwise remedied why it was disabled. Or else by making up a CC to the same effect that was upgrade able through selecting new moves.

  7. Perilous Wilds does not have any such rules. It has rules for randomly generating a steading, but it uses only the rules from the standard steading rules from the core DW book.

    Class Warfare has at least one prestige class focused on being on owning an estate. I seem to recall the core moves being pretty similar to what David LaFreniere is describing.

    If they can establish a small population there, and they want it to be an important, recurring feature of the game, you could tweak my steading rules for Stonetop.

    Steading playbook: https://goo.gl/2mCWBS (note that the moves are a little out of date)

    Steading playbook explained: https://goo.gl/NjOqCS (with most up-to-date version of the moves)

  8. Perilous Wilds does not have any such rules. It has rules for randomly generating a steading, but it uses only the rules from the standard steading rules from the core DW book.

    Class Warfare has at least one prestige class focused on being on owning an estate. I seem to recall the core moves being pretty similar to what David LaFreniere is describing.

    If they can establish a small population there, and they want it to be an important, recurring feature of the game, you could tweak my steading rules for Stonetop.

    Steading playbook: https://goo.gl/2mCWBS (note that the moves are a little out of date)

    Steading playbook explained: https://goo.gl/NjOqCS (with most up-to-date version of the moves)

  13. Jeremy Strandberg​ That looks awesome! I’m not entirely sure it works for my current situation though. What I’ve got right now is a PC “lord” with a run-down abused keep, a small town nearby that doesn’t necessarily recognize his authority or care if there’s a baron, and no money. How would you segue from that into using this playbook? Any suggestions for building things up from the ground?

  14. Jeremy Strandberg​ That looks awesome! I’m not entirely sure it works for my current situation though. What I’ve got right now is a PC “lord” with a run-down abused keep, a small town nearby that doesn’t necessarily recognize his authority or care if there’s a baron, and no money. How would you segue from that into using this playbook? Any suggestions for building things up from the ground?

  17. So, here’s what I think I’m going to do: I’ll require him to put himself into a position in the fiction where he already has the ability represented by each move or benefit, then I’ll just give it to him as earned in the fiction.

  18. So, here’s what I think I’m going to do: I’ll require him to put himself into a position in the fiction where he already has the ability represented by each move or benefit, then I’ll just give it to him as earned in the fiction.

  23. Id just make it into a Front. If he wants to build it up, the baron player would need to complete the quests necessary to cross off portents.

  24. Id just make it into a Front. If he wants to build it up, the baron player would need to complete the quests necessary to cross off portents.

  25. The Keep

    Become great

    -Repair the structure

    -Offer people land and property

    -Establish a council

    -Develope relations with neighboring kingdoms

  26. The Keep

    Become great

    -Repair the structure

    -Offer people land and property

    -Establish a council

    -Develope relations with neighboring kingdoms

  29. Edward Hickcox if you really want to use the Stonetop stuff, I’d recommend that you start by defining the keep and the surrounding village in terms of Size and Population and Prosperity and Defenses. Choose what feels right based on the fiction. The stats probably suck, based on your current description.

    You’ve also probably got tags, like an oath to whoever granted the PC’s family the land and maybe lawless if the locals don’t recognize any authority. Maybe there’s a personage (a threat/danger/front) representing the authority that’s there now.

    Figure out the keep & village’s resources (crops, timber, trade, etc) and assets (a pair of oxen, a couple plows, a mill, etc). Identify the key trades folk (smith, miller, cobbler, healer, midwife, etc). Identify shortages and vulnerabilities (e.g. Dependent on trade with neighbors for X, a water source that dries up sometimes, a feud between families in town). Identify a constant nagging threat to the town (goblins in the woods, bandits, that feud, the old kook in the woods, etc).

    Make sure there’s a big, potential resource available that the townsfolk have failed to capitalize on.

    Let the PC use the steading moves like Deploy or Pull Together or Muster or Outfit, but make them a serious pain in the ass to trigger. It’ll probably involve figuring out who needs convincing and then convincing them, and then triggering the stealing move.

    By contrast: Seasons Change and Suffer Calamity always trigger. Return Triumphant might… make ’em work for it.

    This’ll generate a steading rife with problems, more likely to decay and get worse than to get better.

    Then, set up Advancements that let the PC establish their authority and their place in the village/keep. Have Advancements for improving existing resources or assets, or exploiting that lingering one. Have one for raising/establishing taxes and funding a force to man the keep, another for repairing the keep.

    BUT, make sure everyone in the party is keen on making this a centerpiece of the game. Otherwise, you’ll have a lot of work and mechanical complexity invested in something they’d rather just abandon for the next dungeon.

    And in that case, the Landed Gentry is a much, much better idea.

  30. Edward Hickcox if you really want to use the Stonetop stuff, I’d recommend that you start by defining the keep and the surrounding village in terms of Size and Population and Prosperity and Defenses. Choose what feels right based on the fiction. The stats probably suck, based on your current description.

    You’ve also probably got tags, like an oath to whoever granted the PC’s family the land and maybe lawless if the locals don’t recognize any authority. Maybe there’s a personage (a threat/danger/front) representing the authority that’s there now.

    Figure out the keep & village’s resources (crops, timber, trade, etc) and assets (a pair of oxen, a couple plows, a mill, etc). Identify the key trades folk (smith, miller, cobbler, healer, midwife, etc). Identify shortages and vulnerabilities (e.g. Dependent on trade with neighbors for X, a water source that dries up sometimes, a feud between families in town). Identify a constant nagging threat to the town (goblins in the woods, bandits, that feud, the old kook in the woods, etc).

    Make sure there’s a big, potential resource available that the townsfolk have failed to capitalize on.

    Let the PC use the steading moves like Deploy or Pull Together or Muster or Outfit, but make them a serious pain in the ass to trigger. It’ll probably involve figuring out who needs convincing and then convincing them, and then triggering the stealing move.

    By contrast: Seasons Change and Suffer Calamity always trigger. Return Triumphant might… make ’em work for it.

    This’ll generate a steading rife with problems, more likely to decay and get worse than to get better.

    Then, set up Advancements that let the PC establish their authority and their place in the village/keep. Have Advancements for improving existing resources or assets, or exploiting that lingering one. Have one for raising/establishing taxes and funding a force to man the keep, another for repairing the keep.

    BUT, make sure everyone in the party is keen on making this a centerpiece of the game. Otherwise, you’ll have a lot of work and mechanical complexity invested in something they’d rather just abandon for the next dungeon.

    And in that case, the Landed Gentry is a much, much better idea.

  31. Jeremy Strandberg I may keep track of these things for myself, to help inform the narrative if nothing else. Do you happen to have a blank steading character sheet to record my town and keep on?

  32. Jeremy Strandberg I may keep track of these things for myself, to help inform the narrative if nothing else. Do you happen to have a blank steading character sheet to record my town and keep on?

Comments are closed.