The Iron Throne, the V ASOIAF Game (Sign Up - Rules Thread) (Turn Open)

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The Iron Throne
the V ASOIAF Game:

Historical Context:

The end of the year 298 AL brings strife into Westeros.

Fifteen years after crushing the Targaryen Dynasty and forcing their remnants into exile, King Robert I Baratheon died in a suspicious hunting accident, leading to a frenzied struggle for power in the streets of King’s Landing. An unlikely alliance of anti-Lannister interests led by Ned Stark, Renly Baratheon and Petyr Baelish has taken over the capital, resulting in the accidental death of Prince Joffrey Baratheon and a huge state of confusion over the royal succession. All the tension kept aside due to Robert Baratheon’s rule is near to explode in the most unstable way.

Across the Riverlands the Tullys and the Lannisters are locked in a bitter struggle, Tywin and Jaime Lannister wreaking havoc and crushing the Riverlords in revenge for the botched arrest and trial of the recently liberated Tyrion Lannister. In the Iron Islands, Balon Greyjoy and the Ironborn have rearmed and readied their fleets, and eye the greenlands with untold greed. In Dragonstone, Stannis Baratheon faces a dilemma, believing himself the rightful King yet disliked and doubted by most of the Westerosi Lords.

In Essos, exiled Prince Viserys Targaryen has been forced to abandon her sister and has gathered an army of sellswords of his own, determined to regain the Iron Throne despite the shakiness of his new allies. Deep into the Dothraki Sea, the death of Khal Drogo has pushed Daenerys Targaryen into the miraculous birth of three dragons, the first known since over a hundred and fifty years ago. Stranded in the deserts of the East, Daenerys lies forgotten, yet determined to survive. And across the Free Cities, many secrets and plans lie uncovered…

A sense of uneasiness spreads through Westeros as the succession crisis take form and several Great Houses prepare to take sides in the inevitable conflict. Many hope for a quick resolution, yet others fear this might be the beginning of the worst succession crisis to erupt since Aegon the Conqueror forged the Iron Throne. The realm will bleed, and the crows will inevitably feast as… winter approaches.

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Overview:

“The Iron Throne” is the remake of Clash of Kings, the first ASOIAF game on the forum. As it has become the custom, you will lead your armies and backstab each other again and again until one side wins this mega war across Westeros and Essos. Of course, you are expected to roleplay following the traits of your chosen characters, within reasonable bounds. Many characters can be unlocked in time, but you start being able to choose between a large number of the leading lords and plotters of Westeros and Essos. We will use a mixture of book and show canon as always, so please use this wiki as a source of information: http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Main_Page.

Rules:

Most of you know the basic rules. You will roleplay as a character (such as a lord or even a king) in an alternative history scenario of ASOIAF, starting on the last chapters of A Game of Thrones and Season One of the show. Your objectives are, naturally, different. Some will want independence, others the Iron Throne, and others might even set objectives of their own. What constitutes a win is hard to describe, but end games tend to come organically on these games, so don’t worry about that. You will command armies, pass sentences, enact laws, send ravens and messengers, take part in high level intrigue, rule your realms and, of course, react to the many issues and crisis I will have in store for you.

Turns: Instead of having closed turns, a given number of days (ideally no more than a week) will constitute a month in the calendar, after which military moves will be immediately calculated in order to get a better grasp of warfare. This means we will try to avoid the old scheme of arranged turns with a concrete number of player crisis, and change it to player events or POV’s that will appear from time to time and force you into making decisions. A limited time also means negotiations won’t be as seamless as before, given consequences to delays or too much hesitation. You can make public declarations on the threads prepared for this (King’s Landing, the North, the South and Essos), but your moves must come via PM. All communication between players, OOC or IC, must include me.

Assassination and Spies: A new system for the game, players can send one spy per turn to a given region or city. Spies can get caught, but if successful they’ll give you key information that might prove crucial. Assassinations have been a large part of these games, but often they are abused. For that reason, Faceless Men are off the table. Assassinations are restricted to a single attempt per turn, with a very high risk of getting captured (if so, you are barred from sending assassins for the next turn). The idea is not to make assassination impossible, but to make it a truly high-risk, high-reward move for complicated situations. I may or may not leak moves regarding armies as well, to simulate scouting in real life.

Stats: We will work with GD (gold dragons, the amount of money you have), Prestige (of your character, a loss damages NPC negotiation and simulation), Legitimacy (how respected he is on his current position or rank, a loss brings severe trouble with vassals and allies). Please mind your stats; they can be determinant at dice rolls, vassal relationship and NPC negotiations. Special Abilities is a special and fully private stat, and all players will have one, secret to the rest and providing you with some sort of an advantage over the rest on a certain area.

Roleplaying: I will be enforcing roleplaying. That doesn’t mean I will force all the players into a corner, but I can cancel orders that are too out of character or out of place. Robb Stark will not start butchering children via assassins; Balon Greyjoy is not going to marry Cersei Lannister… (not willingly, at least) and well, you get the point. Don’t be afraid of thinking outside the box and to come up with clever moves, but do try to stay in character or at least within some basic boundaries.

Simulation: Pretty simple in concept, I will use dice rolls and a random number generator for all sorts of events, actions and player moves. That doesn’t mean everything is left to chance, as factors change the order of the dice roll.

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An extreme example, yes, but you can see the large disparity would make this a crushing victory for House Tyrell. Then I roll again, one dice for each side, to account for losses. (The Tyrells could roll a six in high losses, but since their margin of victory is huge it won’t be as painful. The Lannisters could just roll 4, but since they got crushed they will take heavy casualties.)

Special Events: Interaction between the players should be a large part into the game, I will try to make interactive events to emphasize roleplay and allow for a more thorough immersion. There will be Small Council meetings every month IG, just as there may be Weddings, Parleys, Tournaments, Great Councils, and so forth. Likewise, if the players wish for me to simulate a particular event, do let me know. The more we roleplay, I think, the better for the game.

Sellswords and Sellsails: They will be available on this game as companies, both land and naval. They can be recruited in Essos via sending an envoy (to negotiate a contract), from turn two on, and they take a certain time to reach Westeros. A list of companies and prices will be up, with the better known in the Books and Series as the most prestigious and powerful ones. You will be able to choose between Sellsword companies, cavalry companies, and sellsail fleets. The exceptions to this rule are the Golden Company (potentially unlockable) and Viserys Targaryen’s army of Sellswords.

Winter is Coming: Oh, before I forget! There’s one last factor. As you know, by late 298 AL it is still summer, but having looked at the calendar I have set on the first turn of 301 AL as the point in which all of Westeros will be facing Winter. Not that the game will end there, but a harsher winter means reduced troop movement, issues with income and famine and perhaps… something else. That means you have about 26 months of summer, so plan accordingly.

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Cast:

In King's Landing:

Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, Lord Protector of the Realm (Enduro)
Renly Baratheon, Lord of Storm’s End and Master of Laws (Blair)
Petyr Baelish, Lord of Baelish Keep and Master of Coin (X)
Varys, Spymaster of the Iron Throne (Dereich)

Across Westeros:

Stannis Baratheon, Lord of Dragonstone (GoTfan)
Tywin Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock (Spamage)
Balon Greyjoy, Lord of Pyke (Dr_Novella)
Olenna Redwyne, Lady Dowager of Highgarden (Windjammer)
Edmure Tully, Lord of Riverrun (Elmo)
Doran Martell, Prince of Dorne

Optional Characters:
(Only under special circumstances)

Robb Stark, Acting Lord of Winterfell
Walder Frey, Lord of The Twins
Yohn Royce, Lord of Runestone
Randyll Tarly, Lord of Horn Hill

The Pretenders in the East:

Viserys Targaryen, Pretender to the Iron Throne (Garlan Gunter)
Daenerys Targaryen, Pretender to the Iron Throne (locked)
_____ ________ (locked)

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There are more info posts to come in the next few days as the game is arranged (armies, characters, changes to the storyline if needed be, and so on). In the meantime, you can choose your characters now.

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What does it mean by special circumstances?

That I need the other characters (or most of them) being played first, or a pretty compelling reason as to why a player would be using a second tier one as opposed to more important lords.

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I'll try something different. I'll be Littlefinger.

Are Cersei, Tommen, and Myrcella still in King's Landing fighting it out, were they captured, or did they manage to flee?

Still toying with that one. Cersei will be in prison for sure, and either Tommen or Myrcella will be saved and sent away from the capital. But the Lannisters will have at least one of Robert's children. Joffrey is deader than death, though.

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Updated.

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Lumine, does Daenerys control the dothraki or she didn't kill them all in this scenario?

Will you give us an estimate of our forces ?

I'm excited

No. But the backstory for Daenerys and Viserys is still open to change depending on a player wanting to play either. If necessary, we can go with Drogo and Viserys surviving and the Dothraki horde heading west rather than the Viserys and Daenerys being separate storyline.

Yes, but it will be subject to change depending on the players. I'm working on force estimation.

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Armies:

Manpower: Manpower is replenished from time to time, depending on the conditions of your region.

King’s Landing:
-City Watch of King’s Landing: 2,000 strong.
-Royal Fleet of  King’s Landing: 50 ships, in Blackwater Bay.
(Up to 15,000 men can be raised from the Crownlands)

Stannis Baratheon:
-Army of the Narrow Sea: 5,000 strong, currently at Dragonstone.
-Garrison of Dragonstone: 1,000 strong.
-Royal Fleet of Dragonstone: 160 ships, in Dragonstone.
-Salladhor Saan’s Sellsails: 40 ships, in Dragonstone.
(Cannot recruit more men until he gains more vassals or lands.)

Tywin Lannister:
-Garrison of the Golden Tooth: 1,000 strong.
-Garrison of Casterly Rock: 2,000 strong.
-City Watch of Lannisport: 4,000 strong.
-Army of Jaime Lannister: 16,000 strong, in the Golden Tooth.
-Army of Tywin Lannister: 20,000 strong, in Pinkmaiden.
-Lannister Fleet: 60 ships, in Lannisport.
(Can recruit 10,000 men from the Westerlands, on a slow basis)

Renly Baratheon:
-Garrison of Storm’s End: 3,000 strong.
-Renly’s Personal Guard: 30 strong, in King’s Landing.
-Fleet of the Stormlands: 20 ships, in Storm’s End.
(Can recruit 30,000 men from the Stormlands, 10,000 immediately)

House Tyrell:
(Not accounting for units like the Oldtown City Watch)
-Garrison of Highgarden: 5,000 strong.
-Fleet of the Mander: 40 ships, near Highgarden.
-Redwyne Fleet: 200 ships, in the Arbor.
-Hightower Fleet: 30 ships, in Oldtown.
-Shield Islands Fleet: 30 ships, at the Shield Islands.
(Can recruit 75,000 men from the Reach, 15,000 immediately)

Ned Stark:
-Garrison of Winterfell: 1,000 strong.
-Garrison of Moat Cailin: 500 strong.
-Ned’s Personal Guard: 30 strong, in King’s Landing.
 (Can recruit 45,000 men from the North, 12,000 immediately)

Edmure Tully:
-Garrison of Riverrun: 1,000 strong.
-Army of the Golden Tooth: 4,000 strong, in the Golden Tooth.
-Army of Edmure Tully: 12,000 strong, in Riverrun.
(Can recruit 23,000 men from the Riverlands)

Balon Greyjoy:
Garrison of Pyke: 1,000 strong.
The Iron Fleet: 100 ships and 5,000 men, in Pyke.
(Can recruit 20,000 men from the Iron Islands, 5,000 immediately)
(Can call up to 500 reaving ships, 200 immediately)

House Arryn:
Garrison of the Eyrie: 500 strong.
Garrison of the Bloody Gate: 1,000 strong.
Gulltown Fleet: 30 ships, in Gulltown.
(Can recruit 40,000 men from the Vale of Arryn, 15,000 immediately)

Doran Martell:
Garrison of Sunspear: 1,000 strong.
 (Can recruit 35,000 men from Dorne, 15,000 immediately)

Viserys Targaryen:
Targaryen Mercenary Army: To be bought, in Braavos.

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Ideally we'd need Tywin, the Tullys, Martells and a Targaryen player as well, but we have most of the key cast ready.

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Martells? Unless Myrcella somehow ends up in Dorne I'd assume they could wait a few turns. Is there any particular reason they'd be needed immediately?

True. Tywin is the one most needed, then the Targaryens and the Tullys. Martells can wait.

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Is Viserys really needed tbh?
I assume only playing Daenerys would be cool.

As I've said before, I need a player for House Targaryen as a whole. That means playing Viserys, Daenerys (if we want to go canon, although I've always loathed Dany's storyline in Essos) or Viserys, Daenerys and Khal Drogo still together and alive.

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Could we go with vissy having stolen and flogged the dragon eggs for his army? So dany drago and dothraki irrelevant,  v armed in free cities and eggs floating somewhere on market eventually available to any cunning player?

Good to have you back, Garlan!

And yes, that sounds pretty good to me. I'll reshift the backstory to account for that, Khal Drogo and Daenerys will be alive and on their own.

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Fair warning, do not negotiate with other players before we begin the game. Quite a few of you appeared to have started to do this, and I would highly recommend you refrain from doing so.

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I still need the Tullys, really. Unless people don't mind Ned Stark controlling their armies.

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A Tully player would play as Edmure, in the condition of Acting Lord of Riverrun.

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Okay, then we're ready to lay the groundwork. I'll be working on the opening turn and necessary info + backstory. Our story will open with anywhere from 3 to 4 POV's telling us of the different turn of events in King's Landing and Viserys's betrayal of Daenerys, and I will be outsourcing those to the player base if people feel like writing.

So what we need would be:

East:
A POV for Viserys (could be Viserys himself, a mercenary captain, perhaps Doreah if she runs with him on a twist)

King's Landing:

Arya Stark (I tentatively reserve this one for X if he wants to write her)
Janos Slynt
Either Barristan Selmy or Pycelle

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Will you share details of what you'd want to those who agree or are those people going to be free to write whatever?

I'll give a lot of freedom to writers, but if they take on the challenge they will have a broad outline or at least events that must take place. For example, the Janos Slynt POV would take place at the showdown in the throne room, so by necessity it would include a few deaths I have determined.

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Okay, let's see:

I wouldn't mind doing one for Jory Cassel.

Apologies, Enduro, Jaime Lannister has already slain Jory a while ago.

I'd love to do Vissy via a named merc from the books if poss? Tatters, Hoat or one of their gang, shagwell or pretty meris for instance? (the idea of meris fighting alongside the brave companions is already cracking me up tho perhaps two named companies are too many at this stage?). Doreah is also an excellent idea and I'm suddenly also tempted by a hostile mormont pursuing the eggs too late or a cynical braavosi (if I start in braavos). Let me know your thoughts!

Viserys would start in Braavos, yes, although he wouldn't have recruited the army yet. His story would ideally begin as he just managed to escape Khal Drogo's riders and reached a "safe" area. You can choose between Doreah, Mormont and a Bravoosi.

so I'm playing as Renly will the throne room shenanigans be out of my control, or should I start writing my POV/sending orders?

They will, it's part of the backstory (it includes Joffrey's death). The game begins for you, Ned, Littlefinger and Varys on a Small Council meeting, as the Lion and the Rose started as well for the KL players. But yes, you can prepare background for POV's and orders, just remember the game hasn't started yet and therefore nothing can be sent to me or other players.

Davos might be a handy one to have at some point.

Certainly. All players can write their own POV during their turns, of course (as in other games), but I do reserve the right to make changes or deny certain developments.

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Sure, I can write the Arya POV

Excellent!

I'll send you and Garlan the details I need you to cover. I'll handle Janos Slynt myself. Ideally, I'd want us to start the game within the week.

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Sure, I can write the Arya POV

Excellent!

I'll send you and Garlan the details I need you to cover. I'll handle Janos Slynt myself. Ideally, I'd want us to start the game within the week.

Who is doing Pycelle/Barristan?  Or was the Janos one instead of those?

I'll write the Janos first, then see if I need another POV to cover ground (doubtful). I'll reserve Pycelle and Ser Barristan for the first Small Council meeting.

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I'm writing the POV and Garlan and X have their instructions, so I'm hoping Sunday, perhaps early next week.

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Can I take on Edmure?

Yes, of course!

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Update: Garlan just finished Viserys, and I'm close to finishing Janos.

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Well, good news and bad news, I did lose the files to this one (most of the SoD survived), so my POV is sort of gone. If people still want to go ahead with this we can, but we'd have to start without prologue POV's other than Garlan's.

Other than that, thankfully the rules are up here along with armies, so there's no impediment to start as early as people want.

Also, I was replying to the new player requests and I accidentally deleted Leonardo's post on this thread, I sincerely apologize! But he is registered as Doran. Parrotguy is also welcome as Walder Frey.