LORD OF THE CROSSINGThe year is 295 Aegon’s Crowning, and Westeros is at peace, under King Robert Baratheon, the First of His Name, assisted by the wise governance of Lord Jon Arryn, his Hand.
But by the Crossing, the major ford of the Green Fork, northernmost branch of the River Trident in the Riverlands, the only power men respect lies at the Twins. The ancient Lord of these grim, squat, all but unstormable strongholds, Walder Frey, cares little for Kings or Hands, and scarce anything even for his notional overlord of House Tully, at Riverrun.
Lord Frey nears his ninetieth nameday and cannot last forever…but to most of his huge and turbulent family, it sometimes seems as if he will.
The children of House Frey play a game of force and deceit as they dream someday to hold the Twins, ‘Lord of the Crossing’. As they grow older, though, this dream becomes reality.
In this game you, too, will have the misfortune to grow up to be a Frey. You will learn to trust only those fully of your blood – and mayhaps not even then. You will scheme and struggle to retain your withered patriarch’s slippery favour – while all the time preparing for the chaos that may follow his eventual demise, and plotting that just possibly you and yours could emerge prosperous at least – but Lord of the Crossing at best.
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Objectives
This ASOIAF forum game will differ in certain ways from its predecessors on this board. Its action is dominated by the Riverlands of Westeros, and mostly even there the northern parts of them that make up the extensive, strategically located lands of House Frey. The capital of King’s Landing far away in the south, the sophisticated cities across the Narrow Sea, and the other far-off strongholds of the Seven Kingdoms will be glimpsed only when a member of House Frey ventures there. The aim of our story is not to dominate an enormous continent. It is, with hardly less difficulty, to navigate a treacherous family.
All Freys dream of one day ruling the Crossing, but this is not equally practicable across the entire House, and players’ aims will differ. Ser Stevron and his senior line, for example, seek to maintain their rights and handle their father and grandfather’s unmanageable brood of progeny. Bastard Walder and his fellow Rivers Freys more realistically fight to remain noble at all.
Far less important, though, than your final objective is how you go about pursuing it. This game aims to reward initiative, oddity, humour, story-telling, collaboration and unpredictability. In particular, conspicuous and entertaining public activity will have positive, rewarding results. You’re a basket of ferrets. Behave like one, in a good, insane, way.
Moderation: I will be a slightly different sort of moderator as I will also NPC Lord Walder Frey. Nevertheless, PM me with all your orders and all conversations between yourselves in the normal fashion. You are permitted to plot against and even attempt upon the life of Lord Frey; I will act impartially in adjudicating your chances of success. Be warned however of dangerous consequences for failure! If Lord Frey dies, naturally or otherwise, the game will either end, if it seems to have reached its natural conclusion, or continue, with the moderator NPCing whatever character seems suitable instead.
Turns: I will aim to keep turn length to a week. How much in-game time this represents, however, will depend on the pace of our story and the orders and strategies I have received. Sometimes a six-month sweep ahead may seem fitting, at other times only a week in the story. In either case my write-ups will reveal all!
Stats: Each player will have a changeable rating in four fields –
Resources – rated Vast, Substantial, Adequate, Scant or Negligible – the amount of cash, land, moveable possessions, credit, etc that the player can command.
Favour – marked out of 10 – the extent of Lord Frey’s goodwill towards the player; comes with tangible advantages in the jostling within the family.
Influence – out of 10 – the player’s ability to affect events further afield; bribing, spying, trading, negotiating and so forth.
Standing – out of 10 – the player’s reputation for honour, trustworthiness and competence, among both nobles and commoners. A low rating carries certain advantages in terms of intimidation and fear factor but is likely to stir up trouble in the long term. A high rating earns and secures allies, aiding diplomacy.
Roleplaying: This is a, even the most, crucial element of the whole game and enormously to be encouraged, even within PMs. Public proclamations, PoVs, songs, rumours, in-world jokes and so on will be noticed and rewarded by the moderator. For PoVs it often pays to hint at rather than reveal strategy and action, build up suspense, mystery and ambiguity, and develop characters…
Dice and battles: War and military activity is intended to be less important and decisive in this game than in previous iterations, while I will often aim to arrive at political outcomes by applying narrative logic and the information I receive from you. But when chance or fortune of battle should clearly play a role/ll I will make a secret, offstage calculation! Some Freys have a talent for military or political activity, as you will be notified in your family tree information, and that will always be taken into account.
Crises/Random Events: Don’t worry – I will be throwing you a lot of these with great glee every turn.
Death: Assassination is difficult and rare in a time of peace – except for the one assassin no one can dodge. Occasionally I want to represent the huge role played by natural death, at all ages, in medieval dynasty-mongering, and there will be a small chance of members of players’ families succumbing to disease, age or accident among other happenings. I don’t intend these ‘natural’ deaths ever to lead to game overs and will exempt any players controlling only one character from the calculation. There is a tiny chance of old Walder dying naturally, though.
Resources: The following is your invaluable guide to the Frey family tree:
https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Frey#House_Frey_at_the_end_of_the_third_centuryNote our setting is three years before the events of
A Game of Thrones, making everyone slightly younger than described on the wiki
Recruitment: see the first Lord of the Crossing thread,
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=303451.0So far our players stand as
Ser Stevron Frey, eldest son of Lord Frey by his first wife, Perra Royce; heir to the Crossing [played by King Saul]Ser Walder Frey, called Black Walder, second grandson to Ser Stevron [played by leonardothered]Ser Emmon Frey, second son of Lord Frey by his first wife [played by Elmo]Ser Jared Frey, eldest son of Lord Walder Frey by his second wife, Cyrenna Swann [played by Kingpoleon]Symond Frey, a son of Lord Frey by his third wife, Amarei Crakehall [played by Metis]Lothar Frey, called Lame Lothar, Steward of the Twins, eldest son of Lord Frey by his fifth wife, Alyssa Blackwood [played by JacksonHitchcock]
