As much as a house is defined by its place in the Seven Kingdoms, its history, deeds, and alliances, a house is essentially a collection of seven Resources. These values will fluctuate during house creation and more during game play, rising and falling depending on how well you play the game of thrones.
Below are descriptions of each of the seven Resources
Defense describes fortifications, castles, keeps, towers, and other structures that serve to protect your holdings. Defense also describes the presence and quality of roads, representing the ability to move troops and supplies to threatened areas.
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Desolate, ruined land, ravaged by disaster, war, or simply abandoned. No defensible structures of any kind, and no infrastructure for moving troops. You have no fortifications whatsoever. |
| 1-10 | Scarce cultivation, mostly wilderness with a few unprotected pockets of civilization, having one or two roads or a minor stronghold. |
| 11-20 | Some cultivation, presence of a keep or smaller stronghold with a few roads, rivers, or ports. |
| 21-30 | Defensible, with at least one fortified town or castle. Roads and trails are present, and rivers or ports are likely. |
| 31-40 | Good defenses with, almost certainly, a castle, along with a few other strong points. Roads and rivers provide easy transportation. Alternatively, natural terrain features, such as mountains or swamps, provide additional fortification. |
| 41-50 | Excellent defenses, with man-made fortifications likely combined with defensible terrain features. |
| 51-60 | Extraordinary defenses with structures, walls, and terrain features that, when combined, make attacking this land very costly. |
| 61-70 | Among the greatest defenses in the world. A good example would be the Eyrie and the Vale of Arryn. |
Influence describes your presence in the Seven Kingdoms, how other houses see you, and the notoriety attached to your name. A high Influence resource typically describes one of the great houses or the royal family, while a low Influence resource would describe a house of little consequence, small and largely unknown beyond the lands of their liege. Influence is also important in determining your characters’ maximum Status.
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | The house’s name and history has been erased from all records, and no one speaks of them anymore. |
| 1-10 | Maximum Lord's Status 2. A minor landed knight or the equivalent. An example would be Craster. |
| 11-20 | Maximum Lord's Status 3. A greater landed knight or the equivalent. A sample house would include the Knotts and Liddles of the North. |
| 21-30 | Maximum Lord's Status 4. A small minor house. Examples include House Mormont and House Westerling. |
| 31-40 | Maximum Lord's Status 4. A minor house. Examples include House Clegane, House Payne, and House Karstark. |
| 41-50 | Maximum Lord's Status 5. A powerful minor house with colorful history. Examples include House Florrent and House Frey. |
| 51-60 | Maximum Lord's Status 6. A major house. Examples include House Tully and House Martell. |
| 61-70 | Maximum Lord's Status 7. A great house. Examples include House Arryn, House Stark, House Baratheon and House Lannister. |
Land resources describe the size of your House’s holdings and the extent of their influence over their region. A high score describes a house that controls an enormous stretch of terrain, such as Eddard Stark and the North, while a small score might represent control over a small town.
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Landless, the house has been completely stripped of its holdings. |
| 1-10 | A speck of land, no larger than a single town. |
| 11-20 | A small stretch of land, about the size of a single small island or small portion of a larger island, or a large city and its immediate environs, such as House Mormont. |
| 21-30 | A modest stretch of land or medium-size island, such as House Frey. |
| 31-40 | An area of land that includes several terrain features, islands, or large groups of islands, House Greyjoy for example. |
| 41-50 | A large area of land, that spreads across a great distance. This area likely includes a variety of terrain features. House Martell’s control of Dorne is representative of this level of resource |
| 51-60 | A huge area of land representing a considerable portion of Westeros’ geography. House Stark’s command of the North is a good example. |
| 61-70 | Most, if not all, of the Seven Kingdoms, such as the holdings of King Robert and the royal branch of House Baratheon. |
Law encompasses two things: the extent to which the smallfolk respect and fear you and the threat of bandits, brigands, raiders, and other external and internal threats. Law is something your family must maintain, and if you don’t invest in keeping your realm safe, it could fall into chaos.
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Lawless, uncivilized land. You have no authority here—the lands beyond the Wall. |
| 1-10 | Bandits, raiders, and other criminal bands are afoot in your lands, causing mischief and trouble. |
| 11-20 | Lawlessness and banditry are a problem along the fringes of your lands. |
| 21-30 | The typical level of Law throughout much of Westeros. Crime is common but not out of control. |
| 31-40 | You exert a great deal of control over your lands, and crime is uncommon. |
| 41-50 | Such is your influence and devotion to maintaining the peace that crime is rare. |
| 51-60 | You have almost no crime at all in your lands. |
| 61-70 | There is no crime in your lands. |
Population addresses the sheer number of people living in the lands you control. The more people there are, the more mouths you have to feed. However, the more people there are, the more your lands produce. This abstract value describes the quantity of folks that live under your rule.
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Barren. No people live under your rule. |
| 1-10 | Thinly populated. Tiny settlements are scattered throughout your lands. |
| 11-20 | Small population but no single community larger than a small town. |
| 21-30 | Typical population. Most smallfolk live on farmsteads or in hamlets, but you might have a couple of small towns and a community around your primary fortification. |
| 31-40 | Modest population. At least one town and several small hamlets. |
| 41-50 | Large population. You have a large number of people in your lands; many live in a large town or spread throughout a number of smaller towns. |
| 51-60 | Immense population. An enormous number of people live under your protection. |
| 61-70 | All or nearly all of Westeros. |
Power describes your house’s military strength, the ability to muster troops and rouse banners sworn to you. Houses with low scores have few soldiers and no banners, while those with high scores may have a dozen or more banners and can rouse an entire region.
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Powerless, you have no troops, no soldiers, and none loyal to your family. |
| 1-10 | Personal guard only, with one or two sworn swords and a cadre of smallfolk warriors at most. |
| 11-20 | Small force of soldiers largely made up of smallfolk. |
| 21-30 | A modest force of soldiers, including some trained troops. |
| 31-40 | A trained force of soldiers, including cavalry and possibly ships. You may have the service of a banner house. |
| 41-50 | A large force of diverse, trained, and competent soldiers. You probably also have the services of a small navy as well. Several banner houses are sworn to you. |
| 51-60 | You can muster a huge force of soldiers, drawn from your lands and those from your numerous banner houses. |
| 61-70 | You have the strength of most of the Seven Kingdoms behind you. |
Wealth covers everything from coin to cattle and everything in between. It represents your involvement and success in trade, your ability to fund improvements in your domain, hire mercenaries, and more.
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Destitute. Your family is penniless. |
| 1-10 | Impoverished. Your family lacks essential resources and struggles to make ends meet. |
| 11-20 | Poor. Your family has little excess. While they are able to sustain themselves and their holdings, they do not live in luxury. |
| 21-30 | Common. Your family has enough to get by. |
| 31-40 | Prosperous. Your family has the funds to live in accordance with their station. |
| 41-50 | Affluent. Your family has more funds than it needs and lives in comfort. |
| 51-60 | Rich. Your family wants for nothing. |
| 61-70 | Decadent. Your family is so wealthy, they can afford to have seventy-seven course feasts. |
In a way, holdings are like investments in that you use your resources to select specific elements in the form of castles, towers, cities, towns, soldiers, mines, and more. When you define your holdings, you do not reduce the resource; instead, allocate those points to a specific expression of that resource.
If your resources are later reduced, such as by a blight sweeping through your crops or losing a battle, you may lose your investment. Similarly, if an investment is destroyed, such as having an enemy burn your castle to the ground, you lose the resources you invested in that particular holding.
Quick information about Defense Holdings can also be found under Fortifications.
| Holding | Investment | Build Time | Description | Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superior Castle | 50 Defense | 144+10d6 Months | A superior castle is a massive stronghold in the vein of Harrenhal, the Eyrie, Storm’s End, Dragonstone, and Winterfell. A superior castle has several towers, structures, and smaller buildings, all surrounded by a steep curtain wall and likely a moat as well. | Units defending a superior castle gain a +12 bonus to their Defense |
| Castle | 40 Defense | 96+10d6 Months | Castles are impressive fortified strongholds but are not as large or as imposing as a superior castle. Most castles incorporate at least one central keep and several towers connected by walls and surrounded by a moat. Example castles include Deepwood Motte, the Twins, and Riverrun. | Units defending a castle gain a +8 bonus to their Defense |
| Small Castle | 30 Defense | 72+10d6 Months | A small castle is simply a smaller version of a standard castle. It usually has no more than a single keep, perhaps two towers and a wall. Examples of small castles include Bronzegate, Honeyholt, and Yronwood. | Units defending a small castle gain a +6 bonus to their Defense |
| Hall | 20 Defense | 60+10d6 Months | A hall (or keep) is usually a small, fortified building. It may or may not be surrounded by a wall, and it could have a tower, though it’s unlikely. Examples of halls include Acorn Hall, Cider Hall, and Longbow Hall. | Units defending a hall gain a +4 bonus to their Defense |
| Tower | 10 Defense | 36+10d6 Months | Towers are single free-standing stone or timber structures that thrust up from the ground. If they have any outbuildings, they are small and unprotected. Petyr Baelish’s holdings in the Fingers included a single tower. | Units defending a tower gain a +3 bonus to their Defense |
The primary investment one can make of Influence is an heir. An heir's Status is always 1 rank below that of the Head of House, with a minimum Status of 1.
In addition, Influence may be spent as below:
Lands describe the terrain and extent of your actual holdings. Lands may be forests, lakes, hills, mountains, coastlines, and more, all based on where your house is situated and the terrain of your realm. Each Land investment is called a domain. Each domain is roughly a league (3 miles).
Domains each have two components, features and terrain. A feature is something found on that land such as a town, river, woods, or coastline. A domain can have as many features as you’d like to invest. A domain without a feature is barren, being a desert, scrubland, or waste depending on the realm.
If you cannot afford to invest in a domain, your holdings are smaller than a league and extend out around your primary stronghold.
| Realm | Terrain | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Dorne | Hills, Mountains, Plains | Coast, Community, Island, Road, Ruin, Water |
| Dragonstone | Hills, Plains, Wetlands | Coast, Community, Grassland, Island, Road, Ruin |
| Iron Islands | Hills, Plains | Coast, Community, Grassland, Island, Road, Ruin |
| King's Landing | Plains | Coast, Community, Grassland, Road, Ruin, Water, Woods |
| Mountains of the Moon | Hills, Mountains | Coast, Community, Grassland, Island, Road, Ruin, Water |
| The North | Hills, Mountains, Plains, Wetlands | Coast, Community, Grassland, Island, Road, Ruin, Water, Woods |
| The Reach | Plains | Coast, Community, Grassland, Island, Road, Ruin, Water |
| The Riverlands | Hills, Plains, Wetlands | Community, Grassland, Road, Ruin, Water |
| The Stormlands | Hills, Mountains, Plains, Wetlands | Coast, Community, Grassland, Island, Road, Ruin, Water, Woods |
| The Westerlands | Hills, Mountains, Plains | Coast, Community, Grassland, Island, Road, Ruin, Water |
Each Terrain has a cost associated with it. Any Features on that terrain impose additional cost.
Filter:
| Terrain | Cost |
|---|---|
| Hills | 7 |
| Mountains | 9 |
| Plains | 5 |
| Wetlands | 3 |
| Feature | Cost |
|---|---|
| Coast | +3 |
| Community - Hamlet | +10 |
| Community - Small Town | +20 |
| Community - Large Town | +30 |
| Community - Small City | +40 |
| Community - Large City | +50 |
| Grassland | +1 |
| Island | +10 |
| Road | +5 |
| Ruin | +3 |
| Water - Stream | +1 |
| Water - River | +3 |
| Water - Pond | +5 |
| Water - Lake | +7 |
| Woods - Light | +3 |
| Woods - Dense | +5 |
Unlike other resources, Law does not have holdings for investment. Instead, your Law resource describes the extent of your authority over your lands, specifically as it applies to drawing resources from your lands with minimal loss due to crime, banditry, and villainy.
Maintaining a high Law resource helps reduce waste and loss, generating the full potential of Wealth and allowing your Population to grow. But if you let Law lapse, you derive less and less of your resources, and your Population growth shrinks until it can actually diminish.
| Score | House Fortunes |
|---|---|
| 0 | -20 |
| 1-10 | -10 |
| 11-20 | -5 |
| 21-30 | -2 |
| 31-40 | -1 |
| 41-50 | 0 |
| 51-60 | +1 |
| 61-70 | +2 |
| 71+ | +5 |
Like Law, you do not invest Population Holdings. Instead, your Population describes the density of people that live on your lands. The greater your Population, the more people occupy your lands. Population, again like Law, modifies the outcome of your House Fortunes; however, more people bring more opportunities for mishaps.
Similarly, fewer people mean greater chances for trouble to brew in remote corners of your lands. From the following, find your modifier to your House Fortunes roll.
| Score | House Fortunes |
|---|---|
| 0 | -10 |
| 1-10 | -5 |
| 11-20 | +0 |
| 21-30 | +1 |
| 31-40 | +3 |
| 41-50 | +1 |
| 51-60 | +0 |
| 61-70 | -5 |
| 71+ | -10 |
From your Power resource, you derive your family’s military might, its sworn swords, knights, guardsmen, and banners that fight on your behalf. You can invest Power into banners, ships, or units.
Banner houses are noble families and landed knights that have sworn vows of service and loyalty to your house in exchange for your house’s protection, support, and aid in times of trouble. While promises bind the banner house to your own, such vows can be tested when personal ambitions get in the way of honor and duty. Moreover, smaller houses often come to envy the power and influence of the larger houses to whom they are sworn, and betrayals, while uncommon since the consequences can be so severe, can and do occur.
The relationship between you and your vassal is much the same as your relationship between you and your liege, meaning that as you are sworn to provide military and financial support to your lord, so, too, is your banner house. The benefit of the banner house is that it can be called to lend military assistance when in need, grant you 1 Test Die on your Status Tests for House Fortunes (for each banner house) and can even receive House Fortune results if desired (see facing page). However, they are not blindly obedient, and though they are sworn to you, their interests usually come first. Furthermore, if you want to keep the loyalty of a banner house, you must also support them and their conflicts, even if doing so would interfere with your own plans.
Your banner house (or houses) begins loyal to your family, and their dispositions start at Friendly. As with all Narrator characters, developments in the campaign, you and your family’s choices, and reputation can improve or worsen a banner house’s disposition toward you. Should a banner’s disposition ever fall to Malicious, you lose them and the points you invested into this house.
Details about Units, their recruitment, equipment, and training can be found in the Warfare section.
Wealth describes your family’s soluble resources, explaining how they generate their income. You can invest Wealth into specific holdings, which grant specific benefits, or keep it free to spend in other areas as needed. It’s often best to keep some of your Wealth free for problems that might crop up during game play.
The following holdings represent the most common types. Others might be available with your Narrator’s permission (in which case you should all work together to come up with a workable benefit and relevant requirements). Many holdings include requirements, which you must meet before investing in the holding.
You need land in order to invest in Wealth Holdings. Each Land Holding ("domain") may have up to two Wealth Holdings.
| Holding | Requirement | Investment | Build Time | Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artisan | Hall or larger Defense Holding | 10 Wealth | 2d6 Months | Choose one of the following each time you invest in an Artisan:
|
| Godswood | Realm (The North) | 5 Wealth | 24+2d6 Months | Add 2d6-6 to House Fortunes rolls. |
| Guilds | Small Town or larger Community | 15 Wealth | 2d6 Months | All members of the household get a 10% discount when purchasing goods in their own lands. |
| Maester | Influence 20+ | 10 Wealth | 1d6 Months | Gain +3 on House Fortunes rolls. In addition, your family acquires the services of a Maester. |
| Marketplace | Small Town or larger Community | 10 Wealth | 1d6 Months | Each month, if your House Fortune would increase your Wealth, increase it by a further +1. |
| Mine | Mountains or Hills | 10 Wealth | 24+2d6 Months | Gain +5 on House Fortunes rolls. |
| Port | Coast | 10 Wealth | 3d6 Months | Gain +5 on House Fortunes rolls. In addition, if you also have a Marketplace, if your House Fortune would increase your Wealth, increase it by +1d6 rather than just +1. |
| Sept | Hall or larger Defense Holding, or Small Town or larger Community | 15 Wealth | 12+2d6 Months | Gain +3 on House Fortunes rolls. In addition, your family acquires the services of a Septon or Septa. |
Below find some additional Wealth Holdings not included in the original rulebook.
| Holding | Requirement | Investment | Build Time | Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bazaar | Large Town or larger Community, Marketplace | 15 Wealth | 3d6 Months | Traders from exotic lands may occasionally visit, and offer rare goods or cheap wares. |
| Granary | Small Town or larger Community | 10 Wealth | 2d6 Months | Each month, if your House Fortune would decrease your Population, decrease it by 1 less. |
| Sharecropper Farms | Plains, Population 20+ | 5 Wealth, 2 Influence | 2d6 Months | Whenever you roll for a House Fortune, roll 1d6 and resolve the below:
|
| Tournament Field | Large Town or larger Community | 20 Wealth | 12+2d6 Months | You may have one additional event at a Tournament for free. When you hold a Tournament, gain +1 Influence in addition to the normal amount for the size. |
House Fortunes affect your lands, either improving or diminishing one or more Resources. A House must roll for a House Fortune at least one month in every three, but no more than once per month.
If you do not roll for a House Fortune in a given month, instead increase a single resource by +1.
If a House Fortune occurs in a month, The House's Steward (or acting Steward) makes a Status (Stewardship) test, applies any modifiers from Holdings, and consults the table below. The Narrator determines the specifics of the House Fortune.
| Roll | Fortune | Roll | Fortune | Roll | Fortune |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 or Less | Disaster | 13 | Decline | 26-27 | Blessing |
| 3 | Curse | 14 | Blessing | 28 | Boon |
| 4 | Decline | 15 | Growth | 29 | Curse |
| 5 | Disaster | 16 | Curse | 30 | Blessing |
| 6 | Growth | 17 | Decline | 31-34 | Growth |
| 7 | Decline | 18 | Blessing | 35 | Blessing |
| 8 | Growth | 19 | Curse | 36 | Boon |
| 9 | Curse | 20 | Blessing | 37-38 | Growth |
| 10 | Decline | 21-22 | Growth | 39-40 | Growth |
| 11 | Growth | 23 | Curse | 41 | Growth |
| 12 | Boon | 24-25 | Growth | 42 or More | Boon |
In addition to the opportunity to make a House Fortunes roll, a House may also make one Action per month.
If your House would like to make an action that does not fall into the categories below, work with the Narrator.
Among the easiest and most common actions a lord can take, managing Resources allows you to convert one Resource to another. Not all Resources may be exchanged, so consult the table below.
As with other Actions, you may only convert resources once per month, though you can do so in any amount. Generally, you may only convert one Resource at a time.
You may Rush the conversion to convert two Resources. This carries the penalty of a worse exchange rate, however.
| Convert ... | Into ... | Standard Rate | Rushed Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | - | - | - |
| Influence | Law | 1:1 | 2:1 |
| Lands | Defense | 1:1 | 2:1 |
| Law | - | - | - |
| Population | Power | 1:1 | 2:1 |
| Power | Influence, Law, Population | 1:1 | 2:1 |
| Wealth | Any | 2:1 | 3:1 |
House Creation is described extensively on pp. 96-121.