Votes for this Turn:A1 - Jon - 3A2 - Rob - 15A3 - Ned - 1A4 - Sansa - 8
S1 - Wikipedia - 0S2 - Steam - 0S3 - Paradox - 16S4 - World - 11
Pub Names:Ale Be Back - 8Drunken Wolf’s Den - 6The Dirty Habit - 4Sir Arn's Revelry - 4Copperhead - 4The Cold Corner - 1
---
Rolls for this Turn:Personal: Werewolf the Apocalypse WikiThanks to the Hart Wardens, there is now an ancient order of Hart Wardens that acts as the protectors of the Godswoods in the north.
They are the Old Religion’s answer to the 7’s Faith Militant and developed after the andals started burning down wearwoods.
As a part of their agreement with the Kings of Winter, they will help fend off invasions by those who worship other gods, along with answering the call of the Knights Watch, when requested.
As a result, they will help a bit against any Ironborn incursions, but more importantly, will draw the entire north’s attention to a major wone within (1 Turn) of it starting.Much faster than such information usually gets shared with the Stark in Winterfell.
They go by the ancient and honorable name of…
World: Forgotten Realms WikiVaris and his wolf companion have just proven their skill and become the swordsword of Arianne Martell, and has further sworn to help her avenge her aunt by any means necessary.
---
Story:
It took a while of following Rob around before he stopped trying to get rid of you and became resigned to the idea of including his baby cousin in the games and such that he pys with his friends around Winterfell and the winter town.At first he had made a few halfhearted attempts to pawn you off on basically anyone else nearby, usually whichever servant girl or guard looked least busy, but after it became clear that you would simply continue following after him with all the stubborn determination that only a small child and a particurly dim hound could truly manage, he eventually gave up.Or at least stopped trying very hard.Which, for Rob, counted as surrender.
Eventually you were able to join him at his friends for their various games and mummeries.At first this mostly meant being present while the older children argued over who got to be kings and heroes and who had to be corpses, servants, or other such deeply coveted lesser roles.You were, for obvious reasons, usually assigned whatever part required the least running, the fewest lines, and ideally no one trusting you with anything breakable, sharp, or important.Still, it counted.
After quite a lot of training you are eventually able to take part in their most recent mummers farce, pying a minor role, though it was an extremely new experience for you.
It turned out that being in a py was a rather different thing from merely watching one.You had to remember when to come in, where to stand, and when it was your turn to speak, all while trying very hard not to become distracted by the fact that there were actual people watching.Worse, some of them were even taking it seriously.
Thankfully they were acting out a Northern tale, one that you were particurly well versed in, that of Bael the Bard.Though you did find it particurly funny that rather than pying out the part of the Stark in the py they had Rob pying the part of King Bael.Which, to be fair, was probably inevitable.If there was to be a handsome dramatic outw king in the story then of course Rob was going to end up with the part.Either he had been given it because it suited him, or because no one had the energy to argue him out of it.Both felt pusible.
---
The story went that there was a king Beyond the Wall who was insulted by a king in the North.Of course the story is rather ambiguous about when it happened so the King of the North is obviously just called Brandon, which could mean basically any one of your many ancestors.This, you were beginning to suspect, was a recurring issue with Stark history.There had apparently never been any shortage of Brandons, which no doubt seemed practical to someone at some point, but was considerably less helpful when attempting to keep track of who had done what in old stories.
But the tale follows that the king in the north insulted the Bard King’s courage, calling him a coward.To respond to this, he naturally, as wildlings do, snuck into Winterfell and kidnapped one of the King’s daughters.Or seduced her away, or both.The details rather depended on who was telling it and how romantic they happened to be feeling that day.
There’s some stuff about the 2 of them falling in love and so the Bard King deciding to return the King’s daughter after a year, but if you’re honest, you weren’t particurly paying attention to those parts of the mummers farce, since you didn’t have any lines there and were mostly focused on remembering when you next had to speak.
Then the story transitions to ter on, where it’s discovered that Bael Snow, by then Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, is fighting a king Beyond the Wall who turns out to be his father.Which was, admittedly, a fairly strong dramatic turn.Northern stories did love their irony, their hidden bloodlines, and their general sense that if something could be sadder with 1 more family connection revealed then by the gods it would be.
And then the mother, who is supposedly still in love with the Bard King all these years ter, kills herself when she finds out.Which also felt about right for a tale people insisted on calling romantic.
All together you’re sure it was a lot more moving for those from the winter town, or your aunt Catelyn who watched the entire thing with the patient expression of someone determined to be supportive no matter the quality of the performance, but for yourself you were mostly focused on not messing up the few lines you’d done your best to remember for your minor role as one of the Stark men.
Even so, by the time it was done, you had to admit there was something oddly satisfying about it.Not the tragic-adjacent wildling romance, obviously.More the performance itself.The part where everyone had watched, and listened, and for at least a little while cared what happened next.You could see the appeal there.Which, in hindsight, perhaps expined rather a lot about Rob.
---
While you were studying your lines, and doing your best not to worry about embarrassing yourself in front of an audience, you were also doing your best to train Jinx alongside the kennel master, who had deemed the wolf pup old enough to begin proper training.
That did not mean anything especially advanced just yet.Mostly it meant getting her used to simple commands, and more importantly, obeying them quickly enough to matter.Come, Stay, Drop it, Heel, and Bite.The usual sort of things, repeated over and over until even a half wild little beast started to understand that the sounds meant something.
At the kennel master’s direction, you spent a good deal of time reinforcing those commands whenever Jinx was willing to listen.Sometimes she was attentive and eager, head tilted, ears perked, trying to work out what you wanted from her.At other times she was more interested in pouncing on bits of straw, worrying at old scraps of cloth, or suddenly deciding that your boot had become her mortal enemy.
Even so, she was clever.Once she understood what was being asked of her, she learned quickly.Quickly enough, at least, that it became obvious she sometimes understood perfectly well and simply didn’t feel like obeying.The kennel master found this less charming than you did.
There was also a fair bit of py worked in among the lessons, partly because she was still young and partly because it was hard to teach a creature anything if it decided you were dull.So you ran with her when you could.Tugged at old rope knots with her.Threw bits of wood for her to chase, even if she hadn’t yet grasped the concept of bringing them back afterward rather than prancing off with them in triumph like some tiny grey conqueror.Now and then she’d throw herself at you with all the grace of a falling stool, and you’d have to fend her off before she bowled you over or licked your face in a manner you found deeply undignified.
It was during this training, and pying, that you made the interesting discovery that apparently whatever sort of wolves these are, they’ve got extremely strong jaws.
In particur, when you ordered Jinx to bite something, she could almost always bite cleanly through it no matter what it was.Wood didn’t st long.Leather sted slightly longer, but not enough to be reassuring.Bone, likewise, proved less of an obstacle than you might’ve expected.
The only real exception came when you managed to get some steel scrap from the smithy.Even then, while she couldn’t bite clean through it, she still left distinct marks in the metal, and her jaw seemed none the worse for the experience.Which was, if you were being honest, a rather arming thing to learn about an animal currently young enough to still occasionally trip over her own feet.
The kennel master had gone very still when he saw that.Seeing the marks for yourself was rather different from merely hearing that something had a strong bite.
You could see why the local hunters had been doing their best to avoid these new wolf packs whenever possible.A beast that could bite through wood and bone and leave marks in steel wasn’t the sort of thing any sensible man wanted to test with a spear unless he’d no other choice.
And you were just gd that, after the initial cshes when they’d taken livestock for food, the wolves had in turn begun to avoid humans as well.
---
Skills:Combat:(1) Westerosi CQC - 35/100 (+4)(1) Westerosi Swordsmanship - 27/100 (+4)(1) Northern Archery - 78/100 (+10) (Knack)(1) Northern Equestrianism - 56/100 (+3) (Knack)
Diplomacy:(1) Interpersonal Communication - 55/100 (+10)(1) Public Speaking - 22/100 (+15)
Language:(1) Common Speaking - 50/100 (+10)(1) Old Tongue Speaking - 43/100 (+3)(1) Valyrian Speaking - 13/100 (+3)(1) Common Reading - 42/100 (+10)(1) Westerosi Runes - 5/100 (+0)(1) Valyrian Reading - 29/100 (+3)
Schorly: (+1)(1) Math(s) - 22/100 (+3)(1) Accounts - 22/100 (+3)(2) Northern History - 14/100 (+10) (Knack)(1) Westerosi History - 22/100 (+3)(1) Northern Peoples - 68/100 (+10)(1) Westerosi Peoples - 22/100 (+3)
Leisure:(1) Northern Hunting - 25/100 (+0)(1) Fishing - 10/100 (+0)(1) Swimming - 25/100 (+0)(1) Sailing - 10/100 (+0)(1) Acting - 10/100 (+10)
---
Rolls for Next Turn: (Now we’re cooking!)T6 = Personal Power/SkillL4 = Just what's described
---
Voting:Main Actions: (If you don’t include an Action in your Vote, then it defaults to A1)A1 - Spend your time with your cousin Jon. (Combat Focus)
A2 - Spend your time with your cousin Rob. (Social Focus)
A3 - Spend your time following your uncle around. (Start Learning the Lordship Skills.)
A4 - Keep up your studies with your cousin, Sansa. (Knowledge Focus)
Personal Rolls Sources:S1 - Wikipedia (On Cooldown 2/2)
S2 - Steam Games
S3 - Paradox Wiki's (D30) (On Cooldown 1/1)
S4 - World Rolls List (D12)
---
Information:
1 - About Rob's characterization.
So, I recognize that this might be a fairly controversial characterization of Rob.
But just to crify, I'm not rewriting his character or repcing him with an OC.
What I'm trying to do here is slightly exaggerate one characteristic in each of the Stark kids, so they have much more distinct personalities for the sake of the quest.
If I had to put it in Hollywood high school terms, Sansa becomes a nerd, because she's described as smart and well educated, at least as far as dylike things go.
Jon becomes a jock, because he's meant to be good at things like swordsmanship, and because of all his elder siblings I think he's the one who would get trained the least in things like reading Valyrian or grand strategy.
And Rob needed something, so I decided to emphasize his being the charismatic one and made him the theater kid.
So my characterization of Rob here is basically that he's the theatrical romantic type.
Not in the sense that he's suddenly bad at everything else. He's still fairly well educated, he's just not as into studying as Sansa is, and he still trains at arms all the time, it's just that he has a lot of other things to be doing as well.
What I'm trying to lean into is that he's the Stark kid who's best at people.
Not just in the sense that he can talk to people, both in groups and individually, but more specifically in the sense that he's actually pretty good at figuring out how people are likely to react.
I also think that helps expin how Rob could inspire so many people.
Not just because he's a Stark, but because he is very explicitly the most skilled Stark when it comes to people things.
And that in turn feeds into strategy too, because if he applies whatever lessons he learns there to his instincts about how this or that commander would react, he ends up with a better than average tactical understanding.
And that's even without assuming he personally has some kind of natural knack for the subject, which I'm also assuming.
There's also a practical quest reason for this, which is that this is pretty much bar none our only real method of training up public speaking, at least for a while.
And at a certain point, having decent skill at public speaking is going to go from not mattering at all to suddenly being an absolutely vital life skill for us, and I think you'll all understand exactly when that happens.
And honestly, I don't think this characterization breaks with anything we saw him do in the show.
It definitely doesn't fit the books as neatly, but in case it wasn't obvious, I am leaning a little more heavily on the show than the books here.
In pces where the books just straight up fill in gaps the show cut out, I'll go with the books, but overall I just like the show's portrayals of the different characters more than the brief glimpses we get of people like Rob in the books.
That said, if this turns out to be extremely unpopur, I guess I'll fade out the whole pying with the local townsfolk and putting on little mummers' farce style theater performances part of Rob's personality.
But honestly, I don't think you guys are going to hate this.
2 - About the chapters per year.
So, as a response to these first chapters moving a bit slowly, I'm considering decreasing the number of chapters per year until we get to the more plot-relevant parts.
The downside of that is that I was sort of relying on having a lot of chaos built up by the time we get to the regur plot of the series.
So even just going down to something like 4 per year would mean only 2/3 as much chaos as there could otherwise be.
So I was wondering what you guys thought about this:Should we speed up fo we get to the main Plot faster?Or Should we keep with 6 per year and let the Chaos of the rolls infect the world more so the Wo5K is even crazier by the time it comes?
---
Write-In:1 - What should the Hart Warden’s order name be?(The: Greenwatch, Weirwardens, Rangeroots, White Bark Brotherhood, etc.)
2 - Chapters Per Year?Keep 6 chapters per year to make for more chaos over all.OrDecreace the chapters per year so we get to the action faster.
