That Time of the Year

Starting right before Christmas does seem like a horrendous idea.

No, I can't. Not on a time limit with a word count goal.

Horas and I were talking about that and we think we should get the new site made and then the info can go straight onto there.

We might have to modify the Language skill a bit. I assume our lingua franca will be Valyrian? It's a little unclear to me whether all the Free Cities spoke Valyrian too at this time, or if their own languages had already diverged from it.

I vote we take out language as a skill altogether and just assume everyone can speak Valyrian and the language of their native land if it's not a Valyrian settlement. It's a point sink otherwise.

Looking at the rules for Bloodfeud, looks like they did in fact combine the language and knowledge skills, and needed 3 or higher to be literate. I like that change. But I don't like the other Bloodfeud change where Fighting and Marksmanship were combined.

We'll also have to look at Status. When we talked about it everyone seemed in agreement that it should reflect rank in the mercenary company, but we should hammer down exactly what the ranks mean.

I propose:

Status 1 would be someone who is not a member of the company at all, like a slave who carries the baggage.
Status 2 is an ordinary member of the company, entitled to his cut of the pay and a vote for the Captain, but with no power to command.
Status 3 is a minor officer or respected person, who might for instance have his own squad or provide a special service to the company. They get a larger share of the profits than the rank and file.
Status 4 is a major officer, below only the Captain in the company's hierarchy. They might command a wing of the company in battle or be empowered to negotiate and accept contracts on the company's behalf.
Status 5 is the Captain. The Captain is elected by his fellows, usually but not always from the officers. Once elected he serves for life and has the power to appoint all officers below him.

You have to pay for your Status at the start, but if you get promoted to a higher rank through RP (or are elected Captain) you get the corresponding increase in Status for free.  Starting characters would have to be Status 2, 3, or 4.

Since VS weapons are super common during this period in Essos we should also probably allow heirloom to be taken as a benefit for once. That way anyone that wants to can invent their own VS weapon.

The statuses all look good Horas, though what about those that want to play as camp followers? I agree fighting and marksmanship should be split up again, though I did like that we combined stealth and thievery. Requiring a knowledge of 3 to be literate works, but I think knowing how to speak your native language and Valyrian should be a given. Anything additional can be bought with a specialty point.

I like the Thievery/Stealth merger as well. And I agree on allowing Heirloom -- VS is good under these rules but not overpowered, and there'd be a lot more of them around. I had not considered the camp follower aspect, maybe that could be a custom flaw, like replacing the Bastard one. Or else we just treat them as Status 2 as well.

Is the skill for commanding them in battle or for firing them accurately?

Fair enough.  I have no problems rolling it into warfare.

In other news, I was in a procrastinating mood (so much for 10k before midnight haha) and managed to set up the following:

sellswordsofessos.freeforums.net/

Sorry it's freeforums rather than proboards, I messed up my 1st attempt by forgetting that it would link to my personal account, so I had to scrap the first one and set up a new email account to make it a truly neutral account for the rotating admin system and then it wouldn't let me use the proboards address! I'll release the details to anyone who wants to get involved in setting the board up.

Just got the book. Wow! Magnificent!