The Game of Houses

The default assumption with an adventuring party is that they have no family, in this regard they are considered to be blank slates with no origin close enough to themselves to warrant any mention. Perhaps they are orphaned farmers sons who have headed off to learn the ways of the world and become embroiled in a desperate mission. Rarely do we even give it this much thought.

However surely we’re missing a trick here. A character with family is a character that has dramatic tension; there are questions to be asked. Do they like their family? Are there old grudges held? Are there obligations passed down from father to son?

Even better is a character that comes from a noble house who might be embroiled in some kind of clandestine power struggle for the throne/princesses hand in marriage/spice. Consider Paul Atredies in Dune who by the very fact of his birth has been involved in not one but several power struggles and must constantly calibrate his position as the sharks circle around him.

As you might guess it is nobles I want to talk about today.

Playing a member of a noble house does have several potent hooks for a character, both in terms of their family and their own personal agenda. If we consider the aristocracy of Europe throughout the ages we see a variety of different agendas and personalities; from the hedonist who thinks only of their own pleasure, to the moralist who seeks to improve himself and those around him.

Any campaign in which the PCs were nobles would have to run heavily upon a conflict between the private, the personal agenda, and the public, loyalty to their house and ruler. To run it in an interesting manner the GM would allow the players to pick their house and perhaps their agenda, but then would have to impress upon them the rules of the court, whereby they would have to show deference to those around them, even those whom they might seek to usurp.

I imagine this would end up being a clandestine game where the PCs would be innately paranoid of capture, especially if the consequences were dire, and would allow players to come at their problems from different angles. Even better would be to run it in something like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay where not only would they have to avoid exposing their agenda but be wary of witch hunters and the like who believe there is the taint of chaos in the court!

Here’s how I would do this: Allow the character to come up with their ambitions in secret, they must write it down but need not show the other players. Next come up with some ideas of how their houses would like them to act, such as upholding the honour of their house, negotiating for a trade route or the like. Finally give them some kind of directive from their ruler, who has a task for them or considers them a favourite, perhaps they are to perform some task on their behalf. Let the players draw their house and liege directives in secret but make a note of them. Finally chuck them into a feast with a few NPCs and allow the whole thing to come to the boil.

I would be wary of the competitive nature of such a game, players competing for the same outcome might be tempted to ‘dispose’ of their rivals and this can lead to ill will in the group, which is undesirable. You could try and reinforce the idea of using more subtle, Machiavellian ways of disposing of them (dishonour, getting them assigned to a far off war etc) or allow the murdered player to come back as some kind of court investigator with a directive from the ruler to discover the culprit of this heinous crime.