jackelgull
An aberration of nature
CYOA: A King in Astorias
Stat points available for character: 10
Stats:
Diplomacy:
Intrigue:
Martial:
Stewardship:
Spirituality:
Knowledge:
Arcane:
The rules are simple. You choose an option and I make rolls to see how you do with that option. The points you put in each stat get added to a roll to check for that stat, so the more points you out in a stat, the better chance you have in a roll with that stat.
Diplomacy means you have a better chance of swaying people to your cause
Intrigue means better plotting ability, ie your plans are less likely to be found out, and you can anticipate other's plans
Martial is your combat ability. This will be useful in cases like an ambush by bandits or a civil war. It is a crude representation of both personal combat ability and ability as a strategist.
Stewardship means more money from your land
Spirituality means better results from supernatural occurrences, and a greater propensity for them to occur
Knowledge means that your more likely to know what the hell is going on
Arcane: Magic is pretty much illegal, but who will know if you don't tell them? Higher arcane means more potent ability and greater chances to run into magic users who can teach you things. Be warned, draw too much attention to yourself through magic, and you might end up dead. And to move beyond illusion spells, and noise dampeners requires alot of point investment.
Your name is Count (Insert player chosen name here). Your peasants might refer to you as another petty warlord in a world run by petty warlords, but you prefer to believe the tales your sycophants weave about you - a dashing hero descended from a bloodline of legendary heroes one day prophesied to have a scion that shall rule the world. You are fair, just, wise, though even you are not delusional enough to claim to be chaste.
Today, you are unhappy. You are truly, terribly unhappy. You have recently received a summons to the royal court - the king has died, and his daughter is being sworn in as the future queen, while her father’s general is being sworn in as the new regent. This was perhaps the most insulting combination to you. Not only was your future ruler a woman, a general, and not just any general, but one without any noble blood, one that came from a foreign country , was who you would answer to in the meantime. Who had allowed this to go through? What kind of bedevilment had infected the nobility that no one at the scene had protested this?
It is as these thoughts swirl around your head that your friend Alex drops by for a visit. He is a well enough chap despite being a frontier lord, although you wonder if you should not suspect him for Imperial loyalties. His people are a mongrel mix of Imperial and native, and who knows whether their native blood is stronger than their imperial blood.
You begin by catching up with him. He asks you about the gold mines that sit on your land giving you importance above what a count of your military and economic strength might command, and you ask him about the grain that his lands produce. As you two speak, you notice Alex is getting more and more nervous, his hands gripping the fabric of his pants tightly, sweat pouring down his brow, his lips are compressing further and further.
“Alex, what’s wrong?” I ask finally addressing the elephant in the room.
Alex takes a breath before saying, “I was debating whether to tell you this but - well it’s a long story, so let me start from the beginning.
You know how I’m a frontier lord? Well, I was coming to the palace personally to reaffirm the vows the frontier lords and the King make to each other. I arrived several weeks ago, in time for the Beltane feast. I was there to see the king murdered. However, before he died, I had a private audience with him. He reaffirmed my vows before telling me that there was no one in his palace he could trust, not even his own daughter. It seems he had uncovered a plot on his life backed by many whom he trusted. They were planning to kill him and take control of his kingdom by turning his daughter into a figurehead for the regent. Before he died, he wanted to thwart these schemes, and so handed me a letter with his will in it. He declared that there was another legitimate claim to the throne and the King’s ancestral lands - you (Insert name).”
“What? How? When?”
Alex replies amused, “Heirs are made the same way as babies are - when a man and a woman are in lust…”
“I know how babies are made. What I was wondering is how I am the king’s heir. I am not related to him by blood.”
“There is such a thing known as infidelity. The king and your father are not so different in looks that a child of the king could not pass as the child of your father, and your age does coincide with a time when the king visit visited this manor.”
“Please, I beg you, speak no more about the possibility of my mother procreating with the king. Just - just give me the letter.”
He handed me the letter, and with shaking hands I grasped it, and read the words, declaring me the new, legal king of Astoria.
Decisions
What is the name of the count?
How to distribute the 10 stat points?
Stat points available for character: 10
Stats:
Diplomacy:
Intrigue:
Martial:
Stewardship:
Spirituality:
Knowledge:
Arcane:
The rules are simple. You choose an option and I make rolls to see how you do with that option. The points you put in each stat get added to a roll to check for that stat, so the more points you out in a stat, the better chance you have in a roll with that stat.
Diplomacy means you have a better chance of swaying people to your cause
Intrigue means better plotting ability, ie your plans are less likely to be found out, and you can anticipate other's plans
Martial is your combat ability. This will be useful in cases like an ambush by bandits or a civil war. It is a crude representation of both personal combat ability and ability as a strategist.
Stewardship means more money from your land
Spirituality means better results from supernatural occurrences, and a greater propensity for them to occur
Knowledge means that your more likely to know what the hell is going on
Arcane: Magic is pretty much illegal, but who will know if you don't tell them? Higher arcane means more potent ability and greater chances to run into magic users who can teach you things. Be warned, draw too much attention to yourself through magic, and you might end up dead. And to move beyond illusion spells, and noise dampeners requires alot of point investment.
Your name is Count (Insert player chosen name here). Your peasants might refer to you as another petty warlord in a world run by petty warlords, but you prefer to believe the tales your sycophants weave about you - a dashing hero descended from a bloodline of legendary heroes one day prophesied to have a scion that shall rule the world. You are fair, just, wise, though even you are not delusional enough to claim to be chaste.
Today, you are unhappy. You are truly, terribly unhappy. You have recently received a summons to the royal court - the king has died, and his daughter is being sworn in as the future queen, while her father’s general is being sworn in as the new regent. This was perhaps the most insulting combination to you. Not only was your future ruler a woman, a general, and not just any general, but one without any noble blood, one that came from a foreign country , was who you would answer to in the meantime. Who had allowed this to go through? What kind of bedevilment had infected the nobility that no one at the scene had protested this?
It is as these thoughts swirl around your head that your friend Alex drops by for a visit. He is a well enough chap despite being a frontier lord, although you wonder if you should not suspect him for Imperial loyalties. His people are a mongrel mix of Imperial and native, and who knows whether their native blood is stronger than their imperial blood.
You begin by catching up with him. He asks you about the gold mines that sit on your land giving you importance above what a count of your military and economic strength might command, and you ask him about the grain that his lands produce. As you two speak, you notice Alex is getting more and more nervous, his hands gripping the fabric of his pants tightly, sweat pouring down his brow, his lips are compressing further and further.
“Alex, what’s wrong?” I ask finally addressing the elephant in the room.
Alex takes a breath before saying, “I was debating whether to tell you this but - well it’s a long story, so let me start from the beginning.
You know how I’m a frontier lord? Well, I was coming to the palace personally to reaffirm the vows the frontier lords and the King make to each other. I arrived several weeks ago, in time for the Beltane feast. I was there to see the king murdered. However, before he died, I had a private audience with him. He reaffirmed my vows before telling me that there was no one in his palace he could trust, not even his own daughter. It seems he had uncovered a plot on his life backed by many whom he trusted. They were planning to kill him and take control of his kingdom by turning his daughter into a figurehead for the regent. Before he died, he wanted to thwart these schemes, and so handed me a letter with his will in it. He declared that there was another legitimate claim to the throne and the King’s ancestral lands - you (Insert name).”
“What? How? When?”
Alex replies amused, “Heirs are made the same way as babies are - when a man and a woman are in lust…”
“I know how babies are made. What I was wondering is how I am the king’s heir. I am not related to him by blood.”
“There is such a thing known as infidelity. The king and your father are not so different in looks that a child of the king could not pass as the child of your father, and your age does coincide with a time when the king visit visited this manor.”
“Please, I beg you, speak no more about the possibility of my mother procreating with the king. Just - just give me the letter.”
He handed me the letter, and with shaking hands I grasped it, and read the words, declaring me the new, legal king of Astoria.
Decisions
- Stop the coronation! Press your claim to kingship publically. With the king’s seal on the letter, and your friend Alex’s word as witness, all will accept your claim.
- Hire assassins to kill the princess and then claim kingship as the only blood descendant of the previous king. While the late king’s brothers might resist, even a legitimized bastard son wins priority over brothers in succession laws.
- Conspire with other unhappy nobles and plot a coup to take the throne.
- Swear fealty to the princess and give her the letter as proof that elements in the kingdom are working against her. Alex is a frontier count, he has trade ties to the imperials, and his people are mongrel they cannot be trusted.
- Create your own option.
What is the name of the count?
How to distribute the 10 stat points?
