So I'm still working on adapting a Genesys Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire) game. One of the ideas I had recently was house creation. If you've ever played the Green Ronin RPG based on Martin's work, you'll know even before you make characters you have to make a minor house to exist in Westeros. Taking that idea and developing it with the NDS and borrowing from Star Wars modding mechanics, here is what I've come up with.
Keynotes, the Player's house will always start as a minor house, and these rules are written with that in mind. If the GM is allowing for a major house/ principle banner house or greater, the GM will need to adjust the rules, and player options.
1. Players must choose or randomly roll for a location of their House. The location will have bonuses and penalties to House Creation, by adding boost dice to key rolls and setback dice to others.
Example: The players decide they want their House to be in the North, this will give them 2 boost dice when they roll for the "Land" portion of House Creation, but will give them 2 setback dice when they roll for their "Holdings."
2. Players must choose which part of the House Creation they wish to roll for first. There are three rolls that are made in House Creation - Land, Holdings, Armies. The success or failure of these three rolls will define the strengths and weaknesses of the players' House. While the choice is up to the players, which roll they go for first does matter, each part of the House Creation process increases in difficulty as they attempt them, and failure upgrades the next check. The player dice pool is set by the number of players plus one upgraded to a proficiency dice. Difficulty starts at hard and increases per check.
Example: The players have chosen a Northern house and have decided to do their penalty check first while the difficulty is only hard. There are four players, so they grab 4 dice one of which is upgraded to a proficiency dice, giving them 3G, 1Y, they will roll against a hard difficulty of 3P, plus their "Holding" penatily of 2B. They have a terrible roll, and end up with 1 failure, and 2 Threat! Because the check was a failure the next check which will be a daunting check will now also have one of the dice upgraded to a challenge dice.
3. The Players must choose the options they have earned based on the dice rolls. Success will earn the players options depending on which part of House Creation they are rolling, while uncancelled advantages can be used to add additional bonuses to those choices. Failure will limit the player to the worst option, and threats and despair can be used by the GM to add mild or server penalties to the player's House. Success with a Triumph will always grant the players the best option of whichever part of House Creation they are rolling.
Example: Continuing with the example above, they rolled 1 failure, 2 threat, there only options for their "Holding" is to chose a Tower, and with the 2 threat, the GM decides that the Tower is in need of repair and will get penalties to withstand an assault until it is fixed in game. Alternately, let's say the players succeed with 2 threat, they could have chosen to have a Keep or a Fort but the GM could have still used the threat to add the needed repairs. If the players had rolled 1 success with 2 advantage they could have chosen a Keep or Fort and added additional features to their "Holding" like a Weirwood tree since they are in the North or a blacksmith's forge. If they succeed with a triumph they could have gotten the best option, and chosen a small castle as their "Holding."
Obviously, since the players dice pole is decided by the number of players, the GM will want to scale down the difficultly of the checks, especially if there are less than 3 players. Anywho, what do you guys think? Is it too clunky? Are their better options? I know there is a homestead building rules in one of the Star Wars source books but I've never read that one, should I take a look at that and revisit this? Let me know what you guys thinks.