I just started playing with a few friends of my relative and I was just wondering the following question due to me trying to build a new deck.

Is there a gold penalty for cards that have no House's banner at the top right corner of the card? I know of there being a gold penalty for out of House cards in a deck, but I was wondering if those count as out of House cards or not. I also know of the "House X only" texts too, but the ones I wish to play do not have that text. Just the no designated House banner at the top right.

Those are called neutral cards, and there is no gold penalty for playing them out of any house.

Great! Thank you very much.

And just to clarify, because you mentioned it in your inital post. The "House X only" is a deck building restriction. You can only include a card with a such a restriction if you play the corresponding house. Thus, an out-of-House penalty will never be applied to such a card, as they cannot be played outside their house.

Yep, I knew. I was just adding it in that I knew of that restriction in case the one answering my initial question would bring it up.

But now I've come across one more question.

I'm looking to add one of my Night's Watch characters. However they have no Intrigue, Power or Military Icons. Does this mean they cannot attack or defend against any of those Challenges unless otherwise given one of/two of/all of the icons from another card(s)?

Rogue Cypher said:

that is correct. Your Night's Watch characters can be provided those icons by 3 agendas from the Defenders of the North cycle: The Builders (A Sword in the Dark) gives Power, The Rangers (Wolves of the North) gives Military, The Stewards (A King in the North) gives Intrigue.