Q: An Elector Count has numerous advisors surrounding him: how many bonus fortune dice can he get from assist to resist players charms?

Doing the Math:

5 white fortune dice maneuver assists from advisors

Advisor 1: his wise man = sage advice (bonus white)

Advisor 2: his wife = twisting words (bonus white or penalty black)

Advisor 3: his best buddy, general = Bolster (bonus white(s)

Advisor 4: the fool ridiculing the PC= Twist the Knife (PCs shame turns to insanity)

Advisor 5: religious advisor of Sigmar: intuit intention (black)

Resist the Lure social defense card (Lure of Power): 2 black dice to PC

Elector count: How dare you talk to me like that: bonus black

So, the way I see it, unless a PC can get an elector count, town mayor, or official isolated, their chances are probably not good eh?

jh

Unless you modifiy the rules of the game, an assist manoeuvre does not help resisting the actions that an active participant try to perform on the pasive participant.

True that, so only the other NPC's actions and ACE dice would be able to influence this then right?

jh

Your assumptions sounds reasonable to me. And let's don't forget that an elector count probably have high characteristics and at least a few relevant skill trainings which means that the players will have a number of challenge dice and probably some misfortune dice on their rolls and the elector count would have a high number of positive dice (+ bonuses from advisors). An elector count would also have a quite high shame threshold, I'd give them at least a bonus of 4-5 in their threshold due to them beeing nobles (if I recall correctly you get +1 shame threshold per noble career right?). Using the shame rules the advisors would aid the elector counts roll, while not affecting the players, and I feel that the shame rules should always be used when dealing with high nobles.

It would indeed be very hard for the players to influence an elector count.

A last note: charming an elector count might be considered as an extended action (or whatever they are called in Hero's Call) so the players might gather positive dice for the roll over the course of gaming sessions. This could be used instead of or in combination with the shame rules.

k7e9 said:

This is a good idea.

A further thought on the extended action-idea. The advisors are represented in the pool by negative dice (1-2 black dice mostly, but maybe even a purple) in the pool. If the adventurers sway one (or more) of the advisors to their side, they might not only get to add positive dice to the pool, but remove negative dice as well. That might lead to many mini-adventures to aid and persuade the advisors in different ways (MINOR SPOILER: similar to the Power Behind the Throne adventure in the old Enemy Within campaign).