Post by Father on Jan 18, 2017 21:33:01 GMT 1
What is Chivalry and Virtue?
Chivalry and Virtue are two mechanics added to this game in order to help set the tone, where chivalry is designed to reinforce the Andal warrior culture and provide bonuses to those who adhere to it's ideals (or appear to do so), virtue however, grants very few bonuses, it merely imposes hefty penalties upon those ladies who do not know their proper place. Note that several events will reward high levels of chivalry or virtue because Westeros discriminates against those who does not keep to such standards. That being said, lack of chivalry will rarely exclude you, though some tournament competitions will be closed to non-knights, and part of the chivalry mechanic is to be recognized as a peer among other knights, similar to how Dunk had problems convincing the tourney master at Ashford to allow him entrance. In certain parts of the campaign, some tests used to determine who gains awards, honors and recognition will allow chivalry/virtue scores to be added, and typically have their difficulties increase (+3 TN is standard), sometimes these tests are simply pass/fail, other times DoS and/or total test result is a factor as well. Chivalry/Virtue score is also a factor in the rumor system, the higher your score, the harder it will be to drag your reputation through the mud.
From a metagame perspective, chivalry is partially intended to allow a knight, needing to invest XP in order to be able to actually do his job (fighting for his lord), to close some of the gap between him and a dedicated schemer in terms of intrigue ability. A character taking the bare minimum requirements for chivalry and otherwise invests into social ability will be relatively close behind a character purely investing into intrigue capacity, though the pure schemer will be much more versatile and should overall be the better of the two if one purely restrict oneself to politics, under certain circumstances, the bare minimum chivalric schemer may actually prove more effective than the dedicated politician. It also allows a knight that has invested heavily in combat ability to be reasonably capable when dealing with most NPC's on the social arena, including many lords and ladies. However, most lords and knights also have the same bonuses.
In conclusion, this mechanic rewards characters that are among the nobility and adheres to norms of the class, while the narrator is going to strive his best to be equally accommodating to any sort of player character, he will not make the setting any more accommodating to a particular sort of character, and the setting tends to idolize chivalrous knights and virtuous ladies while looking down it's nose on others.
The Basics
Maesters, Septons and Septa's do not have Chivalry and Virtue scores, neither do squires at age of 18 or lower, any character under the age of 12, or any character with a maximum status rank of 2 or less. Such characters may still accumulate points to be added to their score (or subtracted) should circumstances change.
A character that does not qualify for chivalry/virtue will have a maximum effective score of 0 when determining the effects.
There are two types of chivalry, knightly and lordly, the requirements for the latter is more extensive, but grant stronger benefits.
In order to qualify for knightly chivalry, one must fulfill the following requirements:
Knighted Male.
Agility 3
Animal Handling 3, Ride 1.
Athletics 3
Endurance 3
Fighting 4, Long Blades 1, Lance 1
Persuasion 3
Status 3 Breeding 1
Warfare 3
Will 3
In order to qualify for lordly chivalry, there are additional requirements:
Cunning 3
Knowledge 3
Language 3
Status 5*
Survival 3 Hunt 1
*Characters having the Head of House, Regent, Landed or Heir benefit qualifies with status 4.
Virtue has no such distinction, in order to qualify one must fulfill the following requirements:
Female
Knowledge 3 Education 1
Language 3
Persuasion 4 Charm 1
Status 3 Breeding 1
Factors influencing the score
The default score for a character qualifying for chivalry/virtue is 2, otherwise it is 0. Any qualities modifying the score adds to the default. The default is also the starting score.
Chivalry and Virtue may be gained and lost through events and specific actions. Minor acts of gallantry might give a point of chivalry for example, while infidelity could easily result in -3 virtue. Gains and losses are tracked separately, and only the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 10th and so on are counted when determining the effective score*. At the beginning of each new chronicle, the cumulative gains are halved, while 25% of losses are removed (round remaining gains/losses down, note that you still only count the 1st, 3rd etc for your effective score). Note that the misdemeanors of other characters such as a squire, lady in waiting, child or spouse may also reflect badly on you. For a lord, practically any member in his family, retinue and household may dishonor him by their actions.
*Basically, to go from a bonus of (n-1) to n, you need n additionally temporary points, so if you have +2 score for having gained +3 chivalry from acts of gallantry, you need another +3 chivalry from acts of gallantry to get +3 score, so 6 in total.
Mechanical effects:
The default dispositions towards characters with a negative score is reduced by one step for each negative point, although some characters may not care. This comes in addition to whatever reactions may arise from such acts as would lower it.
A character's score is added to all status(reputation) tests to seek an audience with NPC's, it is also added as a modifier to many event specific tests. This becomes a penalty if negative.
A character qualifying for knightly chivalry and having a positive score receives +2 to intrigue defense, influence tests and composure. For a character with lordly chivalry, these bonuses are +3.
If a roll is designated as simple intrigue (technique)+chivalry/virtue, the modifiers from chivalry score and knightly/lordly chivalry bonus to intrigue does not stack. The highest applies. If chivalry score is negative, it applies as the modifier because one then does not receive any bonus.
Chivalry and Virtue are two mechanics added to this game in order to help set the tone, where chivalry is designed to reinforce the Andal warrior culture and provide bonuses to those who adhere to it's ideals (or appear to do so), virtue however, grants very few bonuses, it merely imposes hefty penalties upon those ladies who do not know their proper place. Note that several events will reward high levels of chivalry or virtue because Westeros discriminates against those who does not keep to such standards. That being said, lack of chivalry will rarely exclude you, though some tournament competitions will be closed to non-knights, and part of the chivalry mechanic is to be recognized as a peer among other knights, similar to how Dunk had problems convincing the tourney master at Ashford to allow him entrance. In certain parts of the campaign, some tests used to determine who gains awards, honors and recognition will allow chivalry/virtue scores to be added, and typically have their difficulties increase (+3 TN is standard), sometimes these tests are simply pass/fail, other times DoS and/or total test result is a factor as well. Chivalry/Virtue score is also a factor in the rumor system, the higher your score, the harder it will be to drag your reputation through the mud.
From a metagame perspective, chivalry is partially intended to allow a knight, needing to invest XP in order to be able to actually do his job (fighting for his lord), to close some of the gap between him and a dedicated schemer in terms of intrigue ability. A character taking the bare minimum requirements for chivalry and otherwise invests into social ability will be relatively close behind a character purely investing into intrigue capacity, though the pure schemer will be much more versatile and should overall be the better of the two if one purely restrict oneself to politics, under certain circumstances, the bare minimum chivalric schemer may actually prove more effective than the dedicated politician. It also allows a knight that has invested heavily in combat ability to be reasonably capable when dealing with most NPC's on the social arena, including many lords and ladies. However, most lords and knights also have the same bonuses.
In conclusion, this mechanic rewards characters that are among the nobility and adheres to norms of the class, while the narrator is going to strive his best to be equally accommodating to any sort of player character, he will not make the setting any more accommodating to a particular sort of character, and the setting tends to idolize chivalrous knights and virtuous ladies while looking down it's nose on others.
The Basics
Maesters, Septons and Septa's do not have Chivalry and Virtue scores, neither do squires at age of 18 or lower, any character under the age of 12, or any character with a maximum status rank of 2 or less. Such characters may still accumulate points to be added to their score (or subtracted) should circumstances change.
A character that does not qualify for chivalry/virtue will have a maximum effective score of 0 when determining the effects.
There are two types of chivalry, knightly and lordly, the requirements for the latter is more extensive, but grant stronger benefits.
In order to qualify for knightly chivalry, one must fulfill the following requirements:
Knighted Male.
Agility 3
Animal Handling 3, Ride 1.
Athletics 3
Endurance 3
Fighting 4, Long Blades 1, Lance 1
Persuasion 3
Status 3 Breeding 1
Warfare 3
Will 3
In order to qualify for lordly chivalry, there are additional requirements:
Cunning 3
Knowledge 3
Language 3
Status 5*
Survival 3 Hunt 1
*Characters having the Head of House, Regent, Landed or Heir benefit qualifies with status 4.
Virtue has no such distinction, in order to qualify one must fulfill the following requirements:
Female
Knowledge 3 Education 1
Language 3
Persuasion 4 Charm 1
Status 3 Breeding 1
Factors influencing the score
The default score for a character qualifying for chivalry/virtue is 2, otherwise it is 0. Any qualities modifying the score adds to the default. The default is also the starting score.
Chivalry and Virtue may be gained and lost through events and specific actions. Minor acts of gallantry might give a point of chivalry for example, while infidelity could easily result in -3 virtue. Gains and losses are tracked separately, and only the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 10th and so on are counted when determining the effective score*. At the beginning of each new chronicle, the cumulative gains are halved, while 25% of losses are removed (round remaining gains/losses down, note that you still only count the 1st, 3rd etc for your effective score). Note that the misdemeanors of other characters such as a squire, lady in waiting, child or spouse may also reflect badly on you. For a lord, practically any member in his family, retinue and household may dishonor him by their actions.
*Basically, to go from a bonus of (n-1) to n, you need n additionally temporary points, so if you have +2 score for having gained +3 chivalry from acts of gallantry, you need another +3 chivalry from acts of gallantry to get +3 score, so 6 in total.
Mechanical effects:
The default dispositions towards characters with a negative score is reduced by one step for each negative point, although some characters may not care. This comes in addition to whatever reactions may arise from such acts as would lower it.
A character's score is added to all status(reputation) tests to seek an audience with NPC's, it is also added as a modifier to many event specific tests. This becomes a penalty if negative.
A character qualifying for knightly chivalry and having a positive score receives +2 to intrigue defense, influence tests and composure. For a character with lordly chivalry, these bonuses are +3.
If a roll is designated as simple intrigue (technique)+chivalry/virtue, the modifiers from chivalry score and knightly/lordly chivalry bonus to intrigue does not stack. The highest applies. If chivalry score is negative, it applies as the modifier because one then does not receive any bonus.