The Let's Play Archive

The King's Dilemma

by That Italian Guy

Part 162: House Sheets

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The vote is now open to name these 5 Houses!
We have used the name of the Duchy or Mark the nobles of these Houses are ruling over so far, but each House has family name or a nom de guerre that is commonly used to refer to them (IE: House Windsor, Dukes of the York, or House Lannister, Marquises of Casterly Rock).

Members of each House can now provide a name for theirs, so that all the Kingdom will know their grandeur. Please remember to bold your choice and to start your message with your House Allegiance.
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In the meantime, let's have a peak at what an House sheet looks like:

Each House's sheet has unique story beats, Achievements and "Alignment" agenda bonuses. Once the initial sign up is completed and players have been sorted into one of 5 Houses, I'll send everyone a link to a Google Sheet that contains, among other things, a copy of their House's game sheet.

Victory Points section (left side)

The top part of this section lists the amount of Prestige and Crave Points the House currently has. Both are “endgame points” that will help you shape the ultimate fate of Ankist, and determine the overall winner of our Campaign. At the end of the reign of each King, after the Agenda Points for each House have been tallied, your House will receive a variable amount of Prestige and/or Crave depending on your score and on the outcome of the Kingdom (King died, King was forced to abdicate by powerful allies, King was forced to abdicate by popular uprising).
Prestige represents the things you did to increase the prestige and wellbeing of the kingdom, and the glory your House obtained as a consequence. Crave , on the other hand, represents the “crave for power” of your House. It is tied to selfish acts you performed in the name of your House, and to your desire for revenge after you proved to be less influential than the other Houses in your decades-long power struggle. The sum of the two kinds of points represents the power of your House and you will need both to win, but depending on your choices during the game, at the very end of the campaign they will have different values. If the kingdom prospers through progress and cooperation between different people, a higher Prestige for your House will grant you a higher bonus. Should the history of the kingdom lean towards social inequality, hatred and chaos, the bonus you will receive will depend on the Crave of your House instead.

At the bottom of this section is the House Number that represents the initial "Nobility level" of your House - the Higher the Number, the more ancient and noble the House is as the start of the game. This score is used to break ties in the first game and in a few other cases (being replaced by current Prestige for the most part after the first game).

House details sections (center)

Below the House name and title, you can find a more in depth history of your noble house, followed by the House motto. At the bottom of this section, there is a list of the "Alignment" bonuses your House has with the 6 Hidden Agendas; each time your House selects one of the Agendas, you'll mark one of the white squares next to it with a tick. Once all 4 boxes for an Agenda have been filled, the House will receive the Prestige/Crave bonus tied to that Agenda. Each House has Hidden Agendas it natually gravitates to - these will pay out a large bonus compared to the other. Hidden Agendas are drafter at the start of a King's reign (more on this in the first update), so that you won't always be able to pick the one you prefer! They represent the character of the current generation of your House.

House Achievements section (right side)

This column contains a series of long term Achievements your House is trying to accomplish; they are in line with the story and goals of your House and each grants an immediate (downward arrow), permanent (exclamation mark) or "at the start of each reign" (star) bonus to your House. The first one is a Narrative Achievement and it's kinda vague - it's unlocked if certain specific story events happen during the game. Some of these story events are mutually exclusive: if another player unlocks theirs, it may mean you’ll never be able to unlock yours! The condition indicated on your screen gives you a clue: whenever you see the events of the game going in a direction you think goes against your narrative achievements, try to turn them to your favor instead!
The other 3 Achievements are tied to mechanical events instead and have to be completed multiple times (each time marking one of the white boxes next to them) to unlock the reward. For example, if House Tork manages to have Influence (tower) be the highest resource on the Tracker at the end of king's reign for three times, it'll receive a bonus (in this case, +2 Power every time they are part of the winning side of a vote while not being the Leader, IE: the House that has place most Power on the winning vote). We'll talk more about Open Agendas once during the first game.