Rulership
Perils to a Ruler's Communities
Net Threat, like Community Threat, by itself does nothing. However, each season, the Gamemaster may choose to spend his threat on one of the following:
The Gamemaster may choose which Attribute (Fortune, Milieu, Security, Resilience, or Virtue) a Community's Peril shows up in.
- Use Threat to purchase a Peril to the community that has gathered the threat.
- Use threat to obscure a Peril
- Save the threat for the next season, adding the value to the next season’s total
The Gamemaster may choose which Attribute (Fortune, Milieu, Security, Resilience, or Virtue) a Community's Peril shows up in.
Threat |
Peril Rank |
Actions Required to Overcome |
Cost if not Resolved |
6 |
Minor |
Assigning a Poor Skill or better Retainer or Ronin group for a month. |
The TN to Assess the condition of this Community is increased by 1 until this Peril is resolved. |
9 |
Dangerous |
Assigning a Adequate Skill or better Retainer or Ronin group for a month. |
Failure to address the threat within 2 seasons will cause 1 administrator to be lost (leading to a role deficiency and making threat accumulate much faster). |
12 |
Challenging |
Assigning a Skilled Skill or better Retainer or Ronin group for a month. |
Failure to address the threat within 2 seasons will cause 1 Feature to be destroyed OR Failure to address the threat within 1 seasons will cause 1 administrator to be lost. |
15 |
Deadly |
Assigning a Adequate Skill or better Retainer or Ronin group for a season |
One Administrator is lost immediately due to the peril. |
20 |
Overwhelming |
Assigning a Extraordinary Skill or better Retainer or Ronin group for a month. |
One Administrator is lost immediately due to the peril. Failure to address will decrease an attribute of the community by 1 level for each season it goes on. |
25 |
Epic |
Assigning a Skilled or Extraordinary Skill or better Retainer or Ronin group for a Season. |
One Administrator is lost immediately due to the peril. Failure to address the threat will decrease the community's total attributes by 1d4 for each season it goes unaddressed, though this can be spread out across multiple attributes. |
Handling Perils Yourself
If the lord handles a Peril themselves, they choose, with or without companions, to go address the peril personally. Depending on the Peril, this may either initiate an intrigue, an investigation, a skirmish, a mass battle, or an entire campaign. When a lord handles a Peril themselves, it does not cost taxes or influence to address, but the lord is unable to make Governance checks or perform other ruling duties for that season, or potentially subsequent seasons, until the Peril has been addressed.
For an overview of possible momentum required to address Perils of various ranks, see Perils.
A lord has one Governance action per month, three per season. Dispatching an Agent is an action, gaining new Administrators, and commissioning Features each require an action.
For an overview of possible momentum required to address Perils of various ranks, see Perils.
A lord has one Governance action per month, three per season. Dispatching an Agent is an action, gaining new Administrators, and commissioning Features each require an action.
Obscuring Perils
A GM may choose to spend a portion their accumulated threat to instead obscure the peril that awaits the community. If they do so, the Lord must spend a cumulative number of opportunities equal to the number of threats spent in order to detect the imminent peril. These opportunities can be made as part of the monthly Governance role, or they can be spent in associated standard 5th Edition Opportunities made for other roles associated with being in the community or its area, including:
* * Air: Notice an interesting detail about a character in the scene, such as an advantage or disadvantage. At the GM’s discretion, you may establish a new detail for an NPC.
* * Earth: Suddenly recall an important piece of information not directly related to the task.
* * Fire: Notice something missing or out of place in the vicinity that is not directly related to the task.
* * Water: Spot an interesting physical detail present in your environment not directly related to your check.
* + Void: Feel a chill down your spine, notice a sudden silence, or detect another sign of the supernatural if there is a spiritual disturbance in the scene. Extra * gives an increasingly precise location for the supernatural occurrence.
Additional Shuji and abilities like that of the Spy Title ability that allow a lord to discern rumors can also be used to help find obscured Perils.
* * Air: Notice an interesting detail about a character in the scene, such as an advantage or disadvantage. At the GM’s discretion, you may establish a new detail for an NPC.
* * Earth: Suddenly recall an important piece of information not directly related to the task.
* * Fire: Notice something missing or out of place in the vicinity that is not directly related to the task.
* * Water: Spot an interesting physical detail present in your environment not directly related to your check.
* + Void: Feel a chill down your spine, notice a sudden silence, or detect another sign of the supernatural if there is a spiritual disturbance in the scene. Extra * gives an increasingly precise location for the supernatural occurrence.
Additional Shuji and abilities like that of the Spy Title ability that allow a lord to discern rumors can also be used to help find obscured Perils.
Converting Perils to Hazards
If a peril is great enough that an administrator would be immediately lost or the community would lose a point in an attribute, the peril can be converted into a Hazard.
As with all Community Hazards:
As with all Community Hazards:
- Each hazard increases the threat generated by the community each season in that attribute by 3.
- A lord may assign a Retainer to take responsibility for the hazard for the season. If they do so, the Hazard does not contribute its threat that Season, but that retainer will be lost if there is a peril in that attribute that season.
Resolving Perils
A lord may send an Agent or a Ronin to resolve a Peril or remove a Hazard. However, if they do so, there is a risk that the agent that is sent may be killed.
If the lord attempts to remove a Hazard themselves, it will take the same amount of Momentum that it would have taken to remove the peril that created it.
If the lord attempts to remove a Hazard themselves, it will take the same amount of Momentum that it would have taken to remove the peril that created it.