Poison'd Thrones: Ambitions #explicit

This is where I think Poison'd and Game of Thrones really cross paths. Every good game of Poison'd I've ever run had Ambition as the engine, driving the story. When players own their Ambitions, this game almost loses control from all the momentum.

I'm part-way through reading Book 4 of the Song of Ice and Fire and if there's something consistent about every character, every story, and every page it's the intensity of ambition. They all want something, and they all want it badly enough to be awful human beings about it. They'll lie, rob, cheat, rape, maim, and kill their way through anyone who stands in their way.

See what I mean? It's like Poison'd was made for Westeros. Let's look at the Poison'd ambitions.
To be captain
To own land
To be pardoned
To be revenged upon (here name another player’s pirate)
To be revenged upon (here name a man beyond your station)
To fuck (here name another player’s pirate)
To fuck (here name the daughter or son of a man beyond your station)
To spit in the eye of God
To spit in the eye of the devil
To live forever
To be remembered forever
To be regarded highly by society

They almost don't need changing. But let's be about it.
To be a knight or lord
To own land
To be pardoned
To be revenged upon (here name another player’s character)
To be revenged upon (here name a man beyond your station)
To fuck (here name another player’s character)
To marry (here name the daughter or son of a man beyond your station)
To spit in the eye of the gods
To spit in the eye of the false gods
To live forever
To be remembered forever
To be regarded highly by society

The best ones for Thrones would be titles, land, and revenge. However, the game allows a character to have several and gain more as the game goes on. A long list is helpful.

Poison'd Thrones: Sin and Suffering

The next couple of lists to look at for my Game of Thrones hack on Poison'd are the sins that the character has committed and the events that the character has suffered.

The sins list is based on a Judeo-Christian concept of sins, for sure. Poison'd operates within a mythology that draws heavily on that background, along with a few other elements drawn in from popular concepts of local Caribbean religions. I find that when I read about any of the Game of Thrones characters committing these acts, I still feel the same as I do within a normal Poison'd context. Here's the Poison'd list, with the hacked entries alongside.
Adultery
Blasphemy
Idolatry
Murder
Mutiny (change this to Treason)
Rape
Robbery
Sodomy

The part about a "woman living, acting and dressing the man" isn't blasphemy in Westeros, it's just ridiculous. I can't count that as a sin in this hack.

Since the Sin list was so quick and easy, I've thrown in the Suffering list as well.
Accursing (remove this because it doesn't seem to be part of the GoT world except by superstition)
Arrest
Attempted murder
Beating
Branding
Damnation
Disownment
Impressment
Imprisonment
Lashing
Mutilation
Rape
Torture

I think it's only fair to have the X for anything at the hands of the dead warband leader.

Next up? The best one of all for the hack: Ambitions!

Poison'd Thrones

After crowdsourcing my decision about which game to run at Go Play Brisbane next month, I've settled on a Game of Thrones hack using the Poison'd rules. The common space between them is found in ambition and brutality. Martin's vision of a nobility isn't particularly noble for most of the characters. Instead it's scheming, violent, and power hungry.

Sounds like Poison'd to me.

Poison'd is a Vincent Baker game, so it has lots of lists. There's a list for your character's occupation in the pirate crew, the sins your character has committed, the events your character has suffered, and the ambitions your character has. To make them work in my hack, I'll need to re-skin them.

Today, let's start with occupations. Poison'd has the following:
Boatswain
Boy
Carpenter
Gunnery Master
Quartermaster
Sailing Master
Sailor
Surgeon
X's mate

For a mercenary warband, we might not even need all of these. But let's start with these:
Hedge Knight (masterless knight)
Sellsword (trained soldier)
Freerider (scout, forager, cavalry)
Squire (soldier in training)
Disgraced Maester (a healer and wise man)
Disgraced Septon (a priest and wise person)
Page (child labour)
Cook (the company will need a new one)
Armourer (repairs armour, tack, and fights)
Mummer (entertainer, sometimes soldier)

What would you add or change for the warband to have interesting player characters?

Which game to run?

Go Play Brisbane is fast approaching! By which I mean, it's approaching at the same speed as anything else in the future but it looks faster because it's so epic.

Epic.

#getonwithitAndrew

I really want to run a game on the Saturday, possibly two, but I'm still deciding which. So let's look at the notebook.

Game 1: Lego FU
You play minifigs in a Lego world, building solutions to help you on your adventures. And unlike Lord Business, you can break down the world around you to make whatever crazy invention you like. Get ready for high action, pulpy goodness where the bad guys are bad, the good guys are good, and everything is awesome.
A game for 3-5 players.

Game 2: Poison'd Thrones
The leader of a mercenary warband in Westeros has been poisoned by Lannisters. Their agent (the company cook!) has been found out and is tied up in the middle of the keep courtyard. He's spitting blood and curses, swearing that the King has commanded two of his knights to slaughter the mercenaries before the next new moon.
An adults-only game for 3-5 players. No, really, it's adults only because it uses the Poison'd rules.

So which one tickles your story gaming fancy?