[quote="T'risstree Helviiryn":1wav5uos]Ok,
as I understand it, you want the players to set up their own house or guild, then fight/ally/intrigue whatever amongst ourselves to establish the predominate house?[/quote:1wav5uos]
Hopefully, you will work together and also intrigue. If it gets to fighting then the game will be tricky to run. There's a mechanism in place (which will become obvious in the game) to prevent fighting. Obviously, at some point a fight might occur, but that shouldn't happen at the start.
I would like the players to set up their own House (or guild).
[quote="T'risstree Helviiryn":1wav5uos]So as an example, as Matron of House Helviiryn, I'd be in charge right? I could have my human concubine with me as well huh?
[he will look cute in his little leather gimp suit
]
And since I'm in charge of my house, if I want us to be followers of Eilistraee thats OK? I've been following yours & tal's discusion over on the general thread and I'm assuming you want the entire drow pantheon all there?[/quote:1wav5uos]
Yes, if you want to be Matron Helviiryn, go right ahead. Whatever you want to do with your human concubine is your business, but don't bring him to council.
Since it's your House, you can be Eilistraeen. Other faiths could flourish there too. Obviously, all faiths should tend towards neutrality. so, for example, a Lolthite House would be N (CE) or CN (NE/CE). In practice this means they can deal with all manners of outsiders since their outside alignment is Neutral. Inside their walls they can take their true alignment.
That said, I find alignment annoying. So if everyone is OK with the idea, we can just overlook statements like: "Well, my House is Chaotic Evil and we just don't want Chaotic Good neighbours..."
There will be more than enough real concerns to prevent dogma being an issue. Especially at the start.
[quote="T'risstree Helviiryn":1wav5uos]Also how powerful are the houses? Do we have house troops, wizards, insignias? How much money do we have? [/quote:1wav5uos]
Good questions. The game is set in a demi-plane. There may be a way home, i.e. back to Faerun. You will start with no money. The plane has its own tender, which you can borrow. (You'll soon meet the person you can borrow from.)
I picture the players as follows: You and your followers are refugees. You've left some place hoping to find something new. The game is set shortly after Lolth's Silence ends. During her silence, you and your followers saw a chance for a change. Maybe you sought to overcome the dominance of the Lolthite clergy. Maybe the crops kept failing where you lived, and you wanted out. What all players have in common is that they decided to move away from their home. However, as you cast a spell to help your travels, your magics interfered with other magics, (maybe the very magic Lolth was using to wrench the Demonweb Pits away from the Abyss) and you find yourself in a new strange place. One of your inhabitants will meet you soon after your arrival.
Your Houses will be quite weak. Your followers form a small band.
I picture players as being somewhere between 12th - 15th level.
Going off the Leadership table (
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#leadership) a 12th level player will have one cohort (so Matron Helviiryn's leatherboy could be 8th level) and 8 first level followers. You can decide if you want those followers to be fighters, experts, wariors, etc.
CL Coh 1st 2nd 3rd
12 8th 8 — — — — —
13 9th 10 1 — — — —
14 10th 15 1 — — — —
15 10th 20 2 1
Old insignias won't work, but new ones will, once you make them.
To make things fairer, roll a d4 to determine what level your PC is at. 1 = level 12, 2, level 13, etc.
[quote="T'risstree Helviiryn":1wav5uos]Will one player be restricted to one house? Can two players be on the same "team"? also how many named NPC's are we allowed to have?[/quote:1wav5uos]
[b:1wav5uos]One House per player.[/b:1wav5uos] Only one House (or Guild) representative can sit at council. If two Houses merge at some point, then one player will have to step aside (or play a new role).
You may want to have a few named NPCs. Occasionally, you might even one to control that NPC in council (example, a ranger of your House gives a report).
[quote="T'risstree Helviiryn":1wav5uos]I like the idea you have outlined and am possibly into joining in once I know some more about the set up.[/quote:1wav5uos]
I'm glad you like the idea, and I hope my answers have helped. As I've said [b:1wav5uos]game-play is restricted to council. Each council is held at the beginning of each season.[/b:1wav5uos]
My reasoning for this is it helps the 'play by post' approach concept. It also puts all the PCs in one place, so it's easier to DM. Finally, actions taken by your House occur off-stage, i.e. they are decided by PMs between me and you. Therefore whatever your House's success or failings no-one needs know until you tell them. Although this assumes that another House hasn't chosen to spy on you during that season. At the start, Houses have got more urgent things to do then spy on each other.