(Since this is a test I created my first house completely with random rolls, though on some rolls the party can pick their choice.)
First step choosing your starting realm, rolling a 3d6 I get a 7 for the Iron Islands. Looks like I will be paying homage to the Grejoys of Pyke. Even though they come across as dirt bags a couple of times, I like vikings so I'm already getting a good idea for this House.
Step two, I roll for resources. There are 7 resources for houses which are synonymous with abilities for characters. They are Defense, Influence, Lands, Law, Population, Power, and Wealth. Being an Iron Islander this house gets +10 Defense, -5 Influence and Lands, and a +10 to Power.
Rolling 7d6 for each resource (and counting my Realm bonuses) I get:
Defense 30, Influence 19, Lands 18, Law 28, Population 19, Power 40 and Wealth 21. After rolling stats each character gets to add 1d6 to any one resource they choose, I roll a 6 and add it to Lands for a total of 24.
Step three, House history. I want this House to be a recently established House so I get 1d6-1 rolls on the history table (in this case 4). Rolling 3d6 I get 7 Decline, 8 Doom, 8 Doom, 12 Revolt.... ouch poor guys every one of my rolls causes them to lose some resource. Since Doom is the worst possible roll that could happen I take away the second 8 and reroll for a 14 Scandal. Sorry guys this next part is going to hurt.
Each History roll has a positive or negative affect on a number of resources (in this case a lot of negative).
Decline subtracts 1d6 from Influence, Land, Power, and Wealth. Doom subtracts 2d6 from everything. Revolt subtracts 2d6 from Law, and 1d6 from Population, Power, and Wealth. Scandal subtracts 1d6 from Influence, Lands and Power.
After all the rolls the poor House is down to the following stats (and the book gives a fun list of how they stand up at each level):
Defense 26 - "Defensible with at least one fortified town or castle."
Influence 4 - "A minor landed knight or equivilent, i.e. Craster"
Lands 12 - "A small stretch of land about the size of a single small islands, i.e. House Mormont"
Law 19 - "Lawlessness and banditry are a problem along the fringes of your realm"
Population 15 - "Small population, but no single community larger than a small town"
Power 19 - "Small force of soldiers largely made up of smallfolk"
Wealth 8 - "Impovershed. Your family lacks essential resources, adn struggles to make ends meet"
(Ouch what a toll that history took)
So at this point I am going to flesh out the House a little more. I do a little research into scandinavian names and settle on Stif.
House Stif of Stonetide is descended form the younger sibling of long lost house. The old House was once stripped of its titles and the family sent into exile, it was only through the desperate marriage of an aging lord that any lands were returned to them at all. For a time it seemed as though House Stif may well climb its way back into the good graces of the higher nobles but all there effort was brought to ruin when a massive storm hit the island of Stonetide. The Maelstrom tore down their forts and towers and sunk their ships, it laid waste to their fields and drowned their peoples. The name Stif was thought to be a sign of bad luck and the mere mention of the name would be enough for captains to abandon a contract with the House. Years passed and they continued to decline, until they saw a golden moment to take back their glory - Greyjoy's Rebellion. But yet again fate was not on their side and after Stannis smashed their fleets their power and wealth were taken from them. As they wallowed in the misery of defeat on last blow was struck. The Lord's wife had run off to the bed of a Durand, she had been having a trist with him for many years. House Stif was left dishonored and without any heirs.
Hmm, you know I'm starting to like these guys but we're still not down yet. Next is holdings...
Step four, Holdings. Each resource has some effect on the realm, most of them through holdings which are like equipment for characters.
First, Defense. Since their defense is down to a 26 is a small keep for 20 pts.This won't subtract from their total but it will be considered spent and if their total ever drops below 20 they lose the keep.
Second, Influence. Influence is used to 'buy' heirs. Stif has no influence and therefore no heirs.
Third, Lands. your realm is divided up into domains which are about a league (3 miles). Land costs land points. Since I am in the Iron Islands I can only have hills or plains, I have few points and plains are cheaper so plains it is for 5 points. Each terrain can then have features on it, otherwise I would have a flat rocky chunk of land. Again being on the iron islands I will be limited, this time to coasts, community, grasslands, islands, roads, and ruins. I want this to be an island so that will be 10 pts, I also want some grass on these rocks 1 pt, I am left with three points so I get some ruins (it will fit in well with the backstory).
Fourth, Law. Law doesn't get holdings, instead it affects House Fortune (which we'll worry about latter) my house fortune will suffer -5 for my lawlessness.
Fifth, Population. Again this affects fortune, Stif's population gives a +0... oh well.
Sixth, Power. This is the fun one. With power you can purchase banner houses and troops. I have to have at least 20 pts to get a banner house... so its just troops for me. These are ironmen so I want two things, vikings and longships. First, the longships. I don't want green troops so I go for trained troops (3 power), warships (7 power) and I am going to also make them raiders so they can leave their ships and attack the land as well (3 power) for a total of 13 power spent. With my last 6 power I get a unit of trained raiders.
Their level of training affects their discipline and gives them experience to improve their attributes, each 'type' has a list of 3 attributes that it can improve. Being trained gives enough xp for 3 improvements, each attribute starts at 2. So Stif has the following:
Trained Longships/Raiders Discipline(9), Agility(2), Awareness(2), Endurance(2), Fighting(4), Marksmanship(3)
Trained Raiders Discipline(9), Agility(2), Endurance(3), Fighting(4)
Seventh, Wealth. Stif is far too poor to afford any wealth holdings.
Alright there we go, those are all of the game essential stats for House Stif...
but wait here's one of my favorite parts... Heraldry.
this completely nonessential part has six whole pages devoted to it. I love it!
Continuing with my decision to roll for everything, I randomly create a really cool coat of arms...
Then I pick my hosue words (you gotta love this game) thinking about their history I choose "Hard lives make Hard men" for House Stif.
and there you have it House Stif of Stonetide.
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