The Game of Bones

The Quintessential Drow

Author	Sam Witt
Publisher	Mongoose Publishing
Publish date	2003
OGL Section 15	qdrow

Note: This material may be considered Mature in nature.
The material below is designated as **Open Game Content **

The drow appear, from the outside, to have an organized, structured society. They have their castes of noble families, the loyal merchants who oil the machines of commerce, and the servants and slaves who see to the needs of their maters. Law enforcement is organized and efficient, operating quickly and savagely to deal with those who commit crimes and who have no qualms about using extreme force to put an end to disruptive behaviours within the drow cities. To those who do not know better, drow civilization seems to mimic most of the same political and societal structures as any lawful civilization on the surface.

It is, of course, a sham. The appearance is a façade, a construct based around mutual fear and hatred. The drow are ruled by those with the strength to hold the position, their nobility are created, not born, and their entire society is built upon the supposition that those with the strength and cunning to take something are entitled to have it. What keeps the drow from falling upon one another like a pack of jackals are the ancient customs and systems of battle they all respect. Only barbarians fall upon their enemies like common brawlers, and the drow believe they represent the pinnacle of civilized development.

Informally, the drow refer to their systems of competition and interspecies warfare as ‘The Game of Bones.’ A complex system of owed debts, granted boons, and personal power holds drow society together and prevents the drow from devolving into constantly warring tribes. Part religious belief, part self-preservation, the Game of Bones is a deadly social conflict. More often than not, the deadly turns of this game are never even seen by those not directly involved.

The Frame of the Game

Within drow society, there are those who play the game, and those who do not. In general, players are of the ruling nobility and the upper ranks of the merchant class. The clergy of the drow pantheon do not directly engage in the Game, but their support is critical in securing one’s place within the shifting power structure the game creates. Drow with considerable personal power, particularly arcane spellcasters and
successful adventurers of all stripes, also enter the game, but may find themselves without the social contacts and interpersonal skills to survive the deadly web of alliances.

Once involved in the Game, a player’s position (and survivability) is based on two critical factors: his influence and his power. Influence measures the ability of the Player to convince others to do things for him, leveraging their power for his own benefit. Power is the raw ability of the Player to do something himself, to get a job done using his personal resources. The greater the resources possessed by the Player, the more impressive his power and the easier it is for him to get things done.

The complexity in the Game rises from the opposition of its players. While having a high Power is impressive, it is not terribly useful without the Influence to keep others from ganging up against you. Likewise, while Influence can be a very useful way to get something done without dirtying your own hands, without Power it can begin to wane. After all, the drow pride themselves on their personal abilities and will (take seriously) anyone who constantly use others to accomplish even the simplest of tasks.

There are those who take great pride in manipulating others while keeping their hands clean, but it can be very difficult to maintain such a stance indefinitely without appearing weak to those whom you influence. At its most basic, then, the Game of Bones is a set of rules for the use of influence and power within drow culture. Players struggle to maintain or improve their position by using their own resources, or convincing others to do their work for them (or to simply not compete against them), all while watching their enemies for a potentially devastating counterattack. Individuals and

Groups in the Game

It is very rare for a single dark elf to play the Game without outside assistance. While it is certainly conceivable for a lone dark elf to amass enough personal power and influence to become a Player, doing so has its risks. For starters, such powerful individuals are highly sought after commodities by the noble houses and other political structures within the Game. While some of these organizations may accept a polite refusal to join their number, many others see such a refusal as a personal insult and will bring whatever power and influence they possess to bear in an attempt to destroy the upstart. The wise individual will seek out a group with which to ally before he enters the Game, using the group to protect his own standing while contributing to the overall power and influence of his new allies.

Because the web of influence extending from any single individual is limited, solo Players find themselves at a disadvantage in this regard when facing off against groups. The pyramid structure of most groups guarantees an expanding base of influence as the number of contacts increases with the number of individuals within the group. Because the overall Diplomacy skill of a character determines the number of contacts he can maintain at any one time, it is clearly advantageous to ally with others in order to expand influence.

This combination of factors ensures the most successful Players within the game are part of one or more political organizations they can use to augment their own power and influence within the Game.

Influence

Before a character enters the Game, he must amass a certain amount of influence and power. The precise amounts of each vary considerably from area to area and are based entirely on the total influence available in any given city or area of contention. The larger the city, the more difficult it is to enter the game as anything more than a bit player unworthy of notice. Influence, like power, is measured by points, which are amassed by either gaining control over areas, earning the favour of others, or even gaining the blessings of the Fatespinner or other gods. Influence can also be purchased, though the outright buying of influence normally leaves the customer poorer while only gaining a short-term advantage. The table below describes ways in which Influence can be gained and how much Influence is gained for each action. Note that this table is not used once a person or group enters the Game of Bones – once he reaches a combined total of 1,000 Influence and Power, he is considered to have Rank and can only gain influence through a Public Relations Campaign (see below).

Action: A description of the action that is undertaken to gain influence. These are general descriptions and can be expanded by the Games Master as she feels appropriate to the campaign.

Influence Gained: The amount of influence the player will gain, provided his action is successful. This is
also the amount of influence the player will lose if his action fails and is discovered.

DC: The skill check necessary and DC necessary to resolve the action. Note that the DCs listed here are
going to be higher than those normally associated with various skills. This is because these DCs represent a series of actions needed to complete a given task, rather than a single action. A hired spy, for example, might have to spend days attempting to gather information, then more days to make sense of the various rumors he hears and report the information back to his spymaster, who must then spend time determining whether or not the information is worth passing back up the chain of command.

Gaining Influence

Action	Influence Gained	Skill DC
Hire a spy for one month	100	Gather Information (15)
Own a tavern or other gathering place	200	Profession (Merchant)(20)
Use blackmail to gain control of an enemy	100 per power level of the enemy	Innuendo (30)
Kill a rival or enemy	300 per power level of the enemy	See below*
Gain control of a powerful magical item (10,000 gp value or more)	100 per 1,000 gp value of the item	No skill check – only available by purchasing, stealing, or otherwise acquiring the item.
Having a priest in the organization.	100 per level of the priest, 500 per level of a priestess who belongs to the church of the fatespinner.

is a matter of birth||

* Killing a rival or enemy must be handled either by hiring an assassin (see below) or performing the job personally. This is perhaps the most dangerous and least common way to gain influence because it is so easily exposed if it goes poorly.

Power

Raw force is not as easily used as influence, but it is much easier to obtain and a far more visible deterrent to enemies who might decide to come after an organization. While having a massive amount of influence may allow an organization to subtly alter the course of events in a city, it does not protect that organization when armed mercenaries are kicking down the doors and tossing firepots through windows made from web-spun glass. When push comes to shove, no noble house or criminal family would be comfortable without a large force of armed thugs, guards, and warslaves.

But power is not found only in strength at arms. Divine and arcane spellcasters provide significant power to the houses to which they belong, and many merchant organizations pay very well for the loyalty of their own wizards and sorcerers.

To determine the power available to an organization, simply add together the power ratings found in the table below for all the guards, mercenaries, family, and other members of the house or organization.
Note that power can be increased by a noble house or organization at any time, provided they can pay to have the guards on staff. If a house loses guards, either because it can no longer pay them or because it has suffered a military defeat, then that house may also lose rank as their power is decreased.

Gaining Power

Character Type	Power Provided
Mercenary Soldier	50 per level of warrior, 100 per level of fighter, barbarian, or ranger.
Mercenary Spellcaster	200 per level of wizard, sorcerer, or cleric. 150 per level of druid.
Mercenary ‘Agents’	25 per level of bard up to 4th level, then 50 per level. 50 per level of rogue up to 6th level, then 100 per level.

Rank in the Game of Bones

The total of a house or organization’s Power and Influence is used to determine the houses rank, as
shown on the table below.

Rank by Power and Influence

Total Power and Influence	Rank	Action Bonus	Influence/Power Defence
1000	1	+1	+2/+0
4000	2	+2	+3/+0
9000	3	+3	+3/+1
16000	4	+4	+4/+1
25000	5	+5	+4/+1
36000	6	+6/+1	+5/+2
49000	7	+7/+2	+5/+2
64000	8	+8/+3	+6/+2
81000	9	+9/+4	+6/+3
100000	10	+10/+5	+7/+3
121000	11	+11/+6/+1	+7/+3
144000	12	+12/+7/+2	+8/+4
169000	13	+13/+8/+3	+8/+4
196000	14	+14/+9/+4	+9/+4
225000	15	+15/+10/+5	+9/+5
256000	16	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10/+5
289000	17	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10/+5
324000	18	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11/+6
361000	19	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11/+6
400000	20	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12/+6

Total Power and Influence: Add the house or organization’s Power and Influence together and consult this column to determine the rank of the house or organization.

Rank: This is the rank of the house or organization, as determined by its Total Power and Influence.

Action Bonus: The organization has an Action Bonus that works very similarly to the Base Attack Bonus for an individual. As the house grows larger, it is able to undertake more actions without fear of overextending itself, though each action has progressively less chance of success.

Influence/Power Defence: The Power and Influence Defence ratings of houses or organizations represent their ability to deal with threats of influence or power. If the House’s power rating is higher than its influence rating, its power defence is higher, and vice versa. This rating is used when the house defends itself from hostile actions.

Rank is an important thing in the Game of Bones. All players are aware of their position in the game, as well as the position of others – at least within a few ranks. The players of the game do not, of course, refer to their position by a formal rank number, but they know, nevertheless, their relative strengths. Strong houses do not have to worry as much about attacks from their lesser, while weaker houses worry constantly about the predations of the strong and the ambitions of the weak. Eventually, most drow cities end up with a handful of houses at the very top of the heap and many, many other houses below them, existing at their leisure and surviving by allying themselves with the more powerful. Given the drow, of course, alliances rarely last long enough for the ink on the agreements to dry, so houses who make deals with one another do it knowing full well the betrayal lying in wait.

Rank Checks
Rank checks are made by rolling 1d20 and adding the rank of the noble house to the result. Rank checks are most often used in conflicts between noble houses, particularly for actions taken during the Game of Bones. Rank checks are most useful when they are not made very often; while the Game of Bones is always shifting, some constancy must come of it or the system is no better than the mass anarchy it is intended to control. As such, those drow who constantly throw their rank around (i.e. constantly perform actions that require a rank check) are likely to lose some of it because of the attention they have drawn to themselves.

Players of the Game of Bones

For the drow, the Game of Bones is the ultimate expression of their goddess’ will. She believes in the strongest surviving by crushing the weak beneath their heels, and the Game represents a clean, clear expression of that principle. On the other hand, the Game of Bones does offer some protection to the weak, because the strong simply are not able to act fast or decisively enough to wipe them out. Given the utility of the weak houses as tools for the strong, some survive purely by doing as they are told, stifling their individual ambitions to simply hold onto the little scraps of power they already have.

Drow Noble Houses

Drow families are organized into Noble Houses, loose collections of family members and allies with a central fortress-home. While the members of a Noble House may live within the fortress-home, many do not, preferring instead to maintain their own bolt-holes in their cities, hidden from their enemies and their family members. The House fortresses do serve as symbols of power and a place to house the warslaves, mercenaries, spellthralls, and house wizards during times of peace and as a place of protection in times of war.

Hugely expensive and ridiculously over-protected, the fortress homes also serve as a balance to the threats of the Game. By holing up a House can preserve its members at home, though their influence will certainly wane if they remain out of touch for too long.

Drow Noble Houses are the primary players in the Game of Bones. Their wealth, numerous agents, and traditional role in drow society make them the most powerful organizations in any city of dark elves.

Other Organizations

While the drow noble houses are easily the most powerful in drow society, they are not the only organizations with political clout. Merchant guilds, criminal conglomerates, divine sects, and even hidden revolutionaries all band together to play the Game of Bones, amassing power and influence in an effort to earn themselves a place in the brutal pecking order of a drow city. If a group can muster the influence and power (for a combined rank of at least 1,000) they are able to enter the Game.

Playing the Game of Bones

The Game of Bones is a combination of political strategy and brutal combat, with its mood shifting rapidly depending on the whims and desires of its players. In some cities, it is fought almost entirely in the back alleys and hidden meeting rooms as cabals spread damaging rumours about their rivals and draw upon the services of spies and informers to discover the secrets of their foes.

In others, assassins launch brutal strikes against the members of noble houses and armed conflicts between entourages of enemy houses are not uncommon. Though the Bitch of Fate makes it very clear she does not want her cities plunged into constant internecine warfare, the priests of the Fatespinners encourage the simmering conflicts as a measure of the city’s connections to chaos.

In play terms, the Game of Bones is carried out in month-long phases and each player in the Game is able to make a number of actions during each phase, based on their rank, available resources, and number of available lieutenants. The most powerful noble house in any city is helpless to act if all of its leaders have been assassinated or otherwise rendered incapacitated and, likewise, a house with many leaders but little cash is going to have a hard time mobilizing any sort of serious effort in the Game of Bones. Maintaining a balance of things is difficult, but there is no other way to rise in prominence in drow society.

Aggressors, Defenders, and Target Areas
Throughout this section, you will see references to aggressors, defenders, and target areas. The aggressor in the action is always the noble house (or other organization) who takes the action during the phase. The defender, naturally enough, is the noble house that is the target of the action.
Target areas are typically city blocks or other holdings that provide influence, power, and money to the controlling noble house. See the Silken Strongholds chapter for more information about territory and areas.

Lieutenants

A noble house or other organization normally has a leader, but it must also have a number of lieutenants in order for the house to use its power and influence effectively. For noble houses, this is normally a matter of the family being involved in the action – while drow families are often rife with internecine struggles, it is generally accepted wisdom that members of the same noble house will at least work together to further the interests of the house. Other organizations tend to recruit their lieutenants from the friends and trusted allies of the leader. Wherever they come from, a house must have at least one lieutenant for every action it takes after the first in a given month. This lieutenant must have a number of levels or Hit Dice equal to the Rank of the house or organization minus five. It is the lieutenant’s skill which is used when an action is taken.

Taking Action

The rank of a noble house (a combination of its power and influence) is a rough measure of its ability to get what it wants out of the Game of Bones. More powerful houses (those with a higher rank) are able to act more frequently within the Game, separating their vast resources to further their own plots or deal with the transgressions of their enemies. Smaller houses, on the other hand, must instead focus their meagre resources on fewer possible actions, because they lack the manpower to do otherwise.

Below are the various actions a noble house may take during a given phase of the game. Each action is
presented in the following format:

Name: The name of the action in question, used only for reference.

Influence Requirement: The minimum influence a house must have in order to take the action.

Power Requirement: The minimum power a house must have in order to take the action. While two
houses of similar rank have a wide variety of options available to them, the options are very different based on whether the house is influence- or power-based.

Cost: The cost of the action. This can have as many as three distinct portions: the power cost, the influence cost, and the actual cost. The power and influence costs indicate the amount and type of resources the house must devote to the action. These costs do not reduce the power or influence of the house, but must be dedicated to the action – they cannot be used for any other actions or defences during the course of the action. The actual cost is typically in gold – though some may allow the substitution of magical items or other forms of payment in place of hard cash.

Time: The amount of time the action takes to complete. This is normally given in week-long increments.

Skill DC: This is the skill needed to initiate the action and, if necessary, needed to defend against it, as well as the DC for the skill check. The primary leader of the action always makes this skill check and may be assisted by the other leaders or his staff (see below for more information).

Success Result: If the action succeeds, the results are spelled out here. This is normally related to the amount by which the skill check succeeded.

Failure Result: When an action fails, there is always a penalty of some sort, even if the penalty is only the temporary disposition of resources toward a failed effort. The results of a failure are detailed here and, like the Success Result, are often tied to the degree of failure.

Assassination

An assassination attempt is very straightforward – you choose a target and hire an assassin to take him out. Regarded by many drow as a dangerous tactic due to the risk of having their assassin captured and interrogated, assassination is still a time-honoured tradition. This tool is especially likely to be wielded by drow impatient to take their foe down through less violent means.

Influence Requirement: 500
Power Requirement: 100
Cost: 1,000 Influence per level or Hit Die of the
target, 1,000 gp per level or Hit Die of the target
Time: Two weeks
Skill DC: Gather Information (DC 20 + 1 per level or hit die of the target), opposed check
Success Result: If the attacker’s Gather Information check exceeds the Defender’s by 10 or more, the target is killed outright. If the check succeeds by less than 10, the target is entitled to a Reflex Saving Throw (DC 20) to avoid death. If the save fails, the target is killed.
Failure Result: If the attacker’s Gather Information check fails by 10 or more, the assassin is captured
and provides a +10 bonus to the next Gather Information check made by the targeted house to determine where the attack came from. If the attacker’s skill check fails by less than 10, the assassin escapes but fails to close the deal, leaving the target alarmed, but alive. Failing by less than 5 indicates the assassin did not make the attempt, because the target was too well-protected, not where he was
anticipated, or was otherwise inaccessible within the assassination parameters.

Assault

Frontal attacks against a location are rare in the Game of Bones, but are sometimes used to finish off a weakened opponent or to severely weaken an overly aggressive house. The law does not prohibit such attacks, but they require a significant portion of the aggressor’s resources and are difficult to succeed with unless the defender is caught at a weak point.

Influence Requirement: 0
Power Requirement: See below
Cost: Variable power cost, see below. For every 1,000 power the aggressor devotes to the assault, he must also expend 500 gp in supplies and bribes.
Time: One week
Skill DC: None. For every 1,000 power the aggressor devotes to the assault, he receives a +1 bonus to his Rank check. For every 750 power the defender has in position at the location of the assault he receives a +1 bonus to his Rank check. An opposed Rank check is made to determine the result of the assault.
Success Result: For every 5 points by which the aggressor beats the defender, the defender suffers a permanent loss of 1,000 Power, up to the maximum Power at the assault site.
Failure Result: For every 3 points by which the defender beats the aggressor, the aggressor suffers a permanent loss of 1,000 Power, up to the maximum Power used by the aggressor in the assault.

Counterintelligence

It is sometimes just as important to keep a foe from understanding what you are up to as it is to find out what they are planning. Counterintelligence is a very useful way to keep other drow guessing about your intentions, and prevents other from finding out your secrets.

Influence Requirements: 5,000
Power Requirements: 1,000
Cost: 500 Influence per Rank of your Noble House
Time: One month
Skill DC: Gather Information (DC 25)
Success Result: For every 5 points by which you exceed the DC of the Gather Information skill check, all aggressors who direct Smear Campaigns, Force Assessments, Frame Ups, and Poison Pill actions against you suffer a –1 circumstance penalty to all skill checks related to those actions.
Failure Result: You tip your hand while attempting to prevent others from uncovering your plots, making your house or organization more vulnerable to attack. For every 5 points by which you fail the DC of the
Gather Information skill check, all aggressors who direct Smear Campaigns, Force Assessments, Frame Ups, and Poison Pill actions against you enjoy a +1 circumstance bonus to all skill checks related to those actions.

Cover Up

There are times when a noble house or organization may wish to undertake an action they do not want tied to their reputation. This action covers up all evidence of the action in question, but can burn up resources at an alarming rate if used to conceal large-scale operations.

Influence Requirements: The same as the total
Influence and Power requirements of the action being covered up.
Power Requirements: —
Cost: 250 Influence per Rank of your Noble House
Time: The same as the action being covered up
Skill DC: Diplomacy (DC 25)
Success Result: If this action succeeds, all evidence tying the noble house to the action it wishes to disavow is destroyed. Others may know the action happened, but they do not know who was responsible for it.
Failure Result: The action is not covered up.

Divine Petition

Seeking the favour of the divine is a longstanding drow tradition. Since the priestesses are not averse to providing such divine backup to houses who suitably impress them, regardless of the goddess’ actual thoughts on the subject, noble houses lavish gifts and favours upon the temples whenever possible.

Influence Requirements: 20,000
Power Requirement: 0
Cost: 10,000 Influence, 5,000 gp
Time: One month
Skill DC: Bluff (DC 30).
Success Result: The priestesses agree to provide you with divine sanction, preventing all other noble houses from interfering with your actions during the next phase. Those you directly target suffer a –4 circumstance penalty to all Skill checks made while defending against your actions.
Failure Result: Your petition fails to sway the priestesses, who instead decide to condemn your actions. You suffer a –2 circumstance penalty to all Skill checks made while defending against the actions of other houses.

Extortion

Extortion is a favourite game amongst smaller noble houses who delight in tweaking the noses of their peers. By threatening the livelihood and health of business owners, thugs from these houses extract bribes from the proprietors. Though it is rare for extortion rackets to exist long in one area due to the risk of attracting armed response from the controlling house, even sporadic flare-ups of this type can be damaging to a house’s finances.

Influence Requirement: 1,000
Power Requirement: 2,000
Cost: 500 gp + 200 gp per targeted area, 500 Power per targeted area
Time: One month
Skill DC: Intimidate (DC 20). This is opposed by the target’s Sense Motive skill.
Success Result: For every point by which the aggressor’s skill check result exceeds the skill check result of the defender, the aggressor receives 5% of the targeted area’s income for the month. This reduces the amount of income received by the defender in control of the target area by the same amount.
Failure Result: The defender receives a +2 circumstance bonus to any defensive action it takes in response to this action, and a +5 circumstance bonus if its skill check result exceeds the skill check result of the aggressor by 10 or more.

Force Assessment

Before charging into an area, it is wise to know what you are likely to face when you get there. This manoeuvre is most often used prior to an Assault action, to judge the potential danger in the area. This is also very useful if you are attempting to discover what enemy agents are up to in one of your own areas, or an area you intend to take for your own.

Influence Requirements: 3,000
Power Requirements: Variable
Cost: 1,000 gp per target area, 200 Influence per target area
Time: One week
Skill DC: Gather Information (DC 20)
Success Result: The acting house learns of the type and number of troops and agents in a given area, as well as their approximate strength (average level of all agents and troops in the area). If the result of this skill check exceeds the DC by 10 or more, the plans for those troops are also discovered. This allows the spies to know what the forces will be doing during the next week.
Failure Result: The acting house learns nothing about the disposition of troops in the area. If the skill check total fails by 10 or more, then the acting house believes there are more or less troops in the area than are actually present.

Frame Up

Drow law enforcement is horribly corrupt and used primarily as a weapon of the priestesses to keep the rest of the society in line. The frame up turns this tool of oppression against a noble house by planting evidence of betrayal or heresy where law enforcement can find it. The subsequent investigation is rarely fatal for a noble house, but it does prevent them from acting as freely as would otherwise be impossible.

Influence Requirement: 3,000
Power Requirement: 2,000
Cost: 1,000 Influence per rank of the target noble house, 1,000 gp + 500 gp per rank of the target organization or noble house
Time: One month
Skill DC: Gather Information (DC 25). This is opposed by the target’s Sense Motive skill.
Success Result: For every 10 full points by which the aggressor’s skill check exceeds the skill check result of the defender, the defender’s effective Rank is decreased by one for one month (beginning at the end of the month in which this action is taken). This does not decrease the Power or Influence of the defender, only their ability to take actions and their bonuses for defence or offence.
Failure Result: The aggressor house has its own effective Rank decreased by one for one month, beginning at the end of the month in which the action is taken.

Intelligence Gathering

There are times when it is best to simply sit tight and figure out what everyone else is doing, and how what they are doing impacts you. This action enables you to try and figure out what actions are directed at your noble house and what immediately threatens your forces.

Influence Requirement: 1,000
Power Requirement: —
Cost: 500 gp, 1,000 Influence
Time: One week
Skill DC: Gather Information (DC 20).
Success Result: If this check succeeds, you discover one action that will occur in the next month and is targeted at your noble house or your areas of control. For every five full points by which your result exceeds the DC of this skill check, you learn of another plot. If this action is used more than once in the same time period, different actions will be discovered by each use if there are additional actions to be discovered.
Failure Result: You discover one false action targeted against you.

Poison Pill

Putting a spy into the house of an opposing noble is a powerful way to gain an edge over him. The poison pill’s ability to remain in the house for an extended period of time makes him an important asset – the longer you can keep a spy in place, the greater the benefit he provides. On the other hand, a spy turned against you when he is discovered can cause a great deal of trouble for your house. Being misled into attacking a supposed weak point can be deadly.

Influence Requirement: 5,000
Power Requirement: 1,000
Cost: 500 Influence per rank of the target noble house, 1,000 gp per rank of the target noble house
Time: Two months
Skill DC: Sense Motive (DC 25). This is opposed by the target’s Gather Information skill.
Success Result: If the aggressor succeeds, they have planted a spy in the noble house or organization. This spy provides a +2 bonus to the aggressor when making any actions against the target house. This bonus increases by +1 for every 3 months the spy remains in place. The above skill check must be made at the end of every month in which the spy was in place. If the defender wins the skill check, the spy is suspected and the current bonus he provides is reduced by 1. If the aggressor wins, the spy stays in place. If the bonus a spy provides is every reduced to 0, the spy is discovered and the failure result, below, immediately goes into effect.
Failure Result: The spy is forced to feed false information to the aggressor, inflicting a –2 penalty to all actions the aggressor house takes against the defending house.

Public Relations Campaign

By successfully wining and dining the nobility of a drow city, it is possible for a dark elf noble house or other organization to improve its public image and increase its influence within that city. Though extremely costly and difficult, this is the only method for gaining influence. As a result, drow nobility spend a great deal of time partying with one another and attempting to gain favour with other houses.

Influence Requirement: 1,000 per Rank
Power Requirement: 0
Cost: 2,000 gp per rank of your noble house, 500 Influence per rank of your noble house
Time: Three months
Skill DC: Diplomacy (DC 10 + current Rank), unopposed
Success Result: If the noble house succeeds at the Diplomacy check made at the end of this action, it immediately gains 2,000 Influence. Note that this action becomes more difficult as a house gains rank, as it requires greater and greater expenditures of time and effort to increase the influence of a powerful noble house or other organization.
Failure Result: The noble house neither gains nor loses Influence, though it has spent a ridiculous amount of gold and kept its many influence assets tied up for three months during the attempt.

Smear Campaign

A smear campaign is an attempt to weaken a noble house by tarnishing their public image. In drow culture, this often means leading others to believe the house is weaker than it actually is, or that it is hamstrung by some sort of emotional or moral ideals held dear by its masters. Smear campaigns, while an effective way to undercut the strength of a noble house, can fail spectacularly. If the campaign is exposed, it gives the targeted house a handle to use against their attackers. While the drow have no problem with liars, they really prefer it when a noble house has the grace and style to at least lie successfully.

Influence Requirement: 5,000
Power Requirement: 0
Cost: 2,000 gp per rank of the target Noble house, 1,000 Influence per rank of target house
Time: One month
Skill DC: Innuendo (DC 20 +1 per level or Hit Die of the target), Opposed by target’s Sense Motive
Success Result: If the attacker’s Innuendo skill check result beats the target’s Sense Motive skill check result, the target noble house suffers a loss of 1,000 Influence. If the attacker’s Innuendo skill check result beats the target’s Sense Motive skill check result by more than 10, the target noble house loses 1d4x1,000 Influence. Either of these losses may lower the rank of the house in question.
Failure Result: If the attacker’s Innuendo Skill check is 10 or more less than the target’s Sense Motive skill check, the target gains a +5 bonus to any counterattack they make in response to this action. If the Innuendo skill check fails, but by less than 10, the money is wasted but there are no other ill-effects for the attempt.

Troop Movements

Moving forces from one area to another can be a tricky thing if you want to keep your actions quiet. This action is used to move your forces without being discovered by others – you do not need to bother with this action if you choose to move your forces openly. Whether you use this action or not, it takes one week to move troops from one area to another, as long as both areas are within the same city.

Influence Requirement: 1,000 per 5,000 power worth of troops moved
Power Requirement: —
Cost: 100 gp per 1,000 Power equal to the troops being moved
Time: One month
Skill DC: Hide (DC 10 + 5 per 1,000 power being moved)
Success Result: If this check succeeds, you move your troops quietly from one area to another without being spotted.
Failure Result: Your forces are easily seen moving through the city and all other noble houses know where you have moved them.

Vandalism

Vandalism involves hiring groups of thugs to tear up a block or other area of the city under the control of an opposing noble house in order to damage their ability to make money. This can be devastating against houses that are overextended, but can backfire as vandals turn on their owners (after coercion by the enemy) and start tearing things up in the ‘wrong’ territory.

Influence Requirement: 500
Power Requirement: 2,000 + 1,000 per area to be vandalized.
Cost: 200 gp + 100 gp per area to be vandalized, 500 power per area to be vandalized.
Time: One week
Skill DC: None. This requires an opposed Rank check at the current bonus of the attacker and defender (DC 15).
Success Result: If the aggressor’s Rank check exceeds the defender’s Rank check by 10 or more, the entire area has been so heavily damaged it provides no income for the next three weeks and requires 1d6 x 1,000 gp of repair work before it can generate more than 30% of its original income. If the Rank check succeeds by less than 10, the area provides only 50% of its normal income for 1d4 weeks, after which the damage is repaired and the area provides its normal income once again.
Failure Result: When the aggressor’s Rank check fails by 10 or more, the vandals are turned against the aggressor and attack one of his territories. This is treated exactly as if the defender had hired the vandals to attack the aggressor, but does not use one of the defender’s actions for the round. A group of vandals cannot be turned more than once during a single action. If the aggressor’s Rank check fails by less than 10, the vandalism attempt fails, but there are no other repercussions.

Wrest Control

The only sure way to keep a rival down is to take away his territories and control them yourself. This risky action is designed to steal an area from a rival. This action cannot be taken in areas in which your target has any Power invested – you must first either defeat his forces using an Assault action or otherwise get them out of the area you wish to seize.

Influence Requirement: 5,000
Power Requirement: 1,000.
Cost: 10,000 gp, 5,000 power
Time: One month
Skill DC: None. This requires an opposed Rank check at the current bonus of the attacker and defender (DC 15).
Success Result: If the aggressor’s Rank check defeats the defenders by 10 or more, the aggressor has seized control of the target area from the defender.
Fail Result: If the aggressor’s Rank check fails by 10 or more, the defender has managed to use the opening provided by the attack to turn public opinion against the aggressor. For the next 1d6 months, the aggressor suffers an effective reduction of 5,000 Influence. At the end of this time the aggressor suffers a permanent reduction of 2,500 influence.

Destroying an Enemy House

Noble houses and organizations are very resilient. While it is certainly possible to wipe one out, doing so requires a considerable amount of effort and a fanatical zeal to get the job done. To completely destroy a house or organization, you must first reduce it to a Rank of 1, and then kill the Leader and all lieutenants. This effectively destroys the house and ensures others cannot pick up the loose ends and start over. In the event of a destroyed Noble House or other organization, all areas controlled by that house become uncontrolled and are open for the taking once again.

The Game of Bones and Player Characters

This chapter provides the framework for political and military conflict in the world of the drow, enabling you to quickly adjudicate the actions of many noble houses and other organizations on a large scale. When Player Characters are involved, however, this system may be too abstract. The following additions to the system can greatly enhance the role-playing opportunities of the Game of Bones.

First, if characters are involved, only use the systems above to determine the possible outcome, provided the player characters do not become involved. That is, if the Player Characters were not around, the results determined by the above systems will come to pass. Then create short adventures that allow the characters to overcome these results through specific actions.

Second, make sure the characters are in a position to take actions of their own. If they have control over a portion of their noble house’s forces, then they may be perfectly happy setting things in motion and waiting to see how they turn out. This is a perfect set up for an espionage-based campaign, wherein characters use the forces of the house to find out information they can then act upon.

Third, remember that drow culture is a hotbed of betrayal and deceit. Play up these aspects within their house to keep the player characters guessing about who their enemies and allies really are.