Non-Player Characters and the Timeskip

Non-Player Characters will be affected in a number of ways by The Timeskip, as detailed below. In addition, some NPCs have more detailed profiles than others, and may need to refer to Player Characters and the Timeskip to see how they are affected.

Mortality

At the beginning of the Timeskip each character must take a Mortality check.
A Player Character can spend a Story Point to have an NPC to whom they have a Connection automatically pass their Mortality check (at the DM's discretion).
The Dice Pool for this is formed as follows:

Brawn

If the Brawn of the character is known, use this value. Otherwise:

• Characters with a Brawn of 1 are weaker than average. They usually have devoted their life to social or academic pursuits. This can also include the elderly, frail or unwell.

• Characters with a Brawn of 2 are average. People who are accustomed to physical work.

• Characters with a Brawn of 3 are above average. People whose everday is defined by physical work or combat, whose muscles are in use regularly and who have a robust constitution.

• Characters with a Brawn of 4 are exceptional. People who have dedicated time and effort to mastering their body.

• Characters with a Brawn of 5 are at or beyond the limits of human capability. It is very likely that an individual at this level would stand out from their peers in some way. Many Darklyn Bastards are at this level, but few others.

Relevant Skills

If the character has any relvant skills they will apply to this dice pool as normal. Otherwise:

• Characters with a physical background such as a farmer, miner, labourer and so on would have one or two ranks in a relevant skill.

• Characters with a martial background such as a man-at-arms or a bandit would have at least two, possibly three ranks in a relevant skill.

• Knightly characters will have three ranks in a relevant skill.

• Characters who are noteworthy either for their good health, or for their stubbornness, will have an additional rank.

• Characters who have overcome an illness, or survived an incident such as the loss of a limb or similar, will have an additional rank.

Difficulty

• Characters who are over 40 have a difficulty of d.

• Characters who are over 50 have a difficulty of dd.

• Characters who are over 60 have a difficulty of dc.

• Each additional decade upgrades the difficulty further.

• Characters who have suffered from Drowner's Lung at any point in their life will have the difficulty of the check upgraded once.

• Characters employed in a martial role, knights and squires have the difficulty of the check upgraded once.

• Characters who participate in an armed conflict during The Timeskip will have to test again.

Other Modifiers

• Characters who live in high population centres, from the Town level upward, add b to their check.

• Characters with a background in Medicine or Herbalism, or who have access to such an individual, such as a Spire Advisor, add b to their check.

• Characters linked to a Player Settlement may replace their own Brawn and Skills with that of one Health development they have access to.

Outcomes

• Simply put, if a character fails they will die. If a character dies, the roll of a D10 determines how many years into the Timeskip they die.

• If a character rolls a d but does not die, it represents some kind of event happening to that character.
  • If they are a martial character they suffer a Critical Injury roll with +50 to the roll, the effects of this Critical Injury are permanent.
  If they are not a martial character, they must test again after a number of years equal to the actual s rolled.

• If a character rolls a t, even if they die, they produce an additional child (unless there is some narrative reason otherwise).

Children

A character who is actively seeking to have children, or with less than three living children and who lives with a partner, will have a child after D6 years. They will have another child after another D6 years until The Timeskip ends, or until they stop attempting to have children.
New children born in this way have a 50/50 chance of being male or female.

Marriage

Each year, characters who have been arranged into courtships by players or through their own actions will either marry or separate to seek new courtships. This can be determined by players through the use of Story Points, but otherwise is a purely narrative choice at the DM's discretion.

Coming Out

Both trans and queer individuals are common in Greland, and such individuals are universally accepted - even a cruel individual would not think to attack someone for these aspects of their character. As such it is most common for people to come out during adolescence. While it is not unheard of for older people to have this realisation about themselves, the lack of social pressures to conform to cis-heteronormativity means these things are rarely suppressed into adulthood.
For each character who is between the ages of twelve and twenty-one at any point in The Timeskip there is a 10% chance that they come out as transgender and a 10% chance that they come out as nonbinary or agender.
Seperately, for each character who is unmarried and between the ages of eighteen and thirty there is a 10% chance that they come out as bisexual, 15% that they come out as exclusively homosexual and a 5% chance that they come out as aromantic, asexual, or some other part of the ace spectrum.
For characters who are older than the indicated ages, coming out in adulthood is purely narrative rather than random.

Education

Characters who pass the age of five and are NobleBlood and/or have access to an Educated adult will gain the Educated tag.

Squiring

Characters between the age of eight and fifteen may become squires. Characters who are squires will become knights after 7+D6 years, or on their eighteenth birthday if they have already been squiring at least eight years, or on their twenty-first birthday, whichever comes soonest.

Replacing Dead NPCs

Most NPC roles which are vacated by character death must be replaced narratively - Sworn Swords, Council members, etc. However there are some which will be filled automatically, as follows:

• Man-at-Arms Unit Captains take a Marshal Skill check against a base difficulty of the unit's Experience Level and Leadership. If the check is passed, a new Captain is hired for the unit with the same qualities as the old one. If the check is failed a new Captain is hired with a Leadership attribute one rank lower (to a minimum of 1). If the check is failed by ff or with a d, the unit is disbanded. If the check is passed by ss or greater a new Captain is hired for the unit with a Leadership attribute one rank higher. For each additional s or every aa you may add one additional quality to that Military Unit.

• Guard Unit Captains are much the same except that they may substitute the Order of the settlement they are drawn from and/or a relevant Development from that settlement for the Marshal Skill check.

• Other Development NPCs - business owners, barber-surgeonnes, etc - must take a check, using whatever the player and DM agree is most suitable, against a base difficulty of the Development level. If the check is passed a new NPC is found to maintain the Development at the same level. If the check is failed the new NPC causes the Development to be reduced by one Rank (to a minimum of 1). If the check is failed by ff or with a d, no suitable NPC can be found and the Development is destroyed. If the check is passed by ss or greater a new NPC is hired for the Development that increases it by one rank. For each additional s or every aa you may add one Revenue to that Settlement's Coffers.