Rumors of War

So, I’m looking at affiliations again. This afternoon, while my mind was too numb to actually process much beyond simply reading the printed word and condensing what I was staring at, I created a summary for the executive powers from the Revised Third Edition Player’s Handbook 2. It was nice and informative.

I started by swapping the terms “merchants” for “business,” “mercenaries” for “fighting company,” and “princes” for “government.” It’s a simple change, but it’s one step in a much larger process. I made a couple notes as to how I might represent the executive powers in Arkham Horror (beatify and plague replaced with blessing and curse).

There are twenty executive powers and ten affiliation types. My aim is to reduce the number of affiliation types to five, and the number of executive powers to ten. What I might wind up doing instead, though, is leaving off two executive powers per faction, and one per Magical State. (Seventeen executive powers in total.)

cabals (7)
assassinate, craft, pariah, raid, research, shadow war, and terrorize

colleges (4)
craft, gift, research, and trade

druid circles (10)
assassinate, blessing, craft, curse, excommunicate, holiday, inquisition, raid, shadow war, and terrorize

mercenaries (5)
crusade, plunder, raid, terrorize, and war

merchants (4)
craft, gift, harvest, trade

princes (9)
assassinate, gift, holiday, law, mint, plunder, raid, terrorize, and war

temples (9)
assassinate, blessing, craft, crusade, curse, excommunication, gift, holiday, and inquisition

thieves (6)
assassinate, pariah, plunder, raid, shadow war, and terrorize

tribes (9)
craft, crusade, curse, excommunication, harvest, plunder, raid, terrorize, and war

spies (7)
assassinate, pariah, plunder, raid, research, shadow war, and terrorize

What I’m thinking about for condensing this list, starts with changing some more of the names around. Excommunication will become exile. I plan to consolidate druid circles with temples, and thieves with spies. Some cabal stuff will be split between temples and colleges. Mostly, the affiliation types will see a lot of collapsing.