"To create trouble, have a powerful person make a thoughtless or malicious decision and follow through on it, to bad effect on people less powerful."

So, essentially, this is about power being abused and the resulting shit flowing downhill. It would help me improvise if I knew in advance the likely sources and channels of the shit in question. To this end, I would be a fan of a creation process for powerful people, that establishes what power they have over others and what motives they would have for abusing that power.

A feudal lord, for example, would have both a landlord's power and the local justice's power over his tenants. Additionally, he has a master's power over his vassals and servants. In a Venusian city-state, how does power lie? As for motivations, there could be "I love my wine and my ease," or "I am thrilled to have others bend the knee to me," or "I want the best for my children."

Without something like this, inspiration for trouble seems to flow slowly and with difficulty.

Charles Perez

I notice that a war company can consist of multiple peoples, each with potentially a different outfit (specific armor and weapons, maybe steeds), harm, and armor. Each people's war is also different; you settle it by taking a modal average of the War of each soul in the company. I recommend the same for harm and for armor, each reckoned separately, not in combination.

As for special options resulting from outfit, be they for archers, for cavalry, or for a shield wall (infantry with round or larger shields), I would recommend allowing a war company to use a set of special options if, and only if, more than half of the souls in that war company qualify for that set. The same for special circumstances, such as fighting mounted: more than half of the war company must qualify.

Charles

While ruling over a place, whenever a session begins with your hold on a place being secure and your rule of it unchallenged, roll +Warfare or +Presence. On 10+, choose 3; on 7-9, choose 2; on 6-, choose 0. You may make this move once for one place you hold yourself; you may also make this move once for each place you hold through a proxy. A place never helps you rule over itself.
The place yields Respect for the session.
The place will yield tribute according to its nature for the session without difficulty and without complication.
Once during a session, you may take +1 forward, if the place or your status with the place could reasonably make a difference.
The place is temporarily yours until the end of the session.
The place is temporarily innocuous until the end of the session.

While mastering or befriending an object, whenever a session begins, and whenever downtime happens, and your hold or influence over an object is secure and your access to it unchallenged, roll +Psyche or +Stamina. On 10+, choose 3; on 7-9, choose 1; on 6-, choose 0. Once an object is indefinitely yours and indefinitely innocuous, it is no longer subject to being befriended or mastered. You may make this move until you fail; then you must wait for session's end or for more downtime. An object never helps you befriend or master itself.
The object performs its function for the session without difficulty and without complication.
Once during a session, you may take +1 forward, if the object could reasonably make a difference.
The object is temporarily yours until the end of the session.
The object is temporarily innocuous until the end of the session.
You gain 1 ephemeral Respect, or, if the object contains something of the Real, 1 real Respect.


A place can be a location, a full shadow, location and shadow, or multiple locations or shadows or both, as long as there is justification for treating them as a unit, and as long as all of them are accessible from all others by their inhabitants without using any outside power.

Respect yielded by a place is as follows.

If the place comprises at least 1 shadow, the place yields +1 Respect.
Each place of power that is part of the place yields +1 Respect.
If any shadows within the place are part of the Golden Circle or the Black Circle, the place yields +1 Respect.

If a place comprising at least 1 location yields no Respect, it will yield 1 Respect instead.

When Respect is gained from a place, it generally lasts for the session, fading away as the session ends; this ephemeral Respect may be used normally by the ruler until it fades. For each shadow within a place with something of the Real, whenever the place yields Respect, 1 respect yielded is not ephemeral, instead becoming part of the ruler's Respect total until used.

The centers of Order and Chaos, as places, yield double the normal respect: 2 Real Respect and 4 ephemeral Respect each.

When trying to enact a scheme, decide the end goal and the general means, and tell the MC. Assuming that the end goal could conceivably be met by the general means proposed, the MC will tell you "Yes, but ..." and 1 to 4 of the following:
enacting the scheme will take an inconveniently long time;
before enacting the scheme, you must acquire ______________;
before enacting the scheme, you must master a new skill or power;
you will need ___________'s help;
enacting the scheme will cost you significantly;
there will be undesirable consequences to enacting the scheme;
the end goal itself will have unsatisfactory elements;
enacting the scheme will expose you and your fellow schemers to serious danger;
success will require many attempts;
you will have to wait a session or 2 for the result of the scheme to come to fruition;
you must take ___________ apart or use it up to enact the scheme.
The MC may connect all of the caveats with 'and', or, mercifully, include an 'or'.

One scheme, successfully enacted, can:
create or obtain an object of desire;
find a location or shadow of desire;
make you a power behind an existing faction;
create a new threat, alone or as part of a faction;
add someone or something to a faction as a threat;
add someone or something to your faction as a threat regardless of its consent;
remove a threat from your faction without its consent;
add advantageous features to an object or location;
regain something lost yet at least potentially still yours;
put a proposition that could well be true to the test;
discover a new way to destroy something;
relocate to an adjacent region of shadow;
accomplish some other feat on a par with any of these.

A faction is yours if you are a power behind it.

The MC will create threats, individually and as parts of factions.

To create a faction, choose an ambition to be at its heart and detail what the specific object of this ambition is. Then, populate this faction with threats. At least one such threat should probably be a person or a person-like threat whose associated ambition matches that of the faction itself. If the faction contains no such person, be mindful of why not. Also, determine which of the threats are powers behind the faction. Then, looking at the faction's ambition, object and threats, determine countdowns and custom moves as needful. In play, the faction can change, with new threats, new powers behind the faction, new custom moves, even new countdowns.

Player characters can create and join factions, usually by expending Respect. Each member of a faction must identify as a specific type of threat within that faction, even if innocuous, even if a PC. The MC can then create countdowns and custom moves for the faction, as appropriate.

Amberites (and Chaosites) can generally get all of the wealth they desire. What is scarce in their world would appear to be Respect. Respect is gained and lost as an Amberite is shown to be strong or weak in potentially any sense. The basic currency works as follows.

Gain 1 Respect each time you:
receive contrition in earnest from an important person not your client;
receive gratitude in public from an important person not your client;
prove obeisance to a powerful patron;
are the client of a powerful patron for 2 or 3 or 4 sessions;
have an important client for 2 or 3 or 4 sessions;
have an important hostage or captive for 2 or 3 or 4 sessions;
have an important client prove obeisance to you;
are an acknowledged power behind a reputable faction for a full session;
show clear dominance over a worthy adversary;
have at least 1 trait at +4 for a full session;
walk the Pattern or navigate the Logrus.

You can also gain Respect by ruling over places and by mastering or befriending objects.

1 Respect buys:
a public or private audience with a power recognized by Order or by Chaos, or with a Primordial chieftain;
an invitation to any inter-shadow social gathering where you would not normally be welcome, if a plausible pretext for inviting you anyway exists;
having an inter-shadow social gathering you host be well attended;
remaining in good standing in the courts of either Order or of Chaos for 2, 3 or 4 sessions;
holding a respectable, well-attended inter-shadow court for 1 session;
remaining a patron of important clients for 2, 3 or 4 sessions;
continuing to be a power behind a faction for 2, 3 or 4 sessions;
joining a new or existing faction with the advice and consent of all of the powers behind it;
welcoming a willing object or PC or place or doom into your faction with the advice and consent of all of the powers behind the faction.
assembling a doom from its component parts and initiating it into any faction, or into no faction at all, during play, with a cool head;
losing neither face nor status after displaying contrition in earnest to someone not your patron;
losing neither face nor status after displaying gratitude in public to someone not your patron;
losing neither face nor status after being dominated by an adversary not out of your league;
losing neither face nor status after proving obeisance to a weak patron;
having a single object that is neither supernal nor Real and that is already temporarily yours become indefinitely yours;
having a single object that is neither supernal nor Real and that is already temporarily innocuous become indefinitely innocuous.

2 Respect buys:
a public or private audience with a prince of Order or of Chaos, or with a Primordial chieftain of chieftains;
an invitation to any inter-shadow social gathering where you would not normally be welcome;
having an inter-shadow social gathering you host be well attended and having an invitation to it be sufficient inducement to attend for any lesser power recognized by Order, for any lesser power recognized by Chaos, and for any Primordial chieftain;
holding a respectable, well-attended inter-shadow court worthy of a prince of Order or of Chaos or of a Primordial chieftain of chieftains for 1 session;
having a location that is not Real, that is not a place of power, and that is already temporarily yours become indefinitely yours.

3 Respect buys:
a public or private audience with the king of Order or the king of Chaos;
holding a respectable, well-attended inter-shadow court worthy of a ruler of Order or of Chaos for 1 session;
joining a faction as a power behind it with the advice and consent of all powers behind the faction;
having a shadow that is not Real, that does not include a place of power, and that is already temporarily yours become indefinitely yours.

4 Respect buys:
having an inter-shadow social gathering you host be well attended and having an invitation to it be sufficient inducement to attend for any lesser power recognized by Order or by Chaos, for any prince of Order or Chaos, for any Primordial chieftain, and for any Primordial chieftain of chieftains.

+1 Respect buys:
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is Real;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is Real;
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is multiple;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is multiple;
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is Size +1;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is Size +1;
having a location or shadow become indefinitely yours even if it has something of the Real;
having a location become indefinitely yours even if it is place of power;
having a shadow become indefinitely yours even if it includes a place of power.

+2 Respect buys:
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is supernal;
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is numerous;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is numerous;
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is Size +2;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is Size +2.

+3 Respect buys:
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is plentiful;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is plentiful;
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is Size +3;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is Size +3.

+4 Respect buys:
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is multitudinous;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is multitudinous;
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is Size +4;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is Size +4.

+5 Respect buys:
having an object become indefinitely yours even if it is numberless;
having an object become indefinitely innocuous even if it is numberless.

If a Respect purchase impels a PC toward a specific course of action, the expenditure is equivalent to a 10+ on an attempt to seduce or otherwise manipulate the PC.

Player character supernals have all of the following levels of harm.

Endurance

___  Flagging (recover after a short respite)
___  Depleted (recover at beginning of session or after downtime)
___  Exhausted (debility - recover when a move or the fiction allows)


Psyche

___  Discomfited (recover after a short respite)
___  Bowed (recover at beginning of session, or with downtime)
___  Broken (debility - recover when a move or the fiction allows)



Strength

___  Taxed (recover after a short respite)
___  Strained (recover at beginning of session, or with downtime)
___  Tapped (debility - recover when a move or the fiction allows)



Warfare

___  Pressed (recover after a short respite)
___  Beleaguered (recover at beginning of session, or with downtime)
___  Defeated (debility - recover when a move or the fiction allows)



Health

___  Battered (recover at beginning of session, or with downtime)
___  Bloodied (recover when a move or the fiction allows)
___  Crippled (debility - recover as moves and the fiction allow)


Each level of advantage can be an extra level of harm that can be taken by whoever has the advantage. Such harm is recovered after a short respite following the end of the conflict.

Non-player supernals have the following levels of harm:

___  Flagging or Discomfited or Taxed or Pressed
___  Depleted or Bowed or Strained or Beleaguered
___  Exhausted or Broken or Tapped or Defeated
___  Battered
___  Bloodied
___  Crippled

If a non-player character is not a supernal, it only gains levels of harm from advantages.

If any character takes harm and cannot apply it to an unchecked level, then that character is taken out. This may mean that the character is dead or otherwise out of play; this will depend on the circumstances in the fiction.

Starting characters have 5 basic traits: Endurance, Fortune, Psyche, Strength, and Warfare, each of which ranges from -2 to 4. A sixth, derived, trait, Power, is always the highest of Endurance, Psyche, Strength, and Warfare, but never higher than 3. The two other derived traits are Stamina, the higher of Endurance and Strength, and Presence, the higher of Psyche and Fortune, both never higher than 3. A starting character will first choose values for the 5 basic traits such that no basic traits are higher than 2 and either: there are 0 or 1 basic traits equal to 2, and all 5 basic traits add up to 3; or there are 2 basic traits equal to 2, and all  5 basic traits add up to 2.

Afterward, advances are applied. Each new character gets 3 major advances and 1 minor advance. A new character may trade in 1 or 2 major advances for minor advances; each major advance traded in thusly yields 2 minor advances. A player may also choose to cross out 1 major advance or 2 minor advances; the character may never take those advances. You must say, in a general sense, what the character had before play begins that was since lost. In exchange for this, the character gets 2 extra major advances, each of which may be exchanged for 2 minor advances.

From time to time through the course of play, a player will get to check experience. Each experience check fills one check box. When 10 boxes are filled, earn a minor advance and uncheck the boxes or else leave the boxes checked. When 20 boxes are filled, either earn 1 major advance or 2 minor advances and uncheck all boxes, or else earn 1 minor advance and uncheck 10 boxes.

At character creation and in play, check off each advance as it is taken; it may not be taken again.

Traits:
Endurance
Fortune
Psyche
Strength
Warfare

Power
Presence
Stamina

___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___

___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___


Highlighted Traits:
___   Endurance & Stamina
___   Fortune & Presence
___   Psyche
___   Strength
___   Warfare


Major Advances (1 Major Advance = 2 Minor Advances)

___  Add +1 to Endurance (max +3)
___  Add +1 to Fortune (max +3)
___  Add +1 to Psyche (Max +3)
___  Add +1 to Strength (Max +3)
___  Add +1 to Warfare (Max +3)
___  Add +1 to Endurance, Psyche, Strength, or Warfare (Max +4)
___  Gain the power of Pattern (requires Amber lineage after play begins)
___  Gain the power of Logrus (requires Chaos lineage after play begins, and requires the power of Shapeshifting)
___  Gain the power of Trumps (requires any Real lineage after play begins)
___  Gain the power of Shapeshifting (requires any Real lineage after play begins)
___  Gain a supernal ally
___  Gain a supernal ally
___  Gain a major custom move
___  Gain a major custom move


Minor Advances (2 Minor Advances = 1 Major Advance)

___  Begin play with Amber lineage without the power of Pattern
___  Begin play with Chaos lineage without the power of Logrus
___  Discover your Primordial lineage without already having a major power that implies it
___  Gain a place or places with 5 advantageous features among them, all such places being indefinitely yours
___  Add 3 advantageous features to new and/or existing places, all such places being indefinitely yours
___  Add 3 advantageous features to new and/or existing places, all such places being indefinitely yours
___  Add 3 advantageous features to new and/or existing places, all such places being indefinitely yours
___  Gain an object or objects with 5 advantageous features among them, all such objects being indefinitely yours
___  Add 3 advantageous features to new and/or existing objects, all such objects being indefinitely yours
___  Add 3 advantageous features to new and/or existing objects, all such objects being indefinitely yours
___  Add 3 advantageous features to new and/or existing objects, all such objects being indefinitely yours
___  Gain a non-supernal ally
___  Gain a non-supernal ally
___  Gain a non-supernal ally
___  Gain a minor custom move
___  Gain a minor custom move
___  Gain a minor custom move