Trophies & Commerce
Represent the profits of war, trade and long term economic maneuvering undertaken by a House. These systems allow Houses to convert success on the battlefield or in negotiation into lasting material advantage.
All actions within this system require House authority and are resolved through Story Requests
Trophies
Are a narrative abstraction representing valuable gains acquired through war, raids, or commerce. They do not represent a specific item unless defined in roleplay, but instead function as a flexible store of value.
Options include:
Captured supplies or equipment
Seized wealth or assets
Spoils of war
Profits from trade agreements
Political leverage converted into material benefit
A Trophy always represents something that would otherwise require a Significant House Purchase.
Gaining Trophies
Trophies are earned when a House succeeds at major undertakings, including but not limited to:
Winning battles or defeating enemy units
Successful raids or campaigns
Profitable trade ventures
Commercial exploitation following warfare
Special narrative events approved by staff
Each defeated enemy unit in warfare grants one Trophy to the victorious House.
Additional Trophies may be awarded through Story Requests when justified by narrative outcomes.
Using Trophies
May be spent in several ways…
Acquiring Assets
To claim a narratively appropriate asset that would otherwise require a significant House purchase, without expending Wealth.
Examples:
Equipment or supplies
Improvements to military units
Captured ships or materiel
Story appropriate servants, resources or holdings
Capturing Units
Claiming a defeated unit.
Captured units become base units of their type
They retain no improvements
Elite or Honor Guard units may not be captured in this way
Additional trophies may later be spent to improve these units.
Banking for Wealth
Permanently increase a House’s Wealth
(20) Trophies = (1) Wealth Level
This represents reinvestment, expansion, or consolidation of gains.
Commerce & Trade Ventures
Trophies can be earned through commerce rather than war.
To undertake a trade venture, a House must submit a Story Request describing the following:
- Nature of the trade
- Regions or parties involved
- Justification for potential profit
Mechanically, the House invests Wealth actions, just as with Stewardship investments.
Investment Difficulty
House rolls Stewardship against the following difficulty:
1 Wealth = 5
2 Wealth = 10
3 Wealth = 15
4 Wealth = 20
Success – Gain trophies equal to the number of Wealth actions invested
Failure – Invested Wealth are lost
Trade ventures may represent:
Foreign commerce
Merchant charters
Resource extraction
Shipping agreements
Economic exploitation following conquest
Trophies as Political Tools
May be…
Shared with allied Houses
Lent or promised in exchange for favors
Used to offset hardship elsewhere
Leveraged narratively in diplomacy
All such uses must be documented through roleplay and Story Requests
Limits & Oversight
Trophies are House level resources, not personal property…
Characters may not independently spend or generate Trophies…
All trophies use is subject to narrative plausibility and Staff approval…
Trophies exist to reward meaningful actions, not passive accumulation.