For the past twelve months, we’ve talked about Honor’s Fall… it’s the climax of the year for Dystopia Rising New York. However, every year, Honor’s Fall changes a little, and it’s important to understand the “rules of the game.” We want to make sure all players, both in- and out-of-character, know what to expect this August.
In-Character Justification
For players who have attended Honor’s Fall in the past, you know there are always small changes as the staff adjusts to lessons learned. In-character, these changes are due to the authority of the High Lord Executioner, who has a great deal of influence over the process. Last year, we saw Anton Anastasia at the height of his power effectively control all aspects of Honor’s Fall, as he slipped into authoritarianism and was ultimately killed by Jones. This year, with Anton taking a step back, his second-in-command, Essex, has asserted his personality on the event. As a result, one can expect less pageantry and intrigue, as Essex favors the direct approach.
This is just a justification: your staff made changes to promote gameplay. We appreciate your buy-in on this: we’re being as transparent as we can, and would appreciate you steering your character towards acceptance of these changes.
How Honor’s Fall Works
At sunset, the Treaty of the Fold is suspended, and everyone in town can do as they will. By tradition, the Heads of the Patron Families of Requiem hunt each other to retain their position and choose the High Lord Executioner. While the activity is simple, we have several rules in play that the Families are expected to follow:
All Families of Requiem, Patron and Ward, standing and perspective, are expected to participate in Honor’s Fall.
For the sake of clarity, “participate” means the Family Head has to be “on the field”: visibly participating in Honor’s Fall. They should spend significant time (at least three hours) undisguised and out in the open where people can find them.
Families fight to collect “trophies,” the severed head of the leader of one of the Patron Families.
This year, as there are only 9 Patron Family Heads, there are only 9 trophies. To correct for this situation, the six remaining original families (Anastasia, Boon-Helm, Molon, Volkov, Warren, Zodiac) do not need to collect a trophy.
The three more recent Patron Families (Brokentooth, the Devils, and Lonely Streetz), as well as any prospective Family, must collect a trophy and place it in the Wilted Rose by sunrise to retain or gain Patron Family Status.
If there are more Prospective Families with trophies than there are available positions, the existing Families vote on who will become a Patron Family.
Family Heads can’t make deals to trade their trophies. They must be taken by force. After a trophy is in one’s possession (i.e. taken from the corpse of a Family Head), deals can be made.
Other than that, Families can do whatever they can think of to keep their Family Head safe. If they violate the spirit of the rules, they might find there are severe consequences.
The last Family Head standing in the Wilted Rose by sunrise will be declared the High Lord Executioner (there’s a catch, however, see below).
Once a Family Head is killed, they no longer need to participate in Honor’s Fall, but they still need to show up at the Wilted Rose with a trophy.
The High Lord Executioner
The political purpose of Honor’s Fall is to pick the High Lord Executioner, who will enforce the Treaty of the Fold for the next year. Traditionally, the High Lord Executioner was the “last one standing,” which led to a great deal of wheeling and dealing throughout the night. Contrary to popular belief, the High Lord Executioner doesn’t have to be the only Family Head who survives the night… they have to be the last survivor who is standing in the Wilted Rose at sunrise. Some specific points:
Only Family Heads can become the High Lord Executioner.
If a Family Head dies during the night of Honor’s Fall, they can’t become High Lord Executioner.
Unlike the collection of trophies, deals to determine who becomes High Lord Executioner are very common. If a Family Head hasn’t died, they simply step out of the Wilted Rose before sunrise if they don’t wish to oppose the claimant.
If there is more than one Family Head in the Wilted Rose who hasn’t died by sunrise, it’s likely to end in a great deal of bloodshed. This hasn’t happened yet, and all the Families will do whatever it takes to avoid this sort of war.
How To Enjoy Honor’s Fall
You have three options to enjoy the night of Honor’s Fall: political Character versus Character (CvC), political Character versus Enemies (CvE), or survival CvE:
If you’re heavily involved in Family politics, you can actively hunt (and be hunted by) other players. If you play a high-ranking member of a Family, you’ve opted into this already; other players may choose to get involved in the CvE aspects of Honor’s Fall.
If you want to get involved in the bloody politics of Honor’s Fall, but prefer less CvC, you can hunt and oppose the NPC Patron Families, who will all be out in force. Remember, they’re often as dangerous as other PCs.
If you want to stay out of the politics of Requiem, you can just try to survive the carnage, and help others to do so. The battles of Honor’s Fall are known for their collateral damage, so there are lots of challenges for you.
All Night Long
We’ll be running Honor’s Fall plot from sunset to sunrise (7:50 pm to 6:14 am… almost 11½ hours). How do we expect you to manage that?
First, to set expectations: after it becomes apparent who the High Lord Executioner will be (i.e. all the other Family Heads have died), the violence dies down. We’ll go all night, but realistically, NPC threats will be rolling back around 4 am (like a normal Dystopia Rising New York game). While you’re not “safe,” you can probably find someplace to sleep if you're not affiliated with a Family whose Head is still alive.
That said, a lot of you will be up at sunrise to see how events pan out at the Wilted Rose. First light is 5:45 am, and there will be important events that occur at this time. We expect you pace yourself on Saturday, and understand the staff are pacing ourselves as well. This includes a 4-hour siesta on Saturday, where no events will be scheduled. This includes player-driven events: please do not schedule anything during the Saturday siesta… this is time for you to relax and hopefully nap.
Trophy Hunting
Collecting heads is very important to Honor’s Fall, and we have a local item to do so. It’s the Boone-Helm family item, the Blood Covered Artist’s Toolkit:
A kit used to make trophies. Requires 30 seconds of role-play. When combined with any level hooch, allows the taking of a non-mechanical trophy. If used on a recurring named NPC, or local unique high level threat, it will produce a Creature Comfort card. The card produced lasts 3 years.
So to collect a head, you need this item and a bottle of hooch, and take 30 seconds roleplaying collecting a trophy from a dead Family Head. For Honor’s Falls, we have some special things we’re doing to make this easier:
First, the Boone-Helm are happy to support the artistic endeavors of all this Honor’s Fall. You can buy a Toolkit at the Post Office for 5 wagers or 1 wager signed by Polaris Boone-Helm.
You have to have some sort of physrep for the kit… it doesn’t need to be elaborate, but it should be something you’re carrying around. Additionally, you should have some sort of physrep for the trophy you collect with it, if at all possible.
Family Heads (including PCs) will have a creature comfort card on them representing their “head.” This item card can’t be used, traded or stolen until someone kills the Family Head and uses the Toolkit on them. The Family Head will then hand the person who used the Toolkit the card.