R&D Journal
To Be a Wolf
by Morgan "Not Biased Toward Baratheon" Stana
And yet, when Renly cut away her torn cloak and fastened a rainbow in its place, Brienne of Tarth did not look unfortunate. Her smile lit up her face, and her voice was strong and proud as she said, "My life for yours, Your Grace. From this day on, I am your shield, I swear it by the old gods and the new."
When discussing with Nate French, lead designer, which George R.R. Martin quote should be used to introduce the next Sacred Bonds spoiler, we both independently turned to the same passage. While my initial two reactions were "I should never ask Nate for advice, I can obviously do this myself," and "Baratheon has the best Sacred-Bonders ever, and Baratheon is therefore the coolest house," it also stresses the fact that there are memorable points in the book where characters wholeheartedly swear themselves to ideas. (I will note that it was very difficult to not type a Full House-inspired ‘Nate and I have the sacred bond of Designer and Line Coordinator' line.)
The strength it would take to swear yourself to one individual is overwhelming. To make yourself stand completely for an idea, someone else's idea, is almost as unfathomable in George's world as it is in our own.
However, doing so has its benefits. Swearing fealty to a house, paying the price of loyalty, is not just a negative thing. It gives characters added protection, skills, and benefits that they didn't previously possess.
Fortunately, we give you six houses to which you can swear your fealty, or lack thereof. The previous R&D Corner indicated Jaqen's ability to bond to whichever house he pleases. However, this time around, I'd like to introduce the latest incarnation of the unique abilities that coincide with each house.
Just as Brienne swore herself to Renly for her entire life, players must swear themselves to one house (or occasionally two) for an entire tournament. The choice is always a difficult one. The format, the metagame, the expected players, the cardpool, and personal play style all wrap into the huge decision.
The head of the decision, however, is asking yourself what you want to do with your deck. Between locking people in towers, finding people guilty, or giving people wounds of a festering nature, each house has its niche in the game. And there are always little goodies stashed within each house's role. You can't claim power by returning people from your dead pile, kneeling your opponent's characters, or searching things out. But they definitely help.
This is where the To Be a… cycle enters the game. It gives that extra little two-fold push for the player, accenting the fact that each house has multiple concepts that make it unique.
;)
With To Be a Wolf, Stark sees several aspects that don't exclaim, "I'm killing things and taking names!" and instead plays off the fact that Stark already is doing this in spades. The need for the Military Battle plot card creates a slight deck-building cost that you have to consider if you want to play the card, but many of the cards with the Military Battle trait should just tie in better with Stark's militant theme. The ability to search out almost any specific card type (Eat your heart out, Jojen Reed!) adds that extra something special to the Stark player that they haven't seen before (and I appreciate in my own evil sort of way that players will now have to choose between Executioner's Block, Icy Catapult, and Like Warm Rain!).
And the standing? While the standing seems like it's just icing on the deadly little Stark cupcake, it's much more. Standing is the cost of the event. It's proving that once again that swearing allegiance is a bolstering of spirit and ability. Paper shield or no, the "cost" of being a wolf is, in this case, a very good one.
Very shortly, with the release of the Sacred Bonds chapter pack this month, you'll be seeing this extra push for the home team… whoever the home team may be.
Until then, good luck with Nationals.
(Does anyone want to start a band called the Sacred Bonders with me?)
