7.4.0 Determining the Opposition

Once you have decided on the difficulty and the scope, you now need to identify the most significant people or power bases that would be opposed to this change. In some cases, there may be no one opposed to the alteration; turning a steppe oasis into a trading post might not have anyone to object if there are no nomads who control the land, nor terrible beasts to threaten settlers. In most cases, however, there’s going to be at least one person, creature, or other power in the area who would prefer things not change.

If the opposition comes in the form of ordinary peasants or citizens, minor bandit rabble, normal dangerous animals, or other disorganized and low-level threats, then the difficulty is multiplied by x2.

If the opposition is organized under competent leadership, such as a local baron, rich merchant, or persuasive priest, or if the opposition is some dangerous but not especially remarkable monster, then the difficulty is multiplied by x4.

If the opposition is entrenched and powerful, such as a group of nobles, an influential bandit king, a crime boss, a major city’s mayor, or a monster impressive enough to have developed its own legendary, then the difficulty is multiplied by x8.

If the opposition involves facing down a king, a legendary monster, the primate of a major religion, or some similar monarchic power, then the difficulty is multiplied by x16.

When measuring opposition, only the greatest opponent counts. Thus, if the king, the nobility, and the local village chief all hate an idea, the difficulty modifier is x16. If the king is then persuaded to relent, the difficulty modifier becomes x8, until the barons are pacified, after which the village chieftain is the only opposition left, for a x2 modifier.

On top of this, if the change inspires widespread popular dis approval or unease among the populace affected by the change, multiply the modifier by an additional x2. Such changes usually touch on delicate questions of group identity, cultural traditions, or basic values, and the people in the change’s scope are likely to resist such measures on multiple levels.

As an example, assume an idealistic band of adventurers dreamed of extirpating slavery from an entire kingdom. The natives use slaves for work and status, but their labor isn’t crucial to the economy’s survival, so the GM decides it is merely improbable to give up slavery, for a base difficulty of 2. The scope is kingdom-wide, so 2 is multiplied by 16, for a difficulty of 32. As the situation stands now, the king has no desire to infuriate the wealthy magnates of his kingdom by taking away their free labor, so he would oppose it for an additional x16 multiplier, for a total difficulty of 512. Oh, and the natives find the idea of accepting slaves as equals to be emotionally abhorrent, so that’s an additional x2 multiplier, for a final difficulty of 1,024.

It is very unlikely for the heroes to manage to scrape up the 1,024 points of Renown needed to make this change out of hand. They’re going to have to alter the situation to quell the opposition and make specific strides toward making the ideal more plausible before they can finally bring about their dream.

Probability of the Goal	Base Difficulty	Scope Affected	Difficulty Multiplier	Greatest Active Opposition	Difficulty Multiplier
Plausible	1	Village	x2	Minor figures	x2
Improbable	2	City	x4	Local leaders	x4
Impossible	4	Region	x8	Major noble or beast	x8
		Kingdom	x16	King or famed monster	x16
		Known World	x32

Multiply opposition by x2 if the local population is emotionally or socially against it.