7.2.0 Determining the Project Difficulty

To find out how much Renown is needed to achieve a project, the GM must determine its difficulty. This total difficulty is a product of the intensity of the change, the scope it affects, and the powers that are opposed to it.

First, decide whether the change is plausible, improbable, or impossible. If the change is something that is predictable or unsurprising, it’s a plausible change. A town with good transport links and a couple of wealthy neighbors might quite plausibly become a trade hub. A duke with an abandoned frontier keep and a raider problem might plausibly decide to give it to a famed warrior PC with the agreement that the PC would pledge fealty to him. A plausible change in the campaign is simply one that no one would find particularly surprising or unlikely.

An improbable change is one that’s not physically or socially impossible, but is highly unlikely. Transforming a random patch of steppe grasslands into a trading hub might be an improbable change, as would convincing a duke to simply hand over the frontier fort with no particular claim of allegiance. Some things that are not particularly physically difficult might be improbable due to the social or emotional implications; a society with a relative handful of trophy slaves might find it improbable to give them up even if they serve only as status symbols for their owners.

An impossible change is just that; something that is physically or socially impossible to contemplate. Turning a desolate glacier on the edge of the world into a trading hub might be such, or convincing the duke to simply give the PCs his duchy. Accomplishing a feat like this might require substantial magical Workings, the involvement of ancient artifacts, or a degree of social upheaval on par with a war of conquest. Some changes might be so drastic that they require their own heroic labors simply to prepare the groundwork for the real effort, and entire separate projects must be undertaken before the real goal even becomes possible.