Random Relationship Graph Builder

As I said earlier in my Random Clergy Generator post, I’ve been kicking around a campaign that involves a monastery (or perhaps more appropriately church). Around this time I read an old blog post at Deeper in the Game regarding 3 tiered Conflict Webs.

This go me thinking that I wanted to have the monastery filled with internal conflict at both a petty level as well as the leadership level. I also wanted the monastery to be in the maelstrom of the external world.

This may also be just in time for the rerelease of the Birthright Campaign Setting PDF.

A Proposed Kingdom Relationship

Relationships Defined

Within a living and breathing campaign world, consider three categories of relationships:

External leadership
Internal leadership
Petty affairs

External Leadership

The inter-relationship between organizations and/or figures of authority that are in regular contact.

Thieves Guild, Bishop, Vizier, King, Earl, Duke

Internal Leadership

The characters of an organizational structure that are part of the leadership.
What are their motivations and relationship with other internal leaders.

Abbot, Prior, Subprior, Cellarer, and Sacrist

Petty Affairs

The characters of an organization that are part of the day to day function.

Butler, Footman, Scullery Maid, Driver, Stableman

Begin OPEN GAME CONTENT

Establish the Entity’s Attributes

Each entity has three attributes:

Influence - how the entity is perceived/interacts beyond their domain.
Sovereignty - the entity’s control over their subjects and domain.
Means - resources that can be leveraged to action; wealth, military might, spy network, etc.

Table 1: Entity Relationships - Influence, Sovereignty, Means
Rank	Influence	Sovereignty	Means
-4	Pariah, Outcast	Fall is eminent	Impoverished, insolvent, mutinous
-3	Shunned	Leads in name only	Deeply indebted, demoralized
-2	Ridiculed	Strongly opposed	Shaken, heavily taxed, indebted
-1	Distrustedm	Disrespected	Meager, Over committed
0	Heard	Obeyed	Bases are covered but nothing more
1	Trusted	Respected	Some excess capacity
2	Persuasive	Revered	Excess capacity and capabilities for securing more
3	Finger in every pot	Infallible	Owed numerous favors, abundant capabilities
4	"Puppetmaster"	"God"	Incomprehensible

Establish the Entity’s Relations

For any of the above organizational relationship categories, write each of the named entities in a line. It is the author’s recommendation that you put “obviously related” entities immediately adjacent (i.e. King and Royal Vizier).

For each named entity, roll 4dF and lookup the result:

Negative - connect the entity to the next entity in the line
Zero - connect the entity to the next entity in the line (as above) but also if an entity further down the list has no connections, connect to that entity.
Positive - do all that you would for a zero result and if another entity further down the list has no connections, also connect to that entity.

Each connection represents an established relationship between the two entities.

Optional Relationship: Draw a connection from the last entity on the list and the first entity.

Define the Relationship (Optional)

Table 2: Defining the Relationship between Entities
d8	Vice	Virtue
1	Lust	Chastity
2	Gluttony	Temperance
3	Greed	Charity
4	Sloth	Diligence
5	Wrath	Patience
6	Envy	Kindness
7	Pride	Humility
8	Roll 2 times	Roll 2 times

Each established relationship between a character/organization is defined by one or more vices or virtues. Roll 1d8 and lookup the corresponding Vice/Virtue.

For each line roll 4dF and lookup the result:

Negative - the relationship is based on the indicated vice.
Zero - the relationship is defined by both the vice and virtue.
Positive - the relationship is based on the virtue.

It is up to the Gamemaster to interpret the resulting relationship.

End OPEN GAME CONTENT