Who do you use as members of the council?

Who do you use as members of the council?

Who do you use as members of the council?

The NPC’s are listed with surnames (Rowan, Clelland etc.) and are described as “scions of the six most powerful houses”. My question is, would you use the named NPC’s from other factions as members of the council, or another relation?

E.g. Commander Clelland is the Chief of the Bluecoats. Would you make him also a member of the council, or another of his family? Same for Lady Penderyn. She’s a member of the Circle of the Flame – maybe also part of the council?

I can see arguments for both for and against. What are your thoughts?

Thanks all 🙂

4 thoughts on “Who do you use as members of the council?”

  1. I made up my own, way before the final book came out. With all the political shenanigans going on in my game, six wasn’t enough, so I made it one council member for each district. Some notables:

    Lord Brogan: The Porcelain Dolls were hired by the Crows to sneak into his office and plant evidence of treason. He was seen being led out by the Bluecoats and shipped off to Ironhook the very next day. The Dolls never did find out what was in that envelope.

    Lady Drake: A corrupt Magistrate whom the Dolls helped get appointed to the Council.

    Ellsworth Dunne: Former foreman of the Cinder Street Dolls Company, and the man responsible for getting Gregor (known to his friends in the Dolls as Gears) committed to an asylum for five years. The Dolls embarked on a campaign of revenge against Ellsworth, that culminated in him committing suicide, alone and friendless, in a flophouse in Charhollow.

    Sabine Lyness: The granddaughter of Benedict Lyness, famed Engineer to the Emperor (inventor of the famed Clockwork Gates of the Imperial City, among other things), and niece of Kobb Lyness (Benedict’s layabout younger son and member of the Dolls). She asked Constance to take Kobb on, unaware of the Dolls’ extralegal activities.

    Gomberto Santoli: Council member who is being pressured by the Circle of Flame to push through a resolution to allow the Ministry of Transport to take over the Gondoliers. Sabine opposed him on this, so he framed her to get her out of the way, even temporarily. This put him on the Dolls’ radar.

    There are others, but those are the ones with the most personality.

  2. I made up my own as well, though only one of them is from a different family from those listed in the book(since I made him up before the book came out). The rest are just members of the listed families whom I’ve figured out personalities and agendas for one my own.

  3. I use the surnames, though I have multiple people in the houses. For instance, the Clelland that is a Bluecoat commander is nephew of the council member, Lady Clelland, who pretty much got his post because of nepotism.

    Similarly, Preceptor Dunvil of the Church is the husband of the Councilwoman and head of the Iron Hook Dunvil.

    One of my crew decided he was sort of an agent for Lord Strangford before he went to prison 30 years before our game began. So Lord Strangford the Elder is now “retired” from the council, though he seems to pull most of the day to day strings. Meanwhile, Lord Strangford the Younger is now officially on the Council, but much more concerned with his operations in the Circle of Flame (and largely acts like Jonathan Strange, trying to restore the islands to their former status).

    Lord Elder Rowan is both the council member and the head of the Church. Lord Penderyn is also the chief archivist and a council member, and wholly (our crew hopes) unaware of his wife’s activities in the Circle. Bowmore hasn’t really done much yet, but he’s been introduced as a lecherous old dude. His bastard son has been a character.

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