Patricians&Plebeians

Patricians&Plebeians

is a rules-light role-playing
game based on the Greek version of the board game Citadels
and set in a medieval city fraught with corruption, intrigue
and class warfare. Patricians and Plebeians are locked in an
ever-continuing struggle for influence and wealth, both
between themselves and against each other. They occasionally
cooperate in the face of greater dangers after which they
promptly carry on with their backstabbing.

Skills

unfavourable circumstances, or in order to reward roleplaying

(for instance, particularly well-phrased requests for assistance
should receive a +1 bonus to the Influence roll). If modifiers
reduce the dice pool to 0 or fewer dice, a single die should be
rolled, but a failure counts as a botch.

Classes
The various inhabitants of the city fall into one of the
following Classes, each with their strengths and weaknesses.

Know-How (KH), Streetwise (SW), and Influence (INF).

PATRICIANS are the Citys higher-ups. Each Patrician

exerts Influence in his respective Class (for instance, a
Guard can procure the assistance of the local constabulary).

Know-How

Noble:

P&P uses three Skills to represent a characters abilities,

represents a characters proficiency in his
area of expertise. For instance, a Thief trying to sneak into a
house would roll Know-How to see if he succeeds. A character
attempting a feat which he is untrained for suffers a penalty
(usually -2) to Know-How at the GMs discretion.

Streetwise

allows a character to successfully navigate

the sprawling streets of the city, to gather the latest rumours
and to avoid doing anything that would get him killed in a
bad neighbourhood. A Noble trying to find his way through
the Slums or convince a taverns burly bouncer that he is, in
fact, a street urchin would roll Streetwise.

Influence

represents a characters standing amongst his

peers. A Worker with high Influence might be head of the
Carpenters Guild, while a Noble with a low influence might
be a minor lord. Influence rolls determine whether
characters requests are met and whether assistance is
provided by their cohorts.

can
can Influence
Influence all
all other
other Patricians
Patricians at
at

Priest:

Guard:

-1-1

can

Merchant:

-1 KH, -1 SW

Influence Workers at -1
-1-1 KH
KH

can
can Influence
Influence Nobles
Nobles atat -1-1

distrusted
SW in
in Slums)
the Slums)
distrusted by
by Workers
Workers (-2
(-1 SW
weapons
+1 SW

perk (no penalty in combat), +1 SW

-2
SW
in
the Sewers
-1 SW in Sewers,
+complication (superiors)

PLEBEIANS are the Citys rabble. They exert Influence in

the Underworld, save for Workers, who only exert Influence
amongst themselves (as well as their respective Guilds).
Assassin:

can

Thief:

can burgle, stalk

+1
+1 complication
complication

The difference between Streetwise and Influence is subtle,

but important: Streetwise is used to deal with people who
dont know who you are (or dont care for your standing),
whereas Influence is used to deal with people who do.

Swindler:

can reroll all SW

-1-1 KH,
KH, -1-1 INF
INF

Worker:

can practice a craft/trade using KH

cannot
cannot Influence
Influence the
the Underworld
Underworld

The Core Mechanic

* Difficulty usually equal to targets Influence

**applies only to SW rolls rolled against a single individual,
and second roll must be applied, even if it is worse

Each

time a character wishes to do a task that the GM

deems sufficiently challenging, he asks the player to roll a
number of dice equal to the appropriate Skill. 1s, 2s and 3s
count as failures, 4s, 5s and 6s as successes, while 6s are
rerolled and added to the total if successful. A failed roll that
is half aces or more (after any rerolls) is a botch, carrying
additional penalties as the GM sees fit (see below for a
combat example). The Difficulty of a task is the number of
successes needed to complete it. For instance, initiating a
boycott on a store with well-known ties to the Underworld
might have Difficulty 2 INF for a Merchant, while finding
the best assassin in the city is going to be tough (4 SW).The
GM may assign modifiers to the dice pool under favourable or

assassinate citizens using KH*

+1 flaw

and pickpocket using KH*

once**
rolls once

Character creation

Distribute

seven points amongst the three Skills. No

skill may be lower than 1 or higher than 5 at first; 2 is the
average. You may start with one or two skill points more by
taking one or two of either a flaw or a complication. A flaw
is a negative aspect of your character that has an effect on
roleplaying (such as greed or a delusion) and a complication is
a particular obstacle that the GM can bring up during the
game (such as a family dependent on the character or an
overprotective parent). Then, select a perk, which is an

Patricians&Plebeians
additional skill (usually +1 to KH for a particular area of
expertise) or a valuable asset your character has access to.
Examples include knowing how to use a weapon or having a
secret hideout. Finally, select your Class. Note that if a
player conveniently and repeatedly forgets their characters
flaw during play, the GM is encouraged to make the players
life difficult (such as asking an irreverent characters player
to roll KH to restrain himself from uttering an oath in the
middle of a summons at the Cathedral).

Fate and Destiny

Fortune Points represent the knack all protagonists of

a narrative have to get themselves out of almost all perilous
situations. Each character has a number of starting Fortune
Points equal to their Know-How plus 1. Whenever a character
botches a roll, the player can spend a Fortune Point to avoid
the worst consequences that the GM can come up with. The
character still makes a fool out of themselves, but at least
theyre not dead. For instance, Lord Anais botches his SW
roll while scouting for an assassin in the Sewers. The GM
decides that he runs into a group of thugs that attempt to rob
him at knifepoint. The player spends a Fortune Point and
declares that Lord Aloess falls to the ground trying to make
himself look as pitiable as possible. The GM narrates that the
thugs laugh and steal his purse, but do not kill him. Fortune
Points do not naturally replenish over the course of play.
Instead, the GM is encouraged to hand out Fortune Points as
a reward for particularly good examples of roleplaying, such
as a players furthering their characters agenda or properly
fleshing out their flaws. Ten Fortune Points may be expended
to add a point to a stat, remove a flaw, or gain a new perk,
provided the process by which this is done reasonably fits the
narrative and is properly roleplayed.

Combat and PC-NPC conflict

Patricians&Plebeians

is by no means a combatheavy game, but characters may find themselves in situations

where they need to defend themselves. When this happens,
the player rolls his appropriate Skill (usually Know-How at a
-1 penalty unless they are proficient with weapons, but
possibly Influence if someone else fights for the character,
signifying that the higher ones Influence is, the more
competent their personal guards are). Before rolling, players
add any bonuses they may have, such as due to favourable
circumstances or awarded by the GM for particularly creative
maneuvers. If they beat the difficulty set by the GM, they
are the victor. Otherwise, they roll again, possibly with a
different modifier, depending on their previous actions, until
they win or botch (in which case they are defeated). Should a
player lose at combat, they may expend a Fortune Point to
narrowly escape via any reasonable means or to continue
fighting. If they are unable or unwilling to do so, they are at

the mercy of their enemies. Note that enemies do not roll

dice. NPCs have no stats. All information about their abilities
is encapsulated by the difficulty of beating them at a task,
such as combat. If the enemy is a staggering drunk, the
difficulty is 1; if it is an elite constable, the difficulty is 4.
More enemies attacking characters together are treated as a
single tougher enemy. Similarly, PCs attacking an enemy
together pool their dice, but botches are counted separately.

Wealth

A doubloon

is the average workers daily income.

Further subdivided into 24 florins, it is enough to sustain
maybe two people. Plebeians of the Underworld (especially
Swindlers) earn money at a much more haphazard rate than
workers, whereas Patricians naturally earn much more. It is
not necessary to keep track of every purchase the players
make or their income (unless the players prefer a touch of
realism), but as a general guideline, the value of a
characters personal savings stands at about tenfold their KH
for Plebeians and fiftyfold their INF for Patricians.

The City

Relations

between the Citys classes are strenuous at

best and openly hostile at worst. Workers distrust most
Patricians, and Nobles are in constant fear of an uprising,
with Priests acting as a buffer between the two classes.
While there is some sort of unspoken honour pact between the
Underworlds factions, Assassins tend to look down on the
common thieves and Thieves consider Assassins to be volatile
and dangerous (explaining why, even if they are able to,
Thieves refuse to murder and Assassins refuse to steal).
Swindlers consider both to be amoral criminals (they, of
course, are just small-time hustlers). The City features a host
of landmarks, such as the Palace, various Nobles estates, the
Cathedral, a number of parish temples, the Cemetery, the
Market, the Barracks, and numerous Guards Outposts. Most
Workers live in the Slums, situated in the Citys centre, but
the Underworld enjoys a considerable presence in the Sewers.
The Sewers are not an actual drainage system, but refer to
the decrepit inner part of the Slums. Other locations of
interest include the Farmlands, which lie just outside the
Citys walls, and the Port, a hub of trade and commerce
where information tends to be priced as highly as exotic
goods. The City also boasts a reputable University (of whose
the vast majority of scholars are Nobles), as well as a
Museum, a Library, and an Observatory. Finally, almost
every trade has an associated Guild, from the Seamstresses
Guild to the Carpenters Guild. The Annual Guilds Fair
features scores of unusual curios and various diversions and
amusements. Thieves and Assassins are reputed to have their
own shadowy Guilds, although nobody knows exactly where
they are, or, indeed, if they even exist