Skills and skill levels for building an army, intelligence service, bureaucracy

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Having a couple of Contacts within the craftsmans' "mafia" could be very useful, in particular, I think. Even if that "mafia" is largely loyal to the PC party, it's not perfect, and one of the Contact may be able to warn the PCs about internal grumblings long before real problems arise.

The Hegemony of Artisans isn't actually all that mafia-like. A better analogy would be a miner's council, district soviet or the Paris Commune, with the caveat that their writ extends only over the artisan's quarter of the city. They are allied with the Wizards who control the city center, governor's palace and most official buildings. What primarily distinguishes them from a mafia is that they lack any secrecy and their citizen's militia is usually fighting to enforce recognisable (if unofficial) law and order.

Lord Dama's Non-Slaves, however, which started as a movement against slavery and social injustice, now exerts mafia-like control over most of the docks. They are allied with the thugs of the White faction of charioteers and fans and count many former gladiators and charioteers among their leadership. It's that organisation which will supply street fighters that the PCs aim to turn into soldiers.

The Reds, Greens and Blues have their own territories, with the Greens having by far the most power due to their recent allegiance with the foreign mercenaries/mafioso/religious thugs of the Zhentarim, who are importing valuable food and using the Greens to extort protection money from independent importers.

The Blues traditionally support the clergy of Tiamat, the Nemesis of the Gods, which used to be a dangerous accusation against them, but now accords them a fair bit of underworld respect. They lack any territory on the docks, though, and instead have to try to make money through extortion of poor refugees in the camps. They also clash with Hegemony militias, over issues of craftsmen refusing to pay protection money.

The Reds are the least political and least business-like of the bunch, but have a lot of traditional supporters. They currently seethe and even occasionally riot over the fact that a year has gone by without even a single chariot race. Now that shipping is restored, they think that the city 'government', such as it is, ought to buy some good horses and donate to the teams, as a reward for the loyalty and persistence of the people. The shibutuu (council) has other priorities for their limited resources, seeing as they are still at war with an overwhelming invader.

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Of course, one could make a Technique for Psychology (Applied) to perform such character evaluations or "vettings". It could start at Psychology (Applied)-3 and be improvably to no more than Psychology (Applied)+2. Since it's not dangerous to try, it is my understanding that it should be an Average Technique.

Sounds good. Is there any specific reason why this starts at a penalty?