Infamy and the Compact

4 INFAMY AND THE COMPACT

The game is structured around a Compact. Each player formulates their Compact, but all of them have the same Primary Objective:

Primary Objective: Cast a heavy blow at the morale of the hated Imperium by bringing down the Makuu la Dhahabu Kiti.

Please note that ‘bringing down’ is worded deliberately vaguely. You might blow up the Makuu and kill everyone within it, corrupt it from within, whatever. Completing the Primary Objective represents victory (and 3 Infamy).

From there, it is on you to formulate 5 Secondary Objectives. Secondary Objectives are key objectives to be achieved in order to complete the Primary Objective. Here are a few examples:

• Acquire means of breaching the walls of the Makuu.
  
• Starve the inhabitants of the Makuu by cutting off their food source.
  
• Build a reliable force of local heretics for battle.
  
• Place spies and agents within the Makuu.
  
• Ensure the Klossner family cannot interfere.
  

When formulating Secondary Objectives, avoid being specific as to your precise method. For example, your initial plan might be to acquire explosives for breaching the walls of the Makuu, but it might be that this becomes entirely impractical when you attempt it in play. By keeping the Secondary Objective unspecific, it allows you to explore the practicalities of an elaborate tunnelling plot, or the summoning of daemonically-sourced earthquakes.

Completing all Secondary Objectives should represent the completion of the Primary Objectives, such that the Primary Objective does not take (much) more work to complete once the Secondary Objectives have been completed.

Each Secondary Objective rewards Heretics involved with 2 Infamy. Note that Heretics belonging to different players (and thus different Compacts) can gain 2 Infamy by helping someone with another Secondary Objective.

Only one Secondary Objective per compact can be completed per week of play. However, this does not mean that two Secondary Objectives cannot be completed in the same week. To explain, suppose that you have been playing for two weeks. This means you can have completed up to two Secondary Objectives: but both can be completed in the same (second) week. This is to avoid one player getting massively ahead of other players.

Players who cannot complete any further Secondary Objectives in a given week should not begin preparing for the completion of another Secondary Objective. This would undermine the point of the limit. Instead, players should engage in extra-compact activities that entertain themselves, and probably earn them Infamy along the way.

The game consists of 8 weeks of play, unless a Heretic completes the Compact before this time. Hence, failing to complete a Secondary Objective in one week is not necessarily fatal to your Compact.

Heretics can assist in the Secondary Objectives of other players, and thus gain Influence. There is no limit to how many Secondary Objectives you can assist in. However, you cannot deliberately assist in a Secondary Objective unless the player in control of that Compact is working on that Secondary Objective. Hence, you cannot pre-prepare the completion of Secondary Objectives on behalf of other players. Moreover, because the player in control of the Compact has limits on how they approach Secondary Objectives (see above), those assisting will inherit some of these restrictions.

There is mechanical incentive for some level of cooperation between Heretics. However…

Chaos is chaos, and your Heretics serve independent warlords of independent warbands, some of which may be diametrically opposed to one another. Consequently, all Heretics share the same Tertiary Objective:

Tertiary Objective: Undermine the plots and schemes of your rivals.

Once a week, the GM determines whether or not any Heretics have completed their Tertiary Objective. If they have, they gain 1d5 Infamy. Note that to undermine a plot, it doesn’t have to fail: your actions simply need to represent a notable complication for your rivals. Also note that your undermining may be entirely accidental: such is chaos.

Infamy dictates the number of Infamy Spends that are available on a given week, and is used for the Acquisition of individuals or equipment. It makes your Heretics more powerful, but not in a way that breaks the game when fighting against less Infamous Heretics. As such, if you are a particularly cooperative sort, do not feel as though completing the weekly Tertiary Objective is compulsory. On the other hand… ultimate poweeeerrr!

Aside from the Compact, Heretics can gain Infamy by performing particularly Infamous tasks. For example, going on a mass killing spree, erecting damned churches or corrupting the purest villager in town may be worthy of 1 Infamy and some Corruption – even if it doesn’t help in your Compact.