Noteworthy deeds

When you return to the City, erase the oldest noteworthy deed on your guild roster. Then, review if your guild has done anything noteworthy since the last City Phase. Everybody at the table can suggest a few things that might qualify as a noteworthy deed. This might include a dungeon lord slain, a new path through the Underworld forged, a piece of prominent architecture destroyed, or a potent relic reclaimed. The GM is the arbiter for what is considered actually noteworthy.

A guild’s Fame equals the amount of active noteworthy deeds. Your Fame affects the way the GM’s characters treat you: more famous adventurers are given more attention, wanted or unwanted.

A guild can have up to five active noteworthy deeds at a time. If you would have more than five, choose whichever five seem the most praiseworthy. See page 46 for a full description of Fame and noteworthy deeds.

If you return to the City and have accomplished nothing since your last visit, you erase the oldest deed on your roster and lose 1 Fame accordingly. from the Greek εις την Πόλιν

Goddammit, I’m a (sidebar)

sovereign citizen! (sidebar)

Truth be told, the 50% tax was included in playtests merely as a lark. However, it evoked such a strong response in the playtesters that it was obvious that it had to be kept in the core game. Despite the fact everybody was only moving around imaginary numbers on paper, the players were very keen to avoid taxes. And, in a meaningful way, taxes made going back to the City unappetizing. The City Phase should be rare. High taxes mean that players view returning to the surface as a last resort.

Historical note (sidebar)

You know the song Istanbul by The Four Lads (famously covered by They Might Be Giants)? The question of why the city is called Istanbul has an answer: it is derived

( istanbulin ), which simply means “the city.” Constantinople was the place to be in the ancient world, so you needn’t even call it by its formal name. It was simply the city.

The name of the city in His Majesty the Worm is merely “the City.” This is its common name (if not its official one). It had other names in the past (even as Constantinople did—Byzantium, New Rome, and Augustus Antonia to name a few), but “the City” is how people refer to it now. What are the City’s past names? Has the current government always been in power? What ancient powers once dwelt here? That’s up to your group to decide.