Vornheiming Middenheim Part V: The Powers that Be

[UPDATE 1/6/21: I no longer support spending money on products that benefit Zak S, or giving him positive attention and connection. The short version is that I find credible claims that he has engaged in unacceptable behavior and not made up for it. For more detail, see here for the core of the accusations. To get Zak's side of things, he maintains this separate blog from his main one to post updates on the legal status of these complaints. 

Please consider these claims and make your own decision on their validity, and the implications thereof, before either supporting or shunning Zak.]

So, it ended up taking me a little longer than I expected to get the "Powers that Be" table set up.  Turns out that it's pretty tough to satisfyingly emulate the innovation to have each entry show a relationship with the next entry from  Zak S.'s Vornheim Aristocrats table.  As it is, I ended up with only 25 entries.  This should probably be chopped down to 20 or increased to 30, so that it corresponds to an actual die.

For those unfamiliar with Zak's table, the idea is that you can randomly pick an aristocrat/powerful person by rolling once, and he or she will have all of the traits from left to right, with the relationship indicated by the last entry with the next person on the table.  I've built this so that it can act as a quick reference or relationship map if you want to play Middenheim "by the book", or you can randomize new aristocrats by rolling once for each column and getting totally new NPCs.

So, for example, say you roll a 15 and you're doing it the simple way.  You get Janna Eberhauer, Deputy High Wizard, an intelligent and friendly wizard with freckles.  She terrifies Josef Sparsam the Chancellor.  Or, if you want to go the complicated route, you could roll a 6, 10, 11, 15, 16, 7, 25, which gives you the following: Petra (no last name), the Midden Marshal, who has freckles and is an enthusiastic collector of antique art.  She is a lover of Baron Stefan Todbringer.

If you want to get really complex, repeat a few times rather than having the "relationship to" column point to a fully developed "book" NPC.

I'd say that if I were writing an adventure, rather than creating a toolkit, I'd take about this level of information and put it into a visual relationship map, and I'd add in a few more of the plots given in Warhammer City and in "Power Behind the Throne" to suggest ways for PCs to get involved.  As it is, I'm hoping that the intrigue generator will do most of the heavy lifting, and I'm going to parse the stuff in the supplement and adventure for material to put in that.

Powers that Be

Roll	Last Name	First Name	Position	Physical Feature	Character Trait	Relationship to
1	Helseher	Albrecht	High Wizard	Gaunt and ascetic	More concerned with abstractions than real life	Suspects the worst of
2	Hoflich	Joachim	Law Lord	Quiet and Dignified	Wry sense of humor	Holding ransom a relative of
3	Ehrlich	Reiner	Law Lord	Quiet and Unassuming	Melancholic	Desperately trying to secretly communicate with
4	Schutzman	Ulrich	Commander of the Watch	Tall and imposing	Harsh and Unbending	Seeks guidance from
5	Stolz	Werner	Chief Priest of Sigmar		Cautiously ambitious	Wants to humiliate
6		Ar-Ulric	High Priest of Ulrich	Tall and Rangy	Kindly but Ambitious	Having an affair with
7	Schlagen	Emmanuelle	Lady at Court	Tall and willowy	Crafty and Manipulative	Lover of
8	Todbringer	Boris	Graf	Powerful build going to seed	Crippled by grief	Can't stand the sight of
9	Prunkvoll	Siegfried	Knight Eternal	Wears armor on all public occasions	Pompous, apalling bore	Turned down a proposition from
10	Liebkosen	Petra	Lady at Court	Dark, curly hair	Gold digger	Having a fling with the son of
11	Von Genscher	Maximillian	Midden Marshall	Facial Scar	Courageous and magnanimous	Suspicious of the rise to power of
12	Goebbels	Gotthard	Komission Convenor and Chairman of the Merchants' Guild	Premature grey hair	Vain and grasping	Secretly working for
13	Wasmeier	Karl-Heinz	Law Lord	Unremarkable	Cruel and avaricious	Dangerously underestimates
14	Schwermutt	Johann	Garrison Commander	Light build	Human and approachable	Smitten by
15	Eberhauer	Janna	Deputy High Wizard	Freckles	Intelligent and Friendly	Terrifies
16	Sparsam	Josef	Chancellor	Walks with a limp	Enthusiastic collector of antique art	Irrationally despises
17	Zimberlich	Hildegarde	Chaperone to the Graf's Daughter	Frail but Sprightly	Good character, not easily fooled	Fiercely devoted to
18	Todbringer	Katarina	"Princess"	Beautiful	Delicate and refined	Infatuated with
19	Lafarel	Rallane	Court Minstrel	Silvery blonde hair	Hopeless romantic	Best friend of
20	Fanmaris	Allavandrel	Master of the Hunt	Startling Green Eyes	Enjoys the good things in life	Drinking buddies with
21	Schmiedehammer	Dieter	Graf's Champion	Broken nose	Bright, friendly, and helpful	Engaged to
22	Jung	Kirsten	Lady at Court	Simple, classically stylish	Keen Intuition	Strongly dislikes
23	Sinnlich	Natasha	Lady at Court	Ice blue eyes	Worships power	Regrets a fling with
24	Pavarotti	Luigi	Baronial Physician	Fat and flamboyant	Good hearted with a lust for life	Provides care for
25	Todbringer	Stefan	Baron	Sickly and drooling	Feeble minded, idiotic	Can only get help from