Some characters on the game were given personal arms when they were created, either by Staff or—in the case of Hedge Knights—by the player proposing the character.
If a character was not created with personal arms, one can be acquired in the course of play. If a player feels that their character has a good IC reason to start using personal arms, and they have 1 SP available, they can spend this on acquiring personal arms.
Purchasing personal arms is done via +jobs (see +HELP JOBS) and the +job needs to include a written motivation for why the player feels the character would take up personal arms. Characters have to have been around and active for some time before personal arms can be purchased. Furthermore, personal arms purchases and the personal arms themselves are subject to Staff approval.
Approved personal arms give a +5 to Fame.
Since there has been some confusion about what entails personal arms, we have written up a more detailed clarification below.
We see examples of what we might call three types of personal arms in the books. These could be roughly categorized as follows:
1) Variations of house arms worn by bastards. These usually consist of reversed colours, sometimes with a “bend sinister” added.
2) Variations of house arms worn by various legitimate members of the house. These consist of charges being multiplied, such as when Loras carries a shield with three roses instead of just one. The purpose of such a variation is to distinguish different family members from each other and such arms are generally only used for specific occasions—such as a tourney featuring multiple family members—and they are not something that a knight would use at all times.
3) More or less new arms, perhaps incorporating some details that reference the family arms if the person is noble-born.
In the setting, all three are open to all knights since Westerosi heraldry is largely unregulated, though the third option is generally only used if there’s a very good reason, such as a knight being particularly famous. Social pressure essentially regulates that such personal arms are not taken up particularly widely.
On the game, types 1 and 2 can be used in the same way that they are used in the books. That is, bastards can wear reversed colours (though if you want another variation for your bastard arms, you should speak to Staff first) and temporary variations can be used at tourneys to distinguish family members from each other.
Type 3, however, is regulated on the game. This is the only type that is listed in the “Arms” field in the CDB and to obtain one you need to have a good IC reason for having one and you need to spend an SP. Just like a Byname, it is treated as a perk and it is counted towards Renown.
The only exception is non-noble knights that have no right to any other arms: they can include personal arms in their character writeup and have them set in their CDB for free.
Category://System -> Advancement