Bay 12 Games Forum

D, we need a beastmaster's assistance here.

Question, do we gain influence if we back a motion that fails yet elevates our factions as a result?

Name: Selena Oriane Reiter
Background: One of prince Harker's many, many bastards, Selena's mother worked in one of the more... disreputable parts of the city. Taken in by the clergy at a young age (Read: Sold off), Selena's life was generally filled with ecumenical teachings and temple/church routine. Relatively young by court standards, Selena's education means that she's not too flat-footed as a successor to the prince.
Faction Influence: Clergy 4, Thieves 1

Hm.  If a motion elevates your faction, then it hasn't really failed (from your faction's perspective) so you'd get influence.  If you bet on a motion that doesn't succeed but its failure doesn't have an effect either way, you probably retain your influence as is.  I will generally judge based off common sense ruling, though - whatever makes sense in the situation.

Edit:  I also love how everybody's dipping their toes into the Thieves' Guild, just in case. 

The Succession

Prince Stanislav Harker is dying.  The syphilis that haunted his latter years is finally in the process of claiming his life, although it could be anywhere between days or months until he actually shuffles off his mortal coil.  Alas, Prince Harker was extremely fond of women, wine and song throughout his life, and while this was generally accepted as all good and well his excesses with the first have left a fairly hideous succession crisis.  Prince Harker has dozens of children, some legitimate, some bastards, some acknowledged bastards with an air of legitimacy, and with the recent death of his two eldest children the entire succession has been thrown into chaos.  It is generally agreed that the Royal Council will select the successor, but with things as they are that could literally be anyone.  So you threw your hat into the ring, whether that was because you were a legitimate heir, an acknowledged bastard, or you just figure you look enough like the old lech to pass.  All you need to do is convince a group of stodgy old men and women to crown you, and you'll be Prince(ss) of Portcross!  How bad could it get?


The Game

The goal of the game is to get elected Prince or Princess of Portcross by the Royal Council, a group of seven figures that have served as a regency council for Prince Harker since he went mad from syphilis.  The problem is, Prince Stanislav could die at any moment.  Literally any moment; there is a 5% chance on any given turn that Prince Harker will die from the pox, including the first (which may prompt an immediate restart).  To win, you need the most votes from the Royal Council to be the successor at the moment Prince Harker dies.  In the event of a tie, the Royal Council will continue to deliberate until that tie is broken.  In the event that no player characters have a vote on the Council, the game will end with an NPC selection (and probably then restart).

The problem is that your character is essentially small potatoes compared to the major powers of the city.  Your main advantage is that you have a (possibly fabricated) claim to the throne and they don't, so you need to turn the major factions of the city to your own advantage in order to secure those much-needed votes.  Use your influence in each faction to 'bid' for what the faction should do each turn and hopefully reap the rewards of luck and good planning, eventually positioning yourself to gain votes on the council.


Factions

Each faction has a certain amount of power to actually influence the city, depending on what crises and opportunities come up.  Exactly how much power is randomised at game start (2d6 per faction), and only revealed to characters who have influence in said faction, so you never know when you first start the game whether you've made the right choice.

Aristocrats
The ennobled landowners of the city, forming its traditional feudal levies as well as earning large amounts of rent from the expanded city itself.  Aristocrats care about defence of the realm and not losing their privileges to abuse the common folk.

Merchants
The wealthy shipping magnates, traders and owners of various mills and artisan workshops.  Merchants care about wealth, stability, comfort and more wealth, preferably lining their own pockets.  Merchants don't have a lot of privileges and would very much like some.

Clergy
The priests of the various temples in the city and beyond.  Clerics enjoy their own legal privileges, care about piety and prestige, honouring the gods, rooting out witches and persecuting heretics.  They often have an antagonistic relationship with the wizards.

Wizards
The scholars and cunning men of the city, responsible for defending the city from arcane (and sometimes mundane) threats and too powerful and useful for the clergy to brand them all witches and have them burned.  Wizards are eccentric, and tend to care about weird and changeable things, but like many other factions they do have certain legal privileges (preventing the clergy from burning them, amongst other things).

Thieves
The loose alliance of smugglers, burglars, pickpockets and murderers that run the city's underworld.  Unsurprisingly, thieves mostly care about themselves, their protection and making a quick buck at someone else's expense.  Some of them do it for the style, most for the money, but they do wield a potent if hidden punch.


Influence

Every player has some Influence with a faction, rated from 0 to 10.  Having an influence of 1 just means being actually vaguely in the loop with that faction's goings-on.  Higher influence gives a bigger say in what the faction does and where it throws its resources.  If players have as much or more total influence than the faction has resources, they get to dictate where those resources go based on how much influence they have.  If not, the rest is somewhat randomly assigned; players sway at the early stages, they don't control, and it all comes down to whether your bets pay off.

Depending on what crises or opportunities come up, the factions will have ways to intervene to help or worsen the situation.  Multiple options will be presented and player characters select an option to throw their weight behind; their faction will then apply some resources to that, with any non-player resources essentially being applied randomly to different tactics.  If a player's chosen action was successful, they may get influence within the faction for 'being with the winning crowd' or even 'spearheading a successful motion'.  If unsuccessful, they may lose influence as people don't want to hang around those who make poor choices.  Even backing a proposition that wasn't carried out when the one that was failed will grant influence, as one seems to be smart for denying the ultimately foolish action.

You may split your influence between different options for a faction if you believe it wise.  Not all actions require a faction's entire strength, after all, and betting on multiple pots could pay big.


Sign-Up

Fill out a sign-up sheet as follows to play.  There are 7 players per game.

Name:
Background:  A summary of who your character is and where they come from.  Are you a minor aristocrat with a true claim to the Harker title, a by-blow brought up in enough wealth to make your claim (or enough squalor to have fought tooth and nail for this chance), or simply a canny con-artist looking for the biggest score of all?
Faction Influence:  You have a total of 5 points of Influence to assign between the Aristocrats, Merchants, Clergy, Wizards and Thieves factions.  You may assign these in any order and they will determine your starting options.

A Letter to the New Nations beyond the Empire's Borders

A form of this letter has been sent to each player nation, with the appropriate name and titled applied.

Esteemed Ruler {Name},

I am Princess Gruntsnuffle of the Principality of Pork.  Our fledgling nation is seeking to improve our understanding of political etiquette and diplomatic engagement, so as to avoid having to use crude forms of international relations in the form of spears and arrows.  We are offering a bounty of £200 to the nation who can grant us knowledge of Diplomacy this season, to be paid immediately upon receipt of the necessary scrolls.  Any nation who has already researched such technology would only benefit from this, as it would grant free money for a technology they already have which offers no military benefit.  Indeed, avoiding war is rather our goal in this matter.  If this offer is of interest to yourselves, please leave a return scroll with the messenger piglet who has carried this message.

The Finest Regards,

Princess Gruntsnuffle of the House of Suidae
Principality of Pork

---

Also, out of pure amusement, how did various tax evasion efforts go?  No obligation to say, since it's private information, but I will volunteer my position:

- Paid £75 for tax lawyers to convince the Empire I only owed them £25 in back taxes.  Arguable success!  Apparently there's a tax assessor coming in the future who will rip us to pieces with their actuarial acumen.  o_o

I probably would have gone for weaker provinces first were it not for a) poor map-drawing with neighbouring states beforehand and b) unification!  The Principality of Pork must be whole!

Now I've just got to crack the Heavy Swordsmen, Longbowmen and my one captured Spearpig behind the walls in West Pork.  o_o

Fluff to follow in the fluff thread.

C.  A pet sounds like the least dangerous of those four options, because the worst thing that seems likely to be asked for is "A giant evil wolf monster" or similar.