The Lords of Fantasy (OOC Thread)

I guess I'll change some of the reform-ideas, then:

1. Expand the current council to include representatives of various major guilds and groups (merchants, smiths, crafters, miners, adventurers, priests, city-watch, etc) important for the functioning of the realm, as well as from the various major settlements, with the stipulation that the latter may not belong to any guild or other major political interest-group (to ensure that they can offer a - hopefully as unbiased as possible - view on the overall status of things in their village/region). Their job will be the administration of low- to mid-level day-to-day runnings of the realm, and regulate/mediate interaction between various guilds (for example, if a group of adventurers steps on the city-watch's toes), so we don't have to do this personally. They have no direct control of the Realm's military, intelligence or diplomacy, though.

This should hopefully shorten reaction time as issues that could otherwise go unnoticed due to the Council's originally mage-heavy focus are instead brought to the government's attention immediately.

2. Create a small advisory-council of maybe six to twelve people, whose job it is to provide clear and concise summaries about a broad range of topics regarding the situation(s) within our realm, with the ability to offer more in-depth information if necessary.
- research and development
- the mage's guild and academy
- our economic and financial situation
- the military
- our diplomatic relations with other realms
- our internal situation
- the intelligence service and network

3. Make reforms regarding the wide array of powers officials have in their lands; tighten regulations and increase oversight, and create laws to prevent the worst abuses. Hopefully should do a lut to curtail corruption.

There's on additional thing I can think of, but have some trouble putting into words. Basically, to expand our current system of regulations, so that lower-ranked functionaries have a framework of references to make decisions on, but at the same time we should also encourage initiative within our system, so people aren't afraid to make decisions - and the occasional mistakes - while remaining within their area of competense and responsibility.

Thoughts?

I'd probably bump number 2 on your list and switch in the new regulations or something else instead. You don't have a massive amount of direct advisers - I'll put a list of them up later.

That'd be quite helpful, yes. Do you happen to have any other advice? Because - as you may have noticed - I'm not having an easy time coming up with specifics regarding the government-reform, and which ones would be actually help- rather than hurtful...

One of the things we want to do is reduce the opportunity for skimming an corruption.

Amongst other things, yes. If I'd have to sum up our goals (at least from my perspective) in three points I'd say;

1. Increase the participation of non-mages in our government
2. Optimize our government's day-to-day working so we can focus more on larger projects/events
3. Minimize the corruption within our realm.

The list of advisers, info on the new settlement, and a new update will be up tomorrow.

I'd suggest that you take your time and discuss the government reforms with each other as they don't have to be implemented right this second and they won't cost any turns etc when you have them ready for me to GM.

You'll need a list of actions for the new update, then? I haven't made one, yet, because I wasn't sure how the government-reforms would figure into that, but I think you said they would need several turns to be implemented, anyway?

Yeah - the successful reforms will take a few turns to get going once you implement them. I may delay the regular turn update a day or two more - I just don't want to get the game bogged down by the reforms. Especially since I only have a few people voting anymore.

List of your current Advisers - note that not everyone on this list has names.


Fiona - the Head of the guild's research and development division and your adviser in such matters. While you are familiar with most theories she is the one you go to talk to when something esoteric pops up, especially since you rarely have time to attend to your own experiments and research any more.

Captain of the Tower Guard - Essentially your Lord Marshall or Head Knight, the overall commander of Kerdholt's military. He gives you advice on military and security issues among other things.

Headmaster of the Academy - The Headmaster is supposed to give you advice and information on the training of new mages, ongoing research, etc but has also become your go to guy for most internal guild matters. He is an old friend of your old master and has proved to be a valuable source of advice.

Spymaster - Your Spymaster is actually a former thief - one of those chosen to train/become part of your intelligence service. Despite her relatively young age she once controlled one of the best groups of thieves in Cheswest, which even preyed on wealthy mages. Seems to have gone straight or as "straight" as a spymaster can be since being chosen to join the intelligence service when it was forming.

Mayor of Cheswest - As the Mayor of the capitol, he is one of the senior-most non-mage government officials in Kerdholdt. He is supposed to give you a non-mage/non-guild/outsider view on events etc - a role that has grown since your arrival in this world. Incidentally, he does have some magical ability of his own - he was sponsored into the academy by a mage relative but left in his last year as a novice due to the sudden death of his parents in an accident which left him head of the family and responsible for several younger siblings.

Note: Cheswest and Riverside have a medieval mayor-alderman set up while the villages have headmen (or headwomen) and elders. Also, as recognized towns Cheswest and Riverside have a fair amount of self-autonomy in internal town affairs although this doesn't amount to much in Cheswest with the guild HQ being in town. The villages have some autonomy under the oversight of the appointed mage-official for their area of the nation.

your Secretary - Despite the title your Secretary is one of your closest advisers and confidents, essentially your senior most aide. In other places he might be referred to as your steward or seneschal. He is probably the most loyal of your inner circle as he and his wife, another of your aides, were among the very few close friends you had in the academy. Among the few people you can really let your guard down with - you are also something of a favorite uncle to their young daughter. Both he and his wife are ranked as Master Mages and are steadily steadily climbing the ranks.

Several Merchants/Guilds-men: For financial issues you turn to several well off merchants, the heads of some of the largest trading houses in Kerdholdt, and a number of senior guilds-men from other guilds in Kerdholdt. These advisers were inherited from your predecessor and she carefully chose them to give a fairly balanced view on things.

Senior Ambassador - When it comes to diplomatic matters you turn to the unofficial leader of the small group of ambassadors and diplomats that you have been developing since your arrival in this new world. Like all of your ambassadors she is a member of the mage's guild, and ranked as a Mage, due to the need to be able to cast various message spells etc. While a competent mage she is unlikely to rise any higher in the power rankings. However she has a silver tongue and a gift for being a peace maker. She used to serve as a kind of dispute mediator for the guild when the other guilds etc were arguing with each other.

Mh, sounds like our council of advisors is really well-chosen.

Regarding the reforms, I think these would be workable/beneficial - though not much different from the ones I originally mentioned/talked about.

1. Expand the current council to include representatives of various major guilds and groups important for the functioning of the realm, as well as from the major settlements, with the stipulation that the latter may not belong to any guild or other major political interest-group (to ensure they offer a hopefully unbiased view on the overall status of things in their village/region). Their job will be the administration of low- to mid-level day-to-day runnings of the realm, and regulate/mediate interaction between various guilds, so we don't have to do this personally. They have no direct control of the Realm's military, intelligence or diplomacy, though.
This should hopefully shorten reaction time as issues that could otherwise go unnoticed due to the Council's originally mage-heavy focus are instead brought to the government's attention immediately, and others could possibly be sorted out before they're even brought to attention of the Council as a whole, since the guilds or groups involved have now enough authority to solve possible trouble between them directly, without the need for us to mediate.

2. Make reforms regarding the wide array of powers officials have over the villages and lands they're administrating. Tighten regulations and increase oversight, creating a small group of dependable agents for this purpose. Officially, the intent is to centralize authority so any decisions we or the Council make can be implemented throughout the fiefdom more quickly and efficiently. Unofficially, it also keeps an eye on the appointed officials administrating the smaller villages and other settlements of our realm and limit their power. Combined with encouragement to our population to report potential abuse of authority to the Council should hopefully do a lot to curtail the worst cases of corruption, so something like the incident with the Screaming Banshees (an official trying to force local beauties into his bed) won't be able to happen again, though we'll no doubt have to remain on top of this.

3. Expand our lower-level bureaucracy and begin to implement simple rules and guidelines to help in dealing with regularly occurring situations, issues, and problems, but also encourage a some self-initiative and benevolence; if the rules and guidelines don't offer a solution to a problem or situation, they shouldn't be afraid to think of one themselves, which hopefully benefits both the realm and the subject. This should help lighten the load of the middle and higher levels of our government somewhat as smaller issues are intercepted at a lower level.

As for our actions this turn, here are my suggestions/votes.

Government:
[x] send diplomatic envoys to Ambion and Bradeter, and try to build good relations with them. Mention our recent troubles of strangely aggressive nomads, acts of sabotage and magical arson from unknown individuals or groups, and even the assassination attempt on our person by fanatics from the other side of the continent, and comment how Silvercrest seems strangely cold, even hostile, in their relation to us, for no reason we can discern.
[x] build a dedicated shipyard at Riverside. We already enlarged our docks and harbor so it can serve larger, ocean-going vessels, but any capacity for building or repairing ships should still be limited and geared towards river-going ships. A dedicated shipyard should make it far easier for us to increase the size of our ocean-going merchant fleet and, in time, build warships to protect them. Plus, the amount of work such a project should provide - both during the construction of the shipyard, and once it is operational - should hopefully attract more people to live there. After the pirate raid wiped out nearly a fifth of the town's population, they could do with a little boost.

Research:
[x] scale down the research into Displacement, citing that we are unlikely to make any breakthroughs in the near future. Instead, focus our research on improving the availablility and security of magical communication throughout our realm. It is a fairly significant advantage we have, compared to realms or states which don't have as many mages, and we should try to improve on it.

Personal:
[x] travel to the allied nomad tribes. We'll spend the remaining time until the Gathering to learn their customs and manners, as well as the details of their internal politicals, as best as we are able within the time available, so we'll have a better chance to present ourselves well, or at least minimize the chance of offending anyone. It also might help to further improve our relations with the non-hostile tribes, since they'll see that, even if mostly in preparation for the Gathering, we respect them and their culture enough to learn about it.

Ok update coming tomorrow - which will also include the results of the attempted government reforms.

Crossing my fingers. You'd tell us if any of our advisors thought the ideas where bad in some way or too difficult/impossible to implement?

Also one question; what would happen if we managed to conquer one of the hostile nomad tribes? Could we turn them into vassals, force them to swear allegiance to us and our nomad allies, just drive them away? Basically, what's our possibilities in that regard?

You could turn them into vassals, force them to swear allegiance, etc. The main concerns are enforcing the agreements (considering the nomad lifestyle - though they do have "claimed" areaswhere they roam) and how the other tribes and nations react to your actions.

The only reform that is going to be difficult is the part related to the council. It is a good idea to bring non-mages in on the council and you might want to look into separating the Guild Council and the "Ruling Council" - allowing the guild to run the guild and the ruling council to run the nation. However, you are dealing with a lot of older mages/politicians/meddlers/plotters that are well entrenched in their positions of power and loath to give any of it up. Even some of the younger council members, who are a minority and mostly support you, are hesitant about it. And unfortunately such a change must be passed by the Council.

Figures the most important reform would also be the most difficult. How good are our chances, approximately?

Not good - you need to git higher then 15 on a d20 due to the strong opposition of the council members.

(Usually when I use/do rolls for results it is either a d20 or d10 with + or - to the result to represent various factors. The higher the number the better it is - on a d20 roll 20 would be really great, 10 neutral, and below = bad.)

Hm... would it help if we're being sneaky about it? Basically, instead of immediately inviting all of the non-mages into the Guild-Council, we include new members in small groups, and throw in a few candidates we know will be unacceptable and have no real intention to bring aboard, but know the obstructionists will expend political capital to exclude? Or if we separated the Guild-Council from what will in time become the Ruling-Council from the very start, by selling said ruling council as "lower" with "minor bureaucratic and administrative power", then start shifting more and more power away from the guild-council over months?

Somewhat but not much - remember you are dealing with old mages who are wise in the ways of politics and backroom deals.

Then I'd say we go with the variant that has the highest chance of achieving at least some basic success (the separate, "lower" administrative council, most likely?). That way we'll have at least a basis to work with for future reforms, rather than starting at zero, and we'll definitely have the support of the population, which should make it harder for them to oppose the reform unless they want to risk fairly wide-spread unrest and potentially even uprisings (the impression I got was that we, and most likely our reform-plans, are quite popular amongst the common population and lower-ranked mages, at least at the moment). If need be we'll delay this particular reform until we're back from the nomad gathering, and can initiate it personally. I'd say we're willing to expend every ounce of political capital we currently have amongst the council, and if things look particularly bad and the corrupt officials we discovered some time ago are amongst those opposing our efforts, I'd say we ask our recently-promoted spymaster to dig up every little bit of their dirty laundry and all skeletons hidden in their closets and drag them out right in the open so they'll have bigger things to worry about than our reforms.

(And we should probably find out if magic can be used to make video-like records of events. No doubts it will be exceedingly ugly for us, but for almost everyone else the political mud- and poo-slinging that will take place in the council chambers should be hilarious.)

Update is here:

http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-lords-of-fantasy-ic.223815/page-2

I had to rush on this a bit so please let me know if something seems off.

You will have an extra action per turn starting when you return from the gather - in about three turns. Next turn is the trip to the gather.

Woohoo.

Hey Oseng? What about that unclaimed land that I remember being on one of our borders? Maybe we could open up settlement of that land to claim it and grow in wealth and power.

You certainly could - there is unclaimed land to the east of you and a little to the west before you run into the city-states. There's also land between Kerdholdt's main area and the River Fortress that is technically claimed by your nation but no one lives there yet.

Hm... did the Shipyard-construction have any impact on Riverside's population? Or will that come later once it's finished?

Suggestions/Votes for the next turn:

Government:
[x] continue to expand our intelligence-service's network. See if, based on our recent experiences - particularly the failures - we can do anything to improve the capabilities of our agents - possibly by teaching them both mundane and magical means of disguise, intrusion, etc?
[x] set up a basic repair-dock for our warship in Rivermouth Fortress and expand the settlement to accomodate the dock's workers and their families.

Research:
[x] continue research to improve our magical communication in security and availability. Perhaps the security can be improved by including translation-spells or something similar on both ends for an unknown or obscure language from our own world which should be completely unknown here?

Personal:
[x] accompany the tribal chieftains to the Gathering. In accordance with their advice, we'll bring the Captain of the Tower Guard with us as both bodyguard and advisor, and one of the higher-ranking priests or clerics from a local church or faith. If s/he already has some knowledge or experience with shamanistic magic and/or the nomads, that would be ideal. Continue to learn about the nomad's culture, traditions and manners until we reach the Gathering, and include the Captain and the Priest(ess) in the lessons.

Diplomatic Relations:
Ambion: Neutral+
Bradeter: Neutral+
(Seems most reasonable; we're potential tools/allies against Silvercrest, but they've still only just met us.)

Continuous actions/events:
- campaign in the north against nomad raiders
- counter-intelligence by our secret service
- Turns remaining until the nomad's gathering: 0
- Turns untill Dwarves will begin to re-open underground road: ?
- construction of shipyard in Riverside: 1/3 turns

Unfortunately, this is going to have to go on a hiatus for a few days due to computer issues. My computer is apparently dead and headed to a computer shop tomorrow, so I'm stuck borrowing or using the library. Which also means I don't have access to any of my notes etc for this.

My computer should be back from the shop this coming Monday so I'll start this back up then - depending on the number of players still around.

I'll definitely still be here. Good luck with your computer; mine's been away to be fixed for... more than a month, now? Hope you won't have the same problem!