BRCS:Chapter five/Ruling a domain/Components of a domain

A province is a distinct area whose borders are defined by prominent geographical features, cultural and political traditions, and economic infrastructure. A province is a political division of land, like a county or shire. A rural province generally measures about 30 to 40 miles in diameter, but an urban province that represents a major metropolitan area may be no larger than the area enclosed by the city's boundaries.

The defining domain-level measure of a province is not its size, but rather its level - its overall measure of population, technology, and industrial prosperity. A province's level is an abstraction that represents the relative contributions of loyal subjects of the province. Frontier families, nomadic tribes, bandits, and other independent-minded individuals that live in the province do not directly contribute to the province's level.

A province's level does not represent the entire population of a province; it represents the buying power and prosperity of the provinces loyal citizens and taxpayers. Table 5-1: Province level provides a rough metric for determining the number of taxpaying human commoners in a rural province. Populations of citizens that consist largely of elves, dwarves, or human experts produce population levels greater then the numbers of citizens would seem to dictate due to an increased prosperity per capita.
Table 5-1 also indicates the size of the largest settlements likely to be found in a rural province of the indicated level. This settlement rating can be used to determine the relative availability of goods and services in the area using the guidelines presented in the Dungeon Master's Guide. The population of this settlement is included in the province's rating. Capital cities of large realms are often one category higher than indicated by the province level alone.

A ruling regent has putative control over an entire province. A province ruler can tax the province and make laws and regulations within the province, but without the power of the local Law holdings the regent has nothing to directly enforce her edicts. In most cases the province ruler is also the most powerful law regent in the province. Law is supposed to be a tool by which the province regent can enforce her will.

All provinces have a terrain type that represents the major terrain type of the province. The terrain type of the province limits its level. While many types of terrain may be present in a province, only its major terrain type determines its habitability. The terrain type of a province (along with its level) also provides a limit for the province's maximum source potential as discussed in Chapter Seven: Realm magic.

Major metropolitan areas may be represented as stand-alone provinces, instead of being represented as cities with a larger rural area. Urban provinces are considered to be part of the surrounding provinces for purposes of geographical effects, such as earthquakes, but their own entity for purposes of population-based effects, such as the spread of plague or the use of realm-spells.

Urban provinces are dependent on trade and adjacent rural provinces for food and supplies. Urban provinces lose a level (due to starvation and migration) during any domain turn in which they do not have at least one active trade route.

Any domain that includes one or more provinces is a realm. The regent of a province is a recognized head of state, capable of holding court, making laws, executing justice, and dealing with foreign interests. Rulers are regents that hold one or more provinces and thus are often considered to be of higher status than unlanded regents. Regardless of the power of the realm, significant political power and rank is generally associated with the stewardship of a geographic area.

Domain holdings represent centers of regional political, economic, religious, or magical power and the institutions and personnel that allow the holding's regent to wield this power. The defining domain-level measures of a holding are its type and level.

There are four areas of influence in each province represented by holdings. Economic power is represented by Guild holdings. Political power in a province is represented by Law holdings. Spiritual power is represented by Temple holdings. Finally, arcane power is represented by Source holdings.

Guild holdings represent control of a province's economic activity. Guild holdings can represent artisan guilds, merchants, underworld organizations, or any other establishment that seeks profit and power through the acquisition and sale of goods, services, and information. In the vast majority of cases, guilds are considered to be legal enterprises, but in many cases they also contain some less-than-legal elements. Guild holdings consist primarily of various guilds, especially of the primary economic activity of an area - artisan's guilds being the most common, as well as merchant companies. Guilds are integrated into most levels of a province society, and, as such, have excellent access to information. Guilds are also always in control of whatever trade comes through a province.

Law holdings represent direct control over military and secular political power or what passes for "the law" in a province. Law holdings represent bureaucrats, constables, taxmen, highway bandits, rebel organizations, a system of feudal lords, or any other establishments whose primary purpose is to enforce laws/whims, collect taxes/tribute, and execute justice or injustice in their regent's name. Control of a province's law holding impacts whether edicts and laws are followed, how vigorously laws and taxes are applied, the level of crime, and the general contentment of a province's citizens.

Temple holdings represent influence over the religious activities of a province's populous. Temple holdings represent an organized faith of worship and the itinerant clergy, shrines, churches, or cathedrals that preach to the masses. Temple regents can cast divine realm spells, but more importantly they are the trusted spiritual advisors to the people. Temples have an enormous impact on how the successes and failures of other regents are perceived by the common man.

Source holdings represent mastery and control of the continuously renewed mystic essence of the living land - its mebhaighl. A source regent does not wield temporal influence through the holding as do other regents, instead they tap their holdings to cast powerful arcane realm spells. Because of their mystical nature, it is far more difficult for most regents to undermine the power-base of a source regent than visa-versa. Therefore, although they have little direct political or economic power, source regents are respected, or even feared, by most other nearby regents. Source holdings and realm spells are described in Chapter Seven: Realm magic.

The principal measure of the extent of a holding's influence is its level. A holdings level indicates the fractional proportion of a province's relevant power-base (the province's level or source potential) over which the holding holds influence. For example, a guild (3) controls three-fifths of the potential economic activity in a province (5/1).

The maximum level for a holding is the province level (or source potential, for source holdings). This indicates that the entire relevant power base in the province is under the control of the holding's regent. Likewise, the sum of all holdings of the same type in the province cannot exceed the province's level (or source potential, for source holdings).

The minimum level for a holding is 0. A 0-level holding holds almost no power; instead a holding (0) represents a significant network of contacts that can form the basis for observation of the province and for the eventual establishment of a base of power.
There is no effective limit to the number of 0-level holdings in a province. Dozens of regents can have active networks of contacts. However, opportunities for true influence (holding levels of 1+) in a province are limited. In a level 1 province, only one regent may wield influence over each type of holding. For every 3 province levels (or source potential levels), an additional regent may wield influence over each type of holding. Consider, for example, a province (5/1). There can be at most 8 individuals with any substantial power in the province: the province regent, two guild regents, two temple regents, two law regents, and one source regent.

If a province's ratings change in such a way as to make the current holding levels in the province illegal, then the holding levels must be immediately adjusted. The affected regent should be determined randomly in proportion to the number of holdings held.

Domain assets include any domain-level resources that are not represented by province and holding levels. Thus, potential domain assets vary depending on the nature of the domain.

Military units represent the armed forces at the regent's command. Generally, the regent can raise armies, draft a levy, or create a militia as he sees fit as long as he has sufficient law holdings and the permission of the province's regent. A regent cannot normally raise regular armies in provinces unless the province ruler permits him to, but he can hire mercenaries or use their treasury to support the military actions of an allied domain. Army units each represent a single company or muster. A basic unit is about 200 1st-level warriors. Naval units each represent a ship and her crew. In Anuire, a kingdom with a standing army of more than 3,000 men (15 units) or 15 warships would be considered a significant military power. During military campaigns, powerful kingdoms can often increase the size of their armies by as much as double, but most realms have difficulty maintaining such a force for more than one or two seasons. The domain-level costs and advantages to mustering military units are presented in Chapter Six: Armies and warfare.

Constructions with a specific purpose can be immensely useful to a domain; examples of such include highways, castles, palaces, shipyards, seaports, monuments or most other wood or stone structures with domain-level impact. Highways are vital to trade and military responsiveness. Highways are well-maintained (and usually paved) roads with frequent inns, stables, supply depots, and other facilities that expedite the movement of massive forces such as military personal and trade caravans. Bridges allow rapid movement of trade goods and military supplies over natural hazards that would otherwise delay their transport. Fortifications make a province or holding more difficult to attack. Systems of castles protect an entire province. Fortifying a holding simply makes one holding resistant to physical destruction. Fortified holdings might be defensible monasteries or cathedrals, secluded wizard towers, or hidden bandit strongholds. Like holdings, fortifications are rated by level to represent their defensibility. Constructions are manufactured using the Build domain action.
Bridge: Bridges are required to allow commercial and military travel over major waterways. Bridges can be made of wood (usually) or of stone. Wooden bridges have the advantage (and disadvantage) of being easy to destroy in times of war. Large rivers may require stone bridges. Bridges cannot be built over any river that is wide enough to provide sea access to naval vessels. Refer to Chapter Six: Armies and warfare, for more details on the uses (and cost) of bridges.
Ferry : Ferries allow travelers and troops to cross major rivers. Ferries can make several trips a day, but it still might require an entire week to ferry the supplies of an army across a major river.
Fortifications (Province): Province fortifications include a province-wide system of fortifications dominated by a massive seat of military power (usually a castle or walled city).
Fortification (Holding): Holding fortifications are small systems of fortifications that are constructed to protect the holdings of one regent. This might include fortified cathedrals, armed warehouses, walled forts or small castles, or any other reasonably limited defensive structure.
Highway: This construction includes both a network of paved or packed dirt highways and a system of inns, caravansaries, and other structures that support overland trade and travel. Most provinces of level 3+ have simple roads, but a system of well-maintained highways is an optional expense. Highways are necessary for overland trade routes and increase the speed of travel within the province (as described in the Player's handbook). Refer to Chapter Six: Armies and warfare, for more details on the uses (and cost) of highways.
Seaport: Docks, wharfs, warehouses, and other structures necessary to support sea trade. A province must have a seaport in order to conduct trade by sea.
Ship: Naval ships can be constructed, but only at a shipyard of appropriate scale. See Chapter Six: Armies and warfare, for ship prices.
Wondrous Structure: This is applied to a single building of any type. Possession of a structure of this type is very prestigious, and grants a bonus of 1 RP/level to the possessing domain's seasonal collection. Examples of this type of structure include the greatest cathedrals, magnificent statues, colossal lighthouses, pyramids, or other works of wonder.

Courts are centers of power; a setting where the regent can engage in the business of the realm. Like holdings, courts are rated by level. A court's level represents the number and quality of a regent's servants, courtiers, diplomats, agents, and spies. A court governs not just how well a regent lives, but also how well he maintains the central apparatus of government. A court is a domain asset with a level that measures its relative quality and its cost.

Regents must maintain a minimal court appropriate to the level of their holdings in order to effectively administrate them. A regent is expected to have a court whose value is equal to that of their largest non-source holding. A court smaller than expected is hard pressed to effectively administrate the realm. A court larger than expected is more able to aggressively pursue the regent's interests. Source holdings do not require Administrate and are ignored for the purpose of determining expected court level.

The environs of a court limit its maximum level. A court cannot normally exceed the level of the province in which the regent has his seat of power. A regent may, however, construct a palace near their seat of power. A palace allows a regent to exceed their normal court maximum by +1 per level of the palace. For example, a regent whose seat of power is a holding (4) and a palace (2) in a province (5) is expected to have a court (4) but can have up to a court (7).

Valuable courts take time to build up. Skilled courtiers cannot be hired overnight. Through the use of the Decree domain action a regent may increase their court level by +1 per season. Only one such decree can be made per domain turn. Likewise, a regent can decrease the size of their court by any amount. The new court level is permanent until changed through a future decree.

As the size of a regent's court grows, so does the prestige and reputation of their courtiers and lieutenants. Well-funded courts allow the domain to perform more actions than the regent would be able to perform alone. In addition, a well-known court provides benefits to the regent and the members of his court. Those who recognize a character as a courtier are likely to react to the courtier in a manner consistent with their attitude to the regent's domain. Refer to Domain attitudes, below, for details on the use of the court-based reputation modifier.

Ley lines are conduits created by source regents to carry magical power from one province to another. Realm spells require enormous magical power, and a network of ley lines can allow a regent to bring magical power from a pristine area to low-magic area in order to cast powerful realm spells. Ley lines are detailed in Chapter Seven: Realm magic.

The court of a powerful regent may have many trusted courtiers, but most courtiers have strictly defined responsibilities and checks and balances to keep them from overstepping their prerogatives. A domain's regent may, however, name one or more of his courtiers as his lieutenant(s). A domain's lieutenants are authorized to speak with the voice of the regent, even to the extent of waging war against a foreign nation, spending significant portions of the realm's treasury, dispensing justice, making binding agreements, and other activities that are generally considered the prerogative of the regent alone. Thus a lieutenant can perform most domain actions with the same advantages that a regent receives when personally attending to domain actions and events. Refer to Chapter Eight: Outside the lines for more details on Lieutenants.

Trade routes generate income for a guild domain through trading various commodities between different geographical areas. In order to accommodate trade, a route must exist for overland or overseas trade. Trade routes can only be forged between two provinces if the provinces provide different trade commodities. In game terms, the provinces must either be of different terrain types (plains and hills, mountain and swamp, etc.) or of different races or cultures (Anuirean and Rjurik, Vos and Khinasi, etc.) Furthermore, a province has a limited amount of goods available for export and a limited demand for imports.

A trade route must originate in a province in which a regent has a guild holding; it must terminate in a province in which the regent has a second guild holding or in which a guild holding exists with whom a trade agreement (along with a share of the profit) has been arranged, generally through a diplomacy action. The number of trade routes in which a single guild holding can be involved is limited by the holding's level. A level 0 holding cannot be involved in a trade route. A guild holding level 1-3 can support one trade route. A guild holding level 4-6 can hold two trade routes. A guild holding level 7+ can hold 3 trade routes.

Once created, the regent's of the guild holdings on either end holds the trade route equally. Either regent can destroy the trade route at will. Trade routes generate seasonal GB income for each guild equal to 1/2 of each guild's level. It is not unusual for other regents involved (the province ruler that maintains the roads, etc.) to receive a regular tribute (often 0.5 GB per trade route) from the guild regent's at either end of the trade route - but such matters are negotiable.

For example, an overland trade route is forged between a guild (4) and a guild (2). The owner of the guild (4) earns an additional 2 GB per domain turn. The owner of the guild (2) earns an additional 1 GB per domain turn. Trade routes do not generate regency points.

There are two basic types of trade routes: overland trade routes and sea trade routes. Both type of trade routes are considered equivalent for the purposes of determining the maximum number of trade routes per holding. For example, consider a sea trade route forged between a guild (6) in Illien (forest) and a guild (3) in Aerele (plains). The guild (3) is involved in one trade route (its maximum) and cannot be involved in any new trade routes. The guild (6) has one free trade route remaining (it has a maximum of two); this additional trade route can be either an overland trade route or a sea trade route.

Overland trade routes transport valuable commodities between two provinces by caravan, wagon, and cart. A well-maintained system of roadways must exist between the two provinces to allow overland trade. The initial province, the final province, and a path of adjacent provinces that connect them must all have highways (a construction domain asset). All major rivers between provinces must have bridges. If no highway exists between the two provinces at any time (due to a failure to maintain highways, a closing of borders due to war, etc.) then the trade route is destroyed.

Sea trade routes transport valuable commodities between two provinces by ocean-going vessel. Both provinces must be coastal provinces with a seaport (a construction domain asset). Furthermore, a number of naval vessels must be dedicated to servicing the trade route each domain turn. Naval vessels are discussed in Chapter Six: Armies and Warfare. If the cargo capacity of the vessels dedicated to shipping trade does not meet or exceed the trade route level, then the income generated by the trade route is reduced appropriately. Sea trade routes have the option of connecting to "parts unknown" instead of connecting to a specific coastal province. In this case, the sea trade route's level is one-half of the initial province's level. Only one trade route per province may connect to parts unknown.

The careful maintenance of a domain's finances is critical to a regent's success. Ruling a realm costs enormous amounts of money and reserves must be kept to see the domain through hard times. A realm's treasury is not easily portable; it consists principally of goods distributed in warehouses, farms, or other storage sites throughout the realm. As little as one-tenth of a realm's treasury exists as actual coinage or other hard assets. The security of a realm's supply of ready coin for payroll and other expenses is a matter of utmost importance. A regent would be very wise to keep a close eye on the state of his treasury - it's dangerous to start a war and then run out of money to pay the troops. The size of a realm's treasury is measured in gold bars (GB).

Each domain has an additional attribute that represents the contentment and loyalty of the general populace towards the domain. Domain attitude is measured on a province-by-province basis on the same scale as NPC attitudes: Helpful, Friendly, Indifferent, Unfriendly, or Hostile.

Helpful populaces respect and admire the regent; the actions of the regent's court are seen in the best possible light. A helpful populace is willing to give their time/effort in support of the regent, if required. Note that this does not necessarily imply that the populace likes their regent. Love, tradition, respect, or even fear may motivate a populace's helpful behavior. A regent receives a +1 bonus to all domain actions that he attempts in a province that has a Helpful attitude toward him.
Friendly populaces are well disposed towards the regent and his court. They will not necessarily risk their lives or livelihoods for the regent's sake, but they will tend to see the regent's actions in a favorable light. A friendly attitude is generally the default attitude in any realm with a long established and stable rule; there are no bonuses or penalties to domain actions.
Indifferent populaces have no strong feelings towards the regent. As many people care for the regent as dislike him; most do not care one way or the other. They expect the regent to do his duty by them, and likewise, they will do their duty to the regent. A regent receives a -1 penalty to all domain actions that involve an Indifferent populace.
Unfriendly populaces have elements that actively dislike the regent's rule. The populace, as a whole, is not willing to make any major sacrifices for the regent's sake (or for the realms sake, under the regent's questionable guidance). A ruler cannot draft militia levies in an unfriendly province; the peasants will not answer the regent's call to arms. A regent receives a -2 penalty to all domain actions in the area.
Hostile populaces despise or ridicule the regent and will actively seek to overthrow him, if the opportunity exists. The regent receives no seasonal regency or gold collection from areas that maintain a hostile attitude towards the regent. The regent cannot muster military units in hostile areas. The regent receives a -4 penalty to all domain actions in the area. Furthermore, there is a 10% chance each month that the populace will rise up against the regent in some way (as per the Unrest or Rebellion domain event, described later in this chapter).
Generally speaking, the attitude of the general populace towards a domain can be considered fairly geographically uniform. The reputation of a hard-dealing merchant-prince, for example, will be consistent throughout his domain. In some instances, however, the attitude of segments of the population may differ. For example, a regent that is well-loved in his home province may be despised in provinces that he has recently conquered. The DM should feel free to create multiple domain attitudes for different geographic areas or demographic populations as the situation merits. Domain attitude by province is the recommended level of resolution for landed regents. Domain attitude by realm is the recommended level of resolution for non-landed regents (to ease book-keeping).

A regent's popularity among the people also has significant impact on character actions. When recognized, courtiers may receive a situational bonus or penalty to certain skills. These reputation-modified skills include Bluff, Diplomacy, Perform, Gather Information, and Intimidate skill checks. The bonus or penalty is based upon the domain attitude and the court level of the domain. The court's regent receives double this bonus/penalty. Table 5-5: Court levels provides a base reputation modifier based on the domain's court level. Table 5-6 adjusts the effects of this value on the basis of the domain's attitudes. For example, a courtier of an opulent court has a +3 base reputation modifier. The courtier would receive a +3 bonus to the reputation-modified skills in areas in which the attitude towards his domain is friendly. If the domains attitude were unfriendly, they would receive a -3 modifier to the listed skills, instead.

The most important feature of a domain is the head or ruling body that has the primary responsibility for the domain. The regent may hold absolute power or be a powerless figurehead; but they are always the person that appears to hold final authority in all domain decision in the minds of those with whom the domain interacts. At the domain level, the most important factors for a regent are their bloodline score, their ranks in rulership skills, and their current regency point reserve. Refer to the section on Regency collection for details.

A domain's regent is almost always a single individual. Leadership by a council of individuals has some advantages, but there is also significant overhead involved in arranging regular communication, reaching a consensus, political infighting, and avoiding conflicting orders in an immediate crisis. Rule by council is generally inferior to the unilateral rule of a single talented individual; on the other hand, rule by council avoids many of the dangers of having an untrustworthy or unfit regent.

The council as a whole acts as the domain's regent. The domain still receives only one standard domain action per domain round, but any member of the council may spend a character action to oversee this task as a full domain action. The overseeing member may use the council's regency or any personal regency to support this task; other members of the council cannot use their personal regency, but are free to pursue other character actions.

Councils are considered to have a bloodline equal to the council member's average bloodline score +1 for every 'doubling' of the number of council members (+1 for 2 members, +2 for 4 members, +3 for 8 members, etc.) Thus a council for four scions of Bld 10, 14, 14, and 18 would give the council an effective bloodline of 16 (14 + 2 for four members).

If the character level-based RP reserve variant is in use, a Council's level is equal to the total EL of the group; thus a council of four 4th level characters is consider to be equivalent to 8th level for purposes of calculating RP reserves.

A domain ruled by council must use one court action each domain action round to provide the necessary overhead for council. Furthermore, a domain ruled by council is slower to act than a domain under the guidance of a single mind. A domain ruled by council receives a -1 penalty to its domain initiative for each council member.

---

• Components of a domain
  
• The domain turn
  
• Adjusting domain attitude
  
• Domain collections
  
• Domain expenses
  
• Domain action rounds
  
• Domain action descriptions