Witness3's Agenda System

This system allows DMs to play multiple domains, be them kingdoms with provinces or simple holdings, without going mad because of the bureaucracy. The agenda system allows you to manage ultra-simplified accounting and move NPC realms using to-do lists.

[top]Who should use this system

This system was designed and tested in campaigns in which the domain game is very present but intersects with classic RPG. The idea is that the DM must manage these domains to produce interesting challenges for the players, not to compete with them and "win"! So it is a great system to handle small situations or have more “fair” challenges in domain play.

[top]Building an NPC domain

For each domain you want to actively play in game you will need:

• Domain power: the full sum of all holding and province levels. This will represent the domain regency availability for the turn (forget about class % collection);
  
• Treasure collection: sum all province levels + holding levels according to BRCS. This will be the GB availability for the turn.
  
• For realms only, you may want to determine units & castles (forget about holding fortification); if units are unknown in the BR wiki, assume no more than 5 standard units and 2 special, expensive units;
  
• For wizard domains, you may want to determine its ley lines;
  
• (Optional) Do an excel spreadsheet to keep track of domain holdings, if only to know where the domain may exert its influence
  
• Golden rule: you may disregard this as a whole and use your domain managing system to generate regency and treasure.
  

Use my pre-calculated domain tables and my pre-calculated domain power files from the downloads section to help yourself.

[top]Creating ambitions

1. Study a bit the domain, look out its alignment, figure out what your DM domain is interested in. Remember: You are the DM, you are not a real contendent to the iron throne or whatever the regional equivalent is for other human realms; you are there to pose a challenge to players. Nobody cares what a domain is doing when is not interacting with the players.
   
2. Once you decided your domain plan, split the plan into single steps, province by province. Each step of the plan will be an ambition.
   
3. Assign a number from 1 to 10 to each ambition, This will be the base interest of each ambition, where 1 means “I don’t really have anything better to do” and 10 means “My life and everything I hold dear depends on that”. Remember, the more the base interest the longer the ambition will be in play.
   
4. Assign to each ambition the Agenda Hit Points (AHP). This is easy: AHP start with the same number of base interest.
   
5. Now for each domain you should have a small “to do list”, with an index of importance (BI) , an index of actual interest (AHP) and an exact point where to execute the plans (the province)
   
6. Optional: Now that you know the province where the plan will be execute, look up that province domain table. For each NPC domain that will surely help your NPC regent, record a +1 to +3 bonus. For each NPC domain that will surely fight against that ambition, add a -1 to -3. You should have a definitive number that will represent a standard modifier to any roll. This will prevent bookkeping domains just for the sake of bidding wars. Note: If the opposing/allied holding is a law holding, you may add the holding level instead of the +1 to +3 bonus.
   
7. Also optional: Sign out any special asset required to fulfill the ambition or that was created as a result of the ambition (i.e. amry units, spy networks, etc.).
   

[top]Boundaries

• Ambitions must be tied to a single province or target, hovewer the province needs not to be the same.
  
• You need not to have all ambitions on deck right now, but you need at least 1 ambition ready for each agenda.
  
• No regent may play more than 3 ambitions on the same turn, so be sure to avoid adding 9 or 10 ambitions to the same regent.
  
• Assign the same number to all main steps, a lower number to sidequests. Maybe conquering province X is vital (8), but province Y is a bonus (4).
  
• If you play with 6 or more players (congratulations), you may raise the base interest limit from 10 to 20.
  

Base interest	Average actions needed to solve a single ambition
1 - 2	1
3 - 4	2
5 - 6	3
7 -10	4

[top]Action Points

You may need to insert new regents into the game, or maybe you have a lot of regents and not all of them has moved.
Following the “slow but inevitable growth” principle, for every 6 months of play you can assign 1 action point to a NPC domain. You can spend action points using the table below to automatically enhance (ie without pulling) the domain, however you cannot bring changes or create new assets in provinces where player holdings or players' assets are present: it would be incorrect to remove them from the opportunity to influence the NPC domain without a bidding war.

Improvement	Action points needed
Raise province 1 level	2 for 1 level (no more than 1 level per province)
Raise holding 1 level, new level 0 holding	1 each 3 level of fortification
Muster unit or ship	1 each 2 GB of muster cost – do not subtract from the treasury
Trade route or ley line	1 each 6 provinces – none of them may have player’s holdings or belong to a player
Spy network/Embassies	1 for each province
Restore 1 AHP	1 point each AHP

[top]Playing ambitions

Play each action like a normal domain actions, using your regency and treasury stats as pools of regency and treasure.

• Turns: Each domain turn you should play no less than 3 regents and no more than 6.
  
• Domain collection: just reset the regency and the treasury pool.
  
• Initiative: roll 1d20 + bloodline modifier or just a plain d20.
  
• Initiative – alternate: roll 1d20 to obtain 3 initiatives. Assign each initiative to 2 or 3 regents as you seem fit.
  
• Actions: Each NPC regent has either 2 standard actions (representing any court actions) or 1 full domain action for the whole round. So each regent may a) play two ambitions b) play one ambition twice c) play 1 ambition with full domain.
  Full domain: if you don’t want to generate stats for full domain actions, just add +6 to any full domain action.
  

[top]Victories and defeats

• Each time a NPC domain fails in one of his actions, subtract 1 AHP;
  
• Each time a PC domain thwarts the NPC domain’s plan, subtract 1d2+1 AHP;
  
• If more than 1 action is needed to fulfill an ambition, add 1 AHP for each succesful action (don’t exceed the ambition’s base interest score);
  
• Successful ambitions: reward with regency points and gold bars your NPC domain next turn (the bonus will last only a turn)
  
• If AHPs are halved, have the NPC domain do a random event tied to the ambition, representing the NPC regent trying to “force the hand” on the situation;
  
• if all AHPS are lost, the NPC regent has grow tired of the situation. Roll 1d10: if the result is equal or lower than the base interest, have a major event schemed by the regent; if not, just admit defeat and move on.
  

[top]Base interest and bidding wars

the "base interest" score should be used as a reference to decide how much a regent actually wants to risk his position. A regent will never use a percentage of his pool in the bidding wars equal to 10% * base interest - so with a base interest of 8 he will use approximately 80% of his resources at most. If a low level ambition (1-3) causes him a very important damage, he can make an ambition check (1d10 less than or equal to the base interest) to see if he surrenders immediately.

[top]Example: Guilder Kalien's ambitions

Guilder Kalien (45 RP, 32 GB) wants to remove El-Hadid from Diemed. Where to start? He will start by allying himself with Heirl Diem to gain his neutrality (or even better, a support), then he will systematically start removing any guild from Diemed. This is important to him, as he wants the control of the Arnienbae’s naval shipping. Here is how the plan will be created:

Ambition	Target	BI	AHP	Mod	Notes
Gain Diemed's neutrality	Aerele	8	8	-1	Embassy needed
Gain Diemed's support	Aerele	3	3	-1	Embassy needed
Remove El-Hadid from Ciliene	Ciliene	8	8	-3	--

As you can see, Diemed’s neturality is worth 8, while his alliance is worth 3. Having Diemed as an ally doesn’t really ruin Kalien’s plans, so it’s worth less than the baron’s neutrality. Notice that the capital province of diemed (aerele) was used to determine diplomacy, instead of the regent.
Example 1: During his round, Kalien immediately tries to build an embassy (first action: diplomacy check with -1 due to El-Hadid presence), the action is successful so his next action is to request Diemed's neutrality (second action: diplomacy check, +2 due to embassy, -1 due to El-Hadid presence =+1). He can spend up to 25 GB (about 80% of his pool) of Endier's treasury and wind Diemed's neutrality. The ambition is satisfied, the DM can remove it from the list and assign a bonus regency (10 RP for example) to Kalien; the regent may spend this bonus on the next domain turn or immediately on the current turn.
Example 2: Kalien’s guild war on Ciliene is not going well – he has failed a first contest holding check due to player’s bidding, and lost 3 AHP. His second attemp also failed, without players intervention, so he lost just 1 AHP. With 4 AHP left out of 8, he is seriously considering of mustering an army of mercenaries (minor event) and try to occupy the province and destroy El-Hadid holdings.