Domain Actions

[Leland]

Partial Investiture: Through this domain action a Regent may invest a trusted lieutenant with a partial amount of his bloodline. In this way the lieutenant could either be groomed to take over for the regent in the future or take on holdings in deference to regent. It would also allow lieutenants to perform domain actions in the Regent's absence. Just another wacky idea I had.

Leland

[Lord Eldred]

In our campaign, Lieutenants can do one domain action a turn. I know that in the computer version of the game it also allowed that...would this allow them to do more?

[Leland]

Maybe I better rethink this domain action. The idea I had was that the lieutenant could rule in the absence of the regent or even be under a hidden regent like in a puppet regime.

Leland

[Perhelion]

I'm not sure many regents would be willing to spare their bloodline... and they'd lose the poetential to gain more RP from their holdings as well. They'd really have to trust their lieutenants before they divested themselves of some of their bloodline!
In any case, it would make them vassals more than lieutenants no?

[Lord Eldred]

Leland, I thought that that what Lieutenants were for...leading while you are away. They already have some ability to take action but since you are away they are not able to run things perfectly giving the incentive and reality that regents should never stray too far from home. It also adds to the game by having your regent come home to a mess!

[Leland]

Maybe I missed something here. How does one run a realm without a bloodline? Also do lieutenants collect RP? To be honest I love the Birthright setting but have played very little. I tried to DM a PBEM and a table top game but somehow the role-playing got bogged down in the mechanics of the Domain Turn.

Leland

[Lawgiver]

I have actually expanded upon the Lt. rules in my campaign. According to the computer game version only 1 Lt. may perform an action per Domain Turn regardless of how many Lt. you had. In my campaign I allow each Lt. (whether they have 1 or 10) to perform 1 Domain action per Domain Turn. (i.e. 5 Lt. could perfrom 5 Domain actions) Generally my players have not been able stock pile masses of GBs and RPs to abuse this privelage.:P If your players do try to start taking advantage of lt. one solution is the enforcement of salaries or Build actions. If the PCs have to pay for their Lt. or provide/build homes for their retainers they may trim down their staff a little. A regent should not be expected to do everything alone, but they shouldn't be able to create a mega-domain in a matter of turns. As the domain expands so will its income and resources. At this point the regent should be able to afford more lt. If you are a cruel DM you could always thin out the Lt ranks through assassination, corruption, etc. In-fightinf between Lt. could force some to leave or deul to the death between Lt. Once people realize that Lt. don't last under the regent's command applicants may dwindle... The PC will think twice before abusing the privelage.

[Lord Eldred]

Lawgiver has a great way to meet Leland's desire while at the same time preventing Lt. from getting out of control. I also like how Lt. can only perform one action but multiple Lt. provides for multiple actions. It makes sense. Regents are supposed to be more talented than the Lt.s thus they can perform three actions. To replace the Regent you have to have three Lt.s ;)

[Temujin]

I also agree with the you-got-more-lieutenant-you-can-perform-more-actions approach. I used to limit it this way in my game though:

Any one of your lieutenants may use any domain actions once per turn. The others are limited to free actions and character actions(exception made of hiring a lieutenant). Why bother with the free action? This allows a thief lieutenant to perform a free espionage action once per turn for his lord for example, etc... This worked pretty well, is actually accurate in the rules iirc, and prevents the tactic of having half a dozen lieutenant to create half a dozen new holdings each turn, using your own actions to rule/contest. If my PCs wanted more actions, well, they had to get a vassal(and so hand over a part of their realm and income doing so).

[Leland]

Why didn't anyone answer my questions?

Leland

[Lawgiver]

My answer is that most regents would appoint blooded Lt. therefore their is no need to invest their bloodline into the Lt.

If your regent leaves town for more than a month on adventure they can pick a Lt. to be put in charge. That Lt. could then use a free action to in effect tell other Lts. what to do. Basically it takes a staff of 3 Lt. to replace the regent. Blame it on their lack of tie to the land or whatever you want. The game should be about the regents not Lt. puppets. If your regent trapses off on adventures all the time they aren't very responsible leaders and will mostly likely be "replaced". The are constraints of power.

The citizens of the U.S. wouldn't be to happy if the President took ski trips, cruises, etc. on a regular basis and neglected the duties of his office. Its the price of leadership.

[Lord Eldred]

I don't expect the President to go on a bunch of ski trips and I wouldn't vote for him if he did. However, I would expect him to make diplomatic visits to other countries. I would expect him to go on trips to different places in the States that need his attention. While he is away from the Whitehouse some of his duties are taken over. Hell, even when he is in the Big House his duties are done by others. The point is that the Lt. should be able to handle the day to day operations and even some of the bigger operations while the boss is at play.

[Lawgiver]

I fully agree my dear Lord Eldred. But you said so yourself the White house runs itself with the president.... You don't seen Chaney stepping in to fill in for the President. Its assumed that certain basic functions that would need to keep a country afloat would function without the regent, or a lt. for that matter. You needn't replace the regent entirely. Just set up a Lt. to be in charge in case the Huns invade China while you are visiting India, negotiating trade. If things are bad enough a lt. would send for th regent and the regent would be a fool not to come home and deal with things personally.

The comparision with Bush and Diplomatic tours for than a month has a slight difference... technology. Bush could essentially hop on Air Force One and run the country form there indefinately. It can refuel midflight and as long as the pilots stayed awake and worked in shifts a ruler on the ground is obsolete. Bush could use phones, TV, satellites etc. to keep up with the events in the nation.

Regents in BR don't have phones, but they do have lackeys who can ride horses. There is nothing to prevent the regent for giving Decrees from foriegn nations... its generally a note on a peice of paper which is independant of location either way. A PC regent could effectively rule his realm while not being in his realm through Decrees and Lts. But as you said so yourself you wouldn't vote for a president who slacked off or was away for long periods of time... the people, esp. the nobles (many of whom tend to be self centered and whiney), won't stand for a regent who neglects their duties.

[brownie]

What you could do is give part of your land to your Lt and make him a regent if he is blooded. YOU still basically control him with him being your Lt but then he can give you tribute with RP and GB's.

[Lord Eldred]

Or he could grow powerful enough to try and take you over!

[brownie]

That is true. You could but then when someone gets alittle stronger than normal so then you must hire an assassan to kill the Lt.

[Arch-Sorcerer Gargamel]

Lord Eldred and Lawgiver are making perfect sense. The lieutenant can merely make a few decisions on upkeep when the regent isn't available.

[Dosiere]

Yes, in the medieval setting which is BR, it would be very dangerous for any regent to give too much power to any of his subordinates. And it woudl also be dangerous for anyone, especially the commoners and the nobles alike, to begin to equate a Lt. as the actualy face of the domain (due to prolonged absence by the actual ruler). This would invite sedition and revolt. If not by the people as a whole, but at least by those with enough ambition, perhaps even the Lt. himself. Then again, with the regent gone all the time, it would be easy for him to go "missing while in foreign lands", "slain in a heroic adventure into the Five Peaks", "captured and beheaded by enemy X", "enslaved by the Gorgon", etc, etc. and the "loyal" Lt. would have no choice but to rule until the king returns (i.e. never).


Lt. should only be permitted to be familiar with what ever facts and information they need to complete a specific mission (their domain action). If they are sent to contest a holding in a foreign province, they probably have no knowledge of the other things going on in the domain that season, except for what any ambasador or spy would know...perhaps a little, perhaps nothing at all. Regents just would not have an easy target roaming about doing their bidding with a head full of damning information about the particulars of their domain. It is not safe, and not likely in the dangerous environment which is Anuire.

[Leland]

The funny thing about this whole thread was where my train of thought was when I started it. I am planning on working out a game where everyone starts out as commoners and eventually becomes invested into regencey. The whole reason I started the thread was to get a feel for "partial investiture". My idea was much like using experience points in third edition to acheive various effects. Such as a wizard needs to donate experience points as a component to cast certain spells or make magic items. My idea was similar. A person with a minor bloodline who is close to getting a major bloodline or a major getting close to a great, could invest a partial amount of his BP to taint someone else. So lets say a guy with a major bloodline that was close to great could invest just enough to bring him back down to be at the bottom of major. Now I know purists will say "No one in their right mind would do that!" or "Its already supposed to be an ordeal to go from one bloodline score to another, why would anyone give up so much?!" Well, thats for you to decide. I am merely presenting the thought. One sure drawback I see. If elves are immortal, they could partially invest non-blooded elves to the point that ALL elves are blooded. Wouldn't that be something?

Leland

[Lord Eldred]

I agree with the purists!

[brownie]

Another thing about the Lt is when you are away adventuring he is not doing the same so as you continue to get stronger he is still staying back at the palace being 3-5 level depending on how long he is been around. If you want him to go up then you would have to take him adventuring and then you both would split your part of the Xp.

[Lawgiver]

Orginally posted by Lord Eldred
I agree with the purists!
Once again, I side with Eldred

[Abbess Allessandra]

Why wouldn't a lieutenant gain experience from taking on the extra duties while you were away. A regent could also have more than one lieutenant. I have a character that has twin lieutenants, they take turns going on the adventures. So they have earned quite a bit of experience. I also take very good care of them.

[brownie]

He could gain XP from doing some LT actions but not as much as you from exploring. And like i said above if you take him adventuring then you are splitting your share of the XP with him. Then if he is lower level then he will become more powerful than you and then you have to worry about that problem.

[Sellenus]

How does he become more powerful? Is he getting more XP than the regent?

[Lord Eldred]

Brownie, he depends on the way NPCs are handled and how your DM handles experience points for them. I never understood the sharing of experience points. Each individual earns experience on their own. The actions of your Lieutenant would earn the experience.