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Family in Lusternia
So is family in Lusternia just a competition between cities to see who snatches up people first, or is it supposed to be an RP mechanic.
I am pretty happy with Naime's immediate family, makes her feel accepted and not just a number to the active members.
I am pretty happy with Naime's immediate family, makes her feel accepted and not just a number to the active members.
It's true, I really am you.
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(c) Iron Realms Entertainment 2012.
Comments
I encourage all novices (including any I approach about family) to try and get to know all the families so they can know for sure where they belong.
IMP it really helps build the RP atmosphere
EDIT: grammar
It's true, I really am you.
Notably, I'd like a way to forsake a 'birth' family to create a new family with other people who have done the same thing. So, I could forswear Zayah and leave with 5 of my brothers and sisters, we could all band together and form a new family with 10 members of Starleaf to form the Foobar family with 15 total members. It would also be nice to have the power to involve 'branch' families with the formal family system, outside of the bannering system (which many branches can't participate in, due to size)
As for Hallifams, it is a kind of competitive market since our population is traditionally smaller. We've got three historical families, each with its own general flavor that aligns pretty nicely with the caste system. Shevats are supposed to be the scholarly family, Windwhispers are the artistic family, and Pavoks are the militant/bureaucratic family, so there's something for everyone. Like real families, there are people who don't quite fit the pattern (the Shevats adopted Daraius, for instance, those suckers).
When it's come up in the past we've kind of discouraged folks from attempting to start new families, simply because the population isn't large enough to support more. Another would just absorb potentials from one of the families trying to become a great house.
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
FAMILY PATRON X
If accepted, marks a person as being a client of the offering patron. A client remains in his own family for the purposes of his name and bringing people into it, but counts as being in the patron's family for the purposes of calculating that family's size. When a client generates an honor tick, half goes to the patron's family and half goes to his, or some other such distribution as seems appropriate.
That would help separate family identity from family competition mechanics a little bit, which I think would help. At the very least it'd help in Hallifax, with the population issue that Daraius mentioned.
There are cool RP options, both based on history and more purely Lusternia. Naturally, Shevat would never ever banner itself to Windwhisper. We're nominally equals, after all. But individual Shevats might become clients of individual Windwhispers, if they were apprenticing themselves to a famous Windwhisper artist. Or maybe in a place like Mag where there's a strong aristocracy there's a person who wants to integrate into the house system but doesn't want to RP being a noble. Client themselves to someone in the family, be a retainer. Part of the household, not part of the family. Tons of cool potential!
Family that has, you know, interacted with me before forcing the family consideration process.
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
It's not always that easy and fun. Oh, so much drama with Haezons family before he joined. It was somewhat painful. Once you join a family, its sort of like taking a side and entering he food chain that is family politics. Adds a whole new layer to your character. Magnagora is particularly egregarious with ths, Glomdoring less so, but each family wants glory for themselves, either to help their org or themselves. Families aren't bad, but they should be treated with caution.
It's true, I really am you.
It's true, I really am you.
The same can be said of wives as well, so I'm used to it all by now and just let it roll off my shoulders.
One does need to be very careful with the rewards. DoC had a liege system which made Shub-Ponzi The Diseased Wallet salivate from all thousand of his festering, money-grubbing orifices. All parties had something intangible from the bargain (``I serve the Foo clan.'' or ``That knight Bar serves me.'') which is cool from an RP perspective, but real trick is in all the tangible details. The vassal generated something for his liege, but really got nothing in return. If I worked my ass off then my patron received a benefit, but my patron only might reward me. My patron only might reward me because the system did not enforce or compel any sort of reciprocity. If my character swears himself to your family then your family automatically reaps some reward from all of my actions, whereas my character never gets anything from your family's actions. The liege system in theory was a Good Thing, but the application was Doing It Wrong.
The bannerhouse system in Lusternia seems to have gotten things right. Lesser House Bar is sworn to Great House Foo. If Bar serves well, both Foo and Bar are respected. If Bar shrinks, on the other hand, Foo too declines. The actions of the Great House also impact the esteem of the Lesser House. The two are linked. This is a Good Thing. I don't know what the exact weights are, but I don't need to know because that's not the point. The point is the two maintain their autonomy, but are judged by association. This is fair and natural, so there must be room for application to individuals as well, as @Portius suggested.
First we need to separate the intangible (or mostly intangible) from the tangible. There is no need to discuss the intangible because that only matters to people who care about RP (``Can you believe that? House Baz will adopt any old trash littering the alleys!''). If a client's deeds contribute to their patron's prestige, then what's in it for the client? Again, votes or promotions are intangible because players can vote or promote whomever they like (provided they have tangible privs). What is in it for the client? If we want to insist on reputation, then we'd need to petition the staff for a new ``prestige'' attribute for all player objects. This is not necessarily a Bad Thing, but it is a New Thing nonetheless. Ok, so everyone has a Prestige score, now what? What happens if it goes negative? Will Npc's react to it? Will some privs require a certain amount of the stuff? Is it publically visible? Can I earn prestige in the absence of a patron or matron? Do I even have a prestige score if I don't have a patron or matron?
I'm not trying to shut anyone down, but if we're dreaming about something as potentially awesome as changes to the family system then we need to be honest with ourselves and understand this is no Small Thing. I understand IRE gladly accepts player input. I've also been told ``Ideas are a dime per dozen.'' Most companies (I've no idea about IRE) don't need ``Idea Men''; they need Implementers. Most companies need people who offer a plan rather than a wish, and I sadly fear something which touches upon every player object, every family object, and possibly every Npc and all other faction objects would need to be well considered if at least for sympathy for the poor blokes at IRE who would have to evaluate the idea. They probably have a check-list of sorts ready at hand to fast-track ideas into the different queues, but why take chances?
I think some sort of patrony would be pretty awesome, but it would need to be incorporated into the current system of quid pro quo or else there is just no compelling reason for anyone to really want it, or it and the present system would both need to start from scratch. I've plenty of ideas regarding families myself, and I don't mind sharing them, but I'm aware my ideas would require considerable evaluation from the staff and even then might require far more work I suspect. I'm possibly the most cynical optimist anyone has ever met, so your mileage may vary.
Yes, I think the RP-side of things would benefit tremendously, but I still need to come back to tangible benefits. Why do merchants pay ``protection'' fees? Proximal answer: so the mob doesn't break your legs. Ultimate answer: because the mob will break the legs of anyone who causes your store (i.e., their revenue stream) any sort of trouble at all. Won't pay because you're stubborn? Your legs get broke. Can't pay because someone held you up? Their legs get broken. ``Protection'' keeps the riff-raff out of the neighborhood in the absence of regular police forces (and is especially helpful if the police are the mob!).
Well, that's all kind of dark. I guess we could go with a better example. Leonardo da Vinci was briefly a client of the Borgia family. This meant people treated him with the same respect as they might treat a Borgia, lest Cesare break their legs (last time, I swear!). This was not a one-way street. So long as Leonardo remained in their employ, he was also financed by the Borgia. Of course to remain in their employ Leonardo had to produce. Ok, so much of this is a social contract which any entities could hammer out via RP, but the notion of being marked ``a client of Great House Bar'' is a tangible benefit (it is coded and presented by the program) just as Great House Bar receives the tangible benefit of advertising (again, via the program) to be the patron of Knight Foo. If it is merely a vanity plate then not so tough programming-wise. If there are to be other benefits (extending shop/manse permission options or Npc interaction just to name two) then we ought to tread lightly.
We currently can RP a client-patron system, and I think there are tons of possibilities with a more rigorous system programmed into the game, but we must think very carefully on what those mechanics are, and why each party would desire the bargain. The current Bannerhouse system offers something for all parties, and something along that vein might prove very productive.
Of course the whole thing could be packed up and sent to the same warehouse as the Ark of The Covenant unless and until we can get more people playing again. One thing at a time I suppose.