[Discuss] Rules of BM Need to be Stressed More

[George Story]

I am surprised to read that many people here assume that all nobles fit one
stereotype.  Some people here seem to think that every single noble is an
unpleasant person to their social inferiors.  As it is extremely difficult
to debate with anyone on a subject without both sides the core concepts
pertinent to the discussion, I would like to point some of you to the
fallacies of division and fallacies of composition.  I do not want to
digress into a historical discussion on the level of distortion in the
looking glass that many of you appear to be looking at history through and
thus draw your conclusions from.  If this does not apply to you, please
ignore.

In some feudal systems, each Noble had a degree of freedom to kick and beat
a peasant as equally as each noble was free to kick and beat a dog .
Likewise each noble was equally free to coddle and treat his dog and
servants well.  Moreover, if a greater noble did not wish someone else to
beat and kick their dogs and they possessed the power to force this will
upon other nobles then other nobles would not kick and beat their dogs as
long as their desire to do so was not greater than their fear of
consequences.

To simply state in the OOC sphere that You Feel that nobles should not do
that and thus another player should play his character to act this or that
way is ridiculous.  The real world actions of nobles in historic Feudal
systems were as equally diverse as the imaginations of the players who play
this game.

If we are truly looking for ways to enforce characters relative respect for
positions and titles then give those positions and titles more power.  Give
them meaning and the freedom to abuse that power.

I am not aware of how many of you have ever served in high disciplined
military service.  Those that have can agree that they rarely forgot to
speak respectfully to a superior.  Respect for what a superior could do,
respect for your station in the world, respect for the system, and respect
for the the individual all play parts in this dynamic.  Free thinking
educated men, born after the enlightenment and raised on democratic values
and thoughts can easily be persuaded to comply to a rigid rank and title
system where rank can often mean the difference between having to do some
vile things and not having to do them at all.

That is not to say that lack of respect never manifests itself.  It does
happen.  In some cases an officer that fails to enforce the proper respect
for his rank runs the risk of losing face and respect from his troops and
thus weakens his ability to lead those troops.
A lower ranking individual who attempts to do this to the wrong superior, is
open to discover just what authority the higher ranking individual
possesses.

I recommend leaving it alone.  There is already a key game element in place
to enforce title and rank respect.  The realms that enforce rank and title
respect WILL find themselves operating at a higher level of efficiency.  As
soon as players and their characters figure this out, they will find that
success will come much easier.

I suspect that many do not do this, because it is not fun.  Some will be
surprised to find that if we get too accurate in duplicating the social
systems of feudal history, that this game will no longer be enjoyable to
play for the majority of us.
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