[Discuss] Re: Royal Status

[bpratt]

On 10/3/06, Marc J. <polyticks04 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 10/4/06, bpratt wrote:
> >
> > Since when does being noble translate to always being correct?
>
>
> Since that if you, (as a peasant in the Middle Ages) where to say that a
> noble was wrong... you'd lose more then your wife, kids, and house. You'd,
> depending on the noble, either be killed or throw in jail and forgotten
> about.
>


So how come is it that there are wars with nobles on both sides?
Disagreements? Duels?  Executions? Outlaws? Obviously, its OK for a noble to
think another noble may be wrong about something. At least it is in
Battlemaster.



> The only difference is that BM Royalty is too "nice" and too "easy".
>
> Nice, in the sense that when was the last time you saw a King act with
> near-dictatorial power? When was the last time you saw a King demand gold
> from his Dukes - and have the Banker starve the city until he got it?


There's a good deal more differences than that.


>
> Easy, in the sense that all it takes to be Ruler in BM is an election. No
> power plays, (besides politics) no struggle of arms, no real display of
> power.
>
> Again, my honest opinion, but I'd love to see a system where the feudal
> system becomes even more important. Dukes, Local lords, and Knights are
> given the power to make - or break - Ruler's and government systems.
>
> --
> Marc J.



I agree that I'd want a more working feudal system, but making Royals (who
again in BM do not really carry the social weight of being the 15th Earl of
Whatsit's eldest male descendant and born and bred from birth to be the King
of Greater Whatsit) immune to an angry judge isn't the answer, or if it is
it's only part of the answer. (For example, maybe remove the system of
protests. Why should a mere Knight be able to wave placards around and get
the King removed from office? He should have to resort to rebellion.)

I guess what I'd want is more Family, so you could have a Royal Family. As
things are, after a few elections in a small realm you might wind up with
half the nobles being Royals, and not a single one of them related. But
also, I know in terms of game mechanics this would be very difficult to
achieve - I can't imagine a fair way to implement it.

I'm getting off tangent, my original point was in the feudal era Royals had
power not because they were immune to getting banished, but because there
was a social system in place that legitimized and emphasized social
differences. A social system which is mostly lacking in BM owing to most
people understandably not getting into roleplaying it and from having a
different political system in place.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://news.battlemaster.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20061004/3cd57bd0/attachment-0001.htm