A few ideas.

[Mors Vigilia]

First of all concerning the upcoming war with Scotland:

If the armies are split, each army will have a first raid/battle which will be counted as an automatic victory. Therefore these battles will not be important victories but they represent a surprise - (if the attack happens soon and the English army doesn't stay loafing around Bamburgh for everyone and their informants to see...) - and i gives a chance for all players to let themselves go and RP without fear of a loss.

As I will be RPing the Scots, I'll have to find a way to incapacitate my character after these first battles before anything important happens. I'll then be able to RP the Scots properly without being bias to the English.

The armies under the control of LW's aux can be RP'd as being there but currently have no value in a battle. Therefore:

Giving power to auxes:

I understand that GoT has a system that allows for auxes to be played in a similar style to the mains so if anyone with knowledge of that can explain that here then perhaps there's a way that it can be adapted for GSTK.

Currently I'm thinking that players should be limited to six characters. One main and five auxes. A maximum of three of these auxes can be non-rolled characters. E.g.

Main: Duke of Cornwall
Aux: Lord of Penzance (son of Duke Cornwall) (Rolled)
Aux: Lord of Truro (son of Duke Cornwall) (Rolled)
Aux: Sir William le Blanc (Guard Captain of Cornwall) (unrolled)
Aux: Sir Mathieu d'Eath (Knight of Earl of Hereford) (unrolled)
Aux: Edward Williamsson (Lord Mayor of London) (unrolled)

Here you can see that these auxes can be separate from the main and go off and do their own thing such as becoming Mayor of London or whatever.

These need to be refined as to how these auxes draw their power and how they can use it so I'll wait to hear what the GoT guys have to say about it. Not just the GoT guys though, if anyone has an idea for this, please say so.

Monetary system:

I think we currently have a problem with character value and judging a character's worth. Last versions of this game have handled this rather poorly and led to stockpiling et cetera. I think we need a way that we can increase character value but not necessarily their power, so we don't see unstoppable powerhouses stockpiling power for ever and ever. I'm currently drawing a blank on how this could be achieved so I'm wondering that if an income system is returned then there should be an near-equal maintenance system to counterbalance it. Also, any modifiers that had been bought would deteriorate either after a period of years or each generation.

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Comments are appreciated and pretty much required for these to go ahead.
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[Gandalfus]

The system in GoT is basically: there is no one main character. You sign up a maximum of six characters (which can range from an entire family to seperate people entirely) that all function as main characters with skills, and incomes (if applicable). Any characters after that are Auxiliary characters, who have no skills and no money. I'm not sure how to apply this here, but your way seems viable.

[Mors Vigilia]

I wouldn't want to devalue a main character by allowing 5 others, though I think that's a good number of complimentary auxes.

[Mors Vigilia]

Got an idea for introducing the following systems:

Monetary
Traits
Personalised troop types

Watch this space.

[Mors Vigilia]

Check these out:

Monetary System

Freeman: 1 pound
Knights: 2 pounds
Baron: 3 pounds
Earl: 4 pounds
Duke: 5 pounds
King: 5 pounds

Knights are required to give at least 1 pound a year to their direct liege.
Nobles are required to give at least 1 pound a year to the royal kitty by way of tax.

Monk: 1 pound sent directly to the ecclesial kitty
Priest: 2 pounds
Bishop: 4 pounds
Archbishop: 6 pounds
Cardinal: 8 pounds

Clergy are required to give half their income to the ecclesial kitty.

Royal officers of state receive an extra 1 pound a year.

Traits

From the age of 15, a trait can be bought once every 5 years. These traits will cost 5 pounds each and can stack. However, these traits can degrade with age and a roll will be applied every ten years after the purchase of the first trait. Traits can also be given and removed by a moderator due to RP e.g. winning a siege may see a positive trait awarded whilst losing a limb may see the removal of another.

Personalised Troop Types

Due to RP now playing an important part in battles, the effective utilisation of specialised troop types can win the day. Four fifths of a lord’s levies will be light infantry which can comprise of spearman, bowmen etc. 20 per cent of a lord’s levies can now be comprised of special professional troops which add bonuses to battles, (number of special troops on each side will be compared, giving the bonus to the side with the most special troops, regardless of actual type). With or without battle bonuses, effective RP of these troops can see a decisive victory.

These troops are professional and thus always ready. The remaining levy takes 3 real days to fully assemble. Income is halved when levies are raised to represent a loss of manpower, people working the fields etc.

Every 100 professional troops cost 9 pounds and an annual ½ pound to maintain.

[Xion]

Hm, sounds fair. So tax rate rate decreases as you rise in rank from 50% to 20%?

So the troop system reverts to the old 3.0 style? Although I thought it was 10 per 100 professional troops?

[Mors Vigilia]

Troops should be much more expensive now. Mainly to discourage hoarding, all things have high prices.

Kitty: "A fund of money for communal use, made up of contributions from a group of people."

[Xion]

I agree with that. If I recall, some lords in 3.0 had large professional armies.

....Interesting, thank you.

[Mors Vigilia]

As for the tax question, it's not that the tax rate decreases but it represents the increased revenue that they're receiving.

Also, just to clarify, the maximum amount of these professional troops that any can have (Baron and above) are equal to 1/5 of their army size which is still linked to title.

[René Artois]

We should probably extend the amount of rl weeks to a year, stuff is going too slow really for one week to one year.

Also, why regular, modern style tax, and why is it so high?

[Mors Vigilia]

I agree about the year idea for now, so 2 weeks equals a year or 4 weeks? 4 weeks would enable us to use seasons and so would 2 weeks at a lesser extent.

With the taxes, they're high because I didn't really want to give high incomes and 1 pound is the lowest denomination of coin to give. I suppose we could make it 1/2 pound instead?

[René Artois]

Why not just have it medieval style, and the king can just levy a tax when he needs it? Good rp options for when the king has to gain support for whatever cause the money is for, and for the taxed people if they do/don't approve of the tax.

[Mors Vigilia]

My main reasoning behind it was to lessen individual income and instead see that there's a constant supply to the royal purse which should be used for boons and other things to benefit England. Possibly even for ransom demands etc. An actual player controlled tax could just give people an excuse for rebellion, regardless of whether the tax is just or not. Though I do appreciate the RP that could result from this.

Of course if others think that the medieval style is more appropriate then I'm happy to concede that point.

[René Artois]

Rebellions would liven the place up at least

[Mors Vigilia]

Polls up for opinions on tax and years.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ation-of-years

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...p?601927-Taxes

[Mors Vigilia]

These will come into effect after the cessation of the current war with the Scots.

[Mors Vigilia]

Added troop types and traits to the rules plus there's a new thread in The Realm to purchase these things.
I'll add the money system when the server behaves itself. Also I plan to make a better description of the battle rules as the Scottish campaign was just painful so people still don't understand them correctly.

You may now add a bank account to your homethread OP where you will keep track of your character's money, troops and traits.