Assorted Rules Changes for 1.3

[Ymbert Montgomery]

Should get the new version out on Wednesday. A few changes I'm thinking of putting in, let me know if you have any feedback.

Title opportunities for advocates and doctors.

Remove the rule about being able to attend all royal balls. This was funny in October, but it was inherited from the rules I took for the court section and doesn't quite make sense! Especially as the only events non ministers are likely to want to attend are court balls. I think it's overly punishing for characters not eligible for court as well.

Change to military rank rules. After 3 months at the position of Captain upwards (or it's cavalry equivalent) it is possible to buy the next rank up if there's a vacancy. This stops people buying colonel in the first month, but it also means people won't get stuck at the same rank for months. What do people think? It's based on the church promotion rules.

[Valerie Valanon]

As for title opportunites for advocates and doctors, if they serve the King and / or the State well, they should be not left out of title opportunites. Otherwise no one would probably select such a career.

Since promotion is more or less dependent on luck, it should be possible to circumvent it. Your suggestion is well balanced I think.

[Jacques Bougiedure]

Oct 6, 2020 14:48:36 GMT Ymbert Montgomery said:

Change to military rank rules. After 3 months at the position of Captain upwards (or it's cavalry equivalent) it is possible to buy the next rank up if there's a vacancy. This stops people buying colonel in the first month, but it also means people won't get stuck at the same rank for months. What do people think? It's based on the church promotion rules.

I don't see how this change reduces the likelihood of getting stuck at a particular rank for months on end.  It still is dependent on a vacancy at the next higher rank and chances of a peacetime vacancy are unchanged.

[Ymbert Montgomery]

Oct 6, 2020 20:23:30 GMT Jacques Bougiedure said:

I don't see how this change reduces the likelihood of getting stuck at a particular rank for months on end.  It still is dependent on a vacancy at the next higher rank and chances of a peacetime vacancy are unchanged.

That one's complicated and probably needs a bit more explanation.

The first issue is that the original rules stop people buying Lt. Colonel or Colonel in the first month, but is unclear on the rest. It seems to assume that vacancies only occur in the Summer campaign, which seems odd. And obviously we have several camapigns.

Several games have tried different approaches to tackle that. Sun King is odd because it makes Major a merit only promotion, but fails to mention other ranks. Time of Honor makes both Major and Colonel merit only promotions and only allows promotions to Lt. Colonel after six months. The former feels a bit arbitary and the latter too harsh.

Obviously, there's the possibility of just allowing people to buy without restriction, but I think that's too far in the other direction. Wealthy characters already have major advantages, without being able to theoretically buy their way up to Colonel the month after joining. (Which would close that rank even more than a NPC because of the better Death rolls.

The other major thing I'm looking at (this won't happen this turn but I'm hoping to get it done before the Winter Campaign) Is actually solifying a list of NPCs and their ranks. That'll allow me to fill the various positions (that PCs don't get) with those NPCs, leading to Brevet B-Gs hopefully getting promoted out of their regiments for, in turn hopefully leading to more churn in top positions.

[Father William Souris]

Influence can be used to attempt to get an Officer to resign of course

[Ymbert Montgomery]

And with the new NPC rules, more subtly, it can be used to get them promoted out of the regiment. In terms of opening it up a bit more, I think I'll say that Brevet Brigadier General NPCs apply for all suitable positions so influence can be used to help any of them get it.