Post by gaston on Apr 25, 2020 12:48:50 GMT
Travel and The Provinces
There are some irreconcilable problems in the current rules regarding Travel.
This means when a character travels to the provinces he is there for (a minimum of) the whole month.
This means that Canons, Bishops and Archbishops wishing to fulfil their clerical obligations will never be able to spend time in Paris. It's impossible to spend one week per month in their bishoprics - they'll need to spend the whole month...
Travel in En Garde! has always been bizarre. Armies march wholesale into Star Trek-like 'transporters' in Paris and are 'beamed' immediately to the front (and, if they survive, travel back in the same way). Now in Limimal it's also possible to 'beam' between Paris and the Provinces and back again (though it takes the 'transporters' a month to recharge ). In neither case is this instaneous travel credible. 17th Century journeys should take time...
Paris and the 8 provinces lend themselves to being arranged in a 3 x 3 grid. Why don't we rule that travel between one square of the grid and an adjacent one (either horizontally, vertically or diagonally) takes one week of game time ?
The only minor problem with this is that currently we have no province in the middle left square of the grid and we have two provinces (Picardy and Champagne) in the top right square of the grid. To resolve this I'd suggest that we remove Champagne (which, for RP purposes, can now become part of Picardy) and replace this with a new province, Aquitaine, in the mid West.
The ramifications this has for campaigns is addressed in the proposed replacement for '31.0 Travelling to the Provinces' attached as a separate document below. (This also includes a schematic of proposed province grid mentioned above).
Where the clerics mentioned at the top of this post are concerned, instituting the above suggestion would make it possible for them to spend one week per month in their bishoprics - but they would have to spend two weeks per month travelling allowing only one week per month in Paris. I'd suggest that the requirement be changed from one week per month to two week per season. That way these clerics would be able to travel to their bishoprics in the second week of the final month of a season, stay there for the remaining two weeks of that season and the first two weeks of the next, then spend a week travelling back to Paris. That still adds up to 3 weeks away from Paris each season like the original requirement. (I'd suggest that Province Governers' requirements conformed to this too, being reduced from one month per season to two weeks per season).
One final point on provinces. The rules look to have been taken from the Sun King - which had only the Military Academy and an Admin Academy rather than the wide range of University Academies which Liminal has. Should characters be able to improve their skills at provincial universities and academies? Possibly, but provincial academies would not be as good as those in the capital. I'd suggest the following addition at the end of section 31.2 Actions in the Provinces:
Characters in the provinces may improve their skills at the province's university and academies. These charge only 80% of the fees of their Parisian counterparts, but skill rises can be no higher than +0.20 per week (rather than +0.25) and no skill can be raised to more than 6 at these provincial institutions. Where Provincial Military, Medical and Legal Academies are concerned, three week courses cost 40 livres and give a skill rise of 0.4 .
Travelling to the Provinces.doc (16.5 KB)
There are some irreconcilable problems in the current rules regarding Travel.
31.0 Travelling to the Provinces
Before a character can perform any action in the provinces, he must travel there. Travelling between Paris and a province or between a provinces must be ordered as a pre-monthly action, and if the destination is a province, the name of that province must be given.
Before a character can perform any action in the provinces, he must travel there. Travelling between Paris and a province or between a provinces must be ordered as a pre-monthly action, and if the destination is a province, the name of that province must be given.
15.10 Duties of the Clergy:
... Canons assigned to a Cathedral should spend one week per month attending to matters there. Bishops and Archbishops should attend to their bishoprics one week per month.
... Canons assigned to a Cathedral should spend one week per month attending to matters there. Bishops and Archbishops should attend to their bishoprics one week per month.
This means that Canons, Bishops and Archbishops wishing to fulfil their clerical obligations will never be able to spend time in Paris. It's impossible to spend one week per month in their bishoprics - they'll need to spend the whole month...
Travel in En Garde! has always been bizarre. Armies march wholesale into Star Trek-like 'transporters' in Paris and are 'beamed' immediately to the front (and, if they survive, travel back in the same way). Now in Limimal it's also possible to 'beam' between Paris and the Provinces and back again (though it takes the 'transporters' a month to recharge ). In neither case is this instaneous travel credible. 17th Century journeys should take time...
Paris and the 8 provinces lend themselves to being arranged in a 3 x 3 grid. Why don't we rule that travel between one square of the grid and an adjacent one (either horizontally, vertically or diagonally) takes one week of game time ?
The only minor problem with this is that currently we have no province in the middle left square of the grid and we have two provinces (Picardy and Champagne) in the top right square of the grid. To resolve this I'd suggest that we remove Champagne (which, for RP purposes, can now become part of Picardy) and replace this with a new province, Aquitaine, in the mid West.
The ramifications this has for campaigns is addressed in the proposed replacement for '31.0 Travelling to the Provinces' attached as a separate document below. (This also includes a schematic of proposed province grid mentioned above).
Where the clerics mentioned at the top of this post are concerned, instituting the above suggestion would make it possible for them to spend one week per month in their bishoprics - but they would have to spend two weeks per month travelling allowing only one week per month in Paris. I'd suggest that the requirement be changed from one week per month to two week per season. That way these clerics would be able to travel to their bishoprics in the second week of the final month of a season, stay there for the remaining two weeks of that season and the first two weeks of the next, then spend a week travelling back to Paris. That still adds up to 3 weeks away from Paris each season like the original requirement. (I'd suggest that Province Governers' requirements conformed to this too, being reduced from one month per season to two weeks per season).
One final point on provinces. The rules look to have been taken from the Sun King - which had only the Military Academy and an Admin Academy rather than the wide range of University Academies which Liminal has. Should characters be able to improve their skills at provincial universities and academies? Possibly, but provincial academies would not be as good as those in the capital. I'd suggest the following addition at the end of section 31.2 Actions in the Provinces:
Characters in the provinces may improve their skills at the province's university and academies. These charge only 80% of the fees of their Parisian counterparts, but skill rises can be no higher than +0.20 per week (rather than +0.25) and no skill can be raised to more than 6 at these provincial institutions. Where Provincial Military, Medical and Legal Academies are concerned, three week courses cost 40 livres and give a skill rise of 0.4 .
Travelling to the Provinces.doc (16.5 KB)