[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
-[X] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
[X] Plan Frugal Fools
-[X] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
-[X] Ito Akari - Stewardship Adviser: +20 Frugal - Ito Akari will decrease expenses for all projects by 10%
On fighting corruption, a Root and Branch approach...doesn't actually work. Nobody pursues corruption for corruption's sake - they do so for personal gain, and the thing is everyone has a price.
To fight corruption effectively you're looking at:
1) Removal of endemic corruption - This is about reducing people being 'forced' into corrupt dealings. You cannot have open practice of bad practices, as this lowers any individual's price threshold. Many corruption methodologies spreads the money around so that everyone gets something, underlings who see black money being passed around but not getting any are likely to report it, underlings who have been passed some black money from their superiors are complicit and cannot report worse incidents without burning themselves, and since everyone has dirt on everyone else, nobody is willing to betray their friends to fuck a superior.
This is Efficiency, how much corruption is fucking with us.
2) Establishing enforcement - This is mainly about fear. As long as people feel they can get away with corruption without consequences, some will try, and some will get away with it. This is about keeping a clean organization clean, a tainted organization's enforcement is worse than useless, it actively reinforces corruption when the enforces are in on it.
This is Tradition. Its about maintaining the practices of the current state. The lower Tradition is the easier it is to change things for the better AND for the worse.
3) Encouraging good practices - This is much more complex. Modern practices would encourage whistleblowers, ensure that staff are well compensated for their lifestyle requirements, selecting ideologues for leadership etc.
This is mostly emergent.
So of our options:
-Limited - This just cleans out outstanding cases. Good for getting down to business, but the same bad seeds are still in positions of influence.
-Substantial - This cleans out outstanding cases and makes examples out of a few high profile cases. This would likely scare most of the offenders to stop, unless they have commitments relying on corruption.
-Thorough - This basically annihilates the administration. There's going to be a lot of room for corruption in the aftermath because nobody knows how things are supposed to work anymore, and you're going to need to make sure that temporary measures in the wake of the purge needed to function at all do not become permanent bad practices.
Substantial is good enough. We're running a fief, not a spy agency.
[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
-[X] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
I see no reason to nuke our defense stat by that much and would rather raise the effectiveness over time, still a 60 with Liu Chen as a steward would let us get work done and a 40 vs 30 defense state is going to have an impact
Also 30 might be low enough for the bad random events to start spawning and if not gives us no flexibility on dropping tradition in any choices until we can raise it.
@ChaosCircle Might be useful to mention whether a vote will be done by Plan Voting or without, because there's a mixed result where some voters are choosing a Plan and some don't include one.
No one paid much attention to you as you traveled the servants' halls to your destination. The servants were too busy with their jobs to be aroused to curiosity by a stranger in their midst. It helped that you carried nothing, had nothing that could be interpreted as taken from the Lord's home.
Ouch, I hope that when we implement proper security measures, this is also taken into account with servants requiring identification passes and memorizing the roster so that strangers aren't allowed to infiltrate without an escort.
That said, since there isn't a Plan for balanced choices, I'm making one now, although not sure if it'll succeed since it's late.
[X] Plan Balanced Books
-[X] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
Treading the line between completely upending the bureaucracy and picking the best Adviser candidate.
Also guys, I know the knee-jerk reaction to Corruption is a 'Thorough' purge, but that choice clearly hints at going overboard with how we're sending off our Guard Retinue, our only trusted subordinates atm, away for an entire month and spanning the entire fief. We don't have to solve everything in one-go and focus singularly on one issue for a time period, it's a marathon not a race, we have to pace ourselves and our priorities...
Plus, heavy-handedness isn't as effective like @veekie said when trying to eliminate corruption, especially when from first impressions Toril as the Fief Capital seems to be doing well for itself. @KreenWarrior@Void Stalker consider editing your votes to consolidate?
@ChaosCircle Might be useful to mention whether a vote will be done by Plan Voting or without, because there's a mixed result where some voters are choosing a Plan and some don't include one.
Sending out all of our trusted guards for a month to weed out corruption is the definition of overkill, and sounds liable to get us assassinated in their absence (hey, it's not paranoia if they're out to get you!) . Particularly because we're in a medieval setting - if we managed to find everyone slightly corrupt and remove them, then we'd have nobody doing the paperwork left. Which is bad.
The vote is very close, so I won't be closing the vote today. Vote will close in ~16 hours.
Adhoc vote count started by ChaosCircle on Aug 28, 2020 at 5:13 PM, finished with 17 posts and 14 votes.
[X] Plan Frugal Fools
-[X] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
-[X] Ito Akari - Stewardship Adviser: +20
[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
-[X] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
[X] Plan Balanced Books
-[X] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
-[X] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
-[X] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
Previous Lord was poisoned. Following the money should provide us some clues as to How (avenue of attack) the poisoner got in. Plugging security holes with money is cheaper than being poisoned.
Previous Lord was poisoned. Following the money should provide us some clues as to How (avenue of attack) the poisoner got in. Plugging security holes with money is cheaper than being poisoned.
Adhoc vote count started by ChaosCircle on Aug 29, 2020 at 10:15 AM, finished with 23 posts and 16 votes.
[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
-[X] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
[X] Plan Frugal Fools
-[X] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
-[X] Ito Akari - Stewardship Adviser: +20
[X] Plan Balanced Books
-[X] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
-[X] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
The actual transfer of power was a simple affair. The old Lord laid in bed as he said the words in front of his ministers. A part of you wondered if that would be you one day. Poisons were one of the most effective ways to weaken or kill a powerful cultivator. There were countermeasures but a prolonged infiltration could get past food and pill tasters. It was something you would need to watch for during your reign if you were to survive the politics of your time, particularly with three brothers all jockeying for their aged fathers throne.
Your first official act as Lord was to launch an investigation into tax collection within your fief. You wanted taxes to be collected accurately with neither the peasants overcharged or you failing to receive your due. Financial revenue was critical to the health of a province and critical to your health as its liege lord. Your family depended on you to bring in 7000 Silver Bars per season, half of which went to your family to spend on Clan activities. This fief, while the smallest of the fiefs under your father's command, played a critical role both in the financial health as well as the alchemical power of the Bai clan.
It worried you slightly to send out all but two bodyguards, to guard you while you slept, to oversee this investigation. You felt naked without the full might of the Bloody Hand at your immediate disposal. Their investigations took a full month to complete and led to the firing of many tax collectors in your employ. It seemed these people considered themselves tax farmers, those who collected and then remitted a portion, rather than tax collectors who collected an honest total and remitted the full amount to your treasury. That was a practice you ended with a stroke of then pen and their removal.
Your spies in Bloodthorn Valley turned to the completion of assessments of various accountants and traveling merchants who appeared honest in their estimation. You needed new tax collectors and it was from those ranks you would acquire them. There was always honest merchants whose business was a struggle and found themselves in need of a new source of income. There were always accountants who could move into the relatively safe job of tax collection whose income was stable. It was these men that filled the ranks of your tax collectors.
However, for all the benefits of cleansing corruption from your ranks there were consequences. Those that remained were timid in their dealings both with you and with the general public. They felt fear for the first time in their long careers that their job might be at risk and it showed. That combined with so many new faces, new faces that were vetted but might be prone to the corruption given time. Even honest men had a price for their honesty, although you hoped it would be high enough no one would willingly pay it. This act left you with an honest tax office, at least for a time.
Your second act was to dismiss those ministers loyal to the old lord and to replace them with your own people, handpicked from across the empire. Ministers who, for a modest fee, would move to Bloodthorn Valley and serve you loyally. Your network of spies vetted them but as they were spread out, so too were the ministers they selected to join you. These new ministers were strangers both to you and to each other. It was a state of affairs that would ease over time and alliances would form that might limit their loyalty to you over loyalty to each other. Such was the nature of these things.
The important thing is these were all known quantities, both in competence and proven loyalty to previous liege lords.
There were two positions which you needed to fill carefully. Those positions were your Captain of the Guard who would take over as commander of your fiefs military as well as the Spymaster who would take over your work leading your spy network. Now that you had an official position, you would need to foist those jobs off onto others so that you could focus both on ruling and on cultivation. Cultivation you would need to focus on as soon as the province's affairs were settled and you were confident you could take few month's respite from public life to cultivate your own power. That was the reason more powerful mages were usually chosen for the position, ruling a province cut into one's cultivation time and if one was already weaker than the average...well that could turn out badly, particularly with duels between principles being the deciding factors in most conflicts between provinces and clans. That and Orc raids were something you were expected to handle personally.
Captain of the Guard
[ ] Liu Bao - Martial Adviser: +20 Orc Slayer - +20 vs. Orcs
[ ] Bai Chenshen - Martial Adviser +20 Nepotism - You gain a favor with the Bai Clan you can call in for anything reasonable. Cousin - His loyalty is guaranteed barring blackmail, mind control, or clan civil war.
[ ] Zhao Huan - Martial Adviser + 30
Spymaster
[ ] Wong Hui - Intrigue Adviser +20 Paranoid - +30 vs. Attempts on your life (or the life of an adviser)
[ ] Ho Shen - Intrigue Adviser +20 Talented - +10 to all rolls he takes Needy - He will demand more of your time than other advisers.
[X] Bai Chenshen - Martial Adviser +20
Loyalty is too good not to have
[X] Wong Hui - Intrigue Adviser +20
Loyalty is always a good quality to have an advisor, and I'd much rather not be assassinated, thank you very much. The favor is also very tempting - "anything reasonable" still gives a decent amount of leeway. Think we could use it to call in troops if need be?
[X] Zhao Huan - Martial Adviser + 30
[X] Tan Liu - Intrigue Adviser +30
I'm inclined to say that we should go with the people with the highest stats. In general that means they'll be more effective and better at their jobs. We won't have to worry about our martial adviser betraying us if we have a good enough intrigue adviser to identify them. Likewise, we won't have to worry about assassins as much if we have a great adviser to train our guards, and if our intrigue adviser can set up a decent spy/assassination network to identify and eliminate anyone who might try to assassinate us first.
