"The Court of Cavan", A.K.A. "Regents of the Realm", A.K.A In which I build an TTRPG, A.K.A. Babblefish is back on their bullshit (again).

[Babblefish]

Alright, I'm doing it, I'm back on my bullshit. This is already a terrible idea.

Okay, fine, let's get started:

Spoiler: Intro Lore

The Queen is dead. King Roland has been missing these past five years, and the royal twins,Lillian and Danial are not yet of age to take the crown, a scant eight summers old.
The Noble houses via for influence. Neighboring kingdoms are eyeing up your borders.
There are shortages in the markets, and unrest in the streets, and You have been charged with keeping the city together.

You are the Council of Cavan.
Regents of the Realm, named by Queen Johanna in her will to guide and shape the city until Lillian and Danial come of age in seven years time.

There are many threats, and the success of the city will depend on cunning and teamwork.

So gather what wisdom you can find,
and those friends who are loyal to you,
and rule.

Spoiler: Rules Intro

The Council of Cavan is a cooperative,multiplayer role playing game, designed for four to seven players.
One player plays the role of the "Storyteller", the remaining players are "Councilors". Each councilor plays a different role in the city, for example the cities General, keeping track of military matters, and the various adventures washing in and out of the city, or the Courtier – in charge of wrangling both the noble houses and nascent royalty.

Play consists of a number of "Council sessions" (one per season), during which you and your fellow councilors discuss the running of the kingdom, and decide how best to allocate your limited personnel, assets and currency.

After each council session, a pair of dice are rolled for each action undertaken, and the game's "Storyteller" will narrate the results (in some cases prompting further actions or choices).

After all actions have been resolved, the seasons will turn, the council will convene again, and new threats and rumors will be brought before the council to discuss.

So....
A few years ago, I decided to build an TTRPG (again). The basic set up for this one was that, instead of being Adventurers, the players played as the Regents of small city state (While babysitting the upcoming royals).
Is this idea fun?
Is it even mildly interesting?
I don't know, but its been knocking around my head for a while, and I figure I might as well get some other peoples eyes on it and see if we can make something interesting.


My plan for this thread is basically to blurp out all the thoughts floating around my head (over time), and see what sticks, and if any of you fabulous people have any ideas or suggestions. For tonight, probably I'll just give a blurb on the six roles, and see what takes peoples fancy from there.

Spoiler: The Courtier

You are the Courtier. A noble of some minor repute, thirty second in line to the throne. The Queens most trusted relative.
With Johanna's death, you have been charged with educating your cousins in matters etiquette and statecraft, as well as ensuring their personal safety until they come of age. Johanna has also made a more personal request that you seek out suitable marriages for each of them, so as to strengthen ties to both the noble families of the city, and abroad.
In addition to this, there is also the wrangling of the Noble Houses to attended to; when feuding, the Great Houses are liable to burn the city to the ground. On the other hand, if their differences were ever set aside, it is likely that the Great houses would make a bid for the throne.
You will need to balance the politics of the Aristocracy most carefully in order to survive

The Courtier is in charge of Aristocrats and Bodyguards.
They are responsible for managing the noble houses, making sure their young cousins survive, and being fabulous.

Spoiler: The General

You are the General, defender of the realm. With the Queen's death, you have been called back from the Eztipa border, and placed in charge both the city watch, and the cities ragtag supply of ``Questers''.
Tactics are no longer tactics.
Strategy is no longer strategy.
You are beholden in politics now. With diplomacy and public opinion and figuring out where on earth your soldiers swords are going to come from.
Still… it is a service to the kingdom, and you know how to do your duty.

The General is in charge of Commanders and Questers (AKA, adventurers).
They are responsible for defending the kingdom's borders, protecting allies, and putting down any dragons, ogres, or cultists that attempt to take over the countryside.

The General is also in control of the kingdom's Armies.

Spoiler: The Ambassador

You are the Ambassador. With the Queen's death, you have been recalled from your foreign posting, and placed in charge of foreign relations with not just one kingdom, but all of them. You are to administer spies and diplomats, and do your best to prevent your fellow council-members from causing an international debacle.
The Royals are young. The Council is inexperienced.
The kingdom is small, and foreign nations are prone to preying on weakness, and lashing out against power.
You will need loyal allies, and detailed information on your enemies, and no small portion of luck as you walk the delicate tightrope of international diplomacy.
The Ambassador is in charge of spies and diplomats.
They are responsible for gathering information on incoming threats, and managing the attitudes (and policies!) of neighboring kingdoms.

Spoiler: The Minister

You are the Minister. The Keeper of the common folk. Architect of laws and legislation. Administrator of Courts, Orphan houses, Temples and public criers.
With the Queen's death, there is no final authority for courts to answer to. With the Queen's death, the citizens have lost just one more anchor to look to in dark times.
With the Queen's death YOU have been made responsible for one hundred thousand souls, and for selling the councils plans to the public, so as to avoid civil unrest.

The Minister is in charge of Orators and Magistrates.
They are responsible for managing both public opinion, and the *laws* of the kingdom (this includes creating new laws, and managing any court cases which might come up)
The Minister manages the various "Public beliefs" which will determine the success or failure of your kingdom.

Spoiler: The Dean

You are the Dean. Administrator of librarians and magicians. Keeper of curious and mysteries. With the Queen's death, you have been requested to take a more… active roll in the city. No longer merely administering the school, but also advising the ruling council on matters of spell craft and learning.
This is both and obstacle and an opportunity. With the Queen's death, the royal patronage you once enjoyed is forfeit, you will need to justify the Academies usefulness to your colleagues on the council.
Also forfeit is the rather stringent oversight you previously toiled under, and should the kingdom ever be in need of aid…you will only be to happy to oblige.

The Dean is in charge of the kingdoms Scholars and Sorcerers.
They are Responsible for... nothing in particular. Mostly just making sure you don't blow yourselves up by mistake.
They also have access to the kingdom's vault of magic items.

Spoiler: The Architect

You are the Architect. Designer and planner of the city, overseeing the construction of fortifications, roads, trade routes and industry.
You are responsible for building and maintaining infrastructure, controlling the guilds as the import, export and manufacture goods, and preparing the city and the surroundings lands, for war, commerce, and harvest.

The Architect is in charge of merchants and engineers.
They are responsible for building and maintaining the kingdoms buildings and infrastructure, and also ensuring the sufficient grain, steel and cloth is available for all the OTHER regents to do their jobs.
All critical buildings of the kingdom are managed by you, also a Dossier of current shortages and abundance of goods.

So, that's the current general shape.

If people have particular things they want to hear about, give us a shout.

Probably the next post will just be setting up the basic mechanics, and then (presumably) going through the various regent roles one by one. Or maybe something else will take peoples fancy!
That, or I can do a "Lore post" describing the various Noble houses, and neighbouring kingdoms.

 

[Tascion]

The basic set up for this one was that, instead of being Adventurers, the players played as the Regents of small city state (While babysitting the upcoming royals).
Is this idea fun?
Is it even mildly interesting?

Click to shrink...

I tend to think oppositionally in analysis, so my first thought is asking where is the conflict?

Who are the players competing against for victory?

• Why should they care? In cooperative gaming, there's usually a spectrum between the fun of 'numbers go up' and 'engaging storytelling'. The downside is relying on the DM to communicate a story, with wildly varied quality of DM skills resulting in very different games even with the same mechanics.
• If the players are in an asymmetric competition with the DM, in which both sides are constrained by the rules and the DM also has the job of storyteller, that can get complex and hard for the DM quickly.
• Can one player or group of players win against another group? Even if that's not intended, trolling and griefing are occasionally cathartic or malicious impulses that more readily come out during games.

What is the round to round, and the overall game strategy like, in how you envision this game? In Catan, I don't recall much strategy more than three rounds in advance. There are goals, but the strategy for getting to them shifts in accordance to dice dramatics and surprise actions from other players. In this game, where is the player agency? What special information or choices does each player have that results in conflict and victory through the structure of the game.

For example, the Dean in this game has access to magic items.

• Quick! Ruffians are at the gates! Does the Dean provide either healing potions to the sergeants or a banner of magical inspiration to the guard captain?

If that's all the information given, that choice sucks. There's no clear indication of consequence or drawbacks. In contrast:

• Quick! Ruffians are at the gates! Does the Dean provide either:
  • Healing potions to the sergeants
    • Chance of capturing a ruffian and getting information from them
    • Reduced chances of injury to Armies, with a tiny ongoing bonus to the General
  • A banner of magical inspiration to the guard captain?
    • Bonus to the Ambassador's actions only during the next turn and are based on military competency of the kingdom

"Why can't I provide both? This game is stupid." - Player for the Dean wondering why they're forced to be arbitrarily limited in the help they provide.

This isn't the best example, but I don't have better words for describing game design. People don't sit around by themselves, rolling dice until they roll double sixes and then call themselves winners in the game of rolling the highest number. Players of a game compete. Maybe they're competing against the odds, but in many of the most enduring games there are aspects of skill at the game itself and then also skill at working with or against others.

A person may not sit around by their self, rolling dice until they win. However, Liar's Dice is at least 600 years old and still going strong as a way to get a group of people sitting around and rolling dice.

In summary, what is the competition for creating investment with the players over the outcome of the game, and if there's no competition, what do you envision as the hook that pulls people into players as opposed to just sitting around and talking about the latest fantasy TV drama over the future of a kingdom?

 

[Babblefish]

Who are the players competing against for victory?

Click to shrink...

The Goal is a roleplaying game, so the goal is storytelling, not like... trying to beat the boardgame.

The issues you list below of GM quality and "Players being assholes and griefing one another" exist in many RPG and like... don't cause the genre to collapse. That isn't to say those aren't issues! Just that like... I don't intend here to solve the fundemental issues of "GM's have finite brainpower" and "Sometimes players and dickbags" here and now.

my first thought is asking where is the conflict?

Click to shrink...

In the lore, the conflict is such things as "There are armies attacking an allied city, assassins after the royal twins, Granaries which are already half empty in autumn, and a weird cult spreading through the populous which appears to believe in burning down the government"

In terms of where the conflict comes from and how the conflict is resolved: like many RPGs, it is the Gm's job to create obstacles at the players.

Where is the player agency? What special information or choices does each player have that results in conflict and victory through the structure of the game.

For example, the Dean in this game has access to magic items.
[SNIP]
"Why can't I provide both? This game is stupid." - Player for the Dean wondering why they're forced to be arbitrarily limited in the help they provide.

Click to shrink...

I would say that like *many* RPGs (and other board games and video games), the fundemental axis of player agency is the "Focus allocation game".

In a combat based RPG, you often have 5 enemies and only two swords. Watcha gonna do.
In a city building RPG, you have limited workers, and limited resource, and you have to decided between building a barracks OR a mill.
In a espionage based RPG you have to decide which faction you are going to investigate. Who is going to hold the magic item, etc.

The made up situation you presented doesn't really make sense, in that, its frequently NOT "We have situation X, and items A,B and C, which one do we send along". It's a question of "We have Situations X, Y AND Z, and equipment A and B. Which equipment goes to which situation, and which probably do we just accept being slapped in the face by."

In summary, what is the competition for creating investment with the players over the outcome of the game, and if there's no competition, what do you envision as the hook that pulls people into players as opposed to just sitting around and talking about the latest fantasy TV drama over the future of a kingdom?

Click to shrink...

This competition based focus is very... boardgamey.
And very un-rpg-ish.
Generally speaking, in an RPG, the hook is the story. There is problem solving, and definitely an aspect of skillness, but "Competition" is not really the right word.
I suspect, many people do not join Forum quests for the sake of competition and the skill-testing gameplay.

Hmmmm... maybe I post a bit more rules, and it will give a general picuture of the game loop....

 

[Babblefish]

Spoiler: Assets, treasure, goods, and personel

Assets is a catch all term for any large semi-permanent resource that the Kingdom has at its disposal. Assets include public infrastructure, public beliefs, treaties with foreign nations, Army Legions and Magical artifacts.

Assets have a wide range of effects, and more detailed descriptions of each type of asset are given beside the role most closely associated with that asset type.

In game, Assets are represented by taking a cue card and writing the asset's details upon the card- modifying as needed.

Treasure is the basic measure of coin used to maintain and build up the kingdom. Each season, the kingdom earns ten units of treasure. This number can either increase or decrease depending on the events of the season.
Treasure can be either spent or saved, although hoarding too much treasure in your vaults is liable to attract the interest of thieves and the resentment of the common people.

In game, treasure is represented by coins.

Goods are any large collection of mundane items, such as stone blocks, iron shields, fine cloth or warm winter clothes. At any given time, a particular good my be in scarcity or abundance. All such goods are listed on a scrap piece of paper. Goods not listed are assumed to be in regular supply – neither scarce, nor overly abundant.

Spoiler: Personnel

The most common type of Asset in Cavan is "Personnel". Personel represent talented individuals in the employ of the council.

Every Personnel has a name, a personality a profession, a loyalty and potentially one or more talents associated with their profession.
Professions include "Commander", "Diplomat", "Merchant" and "Sorcerer." A persons profession determines the basic actions that they have available to them. Each of the six roles on the council has two professions associated with them. Each profession has a number of basic rules and actions associated with them – these rules are given in the rules section for the appropriate council member.

Asmedea De Firth John Buroughs Casadin Corks

• Personality: Cunning
  Profession:Merchant
  Loyalty: House Penrose
  Talent: Thrifty, Smuggler
• Profession:Commander
  Loyalty: House Belledonna
  Talent: Hardy
• Personality: Even tempered
  Profession:Bodyguard
  Loyalty: The Royal Crown
  Talent: Hardy

Loyalty: describes what ideal or organization they are loyal to. Most Personnel are loyal to one of the six noble houses of the city, although other loyalties are possible. Asking someone to take action against something they are loyal to is liable to backfire and result in betrayal.
Whenever you are actively engaged in conflict with a particular country, organization or noble house, Personnel loyal to that group are liable to either protest (refusing to take action on your behalf), or defect, leaving your employ completely, or even turning against you at a critical juncture.

Talents
Talents are minor abilities that can be gained by your Personnel. Examples include:
Cautious All action rolls rolled by this character are treated as one step closer to "7".
Smuggler This Merchant can bring supplies into and out of the kingdom without this information being public.

Personnel gain one talent when they first enter your service, and can also gain talents via important personal events – for example, marriage, or upon receiving the blessings of the crown.

Personnel also gain Talents in whenever they roll doubles on an action roll, or whenever they complete a "High stakes" action (actions marked with a ) Rolling doubles on a High stakes action does not grant two talents.

Whenever a character gains a talent, roll an eight sided dice, and note down the associated talent from the "Talent list" associated with their profession If a character would gain a talent they already have, you may roll again, at most once.

Spoiler: Action Rolls

Whenever you attempt to do something in Cavan, you must first pick one of your personnel to accomplish the task, and then roll a pair of six sided dice and add up the results.
By default, the results of your roll will be:


0-3: Consequences: Something bad happens.
4-6: Complications: You need to overcome some obstacle in order to succeed.
OR Partial Success, and Consequences
7-10: Success: The outcome you wanted happens.
11+: Success AND Opportunity: You get your intended outcome, as well as the potential for future rewards, if you can overcome a small obstacle.

Every profession will have their own specific action tables describing common actions, which will either modify the above, or spell out the results of success or failure more specifically – for example telling you how bad the consequences are, or what complications are most likely.

If you wish to do something that is not listed in this game manual, tell your Game master, and they will describe the likely results of your action roll; for example, for a particularly difficult task they might warn you that 7-10 will only be a partial success. For a particularly high stakes task, they might describe particularly dire consequences, and for a low stakes task they might describe only mild consequences. Your Storyteller is NOT required to tell you precisely what will happen on a given dice roll, they need only give you a rough sketch of the kinds of things to expect.

Each member of your personnel can take up to one action per season.

Spoiler: Complications

Complications occur when you roll moderately poorly on a task, or when you are attempting something particularly difficult. They represent some minor obstacle that must be overcome before you can either achieve success or attempt the task again.

Examples of possible complications include:

• Your task requires some goods our resource in order to be completed; for example a building project requiring the import of stone. A grand ball may require the manufacture of beautiful gowns.
• The task requires the presence of additional personnel; a treaty might require a royal signature, a champion exploring a lich's lair may require the assistance of a spy to clear traps, an Engineer may require an Orator to persuade the builders back to work.
• The task requires the support of one or more of the Grand houses, or the approval of one of the neighboring kingdoms.
• A particular lost relic, ancient tome, or holy symbol must be retrieved in order to continue.
• You lack information. For example, you can not arrest someone if you don't know where they are.
• The task is more expensive than previously thought, and requires additional treasure to be spent.
• A monster must be slain.
• Some public belief must be raised, lowered, or altered before the task may be completed. For example, in order to form a treaty to end a border dispute, a neighboring kingdom may demand that your citizens be less bloodthirsty.
• Any other minor obstacle. Your GM is free to pose a complication not listed here, and is even free to (on occasion) pose a complication without offering you any particular avenue of solution. For example "Cave system containing the artifact has flooded. How will you go about getting to the bottom of the cave?

Spoiler: Consequences

Consequences occur when you make a mistake, roll poorly, or fail to address an incoming threat. Whenever you suffer consequences, your GM is allowed to cause some harmful event to befall your kingdom.
Consequences can be mild, moderate, or severe. All consequences will be related to their source in some way.
Some examples of consequences:

Mild Consequences:

• Lose some treasure, or a minor magical item.
• One of your personal is temporarily injured.
• Take a -1 penalty on one or two future rolls.
• An army or Infrastructure is damaged, or some goods are lost.
• A negative public belief gains a small amount of support.
• Your GM draws one of your Innocent Civilian cards, and describes some minor adversity that they must overcome.
• Your GM describes a complication you must overcome by the end of next season in order to avoid a more serious consequence.

Moderate Consequences:

• One of your personnel is killed, or permanently removed.
• Several personnel are temporarily removed.
• One of your royals gains a negative character trait.
• One of the Great houses becomes more hostile towards the council. (-1 loyalty)
• A foreign Kingdom becomes more hostile towards Cavan (-1 attitude)
• One of your Legions is Decimated in combat.
• A Dangerous public belief if formed, or gains power.
• An artifact is lost.
• A positive public belief either loses support, or is twisted by the GM.
• Your GM draws one of your Innocent Civilian cards, and describes some disaster or hardship that they must endure, possibly with long term consequences.

Severe Consequences

• Multiple personnel are killed.
• The city is thrown into crisis.
• Your kingdom is invaded.
• One or more noble houses publicly oppose the council.
• One of your Innocent civilians is killed, or must endure some personal tragedy.
• One of your two Royals is killed.

Spoiler: Opportunities

Opportunities occur when you roll particularly well on an Action Roll, or when you take an action specifically designed to create opportunities (for example, spying).
When you gain an opportunity, you GM will give you one of three things:

• Information on an incoming threat that you were previously unaware of.
• A +1 bonus to a particular action. For example "You learn about a foreign diplomats affair, gain a +1 blackmail bonus"
• A Sidequest; that is to say, some prize that you can claim by overcoming some complication of equivalent value. "You learn the secret resting place of the emerald of purple fire. Unfortunately, it is guarded by the Kexian Lion"

Many opportunities will vanish if not acted upon within a season or so of hearing about them.

 

[Babblefish]

Spoiler: Basic GM rules: threats and problems.

As a storyteller, the most basic unit of storytelling that you will want to keep track of are "Threats" and "Problems".

A Problem is anything which is currently actively damaging the kingdom.
Problems can be Minor, moderate or severe.
Minor problems include a single serial killer on the loose, a particularly cold winter, or a trade sanction from a foreign nation. Moderate problems include minor military scuffles at the border, Assassins actively targeting your personal, feuding noble houses, and pig-headed royalty. A single Moderate problem is unlikely to significantly damage the kingdom, but a number of them together are liable to significantly weaken the kingdom, potentially leaving you vulnerable to more serious threats.

Severe problems includes anything that actively threatens to destroy the kingdom. Such things include a conquering army on the cities doorsteps, a particular vicious plague, Civil war, a demon accidentally summoned in the city center, and a particularly insane monarch taking the throne.


Threats are just problems that have not arrived yet. A threat might be rumors of plague in a distant kingdom, An empire preparing itself for war, whispers of strange magics and fell sorcerers stalking the land, or an engineers report stating that the kingdom is dangerously flamable.

As a general guiding principle of Storytelling, Larger problems cast longer shadows.
Feel free to spring a mild problem on your players with only the slightest of warnings- or even no warning at all.
For Moderate problems, where possible, let the problem brew for a number of season- give your players time to head the danger off, or prepare to weather the storm… if they are paying enough attention, and can spare the resources.
For large problems, you will want to allow storm clouds to gather on the horizon. Minor hints at first, with increasing urgency, as the oncoming disaster gathers momentum and force.
Serious threats should take many seasons to develop (6-12). Your players may only become aware of the problem as it draws close- but in theory it should be POSSIBLE to prepare for a danger many seasons in advance.

Threats can represent any threat to the city, from the minor ("The trade road to [PLACE] has collapsed."), to the the existential ("A Foreign army marches upon the city.") Some threats are immediate, and others gather in the distance for a long time before arriving in the city.


In game, threats are represented in a similar way to player Assests; each threat is named, and written down on a cue card, along with a couple of details.
The three most important details for each threat upon creation are "Intensity," "Distance" and "Target".

Intensity indicates just how dangerous the threat is expected to be, and can be either "Mild", "Moderate" or "Devastating". Examples of threats in each category will be given later.

Distance describes how long until the threat actually starts to cause a problem. Distance can refer to raw physical distance ("The Black plague is currently on the opposite side of the continent"), but also raw time delay "The ecological damage to the River Muht is not causing problems yet, but will eventually")
Generally speaking, when creating threats, Mild threats can be created at distance 0 or 1, moderate threats should start at distance 2-5, and Devastating threats should be at distance 8-12.

Finally Target describes which player or players you expect to see dealing with a particular threat. An army is clearly the business of generals and diplomats. Assassination and Intrigue fall more under the preview of the Courtier, while famine and public unrest may require the attention of the Architect and Minister. Particularly large threats may require everyone's attention, but knowing who is going to be most involved and most effected is useful for the sake of balancing (or deliberately unbalancing) gameplay.

Finally, on each card, it is worth keeping track of how much the players know about a given threat, and what they have done about it. In terms of knowledge, it terms of levels of knowledge, you might want to distinguish between "No hint so far", "Passing rumors" (`You hear of a trouble in the north') "Veiled threat" ('Streams of refugees come to your city from northern lands') and explicit knowledge ('There is an army of undead horrors to the north').
If "Famine" is an incoming threat, and the players build a vast granary and fishing fleet, note this down (including the number of successful rolls they spent to gain this). Mild threats can be beaten with two to three successful actions, moderate threats with three to ten, and devastating threats with eight to twenty actions worth of effort.

Drawbridge Cursed opal Kraken Sibling Rivalry

• The drawbridge on the east side of the city is stuffed.
  We aren't under siege, so no one cares, but probably we should fix that some time.
• There's a cursed opal out in the wilds to the north.
  Better hope that no warlocks or cultists get their hands on it.
• Yesevia, the darkness in the deeps wakes from her slumber.
  Some time in the next 5-8 years she will rise and Feed.
  
  In the mean time, she's probably going to smash a few boats.
• Turns out, the royal twins kind of hate one another.
  I'm sure that's not going to cause *any* major problems going forward.

Game set up
As the game starts, you should create one small immediate problem per player, along with a more severe incoming threat for every two players. The game itself is likely to produce a number of other minor threats.

Immediate problems include:

• Ogres threatening an outlying village
• A request for a loan of gold from a nearby ally
• A public celebration the Queen was due to attend – will you send the prince and/or princess?
• A key diplomat is visiting from distant lands- what will you say to them.
• A boat has crashed in the mouth of the harbor.
• Rumors of the lost king have returned to life.
• Winter is incoming, and the kingdom has a shortage of firewood.
• No one actually knows the laws legitimizing your rule.

Incoming threats include:

• Public suspicion that the council is responsible for the Queen's death.
• A poor harvest, leading to food limitations.
• A large debt to be paid to a foreign nation.
• A pair of feuding noble houses.
• Assassins trying to end the royal line.
• A Dragon roosting in a nearby forest.
• Some illicit drug is gaining purchase and influence in your kingdom.
• Two of the Free cities you are allied with are no longer on speaking terms.
• There is a number of bandits and brigades praying on the road and attacking merchants.

As a rough guide, try to aim one problem at each of the players- hence if you have a "Courtier", one of your starting problems should involve the noble houses or royalty, if you have a general, one of the starting problems should involve either the army, or adventurers.

In addition to the above, you should decide on either one or two catastrophic threats- threats that could each individually break the kingdom if ignored. Start hinting at these threats early in the game.

 

[Babblefish]

You are the Courtier. A noble of some minor repute, thirty second in line to the throne. The Queens most trusted relative.
With Johanna's death, you have been charged with educating your cousins in matters etiquette and statecraft, as well as ensuring their personal safety until they come of age. Johanna has also made a more personal request that you seek out suitable marriages for each of them, so as to strengthen ties to both the noble families of the city, and abroad.
In addition to this, there is also the wrangling of the Noble Houses to attended to; when feuding, the Great Houses are liable to burn the city to the ground. On the other hand, if their differences were ever set aside, it is likely that the Great houses would make a bid for the throne.
You will need to balance the politics of the Aristocracy most carefully in order to survive

Spoiler: Character Building

• Which of the great Households do you belong to?
• How old are you? Do you have a spouse? Children?
• What did you do to earn Johanna's trust? Why were you chosen for this task?
• Where were you and what were you doing when you were first informed of the queen's death, and called to the council chamber?
• How do you relate to Prince Danial?
• How do you relate to Princess Lillian?
• Name either a loyalty, rivalry or pet project within the city.
• What is your favorite place in the city?

Starting Package (Choose one)

Crown Loyalist:

• Staff: Begin the game with Three bodyguards, and one Aristocrat. All are unquestionably loyal to the crown, and start the game with a talent of your choice.
• Assets: Start the game with two positive beliefs of your choosing in play; one about the Prince, the other about the Princess. Each belief starts the game with 1 point of support.

Scion of the Family:

• Staff: Begin the game with Two bodyguards.
• Staff: Begin the game with an Aristocrat, and two other personal of randomly selected professions (your siblings), each with a random talent. All Staff are associated with your house.
• Assets: Increase both the power and loyalty of your household by one notch at the start of the game.

The Social Butterfly:

• Staff: Begin the game with two bodyguards.
• Staff: Begin the game with three Aristocrats, each with a randomly selected talent and house.
• Asset: Start the game with a Ballroom (Infrastructure, grants +1 on social events held there, costs one treasure to use.)
• Asset: Public belief, "Starstruck", Support 1. The general public are avid followers of the noble social calendar

Spoiler: The Noble Houses

There are six "great houses" in the City-State of Cavan – noble families dating back to the founding of the city that wield both power and influence within the city. Keeping the great houses onside will provide a significant advantage, while attempting to oppose them will have you marching uphill.

House loyalty is measured on a scale for -3 to +3:
-3 Treasonous: The house is publicly and actively opposed to the council
-2 Antagonistic: House will hinder you, even at moderate cost.
-1: Resistant: House will hinder you whenever doing so costs little
0: Neutral. House acts according to its own best interests.
+1: Sympathetic: House will assist you, whenever doing so costs little.
+2: Loyal: House will assist you, even at moderate cost.
+3: Patriotic: The house will provide any assistance within their power.

Houses are also scored in terms of power. At any given time, a house will be either weakened, confident, or powerful.

Cottonway Quantiphax

• Weakened.
  Loyalty+2
  
  Requesting funds and support to rebuild a local monastry
• POWERFUL
  Loyalty: 0

House Camrith Blade of Hillcrest.
House Camrith pride themselves as protectors of the city, having fielded more historic generals than the rest of the city combined. A strong ally in times of war… yet somewhat possessive of the city, and liable to execute kings that lose their trust.
Most strongly associated with Commanders and Bodyguards, House Camrith approve of honor, and martial prowess, and disprove of skullduggery and anything that leaves the kingdoms borders undefended. House Camrith show their power through influence over the military and other… rather direct methods.

House Penrose, Coin and Blood
Once upon a time, house Penrose was well respected within the city, one of the founding families. However, a few generations back, the patriarch of the house spent the family fortune on liquor, got in debt to certain less reputable sorts, and ruined the family name. The house has stood itself back up again since (Or, some might say, been propped up), and regained its influence in the city… while retaining many of the connections from its less wholesome years.
The House is most closely associated with spies, assassins, merchants and smugglers. They approve of anything that increases profits, and disapprove of coin that is lost.
They show their approval and disapproval via the flow of coin into royal coffers… along with the occasional corpse.

House Cottonway, Keepers of the Silver Bells.
Firstborns are sent to the Clergy, and Thirdborns to the public service. That is the way of things in house Cottonway. A Tithe is paid to the church, and the orphanhouse is run. That is the way of things, in house Cottonway. Associated with Orators, Engineers, the downtrodden and Public works, house Cottenway is known for their benevolence and grace. They are also the house most likely to judge and meddle in matters of governance. They approve of Charity, and Religion, and disapprove of tyrants and foreign customs.
Those who make enemies of House Cottonway will quickly find public opinion turning against them. Those the Cottonways approve of will find a far softer public reception.

House Belladonna The Jeweled Cat
An ancient house of career Diplomats and professional Aristocrats. The Belladonna family have built an empire out of pride and snobbery. Generations of diplomacy, breeding, and politics have garnered them a unassailable network of friends and favors- both within the cities other noble houses, and also in foreign kingdoms. The Belladonnas demand respect and privilege, and will take issue with any attack or insult against any of the great families. They show both approval and disapproval through their influence over the other noble houses, pushing loyalty over time to match their own.

House Quantiphax, Questers, miracle-makers, madmen and scoundrels
House Quantiphax can follow their lineage back to Archmage Valdahn, and her husband, Sir Roffin. They see civilization as a pleasant place to kick back between experimentation and adventures. The House is associated with various adventurer's guilds, mages consortia, and archaeological councils. House Quantiphax has little interest in power, or politics, as long as no one gets in the way of their quest for the Red Dragon Ruby, or the keys to divinity.
When they like you, house Quantiphax will bring treasures and artifacts to the kingdom. When they don't like you… House Quantiphax will do you absolutely no harm. They just won't bother telling you about the cursed artifact in their basement, or the eldritch experiments cousin Cordelia might be getting up to.

House Arterrian A quill with black ink.
Cavan exists, as it always has, on the brink of madness, disorder, and chaos. It is House Arterrian who hold Chaos at bay, who keep
the books in order, remembers past mistakes and ancient laws. The Arterrians are, and always have been, advisers to the crown (at least… so the records show).
They are associated with laws, and records. Magistrates and scholars. They approve of due process, and tradition, and draw their power from their influence over the crown. They can be expected to cooperate with the council so long as the council is seen as one more tool to be exploited in their quest for order and stability. Should the council attempt to usurp their place at the monarch's side… questions will be asked. Every minor transgressions will be investigated. There will be a discussion with the monarch. Order will be re-established.

Spoiler: The Royal Twins

The sole remaining members of the royal family are the royal Twins: Princess Lillian and Prince Daniel. They are currently 8 years old, and at least one of them must be ready ascend to the throne on their 16th birthday.

The Twins are both a powerful resource, and a sacred responsibility.
They are also not entirely within your control.

At the start of the game, for each twin, pick out a cue card, and write their name. For each twin, roll a six sided dice to select one of the six lists below, and a second dice to select an item from the list. In this way, select two character traits for each Heir.

One: Innocent Trusting Carefree Loves sibling Curious Team Player

Two: Competitive Confident Determined Cunning Fashionable Charming

Three: Wary Forgiving Patient Soft-spoken Observant Sensitive

Four: Vengeful Brave Independent Fierce Patriotic Quick-to-act

Five: Studious Meticulous Creative Multi-tasker Magic Devout

Six: Ambitious Reliable Obediant Honest Pragmatic Skeptical

Re-roll any duplicates, as well as any pairing that is entirely contradictory, such as Trusting and Paranoid, or Vengeful and Forgiving.

Actions of Royalty
Each season, you may request that your royals perform one of the following actions. In most cases, the royals will listen to you, though if your request something that is against their character, they may refuses, resulting in either complications (if you wish to persuade them) or consequences (if you force the issue). Both of these increase in severity with your royals age.
The Prince and Princess may be assigned to different actions.
At any stage, if their is doubt or disagreement about the Royals actions, The Courtier has the final say, as the current de-facto guardian.

Take Refuge within the Palace:
The Heir does nothing of note or value this season… but they are safely protected within the palace. If any danger would befall them, roll 2d6, on a 7 or higher, they are protected by the defenses of the palace.

Apprenticeship and Tutoring:
You may assign the Heir to follow one of your Personal around for a season. At the end of the season, roll 2d6.
0-3: You Royal gains a negative character trait, or one of their traits becomes "darker", for example "Studious" becomes "Obsessive", "Confident" becomes "Arrogant".
4-6: Nothing happens.
7-10: Your royal learns about the profession they were following. Add this to their card. Their Tutor gains one level.
11+: Your Royal learns, and they also gain a positive trait, or one of their traits becomes lighter, or more useful, eg "Charming" becomes "Inspiring". Tutor gains a level, and is now considered a respected figure by the royal. Respected figures can roll "persuasion" checks against the royalty when needed.

Your Royal gains +1 on this roll if at least one of their traits matches the profession, and -1 if at least one of their traits is opposed to the profession.
Each Royal may learn of each profession at most once.
While being tutored, your Royals are treated as a Stake in their teachers action roll. If your Tutor is captured, killed, or loses face, your Royal is also at risk. The more training your royal has come their 16th birthday, the more effective they will be as a monarch in your epilogue

Royal Engagements:
From time to time, a Royals presence is needed in order to resolve some complication. For example, a Treaty with a foreign nation may need their signature, a particular court case or social event may require their presence etc etc.
Your GM will inform you when this occurs.

Princess Lillian Prince Daniel

• 12 summers old.
  Forgiving, Pragmatic-->Ruthless. ++Creative
  Has trained with: Aristocrats. Commanders. Engineers.
  Currently traveling to Tantis on a diplomatic mission.
• 12 summers old.
  Charming--> Inspiring, Vengeful
  Has trained with: Diplomats. Sorcerers.
  Currently injured, and in the palace.

Spoiler: Staff Associated with the Courtier

Bodyguards:
As The Courtier, you are in charge of the royal Bodyguards.
Bodyguards can be assigned to either of the royal twins, or to any critical personnel belonging to any player.

Whenever the protected individual would be hurt or killed, roll 2d6:
0-3: death/injury of the protected target.
4-6: death/injury of the bodyguard.
7-10: Threat is prevented, no injuries.
11+: Threat countered, and gain information or an opportunity.

Rolling defense is considered high stakes (). Hence, after each defense roll, the bodyguard gains a talent.

Spoiler: Bodygaurd Talents:

1) Vigilant: total failure is now treated as regular failure.
2) Investigator: All success now grant information/opportunity
3)Adjunct: Mark gains +1 on all rolls.
4)Hardy: When this bodyguard would die, they instead lose "Hardy" and spend 1 season injured.
5)Workplace safety: Gain +2 on rolls to defend mark from the results of their own failure.
6) Honorable: Can be trusted to do their job, regardless of the political situation.
7) Paranoid: Can detect assassination plots against their mark in advance.
8) Contingency: Can be assigned as a SECOND bodyguard, rolling in cases where the first fails.

Aristocrats:
The second type of staff associated with The Courtier are Aristocrats. Aristocrats can be used to investigate and influence noble houses, sway public opinion, or host events.

Gossip:
0-3: Consequences (make a public embarrassment of oneself. Spill critical information to an enemy)
4-6: Nothing happens.
7-10: Gain a court related opportunity (hear about an eligible bachelor, a scandal, an upcoming ball, etc). +1 influence on randomly selected family next season.
11+: Two court related opportunities, +1 influence with all families next Season.

Influence:
Rolled to influence either an individual, pair of individuals, Noble family, or similar. Can by used to request assistance from a house, encourage a house to refrain from action, encourage or discourage a feud or romance between two individuals, etc etc.
0-3: Critical Failure: Your manipulations backfire and/or you are identified as the source of the manipulation and take a permanent -1 on influence rolls for one year.
4-6: Minor Failure: You do not influence the group and/or individual.
7-10: Complications, then success: You must overcome some minor barrier in order to get your desired result. The result is achieved instantly as long as you overcome the complicating factor this season or next.
11+: Grand success: You succeed, and the results are better than you expect.

If you are using your influence to play matchmaker, then any personnel who get married as a result instantly gain one talent.

Host an event:
Spend treasure to host
A ball, tournament, dinner wedding, public celebration, or similar. You must spend treasure proportional to the size of your event. Please describe your intended event prior to rolling.
0-3: Your event is a farce, and you will be remember for your foolishness. Take -1 on rolls for next year.
4-6: Complications. If addressed this season, success, otherwise, disaster (see above).
7-10: Success. Your event runs smoothly. Gain +1 on influence rolls next season.
11+: A celebration to be remembered. Gain +2 on all rolls involving guests to your event, next season.

Talents:
1) Cautious: all rolls are moved one step closer to seven.
2)Poet: Gain +1 on all influence rolls to cause romance.
3)Gadfly: Gain +1 to event hosting rolls.
4)Scion of the name: +2 when influencing your own family.
5)Wallflower: +1 on gossip.
6)Gracious: Any roll penalties you receive last for one season, rather than one year.
7)Problem solver: When you encounter complications, GM presents two complications, and you must solve one.
8)Taunt: Gain +1 on influence rolls to encourage feuds, disagreements and discord.

Spoiler: The Coming of age

Each Season your GM will roll dice to determine if any of the young nobles from your great houses "Come of Age"

When a noble does come of age, you will be told their house, name and personality, and will be asked to give a brief description of them, and introduce them to your fellow councilors Write these details on an asset card.

Allegiance (six sided dice)

1- Camrith 2-Penrose 3-Cottonway
4- Belladonna 5-Quantiphax 6-Arterrian

Personality (eight sided dice)
Your young nobles personality determines which professions they will be suitable for.
1-Patient Bodyguard, Scholar or Orator.
2-Meticulous: Spy, Engineer or Magistrate
3-Brave: Quester, Bodyguard or Sorcerer
4-Cunning: Commander, Aristocrat, or Ambassador
5-Persuasive: Ambassador, Merchant or Orator.
6-Curious: Scholar, Spy or Quester
7-Creative: Aristocrat Engineer or Sorcerer
8-Pragmatic: Magistrate, Merchant or Commander

You and your fellow councilors must determine what profession to place this young noble in. After a profession is chosen, roll a eight sided dice
to give your new noble one talent. They will be ready to begin their duties this season.

 

[Meridian]

I need to read over this when I have the time, but it's really cool to see a new project from you!

 

[Babblefish]

The breath of a city is ten thousand carefree habits. It is a grandmother collecting apples from the market for seven grandchildren, and young shipwrights smoking on the balcony, overlooking the moonlit town. The breath of a city is a librarian sorting parchment, a vendor hawking perfumes, and each and every one of them completely oblivious to the workings of the city.
For this is as it should be.
After all, there should be no effort in breathing.

Spoiler: Building the City

At the start of every game of Cavan, you must begin by building your city.
This is usually done after people have chosen which role they wish to fill, but before any other decisions are made.

In order to build your city, please print off the following page (usually double sided), with the world map on reverse, and answer the following questions:

Where did you grow up? What area of the city? Was it Merchant's Quarter? Templetown? Morningside?
Name your district, and mark it up the map.
If you did not grow up in the city, but instead in one of the surrounding towns or villages, mark the direction towards your home town on the map.


What was your childhood like?
What was the best and worst thing about growing up in this place?

What did this part of town smell like?

What did it feel like?

What did you spend your mornings and afternoons doing in this location?

Has your neighborhood changed in the past years? If so, how?

As an adult, where in the city are you most commonly found?

What is your favorite place in the city currently? The chapel garden? Rowen's spice stand in Market Square? Old Vinny's bar in gate district?
Add these landmarks to the map.

Spoiler: Innocent Civilians

At the start of the game, each player takes a single cue card, and writes the name and occupation of a single random civilian in the city of Cavan.
Are they old or young? Are they married? Do they have children or siblings? What are the names of their family members?
What is their dreams? What are their habits? Their regrets? What do they like to do with their friends on a Tuesday evening?

Give detail, but try to fill only half the card.

Throughout the game, whenever any great joy or woe brushes across your city, your random civilians will be the ones to feel it: positive or negative events will weave their way into your civilians stories, reflecting the general mood or fate of your city.

Tom Plymoth Marigold Wayberly Elizibeth Greyling.

• An elderly shoemaker down dockside.
  Lives with his daughter and her husband.
  Attends church every Thursday.
• An eight year old child, five older siblings.
  Her father runs an apothecary store, her mother runs a bakery.
  Likes to climb up to the rooftops and run around.
• Seventeen years old, middle child of a semi-noble family.
  her parents keep trying to marry her off, but she is anxious around men.
  Enjoys reading and technical reports.

 

[Babblefish]

You are the Minister. The Keeper of the common folk. Architect of laws and legislation. Administrator of Courts, Orphan houses, Temples and public criers.
With the Queen's death, there is no final authority for courts to answer to. With the Queen's death, the citizens have lost just one more anchor to look to in dark times.
With the Queen's death YOU have been made responsible for one hundred thousand souls, and for selling the councils plans to the public, so as to avoid civil unrest.

Spoiler: Public Beliefs

Public beliefs are a particular kind of asset that represent things that are believed by the general populous of the kingdom.

Examples include:
"Princess Lillian will be a wise and benevolent queen"
"Our city has angered Aa-May, goddess of all oceans."
"The Ruling council murdered Queen Johanna to seize power"
Or "The Coppercliff markets are the best in all the land."

Each Public belief is rated according to its current level of support, represented by a number of paperclips or other tokens currently attached to its card

0.Beliefs with zero support represent things which several people believe in, but few people act upon. "Breaking mirrors is bad luck" is an
example of such a belief. If such a belief would lose support, it is instead removed from the game.

1. Beliefs with one point of support are things which all people are aware of, and many people agree with. In many places the idea of "Democracy"falls into this category.
2. Beliefs with support two are beliefs that the majority of the public take for granted, and many act upon. Opposing such a belief is considered unusual. "Give presents during Christmas" would be a real world example of such a belief.
3. Beliefs with three points of support include such things as major religions, powerful revolutionary doctrines, "The rule of law", etc. To oppose such a belief is considered a hostile act.
4. Any belief reaching four points of support will immediately throw your city into crisis.

Using Beliefs

Unlike other assets, Belief's can be both beneficial and dangerous.
Whenever you take an action that depends on public support (Waging a war, passing a law, etc etc), you make choose to stake up to one belief that supports the action on your roll. Gain a bonus equal to that beliefs support.

If your action fails despite this beliefs support, then the belief is liable to be damaged in some way- either losing support directly, or becoming twisted in some way.
You storyteller may also stake up to one belief on action rolls that depend on the public. If they can find a belief that is opposed to your action, you will receive a penalty equal to that beliefs support. For example, if your citizens believe "Everyone must raise themselves", this may make it easier to encourage merchants and raises businesses, but harder to dedicate resources to helping the poor.

If your action is successful despite an opposing belief, then you gain a +2 bonus on all "sway" rolls made to reduce or change that belief during the next season.

Twisting Beliefs
Support for a belief rarely changes significantly over time. It is rarer still for beliefs to be created, or ever, truly, destroyed.

But beliefs do evolve over time.

As an example a belief "Our Allies in the Free cities will support us in times of trouble" might be twisted to "Our allies owe us support after all we've done for them".

A belief that "The People of Maraket are wicked", might become "The People of Maraket are dangerous" and later
"The People of Maraket are powerful."

Alternatively, one might end up with "The People of Maraket are wicked" being twisted into "The Rulers of Maraket are wicked" and finally "The Rulers of Maraket are wicked… and a danger to their own people."

In game, beliefs can be twisted both by the players, and the storyteller. At most, beliefs will usually change from negative to neutral to positive or vice versa, and beliefs will seldom do a complete 180 (barring exceptional circumstances).

Before attempting to twist a belief, you should state your intended goal to the Storyteller, and they will tell you if this is a sufficiently minor tweak such that the populous will not notice what you are doing.


People Can Only care so Much

In any game of Cavan, the public only has a total of twelve points of support to give. In order for a new belief to gain support (through the whims of chance or the hard work of an Orator), belief must first be freed up.

Support that is lost as the consequence of failure leads to discontent- support that your Storyteller controls and is liable to find its way to harmful beliefs.
Support that is removed by you and your council is liable to lead to a content populous. This support can be used by you and your fellow council members to build up positive beliefs.
It can also be claimed by your storyteller to use as they will.

Civil Unrest
Powerful beliefs that directly oppose weaker beliefs are liable to crush the weaker of the two beliefs over a number of seasons- that, or they will result in a reactionary backlash, reinforcing the weaker belief until the two are equals, both are possible.

Whenever two beliefs of equal power clash directly, for example "Violence is a sin" and "The Aderan's are dangerous, we must prepare for war", you are liable to encounter civil unrest. The level of unrest two opposing beliefs can cause is proportional to their levels of support- with support one beliefs creating occasional mild consequences, support two beliefs creating mild to moderate consequences, and support three belief clashes leading to regular moderate and severe problems.

The Minister is associated with two types of Personnel: Magistrates and Orators.

Spoiler: Magistrates

Magistrates represent your keepers and creators of Law. They allow you to brute force social and political situations, but risk earning public unrest if you are too heavy handed.
In terms of personality traits, Magistrates are Meticulous, and Pragmatic.

They have the following actions available to them:

Decree:
Pass a new law, for example conscripting an army, imposing curfew or banning a belief, technology or substance.
0-3: Form or reinforce a negative public belief. Your law fails to hold.
4-6: Negative public sentiment, and a complication to resolve before law holds (often difficulties in enforcement)
7-10: Mixed public sentiment, law holds.
11+: Positive public sentiment (Some belief related Opportunity arises), and populous accept decree willingly.

Investigate:
You use the powers of the law to investigate some matter publicly.
Ask any yes/no question.
0-3: Political consequences. No results.
4-6: Complications must be resolved to continue investigation.
7-10: You learn the truth.
11+: You learn the truth, AND have overwhelming evidence (+2 if used).

Accuse:
Bring a legal case against someone for treason, or other high crimes. One of the few ways to bring down a noble house or similar power.
0-3: Consequences, and target acquitted.
4-6: Complications and Consequences.
7-10: Complications, +1 on future rolls.
11+: Conviction

Available talents:
1) Lawmaker: Gain +1 on all Decree rolls
2) Respected: Whenever a poor roll would earn public backlash, you may lose this trait in order to blunt or prevent the backlash.
3) Sleuth: Gain +1 on all investigate rolls.
4) Cautious: All rolls are treated as one step closer to seven.
5) Problem solver: When faced with complications, you may request two separate complication and solve either.
6) Double down: Whenever you fail a roll you may immediately roll again at a -1 penalty. You still suffer the consequences of, and must resolve complications from the first roll, but if the second roll succeeds, you will also gain the benefits of that success.
7) Building the case: Whenever you roll between seven and ten on an accusation roll, gain a +2 bonus on future rolls, rather than +1.
8) Adviser to the crown: At the end of the game, when calculating epilogues, your Monarch is treated as one level more powerful.

Spoiler: Orators

"Orators" is a catch all category for poets, journalists, priests and philosophers – any individual whose daily work includes persuading the public on one notion or another. Orators are used to earn public support, dampen dangerous beliefs, and guide the discourse on a particular issue.

In terms of personality traits, Orators are Persuasive, and Patient.

Sway:
You may spend a season discussing, networking and debating in order to push a particular belief one way or another, either twisting the belief slightly, or strengthening or weakening the belief.
You must tell your Storyteller your intention before you roll.
Take a penalty on your roll equal to the target beliefs current support (Stronger beliefs are harder to steer).
You can (and in many cases should), use other public beliefs in order to reinforce your position. A belief can not be staked in order to sway itself.

0-3: Your attempt backfires horribly. Belief twists in the opposite direction, loses/gains support, or both.
4-6: Nothing happens
7-10: You may "twist" the belief slightly.
11+: You may twist the belief and either increase or decrease its support.


Talents:
1) Grassroots: Gain +2 on all sway checks rolled upon Support 0 beliefs.
2) Zealot: Gain +2 on sway checks rolled upon Support 3 beliefs.
3) Conservative: Whenever a belief is damaged as the result of a failed roll, if this Orator is idle this season they may immediately make a sway roll to reverse this change.
4) Complex arguments: You may stake up to two beliefs when making a sway roll.
5) Timely thoughts:Whenever you would gain an opportunity that assists you in rolling a sway check, this orator may act on that opportunity immediately, even if they are busy this season.
6) Expert: This Orator is now considered an expert on whatever subject they were addressing upon gaining this talent. They gain +1 on all future sway rolls made upon this belief.
7) Skeptic: You can remove support from beliefs on rolls 10 or higher, instead of 11.
8) Careful language: You must roll lower than 2 in order to cause a sway roll to backfire. Rolls of 2 and 3 now do nothing.

 

[Tascion]

So, I wrote this up some days ago, and forgot to post it.

The Goal is a roleplaying game, so the goal is storytelling, not like... trying to beat the boardgame.

Click to shrink...

This competition based focus is very... boardgamey.
And very un-rpg-ish.
Generally speaking, in an RPG, the hook is the story. There is problem solving, and definitely an aspect of skillness, but "Competition" is not really the right word.
I suspect, many people do not join Forum quests for the sake of competition and the skill-testing gameplay.

Click to shrink...

So, I'm going to take a stab at guessing at the underlying difference in our thoughts. I'm trying to guess at interpreting what you're thinking, though I do recognize I do not actually know what you're thinking, and so I hope that makes sense.

This group activity sounds like you're describing cooperative storytelling with some random variables, not a roleplaying game.

Here are some unorganized thoughts:

• Cooperative board games, such as Pandemic, revolve around the very well-defined progression of the obstacle to the players (the progression of the disease). There are many rules dictating how the players can share information and the progression of their mechanistically determined 'opponent' as there are about their own actions.
• In every automated roleplaying game I'm aware of, there are clear loss conditions. In my brief thoughts about it, every computer RPG that I'm aware of involves some form of combat. Even if that combat is as simple is automatically winning or losing fights based on some power level or equipment, there's still combat that is the player executing some kind of skill based action against either a fully defined opponent or an opponent that includes some aspects defined by random numbers.
• In RPGs with a living DM, my opinion is that the DM wins by making the players feel like they earned their story. In my opinion, a good DM should convince the players that there is a real chance of them losing and then create the story that results from their actions. The goal is for the DM to create a story with the players, one rising out of and in spite of the challenges against them. The 'in spite of' intrinsically involves conflict of one sort or another that the players need to believe they could fail against. A phrase sticks with me. "I can't win without competition."

In your most recent post, you've laid out several potential negative aspects that can occur during the course of this game and they are controlled by rolls of the dice. I would describe that as emergent gameplay against random variables. If this game can be failed, and there's no other negative issues in the game from other players or a DM, then you could calculate out the odds of success before the players ever do anything. Whether it takes 5 rolls of the dice or 500 rolls, there will be an overall chance of sucess that is equal to a single roll of a die. If every game has 85% odds of the players overcoming the (guessing here) 50 randomly rolled negative events, the players have to enjoy the game enough to not just roll a d100 and pat themselves on the back for not rolling a 16 or above. If every game uses the same list of randomly rolled negative events, why not just read the list and discuss amongst themselves how crazy hard or crazy awesome they could be in abstract?

To put it another way, are Sudoku or Solitaire games, or at they puzzles with a possibility of failure by users giving up? Puzzles, as long as you have all the pieces, cannot be failed mechanically. At worst, trying each piece with every other piece can slowly but simplistically find the solution.


Now, onto the most recent set of two posts.
These I like. I can see how conflict is created by failed dice rolls. I also like the emergent nature of the city through the ongoing creation of characters.

Support that is removed by you and your council is liable to lead to a content populous. This support can be used by you and your fellow council members to build up positive beliefs.
It can also be claimed by your storyteller to use as they will.

Click to shrink...

This part, in particular, felt very much like D&D. Given that I don't think you're aiming for that feel, I neither condone nor condemn it and simply note it. The Storyteller could use beliefs as guide rails for shaping a narrative, without entirely usurping initiative from the other people in the game. The other people in the game get to choose where they allocate belief, and the storyteller makes do with the remainder.

Seeing this come together over the several additional posts is nice.

 

[Babblefish]

• In RPGs with a living DM, my opinion is that the DM wins by making the players feel like they earned their story. In my opinion, a good DM should convince the players that there is a real chance of them losing and then create the story that results from their actions. The goal is for the DM to create a story with the players, one rising out of and in spite of the challenges against them. The 'in spite of' intrinsically involves conflict of one sort or another that the players need to believe they could fail against. A phrase sticks with me. "I can't win without competition."

Click to shrink...

Hmmm.... if I had to guess, I'd say the main difference in our thinking is how we use the word "Competition".
To me Competition is inherently BETWEEN PEOPLE. A footrace or soccer game has competition. Mountain climbing does not (unless you explicitly choose to add it). A soccer game is a competative sport. a mountain climb is a non-competative sport. Mountain climbing WITH other people is still social. And there are still obstacles, still CHALLENGE, but there is not "competition" in the sense of trying to better the other players.


I agree that there should be obstacles, there should be challenge. I would say the main "game" there is deciding which obstacles are critical, how to assign limited resources, etc etc.
As an example, you have your royal twins. Deciding whether to send one/niether or both of them on a diplomatic mission to a foreign kingdom with uncertain intentions is critical. This is a source of uncertainty and conflict, a source of story, even if there is no competition between the players over it.
If your die rolls fail, you may well lose your future monarch, hence, there is significant risk involved.... and the exact nature of that risk may be uncertain or unclear.