A quick comparison of the two leading plans (one admittedly quite a bit ahead, but it's rarely wise to think that more votes means something is a better idea):
[x] Plan Backlog
-[x] Do your job:
--[x] The Wurtbad Watch already has their ear to the ground. Make their information flow to you.
--[x] Personally vet everyone that works in the castle, and replace everyone you're not sure of the loyalties of
---[x] Ask the good Brother to assist you. Can't hurt to double check when it comes to HERESY.
--[x] Much of Western Stirland is under the de facto direct control of the Elector Count. Meet with each of the local leaders and make it clear that you're to be kept in the loop.
-[X] Secret Base:
--[x] Diggy Diggy Hole, Outsourced: Pay someone to do the digging, then Mindhole them on their way out. (no action required, -personal gold)
-[X] Research:
--[x] A large number of Shyish-stained weapons were uncovered from the Barrow. Perhaps you should:
---[x] Examine them yourself and see if they're useful, or dangerous, or both.
---[X] Ranald's Blessing
----[x] Bring an example or two to show your master while you are in Altdorf.
-----[X] Lead-lined steel case. Magic lock on top of mundane one. Carry on your person.
-[X] Go to Altdorf:
--[x] Van Hal is considering candidates for the post of Marshal, and he has asked you to vet them.
--[x] That damn Asp has still been quiet, but maybe it's just biding it's time. Finally admit it's existence to your contacts back in the College and see if they know anything that can help.
[X] Plan Networking, Enchanting, and a Road Trip
-[x] Diggy Diggy Hole, Outsourced: Pay someone to do the digging, then Mindhole them on their way out. (no action required, -personal gold)
-[x] The Wurtbad Watch already has their ear to the ground. Make their information flow to you.
-[X] Wurtbad, like all major cities, is home to a number of guilds. Reach out to them and enforce your will. (EXTRA)
-[X] You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.
-[X] A large number of Shyish-stained weapons were uncovered from the Barrow. Perhaps you should:
--[x] Examine them yourself and see if they're useful, or dangerous, or both.
---[X] Bring an example or two to show your master while you are in Altdorf. In a lead-lined steel case. With a magic lock on top of a mundane one. Carried on your person. Can't be too careful
-[X] Go to Altdorf:
--[X] Van Hal is considering candidates for the post of Marshal, and he has asked you to vet them. Investigate them in person.
--[x] That damn Asp has still been quiet, but maybe it's just biding it's time. Finally admit it's existence to your contacts back in the College and see if they know anything that can help.
---[X] Ranald's Blessing
--[X] Who Needs Letters Home: You might be able to wring more information out of your Master, or you might just be able to get news, information and guidance in general from the Grey Order. Either way, a visit is in order.
Both plans have:
-Wurtbad Watch networking
-Outsourced base expansion
-Examining enchanted weapons + bring one to Altdorf for more examination
-Vetting Marshal candidates in person
-Getting Asp information in person
Backlog has:
-Vet castle servants + work with Piety advisor
-Meet leaders of Western Stirland
-The Blessing on examining the enchanted weapons
Networking, Enchanting, and a Road Trip has:
-Wurtbad guilds networking (-Extra action debuff)
-Visiting the Grey College personally for news/advice
-Brushing up on enchantment skills
-The Blessing on the Asp investigation
I think we all agree with the commonalities at this point, so the focus goes on the differences.
Overall, Backlog does slightly more to build up our intel network, but Networking hits the investigation of the new Martial advisor
much harder- remember that the Grey College action is what gave us intel about the last Martial advisor, so pairing our own investigation with talking to them does a lot to ensure that we won't miss anything critical. It also manages to squeeze in a personal development action, where Backlog has no personal growth except from incidental crits.
Aside from that, putting the Blessing on the Asp investigation action makes it far more likely that we'll turn up actually useful results, and while I can see the reasoning for putting it on the Enchantment action (if we fuck up an analysis and give Stirland's greatswords a bunch of tainted weapons we will be in some serious shit) ultimately I'm a fair bit more concerned about the direct threat to our personal health than something that we're explicitly taking a sample of to get a second opinion on anyway and thus have some shield against horrible mistakes. There's a bit of logic that says "better roll on the Enchantment action could mean better enchanted items", but that counts on the GM determining the nature of the swords after our roll, rather than having already determined it prior to Brother Kasmir's roll to do the initial inspection. I don't think that's a good bet; what we're doing here
should be determining what exists and that's all, bizarre reality-twisting effects of crits aside.
I don't particularly like the choice of the Guilds action in Networking, particularly since the extra action penalty could screw things up hard, but then I'm also not a huge fan of meeting the western leaders in Backlog over a Grey College visit or any kind of personal development, so both plans have some significant downsides there. The choice to vet the castle servants eliminates a serious possible route of infiltration- at this point we've left the castle servants alone for long enough that I'd guess any group with an interest in playing shadow games in Stirland will have made an attempt at slipping in an agent, so catching those before they actually do anything is kind of important, more so than building additional networks. Van Hal is unlikely to care that we only spent a single action on network-building as long as we have enough other goodies to dump at his feet, and we'll have a
lot of things to bring up this turn- not only reports on all the Martial advisors, but also our review of the swords, any infiltrators we catch, and any news that the Grey College gives us to pass along. That last in particular is useful because the Grey College is an Imperial institution and none of Van Hal's advisors are giving him
any news from outside Stirland based upon our turn updates, so literally any gossip at all about ongoing external politics is more than he'll have had before.
Aside from that, I love the idea of seven actions but risking negative traits and amplified critfails seems like a sucker's game.
...so what I'm getting at is that I'm going to make yet another just-slightly-different action plan here to try and take what I see as the most essential elements from the above.
Plan
Slight Changes contains all common actions from the above two existing plans and the following which are found in only one:
-Vet castle servants + work with Piety advisor
-Visiting the Grey College personally for news/advice
-The Blessing on the Asp investigation
[x] Plan Slight Changes
-[X] Do your job:
--[x] The Wurtbad Watch already has their ear to the ground. Make their information flow to you.
--[x] Personally vet everyone that works in the castle, and replace everyone you're not sure of the loyalties of
---[x] ... and make sure some of the new hires and trustworthy ones report to you.
---[X] Ask the good Brother to assist you. Can't hurt to double check when it comes to HERESY.
-[X] Secret Base:
--[x] Diggy Diggy Hole, Outsourced: Pay someone to do the digging, then Mindhole them on their way out. (no action required, -personal gold)
--[x] Filled with Potential: You've got a room cleared out and ready to be put to use. It should make an excellent enchanter's workshop after a bit of furnishing and some purchases in Altdorf. (no action, -personal gold)
-[X] Research:
--[x] A large number of Shyish-stained weapons were uncovered from the Barrow. Perhaps you should:
---[x] Examine them yourself and see if they're useful, or dangerous, or both.
----[x] Bring an example or two to show your master while you are in Altdorf.
-----[X] Lead-lined steel case. Magic lock on top of mundane one. Carry on your person.
-[X] Go to Altdorf:
--[x] Van Hal is considering candidates for the post of Marshal, and he has asked you to vet them.
--[x] That damn Asp has
still been quiet, but maybe it's just biding it's time. Finally admit it's existence to your contacts back in the College and see if they know anything that can help.
---[X] Ranald's Blessing
--[X] Who Needs Letters Home: You might be able to wring more information out of your Master, or you might just be able to get news, information and guidance in general from the Grey Order. Either way, a visit is in order.
