What`s the qualitative difference between law, guild, and temple holdings?
Aside from realm spells, which is a whole different kettle of fish, two
generate RP and GB income, one generates RP and lets you claim (nee tax)
GB from other holdings.

Law holdings represent government; taxation is traditionally a flat fee
(bridge tolls), or a percentage of your possessions` values, or a
percentage of your income (modernly).

Churches made money in the middle ages by collecting a percentage of
income (the tithe) and by selling knicknacks and relicky bits to tourists.

Guilds made money by buying low and selling high. :)

There`s a lot of overlap in those three areas. Certainly the internal
mechanics of all of them would be similar, all would have functionaries
and clerks to keep track of income and expenses, and administer internal
rules, but sometimes the clerks wear holy symbols and sometimes they
operate in the name of the king. Sometimes the rules are called
`scripture` and sometimes `legal code` and sometimes `guild law`.

If you think of Talinie or Medoere, what`s the difference between the law
and the temple there? Religious law and secular law are administered by
the same body in a theocracy. The income of both goes into the same pot.
Similar thoughts can apply to Endier, or to Cariele, where the guilders
pretty much run things as they see good for business.

There`s good flavor value in differentiating between guilds and temples
and constables, but mechanically it would be interesting to see them
combined as just general `holdings`.

You`d need to extend the GB collection charts beyond `level 10 holding in
a level 10 province`, obviously, up to a 30 or 40 in a 10, if you wanted
to keep the present system mostly intact. With the combination of
holdings, you might need to adjust maintenance to balance again, since
Talinie would suddenly have about 2/3 the number of holdings they used to,
for example. Might be easier to work that into the income chart as less
efficiency at higher levels.

I think you could dispose of the old system entirely. Need to think about
this.

Leave province ranking the same. 0 to 10.

Total possible holdings in the province = provlevel squared. All temples,
guilds, and law holdings come out of this pool. I haven`t puzzled out
sources yet, they`re too disjoint to the system.

Get rid of the notion of `province ruler`- the one with the highest
holding levels is the one with the most authority. So the Chamberlain in
the Imperial City might have a 10 (old province level) + his law holding +
5 or 10 for good measure, under this method, so maybe 20. Avan, Boeruine,
and Diemed might have 10 or so each, the City is closely contested.

Now you have room to give the Wizard College, many more temples, and
several minor guilds, and maybe old imperial institutions like the
Imperial Court or the Imperial Senate (or whatever) small holdings in the
city, which would have been at best holdings (0) under the original
system. Lots of minor counts, earls, baronets, abbeys, unions and guilds
can now appear on the domain level screen.

Trade routes can be done away with, and the guilders just rule their
guilds up higher. Seems simpler that way.

A `temple` would just be a holding devoted to a god (obviously), and it
would make money and RP the way it used to. I`d have a separate asset, a
cathedral or something, which would have to be built to cast realm spells,
rather like the rules on fortifying a holding now- the level a temple
holding is cathedralled to (I verbed it) is the level used to cast realm
spells.

You`d probably have to inflate the income table, so not every holding 1 in
a province 10 was getting d3 GB/turn like they do now. That kind of ties
in with my ideas about province production/surplus, but I need a nap
before the Fiesta Bowl so I`ll post on that later.
--
Communication is possible only between equals.
Daniel McSorley- mcsorley@cis.ohio-state.edu

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