some questions on domain rules...

[Lisif]

I'm going to start a new party of regents next week, so I studied the playtest rules, especially the part on domain actions, war moves, and so on.
I've had some problems understanding some passages (and I suspect I found a few bugs - which isn't a problem, since that's what playtesting is for).
By the way, should I create a separate thread for every group of rules I've had problems with, or write everything under a single thread? For now, here's the first


COURTS AND PALACES
According to their descriptions, palaces increase effective court level by +1 per palace level (with a max bonus equal to the court expenses).

According to court description, palaces allow instead to increase court levels above the province rating, up to a maximum of province level+palace level. Note that the court must still be fully paid in this case, so you can't use both rules at the same time.

For example, consider a regent which has a court (5) and a palace (4) in a province (5).
If rules from palace description are used, his effective court level is 9 (5 court expenses + 4 palace level).
If rules from court description are used, his effective court level is 5, but it could increase it by decree (up to 9).

Seeing the same situation from another point of view, maintenance for an effective court level 9 is 7 GBs in the first case (5 for the court + 2 for the palace) and 11 GBs in the second (9 for the court +2 for the palace).


Also, the court description reads "Through the use of the Decree domain action a regent may increase their court level by +1 per season. Only one such decree can be made per domain turn."
How often can a court's level be increased by decree? Once per turn or per season?

[tcharazazel]

You are correct, the palace allows the court to exceed the normal maximum of the province that the court is located. Hence the example in the BRCS states that you can have an EL 7 court in a level 5 province.

However we've been playing it, the effective court level (court + palace) cannot exceed the province level. Thus to get an effective court level of 10 you would need it in a province at level 10, and either have the court at level 10 (most expensive ECL 10) or court 5 + palace 5 (least expensive ECL 10) or some combination or court and palace equalling 10.

Also, the court description reads "Through the use of the Decree domain action a regent may increase their court level by +1 per season. Only one such decree can be made per domain turn."
How often can a court's level be increased by decree? Once per turn or per season?

1 domain turn = 1 season, thus +1 level per season/domain turn.

[Osprey]

Actually, as I read it (as a DM running my own playtest campaign), the normal court level may equal the highest level holding (including a landed holding, i.e. the province itself) held by the regent. A palace allows the regent to then add additional court levels above his normal maximum, up to twice the basic court level. So a level 5 holding could support a court (5) + palace (5), giving him an effective court level of 10, and costing 7-1/2 GB per season in total maintenance.

That's how I've read (and re-read, just to be sure) the BRCS rules since I started using them a year and a half ago.

Osprey

[tcharazazel]

Heh, well i guess we have been following it that way then. Just never realized it, as I generally had an effective court level = to my province level.

[irdeggman]

Originally posted by Lisif@Jul 2 2004, 05:06 PM
By the way, should I create a separate thread for every group of rules I've had problems with, or write everything under a single thread? For now, here's the first

Start a different thread for each, with the title something like "Chap X - subject" so that it becomes easier to sort them out.

[Lisif]

Ok, so you may exceed your province/holding level with a palace... but do you have to pay court expenses for the bonus provided by the palace bonus?
For example, a landed regent has a palace (5) in a province (5). What's the cost for an effective court level 10?
7.5 GBs (5 GB "normal" court spending +2.5 GB palace maintenance) as per palace description, or 12.5 GBs as per court description (10GB total court spending +2.5 palace maintenance)?
In other words, in the first case the palace gives a +5 bonus to court levels, in the second it merely allows you to increase your court spending up to 10, but you still have to pay for those 5 additional court levels.

For what it's worth, I like the second option more... I prefer to increase costs rather than reducing them.

1 domain turn = 1 season, thus +1 level per season/domain turn.

Whooops... I got confused with domain rounds :huh:

[tcharazazel]

7.5 GBs (5 GB "normal" court spending +2.5 GB palace maintenance) as per palace description, or 12.5 GBs as per court description (10GB total court spending +2.5 palace maintenance)?
In other words, in the first case the palace gives a +5 bonus to court levels, in the second it merely allows you to increase your court spending up to 10, but you still have to pay for those 5 additional court levels.

Well sorry to disapoint, its 7.5 GB.

It can get a bit confusing as they call the effective court level the court, heh, prob could do with a little clarification it seems. Like adding EL infront of the effective level court (court + palace) vs the regular court (that you raise).

The way to think of it is that the character has a level 5 court and a level 5 palace, and these are what the maintenance is based upon. The effective level court = 5 +5 = 10, and this determines the number of court actions, ect, and not the maintenance.

[Lisif]

Originally posted by tcharazazel@Jul 3 2004, 10:12 PM
Well sorry to disapoint, its 7.5 GB.

It can get a bit confusing as they call the effective court level the court, heh, prob could do with a little clarification it seems. Like adding EL infront of the effective level court (court + palace) vs the regular court (that you raise).

The way to think of it is that the character has a level 5 court and a level 5 palace, and these are what the maintenance is based upon. The effective level court = 5 +5 = 10, and this determines the number of court actions, ect, and not the maintenance.

Ok, no problem. Actually, it's how it worked in the boxed set, IIRC. Just edit the Court description on page 91, which now reads: "a palace allows a regent to exceed their normal court level by +1 per level of the palace", that "normal" leads one to think it refers to court expenses, rather than effective court level.