Quote Originally Posted by AndrewTall View Post
Interesting. I'd mechanic these taxes not with seizures but with opposed diplomacy [...]
Cerilia is not Medieval Europe, I posted this example as an example of what siezures might represent, if the DM's view of things tended to the more restrictive regarding siezures.

But really, all a siezure is is a situation where money headed in the direction of one ruler, gets diverted to the income of another ruler. This could be sweet and gentle, or, as you say, smash and grab.

For instance, I may (as the holder of some law) have the social right to compel the great and the wealthy to sponsor public festivals, and this is understood by the public to be a display of my power and magesty. So that when I can compell guilder Kalien to sponsor the festival of Sarimaenum in November at the end of the fall season, I look good and great, and public duties that I am responsible for are compeleted with someone elses money. Further, what I can compel from Kalien, makes it easier to compel from those who would be Kalien, so that a season where I get a lot from him, I get a lot from the lower guilders in his organization who I task to similarly perform state functions as a gift to the state. So I get work done at a value of X GB though (as is the way with GB) I don't actually recieve any money at all. Other months I can get little from Kalien and little from his minions as well.

This would be an interesting and colorful bit of fluff for the game which could even introduce some role play hooks, but is really just an explanation of what a siezure is.

It could be legitimate law claims in the courts, it could be anything, because the meaning of a GB and the description of a law claim is so vague. I'll spend some time inventing some additional descriptions of what a law claim might be, distinct from extra-ordinary taxes, or the social right to compel state projects.