BRCS:Chapter five/Ruling a domain/Domain action descriptions
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- 1Character actions
- 2Court actions
- 3Standard actions
- 3.1Agitate [Standard/Realm; Lead; 1 GB]
- 3.2Cast Realm Spell [Standard; GB varies]
- 3.3Ceremony [Standard; Administrate; 1 GB]
- 3.4Contest Holding [Standard/Realm; Administrate; 1 GB]
- 3.5Contest Trade Route [Standard; Diplomacy; 1 GB]
- 3.6Create Holding [Standard; Administrate; 1 GB]
- 3.7Create Ley Line [Standard; 1 GB and 1 RP per province crossed (min 2)]
- 3.8Create Trade Route [Standard; Diplomacy; 1 GB]
- 3.9Diplomacy [Standard; Diplomacy; 1 GB]
- 3.10Espionage [Standard; Gather Information; 1 GB]
- 3.11Move Troops [Court/Standard; 0 GB]
- 3.12Rule Holding [Standard/Realm; Administrate; 1 GB]
- 3.13Rule Province [Standard; Administrate; 1 GB per current level of target province]
[top]Character actions
Regents don't spend all of their time ruling their domain. There are monsters to be fought, intrigues to be solved, castles to be stormed; in short, regents participate in the same activities as normal characters. A regent's domain doesn't grind to a halt while he's occupied with personal business, but it does lose the benefit of having the regent personally attend to matters. Non-regents always take character actions each domain turn. Their potential character actions are limitless. Character actions do not have any direct regency or gold bar cost, although incidental costs may exist (traveling costs for food and lodging, for instance). Some common examples are listed below:
[top]Adventure [Character]
See Also: Adventure action - expanded description
PC regents should adventure often - with an eye for quests that further not only their own personal concerns, but those of their domain and its allies. Once a regent sweats blood with an ally, fighting back-to-back against a common foe, he knows the mettle of his friends. Adventuring regents also benefit domestically; when a regent personally leads the party that eliminates a band of monsters and saves a town, word gets around. The regent may see an upswing in loyalty and possibly an short-term increase in regency, taxes, or tithes.
[top]Ply Trade [Character]
See Also: Ply Trade action - expanded description
Your ability to find work, negotiate wages, and make a profit is based upon your bonus in Craft (Any), Profession (Any), or Perform. Highly skilled individuals are rare and can earn an increasingly large salary. The listed incomes are appropriate in provinces of level four. Increase profit by 25% for each level of the province above four. Decrease income by 25% for each level less than four. For example, a character with a +10 skill bonus in Profession (Soldier) can make 300gp per month in a province 6; their base salary of 200gp (+10 bonus x 20gp/bonus) plus an additional 50% for the province level [+25% x (province(6)- province(4) ].
Table 5-15: Income from Ply trade
Skill bonus | Example | Monthly income | Average |
+0 - +3 | Unskilled labor | 2 gp | 2 gp |
+4 - +6 | Apprentice | 2 gp x bonus | 6 gp |
+7 - +9 | Journeyman | 5 gp x bonus | 75 gp |
+10 - +14 | Master | 20gp x bonus | 250 gp |
+15 or higher | Grandmaster | 40gp x bonus | 600 gp |
[top]Research [Character]
See Also: Research action - expanded description
[top]Training [Character]
See Also: Training action - expanded description
Variant: Some DMs may allow character to train to gain +1 hitpoint. The player should reroll their character's hit points. If their randomly rolled hit points exceed the character's current hit points then the character permanently gains +1 hit points. This variant helps allow characters with below average hit points to remain viable, although it may take several months to gain a significant number of hit points.
[top]Travel [Character]
See Also: Travel action - expanded description
Table 5-16: Standard travel rates presents common rates of travel through good terrain and in good weather. These rates assume that travel takes place on clear roads or plains. Terrain modifiers for movement are available in the Player's Handbook. Most communications between regents take place through routine messengers. The frequency of such communications depends, in part, by the travel time between the regent's locations. For example, two realms located 10 provinces apart (1 week travel time) cannot be reasonably expected to carry on communications by messenger that require more than four total exchanges.
Table 5-16: Standard travel rates
Mode of travel | Speed | Miles per day | Days per province | Provinces per week |
Entourage | 15 ft. | 12 | 3 1/3 | 2 |
On foot, slow | 20 ft. | 16 | 2 1/2 | 3 |
On foot, fast | 30 ft. | 24 | 1 1/2 | 4 |
40 ft. | 32 | 1 1/4 | 6 | |
50 ft. | 40 | 3/4 | 8 | |
60 ft. | 48 | 2/3 | 10 | |
12hrs/day | 40 | 1 | 8 | |
24hrs/day | 80 | 2 | 16 |
[top]Court actions
As noted previously, courtiers and functionaries of the regent's domain usually handle court actions. The number of court actions that a domain can perform depends on the size of its court. A court action can be taken using the realm's standard action for the domain turn if necessary.
[top]Build [Court; 1d4 GB; DC 0]
See Also: Build action - expanded description
Regents tend to build things for a purpose. Realm regents tend to build highways and bridges for the benefit of other regents in the province as well as themselves - guildmasters, for example, need highways to run trade routes even as armies benefit from roads when they move. Regents often arrange for allies to aid in Build actions by donating personnel (court actions or GB), materials (GB), or some other consideration.
The construction cost for domain assets appears in Table 5-4: Asset maintenance cost. The listed costs assume that the constructions are built in relatively settled areas with easy access to the necessary building materials. Building in remote areas or difficult terrain adds to the cost of the structure. As a rule of thumb, building anything in a province (2) or (3) costs 150% of normal; building in a province (1) or (0) costs 200% of normal. The cost is doubled again for extreme conditions, such as building on a mountainside.
Construction proceeds at the rate of 1d4 Gold Bars per Build action. In other words, it can take many court actions to finish a major project. The die roll and the frequency with which the Build action is taken determine the speed of construction. Multiple court actions can be taken during the same domain action round (if available) - each build action allows construction to proceed by 1d4 GB. Constructions costs must be paid after progress is determined for each action. If the progress roll exceeds the final asset value (or available funds) then the additional can be used to build another asset (or simply ignored).
Special: Build can also be taken as a standard action. If a standard action is spent on a build action, a regent or lieutenant may make a Profession (Engineer) check against a DC equal to the total cost of the construction; if successful, the regent may set the achieved results of any progress rolls instead of rolling randomly.
[top]Decree [Court; 1 GB; DC -]
See Also: Decree action - expanded description
Decrees often take the form of laws - whether laws for the realm or for particular holdings. For example, a temple holding may declare that it is immoral to enlist in a realm regent's army. If the temple holding controls all of the religion in the province, virtually all of the people will be hesitant to disobey the church, making it very difficult - if not impossible - for the realm regent to recruit troops in the province. Decrees often lose effectiveness over time unless actions are spent to keep the decree fresh in everyone's mind. Ancient decrees might be ignored entirely until someone takes the effort to restore it to circulation.
[top]Disband [Court; 0 GB; DC varies]
See Also: Disband action - expanded description
A regent can also choose to disband any holding or asset (such as a fortification) by razing it. Unless the regent personally oversees this event, however, there is a significant chance that the local agents employed by the holding or asset will assume that the order is a mistake, the act of a traitor, or some other hoax. The DC for disbanding a holding or asset is 20, unless the regent is personally present during the destruction (in which case no domain check need be made).
As holdings and assets are valuable, disbanding is rare; the only advantage to this action is saving maintenance costs. Also, destroying a holding (even by choice) may result in a minor loss of regency as the regent's supporters in the area are left to fend for themselves. In general, regents should look at all possible solutions before disbanding armies or holdings. While the disband action is free, recruiting new troops or building up new assets is not.
[top]Finance [Court; 0 GB]
See Also: Finance action - expanded description
Regents should try to distinguish personal wealth from the domain's treasury. Many subjects, particularly nobles, believe that the treasury belongs to the realm, not the individual who is currently its regent. Excessive spending of the realm's finances may affect domain attitude or spark a domain event.
Realms that are in need of GB can obtain loans from anyone with sufficient money to lend (including the regent's personal funds). The terms of interest are subject to negotiation; an interest rate of 10% for one year is fair.
[top]Muster/Train Troops [Court; varies GB]
See Also: Muster/Train Troops action - expanded description
[top]Occupy province [Court; 1 GB]
See Also: Occupy Province action - expanded description
An occupied province generates no regency income for the province ruler. The normal taxation income goes in part or in full to the occupying regent (1 GB per unit occupying the province). The military forces in a province act as a temporary law holding with a level equal to the number of occupying units. Existing law holdings are reduced (temporarily) by the same amount.
In addition, each unit may destroy one holding level in the province per month. For example, three units could raze a temple (6) to a temple (0) in two months of occupation. This sort of heavy-handed action has dire consequences on the province's attitude towards the regent; as such behavior often marks the beginning of realm-wide tyranny.
This action normally allows for the occupation of one province. Multiple provinces can be occupied (troops permitting) with the expenditure of multiple court actions.
[top]Standard actions
[top]Agitate [Standard/Realm; Lead; 1 GB]
See Also: Agitate action - expanded description
The Agitate action does not have a standard domain action check. Instead, a domain attitude check is made (as discussed in the section on adjusting domain attitude) but with slightly different adjustments and modifiers. (1) Regardless of the result, the domain's attitude cannot move in the opposite direction of the active regent's intended agitation (up or down). (2) The active regent may spend GB to provide a bonus or penalty to the check (1 GB per +/- 1). (3) The active regent's holding used for the action provides a bonus (or penalty) equal to the holding level. (4) If used against another regent, the target regent's largest holding provides a bonus to the check equal to its level. (5) All regents in the area may spend RP to support or oppose the check, providing a bonus or penalty of one for each RP spent. (6) The domain attitude may not increase or decrease by more than two attitude levels per Agitate action.
Realm action: Agitate normally only affects the attitude of one province. It may also be used as a realm-wide action. If a domain takes Agitate as its standard action, it may use additional court actions to support the Agitate. For each court action used, an additional province may be affected. The holding type used for the Agitate must be the same in all targeted provinces. All costs and success checks are calculated individually for each province affected.
[top]Cast Realm Spell [Standard; GB varies]
See Also: Cast Domain Spell action - expanded description
[top]Ceremony [Standard; Administrate; 1 GB]
See Also: Ceremony action - expanded description
Coronation: You become the lawfully (and spiritually) recognized regent of an unclaimed domain or a domain that you currently hold temporarily through designation. This action requires a domain action check with a DC of 10 + the size of the domain that you are attempting to invest. All regents that have holdings in any province in which the invested domain has holdings and any regents that have a seemingly legitimate claim to the domain may bid regency to support or oppose the ceremony.
Designation: A regent may designate an heir for his domain (or heirs for multiple portions of his domain). If the regent later perishes, the heir(s) automatically assume temporary control of the domain. The new regent gains half of the RP that they would normally collect until they undergo a Ceremony of Coronation. If a regent does not designate an heir, then any character with a reasonable claim to the domain can attempt to claim it; folk legends speak of the land itself choosing its next guardian in some instances. A non-designated regent that claims a domain does not gain any regency until all other claimants are defeated and a Ceremony of Coronation is performed. This action requires no action check.
Divestiture: You attempt to claim a province that is currently claimed by another regent. This action can only be performed on a single province per action unless the realm's current regent is physically present at the ceremony (willing or not). In order to perform this action, the target province or provinces must be occupied by your troops or in rebellion against their current regent. This action requires an action check with a DC of 10 + the total level of provinces that you are attempting to claim by conquest. All regents that have holdings in the province(s) may bid regency to support or oppose the ceremony. Temple regents may also use their temple holding levels in the province(s) to support or oppose the ceremony.
Lieutenancy: You declare a character as having the authority to speak on the domain's behalf. A recognized lieutenant can stand in for the regent in almost any domain-level matter and is recognized as wielding the same authority as the regent himself. A domain's heir is often a lieutenant first, but this need not be the case. A lieutenant character may spend character actions to provide bonuses to domain actions in the same way that the domain's regent can. There is no limit to the number of lieutenants that a realm can have, but a clear system for determining the responsibilities and resolution of conflicts between them must exist.
Transfer: You willingly transfer one or more provinces, holdings, or other domain assets to another regent. Both regents must be physically present at the ceremony and willing participants. Physical coercion, magical compulsion, or other leverage may be used to create such 'willingness' so long as the general public is unaware of the activity. This action requires no action check.
Vassalage: You accept the sworn vassalage of another regent. This ceremony requires the active participation of a temple regent capable of casting realm spell in the province in which the ceremony is performed (this counts as a court action for the temple regent's domain). Once sworn, this ceremony provides the liege with a seasonal tribute of regency from the vassal subject. This tribute can be any amount, but does not generally exceed 1 RP per province or holding that the vassal holds in the liege's name. This ceremony is binding but either can revoke it by issuing a decree of independence.
[top]Contest Holding [Standard/Realm; Administrate; 1 GB]
See Also: Contest Holding action - expanded description
Generally, holdings can only be contested by other holdings of the same type. Law holdings are also able to contest guild and temple holdings (but not source holdings). Contesting another's holding is like declaring war. A successful contest action robs the victim of regency and gold collection and other support from the holding, bidding wars for Contest actions can get ugly and expensive very fast. In most cases, regents use the Contest action as a threat or a negotiating tool, rather than actually performing it often.
Realm action: As a standard action, Contest affects one target holding. This action can be supported by court actions to affect the scope of an entire realm. For each court action spent, an additional holding of the same type or held by the same opposing regent can be targeted. Success rolls and costs (including RP bidding) are calculated separately for each target.
[top]Contest Trade Route [Standard; Diplomacy; 1 GB]
See Also: Contest Trade Route action - expanded description
This action targets one trade route held by an opposing regent. The DC for the domain action check is 10 plus the level of the guild that holds the trade route. On a successful domain action check against, you destroy the trade route. This reduction is permanent, although subsequent rule actions could recreate the trade route.
[top]Create Holding [Standard; Administrate; 1 GB]
See Also: Create Holding action - expanded description
The base DC for the domain action check is 10. As usual for standard domain actions, holdings of the same type as you are attempting to create may apply their level as a bonus or penalty to the action check. In addition, however, law holdings may apply their levels as a bonus or penalty to the action check if the target holding is a guild or temple. As usual, all regents with a presence in the province may bid RP to support or oppose the check.
[top]Create Ley Line [Standard; 1 GB and 1 RP per province crossed (min 2)]
See Also: Create Ley Line action - expanded description
This action requires a domain action check with a base DC of 10. Unlike most domain actions, however, a ley line passes through multiple provinces. Source regents in any province through which the ley line passes (including the two end-points) may apply their source holding levels as a positive or negative modifier to the check. Unlike most domain actions, only regents with source holdings may bid RP to support or oppose this action, but any source regent in any province along the ley line path may do so. The RP spent to oppose/support the domain action follow the standard bidding rules for spending RP on domain actions or dispel realm magic. If this check fails, the ley line is not forged. If the check succeeds, the ley line is forged and is considered to be a permanent domain asset of domain until its regent dispels the line or it is sundered.
Ley lines cost nothing to maintain, but increase the RP cost of any realm spell through them by one RP per province of separation. Refer to Chapter Seven: Realm magic, for additional details on ley lines, ley line networks, and sundering existing ley lines.
[top]Create Trade Route [Standard; Diplomacy; 1 GB]
See Also: Create Trade Route action - expanded description
[top]Diplomacy [Standard; Diplomacy; 1 GB]
See Also: Diplomacy action - expanded description
The diplomacy action is used for a wide variety of goals. Diplomacy designed to create new or break existing alliances is the most obvious use of this action. This action can be used to convince a regent to use their holding levels in support of a future action. Diplomacy can be used to arrange for permissions for certain activities (such as mustering a military unit, passing a trade route through another regent's province, arranging a political marriage, negotiate peace, arrange for a recognition of independence, or agree to a ransom for prisoners). Most importantly, Diplomacy can be used to convince an NPC regent to take specific domain actions that may be to the PCs benefit (such as Building roads or seaports, performing a Ceremony, or Declaring war).
During a Diplomacy action, negotiation may take place, and the result agreed upon can differ from the initial offer made by the active regent. The domains are generally free to make proposals and counter-proposals, even to widen the scope of the negotiations during the action. The active regent, however, is the one that decides what the final offer is, for purposes of resolving the action.
The base DC in a Diplomacy action is strongly determined by how much the target wants to reach an agreement with you. If the Diplomatic offers is a clear advantage to the target regent and has little or no cost to them, then the base DC is 5 (Easy). If the offer has some advantage to the regent that exceeds the cost, then the base DC is 10 (Routine). If the offer has a potential advantage to the regent but the costs may equal the potential gains, then the base DC is 15 (Hard). If the offer entails a large risk or cost for the target the base DC is 20 (Difficult). Attempting to reach an agreement that entails large risk for the regent may have a base DC of 25 or higher.
Unlike most standard actions, a Diplomacy action does not involve one of the regent's specific holdings. Instead, the Diplomacy action is performed directly by the court. The difference between the active and target regent's court levels acts as a positive or negative modifier to the check. Regency cannot be spent on Diplomatic actions. Instead, any regent aware of the action may spend GB to support/oppose the action. These GB represent money spent on gifts, bribes, informants, or other expenditures that are separate from any offer of Gold offered as part of the Diplomatic agreement. For example, a fair ransom for a noble prisoner is 1 GB per character level; the random for a regent might be equal to one year's income for the domain. These GB made as part of the offer do not modify the base check on a 1-for-1 basis, instead, they would modify the 'ease' of the offer.
Special: You can take a diplomacy action to establish an embassy with another regent's domain. This is a routine offer for most regents (DC 10). An embassy has no initial cost, but requires a 1 GB maintenance each domain turn. A domain with an established embassy may perform Diplomacy actions as Court actions. Furthermore, due to the familiarity of the ambassadors with the regent's court, the embassy provides a +2 bonus to the domain success check for Diplomacy in that Realm.
[top]Espionage [Standard; Gather Information; 1 GB]
See Also: Espionage action - expanded description
See Also: Treyr's Espionage Actions
The primary use of this action is to gather information about a specific target province. The success level determines the completeness of the information revealed. Table 5-17 provides examples of potential information revealed. At the DMs option, all regency bidding in an Espionage action is done via silent auction.
This action can also be used to hide information that would normally be visible to other regents in the province (such as the existence of a holding). The base DC for hiding information is 20. Unlike standard domain actions, regency cannot be spent to increase or decrease the chance of success; the active regent can't spend regency to hide information without guaranteeing failure and the other regents in the area are unaware of the action. Only guild holdings provide a bonus to the check; other types of holdings are not as well geared for clandestine operation. The check receives a penalty equal to the number of law holdings in the province, unless the active regent holds the law holdings. If successful, the hidden information can only be revealed through as the target of an Espionage action (or perhaps through an Adventure action). Canny regents should perform Espionage actions in their own provinces on an irregular basis as a form of active counter-espionage.
Special : You can take an espionage action to establish a spy network within a hostile or friendly province. This action has a base DC 20. A spy network has no initial cost (save for the action cost), but requires 1 GB in maintenance each domain turn. A domain with an established spy network in a province may perform Espionage actions in that province as a Court action. Furthermore, due to the established contacts, the network provides a +2 bonus to the domain success check for Espionage in that province.
Table 5-17: Espionage DCs
Check | Information gained |
5 | Common rumors and information |
10 | Catalogue troop position and strength in a province |
15 | Reveal the domain statistics of a province (attitudes, regents, holding levels, etc.) |
20 | Create a minor domain event (such as a corruption) |
20 | Reveal the nature of diplomatic talks taking place between two domains |
25+ | Create a major domain event (such as a Great Captain/Heresy) |
25+ | Reveal the specifics of an existing diplomatic agreement between two domains |
25+ | Reveal battle plans for movement of troops currently stationed in the province |
25+ | Find the location of prisoners, criminal in hiding, etc. |
30+ | Trace the responsibility for an assassination, corruption, heresy, or other covert intrigue in the province |
[top]Move Troops [Court/Standard; 0 GB]
See Also: Move Troops action - expanded description
Regents are only aware of troops that are in provinces in which they have assets. In order to determine the strength of a hostile realm, enemy regents must perform Espionage actions. Moving troops on a regular basis can deflect espionage attempts and reduce the likelihood of warning nearby nations during preparation for war. Since Espionage takes a month to perform successfully, a wary regent can throw off the reports of the strengths of his armies just by moving his troops two or three times a year. Such movement also makes it more difficult to sneak attack the wary regent; as the opposing regent may have no idea where his enemy's troops are at any given time.
Court action: Units can move in provinces held by their regent without the use of this action. This action is required, however, to move units in any province not held by the regent assuming that permission has been granted. If the province regent does not give permission for the unit's movement, then a standard action is necessary.
Standard action: As a standard action, units can be move in potentially hostile provinces. Such aggressive actions require the primary focus of the court for not only does the administrative overhead involved in placing an army in the field become magnified, but significant resources need to be allocated to dealing with various factions for war and peace among the domain's populace.
[top]Rule Holding [Standard/Realm; Administrate; 1 GB]
See Also: Rule Holding action - expanded description
The base DC for the domain action check is 10 + the current level of your holding. Unlike most standard actions, you cannot apply your holding level as a bonus to the domain action check, but regents with the same holding type may apply their holding levels normally. In addition, law holdings may support or oppose the ruling of temple or guild holdings. If this check is successful, your holding increases by one level.
Realm action : Rule Holding normally only affects one holding. It may also be used as a realm-wide action. If a domain takes Rule Holding as its standard action, it may use additional court actions to Rule Holdings of the same type in other provinces. For each court action used, an additional holding of the same type may be affected. All costs and success checks are calculated individually for each province affected.
[top]Rule Province [Standard; Administrate; 1 GB per current level of target province]
See Also: Rule Province action - expanded description
The base DC for the domain action is 10 + the current level of your province. Unlike most standard actions, no holding levels can be applied to support or oppose this action and RP cannot be spent to support or oppose the action. A court can only take this action once per domain turn. Regardless of whether this action fails or succeeds, an additional attempt to Rule Province (even a different province) in the same domain turn automatically fails.
- Components of a domain
- The domain turn
- Adjusting domain attitude
- Domain collections
- Domain expenses
- Domain action rounds
- Domain action descriptions
See Also: Domain action summary
This article is a Birthright Campaign Setting (D&D 3.5/D20) page The BRCS Document is a comprehensive toolbox consisting of rules, races, classes, feats, skills, various systems, spells, magic items, and monsters compatible with the d20 System version of Dungeons & Dragons from Wizards of the Coast. |
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Created by Last edited by , 12-05-2023 at 04:41 AM 0 Comments, 135,007 Views (protected) |
, 02-09-2010 at 10:31 PM
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