"Your settlement has gone Bankrupt"

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Commie
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Re: "Your settlement has gone Bankrupt"

Post by Commie » Thu Aug 17, 2017 6:42 am

I think the suggestion of a logbook of who took out what and how much and when would be best.

Wouldn't get in the way of any RP going forward and is a logical reaction to what just happened. Though if it gets put in, make sure it can't be 'gamed' by taking out 100 million gold then 1 gold 10 times to 'delete' the log or something.

FrozenSolid
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Re: "Your settlement has gone Bankrupt"

Post by FrozenSolid » Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:02 am

As someone else brought up, if you don't want your city to go bankrupt then choose who you elect carfully. Cordors chancellor has a lot of enemies, and has wronged people with influence in the city. Is it so hard to believe that someone used that inner influence to strike at the chancellor as another way to get back?

I think Cordor had it coming. Don't betray your fellow Cordorians or don't give people you dont entirely trust unlimited acess to 3 million gold. :Thinking:

People tend to forget the "bad guys" or opposition thinking they will never have a way to actually hurt Cordor. Suprise. You have no gold! Don't blame this on OOC thinking, it was an IC action eith IC consequences

Alternativrly, maybe you could ask a DM if they are able to see in the logs who authoriaed the gold withdraw then RP the official informing players who it was.
*Didn't just do that* As an arrow flies hitting someone in the face.

Seven Sons of Sin
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Re: "Your settlement has gone Bankrupt"

Post by Seven Sons of Sin » Thu Aug 17, 2017 12:15 pm

Mr_Rieper wrote:Y'know what would be cool? If instead of emptying the bank in one swoop and running, leaders or their trusted officials would have to pay themselves a salary which far exceeded what they were worth. That would at least give people some time to react.

I made a suggestion recently about more tools for the settlement salary system, and how it would smooth things out if we were able to pay salaries to factions instead of individuals.

Fraud is often faking expenses and fudging numbers in order to extract more money out of a situation. Even paying yourself a ridiculous salary of 500k a month will take at least 3 days to drain the treasury, if it has that amount or less.
This is a good idea. Unfortunately, the political climate allows for easy, effortless wins once you achieve power, rather than constant paranoia.

Cordorian treasury theft has occurred, again and again, since the implementation of the settlement system. I've long spoken out against the settlement system, and have greatly preferred it's immediate abolishment than let it linger and fester.

There's a couple of problems, from a 'meta' perspective, to roleplaying:

1 - We keep saying bankruptcy is a big deal. However, many of the settlement mechanics don't even care. It's all on the face of things that we care. This creates an unrealistic disconnect, because while characters should care, the IC consequence of stealing over a million gold is minimal.

2 - People cry "elect better leaders." This occurs. Often times characters run on platforms of creating bureaucratic safeguards to ensure this doesn't happen. This occurs. But then, a few things are likely to occur
a) we have a dud leader, and everyone forgets what the bureaucratic safeguards are
b) we have leaders who hate the bureaucratic safeguards because they transformed beyond themselves and actually stifle roleplay.

In either instance, we eventually "reform" the system, and basically revert it to square one. Rinse and repeat.

3 - Cordor shouldn't have that much gold to begin with. Settlement gold is largely meaningless. I never understand why the accumulation of settlement wealth is important when war is a) broken and b) comparatively, non-existent. Cordor should be blowing all its cash all the time, in becoming the best Arelithian best city ever. Instead, the playerbase (in almost all settlements) see net positive million gold as something to maintained. Unfortunately, the settlement system doesn't actively encourage the creation of vast swathes of salaried individuals, and pumping out gold coins to the playerbase.

(and the tax rate is still so damn high /insertmeme)

4 - This isn't a "democracy." We aren't democratic. We can't use that word. We've republican model (by the people), but democracy, in any other meaning, really combines a lot of contemporary principles and ideals such as: all are equal before the law, the value of human dignity, the upholding of human rights, fair process, etc.

Cordor is a quasi-oligarchical republic, whereby wealthy individuals gain access to the selection of leadership.

However, I'll echo, I don't think this is a successful model because it looks, at face value, too much like contemporary politics. This leads to a lot of IC pandering to 2017 values (or maybe 2015, because insert Trump meme here). Unfortunately, it's justified because the settlement system justifies it.

- Ultimately, most Arelithians don't have as much civic pride as you think. Everyone wants to be buddies with the Chancellor when the Chancellor is at the centre of something, but very few are willing to be active cogs in the political wheel. Which is fair - Arelith is for adventurers. At the same time, if that's the case - if Arelith is for 'adventurers' - our political system really should reflect shifting power among factions and collectives rather than singling out individuals to climb Littlefinger's ladder.

Moreover, being a settlement leader (especially for Cordor) is a thankless job IC. You get forgotten 3+ years out. No one really gives a shit about you after you're done. So, there is a legitimate IC motivation to just steal it all while you're relevant - because sometimes infamy lasts longer than fame.
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The GrumpyCat
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Re: "Your settlement has gone Bankrupt"

Post by The GrumpyCat » Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:48 pm

Whilst a lot of what's been said here is readonable and measured, this topic is showing signs of becoming emotive and personal. For that reason I'm locking it.
This too shall pass.

(I now have a DM Discord (I hope) It's DM GrumpyCat#7185 but please keep in mind I'm very busy IRL so I can't promise how quick I'll get back to you.)

Locked