Precedent:
All settlements once had this system. It is reviled, and all settlements but one have been removed from this system. I would like this burden removed from Devil’s Table roleplayers. It is almost universally disliked by developers, it is disliked by a super-majority of political players, it is disliked by a majority of anyone who's ever participated in or utilized both systems.
Roleplay:
There isn't any associated with the complicated writ-token system. Most successful governments that enter into it, ignore the writ system entirely and require OOC coordination to vote-count left and right, requiring not just a super-majority, but more. This voter-coordination without any kind of IC polling or citizenship counting... is absolutely metagaming. The entire system is ridiculous and requires an effective government to have OOC coordination that detracts from the roleplay. Further? This was originally designed as the Lawful Evil district, ruled by House Freth and Infernalists… yet it is the most chaotic of the settlements.
Drow Theme:
This is a voter system that punishes councilors for having their political rivals assassinated. This is not in Drow theme. It forces ADDITIONAL coordination and cooperation, rather than allowing any kind of inter-house warfare, and makes it impossible to have a functioning government for remotely extended periods of time. Having a single ruler would allow for longer, more in-depth plotting between the houses, rather than continuous tit-for-tat and the constant PvP we've seen so far. Drow are natural traitors -- we don’t need the additional reason to betray each other.
Settlement Management:
Settlement management is incredibly difficult with a counselor system, and The Devil’s Table experiences more frequent elections than any other settlement, creating a large amount of burnout of solid and well-put together groups. It also creates a large amount of instability when it comes to making alliances with the devil’s table, not because the other faction ceased to exist … but frankly because they’re too exhausted to continue maintaining leadership after three, four, and five elections in a single year (IRL Month) while completely blind to prediction results due to lack of polling, understanding of safety margins and other things these elections require. Likewise? The third councilor is basically just a citizen who cannot be banished and is always locked out in an effective government. The problem with this, is that individual than uses their inability to be banished to steal signs and objects, and force elections at inopportune moments -- which are often OOCly motivated by the understanding that someone will not be in-world due to IRL issues. The district is unable to coordinate at all, let alone compete with The Sharps because The Sharps has had the burden of this system lifted.
CURRENT DROW ... are not the only people who should have a say in this; as such a system? Can also prevent other experienced leaders from creating groups that might benefit Drow roleplay in The Devil's Table, because of lack of desire to interact with this system.
Settlement Warfare:
Given the divided loyalties of all individuals participating in the council system, and their often contrary goals, and backstabbing… it’s absolutely impossible to coordinate a defense of the settlement and outside attacks on the district or it’s leaders regularly lead to political ramifications for the district’s leaders: Whether DM event or player lead doesn’t matter, given how tenuous anyone’s grasp on the district is. Other districts are simply able to make decisions faster, and don't have to rely as much on immediate government opinion, or acting before the councilors beside them do.
The competitive nature of The Table means even DM events can absolutely upset the political environment of the table without intending to; even when they're trying to be fair and balanced between surface and underdark events.
Political Tactics:
The political tactics used to take and maintain control of The Devil’s Table are ridiculously convoluted and change continuously. If everyone rests even a little bit, on the fourth election in the month, and votes for the most popular candidate? All Drow with a J are allied. All Drow with an F are allied. J and F are enemies.
‘Joanna Drow gets 22 votes’. - Councilor 1
‘Freya Drow gets 10 votes’ - Councilor 2
‘Joelina Drow gets 8 votes’. - Councilor 3
‘Feddie Drow gets 7 votes’
‘June Drow gets 4 votes’
‘Fel'dayrn Drow gets 2 votes’
This means? Joanna, Freya, and Joelina are councilors-- but? Freya now has the ability to force a new election every time she hears that Joelina may OOCly be away for two days: Which requires OOC coordination via discord to coordinate and counter. This entire system … because of the lack of polling, cross-time-zones, lack of understanding of safety margins, or how close the elections actually are? REQUIRE RP-breaking use of Discord to coordinate. Likewise? Freya, though regularly PKing candidates, stealing public property signs and having no governmental powers… cannot be banished, even though CAUGHT DOING THIS and Joelina and Joanna locked her out of the government because her aims are overtly against those of the party with the most votes. Worse? Freya cannot be assassinated without starting ANOTHER election over. And if you assign an assassin’s bounty? She can then resign, sign up first, stack her votes to get on the council… and then any assassination on her before the end of the election 3-day period does nothing, and if you wait till the new cycle is over? It forces yet ANOTHER exhausting re-election.
In no other settlement can or should a super minority be allowed to lock out the super-majority, but it could easily have happened were votes just a little different above. Any system that requires us to go through the interface of a game... should be SIMPLIFIED to account for lack of responsiveness, not made more complicated.
In another example:
‘Freya Drow gets 22 votes’. - Councilor 1
‘Joanna Drow gets 4 votes’ - Councilor 2
‘Joelina Drow gets 2 votes’. - Councilor 3
... Joeanna and Joelina can lock out 22 voters wishes because nobody else wants to deal with the frustrating election system to help Freya out. This has happened before, before my time, where the majority House was completely kicked out and banished because, though they had a majority of the voting pool... they didn't have a majority of the seats, and I suspect? This has likely happened more than once to the frustration and anger of a majority of players in The Devil's Table at the time.
Stress and Play-Time:
The amount of time required to maintain control of the district is ridiculous. I spend more time online than any reasonable person should have to, to manage the district -- because if I don’t I have the possibility of losing the super-majority, or causing the disheartening of individuals within the super-majority so they are less likely to pay attention to the coordination required to maintain control. When too many people vote for one candidate, rather than an allied candidate? It causes an outsider to come in, who gains no power except for the ability to force another, exhausting election. I am asking this system be changed for the sanity and stability of community leaders inside The Devil’s Table so that we can REDUCE the turnover rate of roleplayers in the district. We’re burning through leaders at an obscene rate and always do: And I signed onto this and am maintaining it with the intention of slowing this as best I can for both IC and OOC reasons.
In Closing:
I feel that the Council system needs to either be removed and replaced with the same government system ALL OTHER SETTLEMENTS on the server utilize … or COMPLETELY redesigned from the ground up with rules more conducive to roleplay and the Drow Theme: Which I feel would require developer time better spent elsewhere on the server. My vote is for a single ruler system. People are exhausted. Please help us stop burning our good-roleplayers up.
Thank-you very much for your time.
- Dominant Drowess
Edits: Corrections and updates as the conversation develops and new examples come to mind.
Edit:
dominantdrowess wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 10:43 amThe only reason my initial paragraph names “Drow Theme” is because I felt like that was the only possible justification for the chaos of the Council system; I did not mean to imply I believed the Drow should in ately have their own district — for clarification.