Shattered Kingdoms

You could undo the major binding oaths that tie the Hammer, Fist, Druids and Adepts into something more of an 'addition' to classes themselves.

First off, remove CRS. Yeah, I said it -- it had to be said. HOWEVER: move the focus of the system itself to countries and get rid of this relic thing and make it more of an issue of destroying "key points" within the city to deal economic damage to both the tribunal and the local economy.

Take away cabal channels, BUT show who is who in the wholist. If they want to meet, all they have to do is pick a time and place. They keep their OOC forum if they want to. They can choose to come together and scheme or meet eachother if they so like.

For example, let's say that since there's no more King Gerevan, the Hammer's oath to Taslamar is dissolved. They become a fully freelance unit, capable of living and being anywhere. Morea is no longer their home (and perhaps returned to how it used to be, which was a cooler area IMO) because they are no longer tethered to a single place. The weapon cabal skill is changed for a way to infuse their weapon with holy energy, granting it 50% holy damage as long as it's wielded. Their spirit steed -- one of their visible abilities -- is changed and given to Paladins and Hellions (Paladins summon spirit steeds, Hellions summon nightmares, and they have rules as to how they can be used, much like spirit steed currently does), and instead they are given some other new ability -- that or allow spirit steeds to look like any other horse present in the room. OR, if you ALREADY have a horse in your posession, make the spirit steed 'possess' it and assume its identity.

While they are still technically an organization, it becomes more like the Freemason's guild -- it is loosely observed (but it is observed), and they do not work so much as a cohesive unit rather than independently serve to further the cause of the Light under whatever banner they choose. Morea would have their skill trainers. It is not incredibly hard to be a discrete Hammer save for charging into people.

The Fist has it tough because their skills are PRETTY easy to recognize and hard to hide. However, not all monks follow the same path. Let's say for a moment that all monks are, however, covered in lawful good, lawful neutral and neutral good (so principled, scrupulous and unprincipled could theoretically become Fist). They swear an oath to uphold peace first and foremost and are free to travel around the monastery. The Monastery's returned more to how it used to be and inside it you can find the skills. It is hard to be discrete with them.

The Adept skills should be strewn around a bit more than other cabals; skills, and their oath should be the bizzaro image of the Hammer's -- destroy the light, ensure the victory of the darkness. They have it the easiest because they aren't really part of Aghelia so it's just up to them to go and do whatever they want. They can find their skill trainers perhaps in the Necropolis or some other necromantic area. Adepts would probably need to be the most discrete with their abilities if they wanted to stay undercover.

The Harlequins... well. They're random. Make them be random. They might join a tribunal, help them for a while, then ask to leave. They may join a tribunal and spy on it and sell information. They may not even bother joining any tribunals at all (law? eeeeeeeeew). They have no real visible skills that would immediately incriminate them when 'anonymoused' outside of mimic so they are well-suited already for this.

The big exception to all of this seems to be the Midnight Council. I think that as a whole, they should not mix and mingle and should instead keep everything how it is. This is both a huge boon and a huge disability. They can't get different kinds of abilities in their group now but they have the most restricted group of all. Take away the forging skill they have (which I honestly don't ever see get used as of late anyways, so what's the point) -- and you should be pretty much set. They trade a cabal skill for the ability to pretty much be otherwise (mostly) impenetrable by spies.

I haven't even read the whole post yet. I just wanted to take a quick moment to say this is very similar to a suggestion I made a while back and is close to what I see as possible in the future if dual membership happens ....well happens correctly. That is way I refer to future expansion as one of the goals. So far I liking the way you think.

Edit: I finished your post and think it is extremely creative and has some very interesting ideas. There are some ideas I really like, others I'm not so sure on. I will have to think them over for a while. With the powers you mention with the Hammer is almost exactly what I was thinking. And I find the idea of making cabals more lax in their organization is one I find interesting but am not sold on. One note is that I have believed for a long time that the Fist should be made into a class. I know suggesting that is like trying to cut down a red wood with a fish but I still believe it should happen. All in all it was a really enjoyable post to read.

Lei Kung

I already have how Tribunals could absorb CRS thought out in my head completely, too, and it would probably be pretty enjoyable as it gives a way to wage actual war and it can actually be used as a gauge to determine "who is winning".

If this is something that D would consider I think the idea of grabbing land would be great but that is well into the future. Shorter term I think Cannibal's idea about destoryable/repairable rooms would work well. Just suggestions. Either way I see dual membership as the first step and we might have to wait for a bit to see the "CRS move" again if this is something D is open to. Either way I see major benefits to dual membership in and of itself.

Lei Kung

Having a not-so-hard-to-enter headquarters for each tribunal and then simply having the guards defend that is more or less my idea. And instead of an actual guardian, have some sort of thing at the end that has to be destroyed that's a NPC and that doesn't fight back. Have two more 'restricted sites' in the town, perhaps one in a bank (note: expand banks to have the 'front teller' and then the back area -- make them full-sized treasuries) and one more in a sort of 'city hall'.

Raiding the city hall demoralizes the city (guards ~3-5 levels weaker) for a couple of IC months and 'steals' a moderate part (about 3-5%) of the economy and tribunal coffers, granting it to the raiding tribunal. The NPC to be destroyed in the city hall is the statue of the local ruler.

Raiding the headquarters does the most damage to the guards, making them about ~5-8 levels weaker for a few IC months but does the least damage to the coffers (1-3%). The NPC to be destroyed in the headquarters is more like the headquarters itself.

Raiding the bank does the most damage to the coffers (5-8%) but has the least effect on the guards (1-3 levels for 1 IC month). The NPC to be destroyed in the bank is the vault wall.

Guards announce when someone "breaks in" to the restricted area of either of these areas and 'tribunal gate' instead places. Guards spawn accordingly as in current CRS. Since tribunals have NPCs they can bring with them to the fight, there is no need for the 'target NPCs' to fight back.

This is by far the best idea yet to date.

I agree. Probally a [REDACTED] to code though. Or maybe not. I love it!

Thank you, thank you.

And someone kept saying all my ideas were useless...

We never said all, just most.

Wasn't me. In fact you have been coming up with some really good ones lately.