Shattered Kingdoms

Someone in another thread brought up a good point that should be addressed here as well - cabals are currently meant to be the offensive force within a kingdom while the tribunal are the defenders of the homeland.

Granted, I could see someone being a member in good standing of the Peacekeepers and Hammer, or the Fist and Talons, or even the CoN and Adepts considering that most of the law-breaking in Krychire is being done by lighties, but what about the others? The Harlies, feasibly, could join any other group they wanted? The Druids would rush to protect the city (if I remember that's why the KoS and Druids were seperated to begin with...)? And do you allow 'cross-country' enlistment - ie. allow a citizen of Sith'a'niel to join the Guardians and the Hammer? Isn't that a conflict of interests?

I'm all for this idea, mind you, I just want to see how these questions would be answered.

Actually, cabals and tribunals are meant to be fairly independent. Cabals in particular are international organizations. It's quite possible for a cabal and the associated tribunal to not be allied.

The problem with dual-wield organizations, beside whatever balancing and control limitations are thought necessary, is the imbalance in tribunals. Say MC remains a combined cabal-tribunal. That leaves 3 essentially good/unprincipled tribunals, and 1 evil one. Worse, the CoN is downright diabolic, which doesn't fit well with Druids or Harlequins.

So I suggest those lobbying for new coded groups would choose concepts that might help solve this problem.

This is a bad idea. The entire reason Tribunals were formed was because Cabals were running kingdoms irresponsibly. Now theoretically you can have a tribunal leader who is also a cabal leader, or if you really manage to orchistrate things, you could have two cabal leaders who are also two tribunal leaders and essentially, all you will have is huge cabal with enormous power.

The first thing that someone will try to do is do what I've mentioned above. It screams of Jardek big time, that does.

Then, only allow dual membership. Everyone's fairly agreed upon that topic. Leadership could only be held in one group. I don't necessarily think the two would be always in alliance, but it allows for slight options. I think splitting the MC into the Legions of the Bright Star and the Midnight Council would be the fairest thing to do.

A

I would fully agree with that if it meant that the Cabals would return to their old secretive/elitist ways. It would be nice for say a Distinctive member of the Talons to be taken to the monastery by some 'mysterious monks' who would then show him the ways of enlightment thus making him a monk, he was chosen to become one from his course of actions.

It is nice to have cabals and secret organisations that pull the strings and have their secret wars. Also I remember when I was being hunted down from the orders of order just because I was a follower of yopparai. No one suspected or at least openly spoke I was -or not- a harlequin just because they where all so secretive. I liked that.

Also I consider myself lucky to have managed to Join two cabals with the old system where you where being chosen rather than the cookie-cutter chars made today, where induction is just a joke.

That's wrong.

Tribunals were formed because there was a significant faction of the playerbase that wanted to expand on the "kingdom running" side of the game. Insofar as Cabals were ever able to run kingdoms themselves, they did a fine enough job.



I don't see the issue with this. Players and the balance of power are, by the very nature of the thing, transient and balanced by other players.

I grant it's a possibility, but it has some real problems associated with it.

It'd be nice for the Midnight Council to recruit spies from other countries. But why ICly does it lose leadership and law immunity in the Empire?

Also, cabals and tribunals are seperate on the basis that they have seperate agendas. The Hammer has goals that don't please the Peacekeepers, and vice-versa. But what divides the Midnight Council from the Legions? Aren't both devoted to the greater power of the Empire?

Lastly, this would admittedly be a great tribunal for aberrant or miscreant characters short on options. But what about anarchist characters?

I'm not saying this can't work. Sure it can. But designing the seperate organizations that the MC would split into isn't a trivial task.

No no no no NO..

Just because someone can abuse something by controlling the interests of two groups doesn't mean it will nessesarely make for bad RP and a bad game environment.. or that they even will abuse it. Give each other some credit. Not everyone is looking to exploit everything to death. At least I'm not. *Looks around to the rest of the group*

And I hate hate hate H8 the idea of splitting the empire up. Midnight council sounds very dumb without the backing of the empire. The reason why they are so cool is because not only are they the elite of the empire, but they control the legions. I would much rather see everything else merge again then to see the MC split up.

In fact, I would rather see a system where cabals are the elite units and highest up of a tribunal. You would have to first serve your country, then you could become a blood worshiper, commander of the legions, crusader of the light, devout monk, nature loving freak , and maybe even give teron a suedo tribunal made up of mercenaries and noble guards to work through..

Please do NOT break up the midnight council, though. They have far too much hystory being what they are.

LOL, I’ve been away I don’t know how long and when I just pop in to see what is new, I see this thread is still kicking.

There are two major reasons I ended up leaving SK, overly predictable RP (not from all but from most) and frustration at seeing so much potential not being used and/or actively discouraged by those who couldn’t see it.

Dual membership, city warfare (and land accumulation), and an effective economy are three major aspects that if instituted have a synergistic effect. The result would add an enormous amount of depth to RP (individual and group), tactics, and player choices, as well as add a true strategic element.

Not only would the tactician have a greater range of toys to play with, but the skilled RPer would have avenues to more readily convert their RP skill into strategic/tangible results. With a quick overview of the forums, there are tons of suggestions for new classes and races being tossed out. I believe this is because players are clamoring for more choices, more options, and this too would be satisfied (at least to a degree).

Just by reading a couple of posts in this thread I get excited about SK’s potential again. I can imagine intrigue, internal personal conflicts, armies building strongholds and strategic planning of where to try and establish one. I see sieges to destroy the invading stronghold while secret brotherhoods are making backroom deals, and I see players creating characters with a certain concept in mind, but because of all the avenues available they actually consider the character over the initial tactical consideration.

Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I see the potential. In fact Cannibal and I on many occasions discussed all the finer details. Even though we didn’t agree on everything we agreed on most because we saw the potential and how important that was, or so I believe. I will ask this, if ever Dual Membership goes in, I hope someone lets me know because I’ll be back in a heart beat. Actually, if city warfare goes in, that will bring me back too, but that does require an effective economy in my mind.

Glad to see the push for progress hasn’t ended

Lei Kung

I'm sure I can't be the only veteran who is laughing at this 'Dual membership is ok, but membership in as many cabals/tribunals as you want would unbalance the mud' mentality. All that would have to be done is allow players to join as many cabals/tribunals as they want. This would greatly increase roleplay, add realism to the game, add to spying/intrigue, and the only problem with this that huge numbers of newbies and people inept at pk are coming up with...imbalancing.

Being in a cabal has very little effect on whether or not you are successful in pk. Just ask the spam dying members of the adepts/MC right now, or the many other tribunal/cabal members who are dying and dying on a daily basis. It is le joke to think that multi-membership would cause imbalances, but hey - thas just my opinion.