10. GOVERNMENTS

(Ed note: This section is just some random thoughts that need more definition. The basic idea is that you rent (rent better than one time cost for all money sinks) the kind of government you want. The more flexible, nifty the government type the more it costs.

Democracy/republic - one man, one vote, possibly through representatives.

Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.

I'd probably have this set up so that *every* player got a vote. The voting screen would come up when the player logged on. The disadvantage to this system - lets say a 2/3 vote was needed to pass a measure. We shall say that there are 90 people who can vote. The first 59 say yes, the next 30 say no. The vote is stalemated until the one remaining person gets on to cast their vote. This government system downside is that (since everyone gets a vote) it could take awhile to get in the votes. Because this would tax the computer a bit more I'd also have it be pretty expensive.

Dictatorship - one man and he is the only one who gets to vote

a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

Basic form of government - minimal cost. (ie 'one man and he's got the vote').

feodality \Feo*dal"i*ty\, n. Feudal tenure; the feudal system based on the holding of all land in fief or fee and the resulting relation of lord to vassal and characterized by homage, legal and military service of tenants, and forfeiture.

Not sure how I'd do this - maybe if you are 'subletting the land'. I'd also have a charge (to the NPC's/computer/i.e. the money goes away) PER title given. A heavy charge. This will prevent a rash of self important nobility from springing up everywhere.

Instead of charging the *awardee* for it we could always charge the *awarder* for it. Lets say you appointed yourself king. The first titles you could make (the only ones you could afford) would be knights. Presumably, you'd get more in taxes from your knights than the title cost. One of the knights decides he wants to be a baron. Baron title cost X more than Knight. Super says the king. Send me X+Y (Y being equal to the kickback) per month and I will make you a baron. Then someone else decides he wants to be a Count (etc). It is kind of an odd way to do it, but I think it would work better for a world that I want the players to build 'from the ground up'. You will be able to tell that it is a pretty powerful king who has a lot of barons under him, etc. Naturally, the amount of knights, barons, counts, earls, etc someone has under him is limited. If, for example, the limit was 10 knights under one person and the king was needing to get an 11th person in, he would *have* to kick one of the knights up a grade.

Historically, as your excerpt pointed out, feudalism worked because you owed military service to your superior.

>>>If you had land with a barracks on it, you could rent troops. The number of troops you could rent would be based on the size of the land you have, how much stuff is on it, etc. You would be able to rent say 10 troops, and (within the program) send those off to your feudal lord for 1/4th the year.

Failure to pay your money is about equivalent to what happened in medieval times, that is the 'land escheats'. Should that happen, the renter of the land (king, baron, whatever) has to go in and 'remove' the person from the land. Perhaps change the locks on the castle if it belongs to the true owner or knock it down if it was built by the local lord.

Oligarchy - govt. by few (usu. absolute) rulers who are co-equal

Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.

Those making up such a government. A state governed by a few persons.

A subsection of this could be a Plutocracy - (Government by the wealthy) - everyone with over X amount of money in the town bank gets a vote, or rule by the merchants (i.e. everyone who owns a shop within the city limits gets a vote.

republic - govt. by representatives of an established electorate who rule in behalf of the rulers

A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.

Like democracy but have a way to figure out which parts of the population can vote for which of the rulers. Districts? Occupations? Classes?