Council votes by the numbers
March 23, 2007
This is the roughest part of my design so far. And as it forms one of the primary currencies that drive play, it’s going to need a lot of playtesting and revision before it will likely be perfect. So I’m going to post my initial ideas, my concerns, and my thoughts all in a jumble here for now.
The only way to generate Council Votes “ex nihilo” is by participating in a Conflict on the side of the Antagonist.
If you are the Antagonist, you receive 1 Council Vote for taking the role. You receive an additional Council Vote per trick you win. Finally, you receive a Council Votes if you win the Conflict as a whole.
Issues: This might encourage much longer Conflicts. We may need to specify a hard cap on Conflict length (max of 4 Tricks)? Or maybe limit Conflict length based on perceived story importance? But Antagonists should want to keep Conflicts to a length they perceive they can win, for the extra Council Vote. So a weak Antagonist probably won’t set a large number of Tricks to win.
Once a Conflict starts and a player begins Aiding one side, they may not Aid the other side of the Conflict. They do not have to Aid anyone on any given Trick, but once they do their decision is set for the rest of the Conflict. I can conceive only a very few stories where it makes sense for a player to Aid both sides during the course of the Conflict, so I don’t think this is a serious handicap and should minimize Aiding just to “whore” oneself for Council Votes.
If you Aid the Antagonist and they win (whether or not your Aid was significant) you receive 1 Council Vote.
When a Protagonist wins, at their option they may give any number of players who Aided them any number of Council Votes they see fit, from the Protagonist’s own collection of Council Votes. An Aiding player or Protagonist cannot strike deals during a Conflict or agree on a payment for Aid. This occurs solely at the Protagonist’s choice after the Conflict is concluded.
As discussed earlier, Council Votes have use during conflicts and during council meetings. The use of Council Votes during conflicts has already been detailed earlier . The use of Council Votes during the council meeting will be discussed soon.
