Ceyrin
12-04-2013, 02:47 PM
It occurred to me the other day that a potential opportunity is being missed for the Gemstone community.
As an example, I think Wehnimer's Landing makes the perfect place to try such a system out. It's a 'free' frontier town. The local government is unaffiliated with any larger racial empire.
What would a PC mayor do?
They would have the ability to change racial bias of merchants in the town, as well as change whether or not certain local laws were in effect, and how severe(read fine or service time) their punishment would be. We already have a small example of this, in that certain towns allow for demons to walk freely, and others do not. This seems like an easy thing that a mayor could have control over to modify.
Beyond that, it would be their responsibility to see that the town remains profitable and stable. Imagine if Wehnimer's Landing offered a stock option that generated a tangible asset that would pay dividends once or twice a year. Obviously, you'd want to have some systems in place to prevent the obscenely rich and the people who would abuse multi-accounting to purchase the stocks offered initially by the system. Obviously you won't be able to stop the rich from buying stocks from other players, but that's to be expected. The stocks could do more than simply pay dividends though, they could represent a player's ability to vote (IE, you can't vote for a mayor for this city if you don't own at least 1 stock) and they could also be used to dictate who is able to run for mayor. Only those with a certain % of the current available stocks would be able to run, and at the cost of some % of their current stocks. Finally, the mayor would be able to offer a new stock release for a limited period of time, since the system is set up somewhat to cause attrition to the number of available stocks.
I figure it's likely important, should the new mayor turn out to be terrible or otherwise unsupportable due to their behavior, that those with a controlling interest could prematurely initiate an impeachment of the mayor and a new vote, at the cost of a sizable % of their current stocks (with some hard minimum built in).
Maybe this is all just crazy and stupid, but it feels to me like it could offer a depth that doesn't currently exist in the game. I could easily see this kind of system being available in several cities, not just Wehnimer's Landing. Probably not ever Ta'Illistim or Ta'Vaalor, though, possibly not Solhaven either. River's Rest would likely do it just to thumb their noses at the Empire, despite their relative proximity.
As an example, I think Wehnimer's Landing makes the perfect place to try such a system out. It's a 'free' frontier town. The local government is unaffiliated with any larger racial empire.
What would a PC mayor do?
They would have the ability to change racial bias of merchants in the town, as well as change whether or not certain local laws were in effect, and how severe(read fine or service time) their punishment would be. We already have a small example of this, in that certain towns allow for demons to walk freely, and others do not. This seems like an easy thing that a mayor could have control over to modify.
Beyond that, it would be their responsibility to see that the town remains profitable and stable. Imagine if Wehnimer's Landing offered a stock option that generated a tangible asset that would pay dividends once or twice a year. Obviously, you'd want to have some systems in place to prevent the obscenely rich and the people who would abuse multi-accounting to purchase the stocks offered initially by the system. Obviously you won't be able to stop the rich from buying stocks from other players, but that's to be expected. The stocks could do more than simply pay dividends though, they could represent a player's ability to vote (IE, you can't vote for a mayor for this city if you don't own at least 1 stock) and they could also be used to dictate who is able to run for mayor. Only those with a certain % of the current available stocks would be able to run, and at the cost of some % of their current stocks. Finally, the mayor would be able to offer a new stock release for a limited period of time, since the system is set up somewhat to cause attrition to the number of available stocks.
I figure it's likely important, should the new mayor turn out to be terrible or otherwise unsupportable due to their behavior, that those with a controlling interest could prematurely initiate an impeachment of the mayor and a new vote, at the cost of a sizable % of their current stocks (with some hard minimum built in).
Maybe this is all just crazy and stupid, but it feels to me like it could offer a depth that doesn't currently exist in the game. I could easily see this kind of system being available in several cities, not just Wehnimer's Landing. Probably not ever Ta'Illistim or Ta'Vaalor, though, possibly not Solhaven either. River's Rest would likely do it just to thumb their noses at the Empire, despite their relative proximity.