So I picked up the AKCS rules on TO’s recommendation (I think it was a recommendation). I’m about halfway through. I think there is a lot here that I can use for inspiration. However, my sense is that as a ruleset for domain play it’s not great. I have a few concerns:
1. Holy subsystems, Batman! It ain’t exactly rules light. It like B/X ripped off feats and skills from 3e, and then instead of a core mechanic it decided to make a different subsystem for every single feat and skill, plus a different subsystem for every “domain” action. It’s like Rollmaster with the charts in paragraph form.
2. There is a ton of bookkeeping tracking revenue, expenses and assets (not sure if there are any debts) along with calculating all the variables to determine each. I feel a domain system would be more accessible, not to mention more widely applicable to different systems, if the math was a bit more abstract. An estate of “x” quality has resources to construct a maintain a castle, garrison and staff of “y” quality, and provide “z” resource units which can be spent on extras. I didn’t become a border lord so I could count peasants, that’s why I hired a steward.
3. Many, many of the rules function automatically with a die roll without any provision for creative play. For example, if you adventure once per __ and ______________ your peasant population grows, and if you don’t, it doesn’t. But what if I hire a bard to travel around talking about how much richer and better treated my peasants are?
Having a ton of subsystems and bookkeeping is fine if that’s your jam. But having rules that don’t support creative play is a big fail in my books. These rules are great for NPCs, but they shouldn’t apply to PCs. A PC shouldn’t research a new spell by buying a library and rolling a skill check. A PC should research a spell by following rumours of the last known location of Lothar the Pyromancer’s treatise on spell components. Also, there are no rules for what happens if an opposing party is trying to oppose the actions of you or your proxy. Now, you cam probably mitigate this if you are experienced enough as a DM to know when you can ignore a rule, or make up one on the spot. But as a rule
system it is a failure.
4. So far in my reading it seems very focused on acquiring land and building up your estate. I am hoping there will be something in here on political intrigue, mercantile ventures, etc. I’m not very encouraged though, because it looks like the default when you succeed in a given activity is to receive a monetary benefit. For instance, a successful spying check results in income from exploiting the secret information.
My distaste for this inspired me to treat the default result of spying to be the generation of rumors. Which in turn made me realize that one way to drive play is to ensure that your adventure has a robust system for generating hooks. Rumors for arbitrage trading by your merchant fleet, books and components relating to spell research and magic item creation, actions by NPCs that the players need to respond to, or guess at the NPC’s intentions.
Perhaps you should make a rumor and/or events table for each major area of play – magic, adventuring, economics, politics, agriculture. All of which either promise rewards or hint at obstacles to achieving the players’ goals. Too many rumors for the PCs to chase on their own, thus relying on their proxies. Then the proxies’ successes and failures come from the subsystem mill, whereas the PC’s successes and failure arise through play. And then a simple mechanic to resolve the actions of proxies, particularly if another NPC is actively opposing them.
@Malrex, I think you are talking about playing your proxies. If so, I think it is okay to play some of your proxies – “followers” are supposed to be fanatically loyal – but I also think the game is more interesting if you have to rely on at least some NPCs that are not under the player’s control. The PC should have to worry about betrayal, and how to keep his people loyal. Otherwise a pretty much agree with your ideas for setting this up, although for a published adventure I would ensure a number of concrete hooks that appeal to players who won’t default to activities other than adventuring.