[OOC] General Discussion

[sjsilver]

Pen asked me to shift my goals away from banking. I think because most players have already begun / have subbed out the banks I contracted. I don't think he wants to slow the game down any more then he as to by having me re-contract banks as well as deal with the headache of balancing a character who's identity is built around making tons of money off finance.

I don't mind taking the island. I'll be working out some other identity something perhaps around a rare ore or something found more or less only on the island with unique and magical properties. Since I'm near the Grey District it's fair to say the island is going to be mostly untamed. It's going to be a fair bit of work for me to get a character up to snuff and whatever it is likely will not be as fleshed out as von Ruuth Banking was but meh. Price you pay right?

Speak with you all tomorrow after my management meeting.

Just want to have a quick refresher for gold / costs

Its 2 million GP on buildings / district
Additional 1.5 million budget for housing the population

I forget the personal wealth amount I remember it was higher then normal for the 9th level character however.

[Yuul]

So anyone wondering how the chamber of the 8(9?) meeting will turn out this time? More or less opposition to the king's demand?

Maybe my diplomacy checks will roll above single digits?

@SJSilver: We were given 4mil to both build the district, house the people, and equip our military.

[sjsilver]

Originally Posted by Yuul

So anyone wondering how the chamber of the 8(9?) meeting will turn out this time? More or less opposition to the king's demand?

Maybe my diplomacy checks will roll above single digits?

@SJSilver: We were given 4mil to both build the district, house the people, and equip our military.

Curious myself. I don't know if there will be much more "open" opposition to the king's demands but well see.

Thanks for the update on the moneys. And idea on what we where given as to our characters "personal" wealth?

Edit: Going over it I realize the terrific amount of work I put into von Ruuth, his family / history / the district / etc. This is going to be interesting.

Edit 2: Going over everything it appears our characters "personal" wealth and investments should total to 240,000, does that seem correct / in line with everyone else?

[sanitas infirma]

Originally Posted by sanitas infirma

As for caster integration into districts, the vast bulk of your forces will probably be npc classes with adepts providing most of the magic. PC classes can be hired at a cost of 50gp per level per month (which will quickly eat into your income, if its anything like ours) compared to 1gp+0.5*lvl gp per month for npc classes (or .05gp+0.25*lvl gp per month for militia, npc classes which take time to muster). You must also pay to equip your forces out of your starting gold, but at half cost for non-magical equipment due to subsidizing from Kingdom.

Some other useful notes:
- Starting level is nine, starting personal wealth is 250,000gp, and abilities are determined by 3D4+6 with one reroll if needed. If you do not roll an 18 you can replace your lowest roll with an 18 instead.
- You have 4 million gold to build your district, which houses around 40,714 people (exact population and demographics up to you). You are responsible for paying for housing out of your district funds, but grand houses and houses can be subdivided to shelter 20 and 5 people respectively. You also begin with a free Governor's Mansion in the capital of your district, and are encouraged to use your personal funds make personal contributions to your district.
- Information on building costs can be found in the information thread

Considering where you are, however, I'm not certain if the gold for district-building and population numbers would still hold - one could say that the wealth was gained from years of raiding the mainland, but the Isle of Ice seems a bit small and desolate to house 40k+ people.

[sjsilver]

Originally Posted by sanitas infirma

Considering where you are, however, I'm not certain if the gold for district-building and population numbers would still hold - one could say that the wealth was gained from years of raiding the mainland, but the Isle of Ice seems a bit small and desolate to house 40k+ people.

Thanks for the information including the starting gold.

I've started to add some more detail to the Island of Ice as ideas come to me. Added some information on two of the five major groups on the Island of Ice, the Ursi and the Spinarcum.

Something I'm toying around with is the idea of ruins and castle left over on the island from MANY MANY hundreds of years ago, some left in ruins but many still functional. Who or what left these castles and why is a bit of a mystery that will be connected with "The Lost."

I imagine a fair amount of my starting assets from gold will go to ships and weapons as I expect most of the population to be armed on the island.

What the island of ice proves to Tylanis will mostly be furs / fishing and able bodies / labor to the main land, as well as a yet to be named material that is mined from the island that has unique magical properties.

[sanitas infirma]

Wait, so the Isle of Ice is being added as another settled district? I thought that it was tribal, independent of Tylanis, and too much trouble to incorporate.

Also, since you had adamantine mining as a focus before, why not have that be your mineral export? It would explain the mainland's interest in the Isle and paint past hostilities as attempts to annex the mineral wealth.

[sjsilver]

adamantine is a resource others already are bringing to the table though, last time I had it as a resource however, really it was just party of the minting process for that other alloy. But I do like where you're gong with the mainlands interest in the isle being is mineral wealth I was just going for something more unique to our setting. That is all however hand wavy details need to finish up story stuff for the island.

I plan on keeping is tribal if you look at the post here there are at least 5 major factions on the island. The character / representative will be someone who more recently united the factions / tribes under him / her somewhat like Scarling Markov did some 150 or 200 years ago. I want to finish up a little blurb about each faction before going back onto the islands history / information what have you to help organize my thoughts.

Feedback as always is appreciated.

[sanitas infirma]

I suppose that my primary concern is having a neighbor be changed into a powerful, sea-faring, and potentially war-like district. I've been re-conceiving the Grey District and how it relates to its neighbors since new players and districts have been added, but having the Isle of Ice remade from a political afterthought to a historical-and-present threat would take some serious revision.

History can be changed to include war easily enough, but perhaps at present there is a state of peace because the mainland does not want to bear the cost (in lives and in gold) of scouring the Isle of Ice clean of life and the Isle of Ice does not want to provoke the mainland enough so that the cost of invasion seems reasonable by comparison.

On resources, you might also consider mercenary services - if a large part of your population is trained to fight and survive in the wilds, then they would probably make good hired swords. If the name is any indication, the Isle of Ice probably isn't well suited to farming and will be a net importer of food, which would be another explanation for why it wants peaceful relations with the mainland. You might also think about having your population trend toward the small side - the Isle of Ice is about the size of the King's District, which has only 15,000 people and is a good deal more temperate. Then again, overpopulation on a small island would also explain why it imports resources that it itself lacks.

[Yuul]

@SJSilver: 250k actually.

[Yuul]

For those of us that still have our old district setup, want to make a table of district GDP?

Assuming Pen's fine with that of course. Seems like it would be general economic intelligence likely known by most of us.

[sjsilver]

Originally Posted by sanitas infirma

I suppose that my primary concern is having a neighbor be changed into a powerful, sea-faring, and potentially war-like district. I've been re-conceiving the Grey District and how it relates to its neighbors since new players and districts have been added, but having the Isle of Ice remade from a political afterthought to a historical-and-present threat would take some serious revision.

History can be changed to include war easily enough, but perhaps at present there is a state of peace because the mainland does not want to bear the cost (in lives and in gold) of scouring the Isle of Ice clean of life and the Isle of Ice does not want to provoke the mainland enough so that the cost of invasion seems reasonable by comparison.

On resources, you might also consider mercenary services - if a large part of your population is trained to fight and survive in the wilds, then they would probably make good hired swords. If the name is any indication, the Isle of Ice probably isn't well suited to farming and will be a net importer of food, which would be another explanation for why it wants peaceful relations with the mainland. You might also think about having your population trend toward the small side - the Isle of Ice is about the size of the King's District, which has only 15,000 people and is a good deal more temperate. Then again, overpopulation on a small island would also explain why it imports resources that it itself lacks.

Thanks all great ideas. I wouldn't worry overly much about change you district, you already have one of if not the largest castles in Tylanis with Briarstone Hold. As with Orc raiding parties and such wild areas you are likely the most prepared district for any real foreign threat. I like the idea of Mercenary labor as begin a large thing that the district provides I could easily imagine people from the Island of Ice living anywhere in Tylanis acting as big scarred and scary men.

Honestly I'm more worried that if I have anything of value as you suggested the mainland will want to rape and pillage it and could see whinny king issue orders for things I just can't or won't deliver to him. Not that anyone wants to get into a guerrilla warfare fight on the Island of Ice.

[sanitas infirma]

Don't worry too much about The Toad invading - he'll probably bluster a lot, but you have extremely solid defenses so anything short of a highly motivated and cooperative effort by all of the mainland (which I cannot see The Toad pulling off on personal magnetism alone ) is probably a hollow threat. Also:

- Harsh winters means that invasion is probably suicidal eight months out of the year (consider Napolean and Russia). Not only does this limited window of opportunity mean that you can be more cheeky during the cold months, but it puts any invaders on a very tight schedule since they must take enough ground to entrench before winter or they will be wiped out by the weather. Guerrilla and scorched-earth tactics to delay could be used to great effect here.
- Being an island, any attempt at invasion is going to require considerable naval transport just to get boots on the ground. Given that you plan to have your own navy, you'd be able to start fighting back right from the word go. Moreover, with harsh winters raising and lowering rocks and hills, beach-space in which to safely land is probably limited, and what little their is has probably been claimed by you and fortified. Invaders will be especially vulnerable and divided while disembarking, so the initial push alone will have high casualties.
- Like the Grey District, the Isle of Ice probably has its share of dangerous wildlife and terrain, so any invading force will be fighting the land as much as the inhabitants. Scouting will be at premium consequentially, so you'll have another advantage with your knowledge of the land.
- Even if The Toad managed to seize whatever mineral wealth he wants on the Isle of Ice, he would have to hold it long enough to mine and ship it (and that assumes you don't simply collapse the mines to slow him). During this time there would be plenty of opportunities for guerrilla attacks to disrupt things, so even after the war the mineral venture would probably be unprofitable.
- Finally, and lest we forget, trade and diplomacy will open plenty of opportunities to make allies among the mainland districts. There will probably voices to side with you at any Council meetings, as though speaking out against The Toad was not motivation enough.

[sjsilver]

Thought came to my head since the island of ice is so remote and harsh I'm going to put a prison of fairly substantial size on the island. Perhaps since most of what I'll proved as a resource is going to be minerals and metals that are mined it would be something like a work camp where the worst of the worst form the mainland end up. obviously some dwarven community that jut does mines because that's what they do but I think a prison in the icy north makes quite a bit of sense.

Where would a prisoner escape? freeze to death in the cold of the night? escape to a savage tribe that would more then likely either kill you or return you to prison?

[Pendragon]

Sj, I am digging this new district you are formulating

[sjsilver]

Originally Posted by Pendragon

Sj, I am digging this new district you are formulating

Thanks. I put a lot of work and effort into Cyraepta and von Ruuth and would feel re-missed being allowed to rejoin and not having put the same type of thought and effort into this again.

edit: I have a short blurb on each of the factions on the Island of Ice under section 1 & 2. I have also begun spending the district resources / begun designing locations on the Island under section 7. I will be skipping about back and forth for a while on these sections as I flush things out. Thoughts and comments as always are appreciated.