Successor game rules, draft one.

[ULC]

To refine my rule further, when a noble conquers a province -

He can keep it, but cannot adjust tax rate, produce agents & troops, or construct buildings, until:
A) He hands the province over to the King, who then does with it as he sees fit.
B) He gains 2/3rds support from the Council to ratify his sovereignty over the province.

[Ignoramus]

I think it's actually a good idea to have a very basic set of rules for things like this, and then develop it in-game.

Maybe it's good to say that a noble can conquer a province, but like YLC said he cannot adjust tax rate, produce agents & troops, or construct buildings, unless he hands it over to the king or rebels.

That way, he is actually creating a burden for himself. It also doesn't invalidate the worth of the king, as getting his approval will be vital to legitimately utilising that province. If you don't, you may have to throw off the king's authority and try and force an agreement.

I think that the game is served best by short sharp civil wars which result in a decisive battle, and then an agreement is made between winner and loser. This set-up should encourage that.

[Cecil XIX]

YLC's ideas intrigues me. It gives players more freedom in a way that is sure to provoke intrigue. I specifically like how it sets up conflict between the King and the Council. I quite like it.

On another note, I still like the idea of an 'Archduke' rank or somesuch. It's be a nice way for a Duke to gain enough power to rival the King, which should lead to interesting drama. Perhaps if two of the starting Duchies where unified under one man?

Speaking of which, it's possible for two Duchies to have a 'personal union', isn't it?

[Zim]

There's certainly nothing preventing one Duke from swearing fealty to another. I'd like to see any new ranks appear out of in game conflicts. Say, for example, a despotic king becomes so unpopular the Council creates the rank of Archduke as a counter.

That said, if everyone wants me to I can create a new rank easily enough.

One thing about YLC's proposal is that if you have 2/3ds of the votes of the Council on your side, you could just create a rule change making an exception of your settlement...

At any rate it isn't unbalanced. A King with decent authority and any support at all among one or more Houses would have a good chance of blocking the Council vote method. One lacking both might very well deserve the Council going over his head.

Let's keep the discussion open to refine the ideas proposed thus far. Once TinCow returns from vacation we can get his opinion as an experienced gm and look at having a forum created for the game and getting started.

One issue I've been thinking about is piicking who gets the starting characters and, if in the chosen mod France doesn't start with enough fms, who gets the RGBs lucky enough to be Dukes. I could just assign the starting characters, or we could go with something like LOTR where those with the most votes in the previous game choose first. Alternatively, we could come up with some kind of method for randomizing...

[KnightnDay]

After the mod is identified as the winner, I would suggest identifying what's available, identify who is in, and if they want to come in right away or would be willing to wait. Then you can determine who gets what at the start. Random seems fair and the people signing up are for the most part going to be established players from previous games. My $.02

[Cecil XIX]

It's also worth noting that LTC Gold has three possible starting dates, like the first MTW. I know for a fact that the 'Early' period France starts with five generals.

[AussieGiant]

I have to mention that reading the Diet sessions from KotR is pretty entertaining.

Diet Session V in which the reunification event is the main topic, is what these games are all about.

Worth a read from about page 12 onwards.