"We don't want to complicate the game for the players in a way that isn't fun for them, just because we think it is realistic" this is something I and the dm's I played with should have followed more
The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge do have temporal power based in huge capital reserves and extensive property assets. The high administrative positions are often occupied by people of or linked to political parties, government, big business and the civil service. The greater Russell Group of universities (of which Oxbridge is the premier members) holds sway over government policy from both an in group perspective and as a key element in the economic success of Britain as a whole.
Completely agree. Oxbridge has a crazy amount of soft power, but it still does still have other more direct power, as you mentioned. But the soft power is enormous, up there with the CoE and the 5th Estate.
I was hoping the Dead lady would be in charge of construction. i love the idea of a horde of zombies in hardhats and safety wear on a building site just ruining everythings. Magnificent scenes I'd say.
The idea of a demonic horse Nightmare being actually named "Health And Safety" is so Terry Pratchet-like, that I think he must have written it, and I just don't remember what book it's from. But I am of course stealing it, and now the most dangerous Death Knight in my world now rides "Health And Safety".@@jameswright21
"There are two certainties in life. Death, and taxes." - Words of House Valetta I know it's a bit on the nose but I couldn't help myself :P Alternatively those words could be the threat used by the Revenant Men to those who refuse to pay their taxes.
If the churches are controlled by the nobles, then surely there would be a sizable contingent in the population that would dislike the guilds, or outright hate them. There is no way the nobles would not leverage their influence with the populace to their advantage.
Yeah, this video didn't really sell me on the central tension of the setting. Everything put forth in this video makes it sound like the guilds would have popular support. Hopefully there are some noble Nobles and some dastardly Guild Leaders to balance out the setting some.
Moreover, presuming this is a world where the gods of the world are unmistakably present and granting magical power through their clergy, how could there NOT be sizable popular support for the traditionalist/clerical factions? The gods are with them after all! Even just in the mundane realm, it wouldn't just be nobles and paid-off flunkies getting upset in this new cosmopolitan paradise: it's every poor resident of the capitol shoved aside to make room for a new fancy guild hall, or all of sudden feeling like an alien in their own home when the neighborhood they grew up in is filled with foreigners speaking strange languages and bearing uncertain loyalties. I think the central tension's a dramatic setting to be sure: but Matt's created a powder keg, and I don't think his good guys would be anywhere near as popular or squeaky clean as he's suggesting.
He did say that portions that benefit from the nobles support their ideals, but the majority of the city is diversely populated and the nobles are insistent on maintaining power only for the local Noble families and old traditions. It completely makes sense that the guilds would have most of the popular support as they more accurately represent the people of the city.
@@Jon-id7ki not necessarily. People often don't support things that benefit themselves. Tradition and religious doctrine are commonly very potent drivers of behaviour. The guilds are new and different, many common people would oppose them on principle
Yeah, there really should be at least two religious sub factions in the city. The old more traditional "Orthodox" Temple who are strongly alighned with the nobles, and the new "Protestant" Temple who are in theory neutral but in practice tend to ally themselves with the guilds.
Great Stream. Reaffirmed a lot of how I have created worlds. Suggestion for what the Dead Lady might control, the High Court. Where the Nobles and guild leaders go to settle legal disputes. "If we can't settle this here perhaps the Lady Lanora will see my side of things?" Perhaps her husband/family were the Lord Magistrates. Money comes from "gifts". The Death Knight FBI was its lawmen. Continue the idea of a mostly neutral/indifferent society and gives her something to do besides sit and ponder her husbands murder. And on another note. Let me see some 1s on those power rankings.
I really liked the idea of zombie tax collectors: the undead are less likely to keep money for themselves because they don't care. Also the undead would be really good for repetitive, administrative tasks since they don't sleep and imo don't get bored. Their efficiency could be one of the reasons why they are tolerated.
Shame i couldn't watch live, but this was a really interesting video. Btw, my name is "Alvaro", I'm probably the founder of the oldest noble house. lmao
53:20 "When verisimilitude fails, authenticity is no defence" I love it! We have a DM just now that we're trying to coach and he very much stands by the mantra of "... but that's what it would be like in real life" - suffice to say half the players have already "checked out" and the rest of us aren't far behind. I'll be quietly whispering this phrase in his ear at our next game. Thank you Matt! I have your pdf and can't wait for the hardcover copy!
35:56 had a moment and a half where i introduced my players to a clan of evil barbarians named Morgoth. When i came up with the name i thought "Wow this sounds cool. Cant believe noone has used this name for something". The leader of the tribe was a dragonborn warrior, who i named Arkhan, with the same thought. Sometimes that extra google is worth it.
Just got the the part where you discussed each district having its own currency. I also thought about it in my campaign and also came to the conclusion that it would be tedious. But one of the twists that I wanted to do was for the PCs to find that a suspect in a noblemans murder had a stash of a different factions currency in his house. And the way I went about it in the end was that they all used gold, silver and copper but each faction used their own emblems on the coinage. All the coins were the same value, they were just diffrently "printed", much like the 2 EUR coins here in the EU.
Hey Matt, about the guilds taking over the Docks from the Noble houses, you could say it was due to some sort of failure or incident of a Noble house that led the Prince to contract it out to The Fulcrum. Grear vid btw!
I have been watching your videos since about middle of summer 2017. I found out about you when Matt Mercer mentioned you in one of his videos. Haven' t commented on one until now. This one has really given me some inspiration and help with building my world. I am really glad I chose to watch this one and even more glad you chose to make and post this video. I have used your videos to help me through alot of downs and what I refer to as "dead spots" in my creations. so wanted to say Thank you for what you share on here.
Of all the wonderful videos Matt puts out, these worldbuilding streams are easily my favourite because A) They're long. B) We get to see Matt doing what he does really well. C) Worldbuilding is my favourite activity of all time.
This was absolutely fantastic. Great to have a document you can tinker away at and it grows arms and legs over time. Very cool. Loved watching you get caught by an idea and run away with it :D
As someone who has written fantasy for many years (and never finished a story) I'd like to say that this video has helped me organize my worldbuilding in a way that actually makes it feel possible. Thank you.
It's hilarious that you seemed to have accidentally named the wizard head of the university Prospero, when Prospero is also the name of one of the main characters in Shakespeare's The Tempest, _who also happened to be a wizard_ . It's doubly hilarious that almost immediately after deciding on this name, you talk about how common it is for writers of fantasy to name things that happen to be reflected in the real world. Amazing.
"Law covers a lot. It covers both Arrest Powers, and Military Might, and things like Security." Makes sense. After all, from a certain point of view, _ALL_ temporal authority is a military one, because all Laws are violently enforced. We can talk about civic responsibility and the social contract all day, but in the end we obey rules because someone will come in to _make us_ if we don't. For that matter, it's quite reasonable to assume that Thieves Guilds and Assassins Guilds would have not inconsiderable Law ratings, because they can also assert their authority. That's what the gangs and legbreakers and "button men" are for.
I imagine that the Dead Lady doesn't see herself as being the head of House Voletta. The other nobles do, because she's powerful and terrifying, but she doesn't. She's the duchess, yes, but that doesn't make her the head. I imagine, to her, the only person who can be called the Lord of House Voletta is her husband. She's just acting in his stead, while he is temporary indisposed by being dead. Which she has every intention to rectify, at the earliest opportunity. She _directs_ House Voletta, and its quarter of the city, and the Death Knight FBI, because someone needs to keep everything in order for when her husband returns. She is the Undying Steward of House Voletta, managing its affairs on the Duke's behalf. Nothing less can be expected of a dutiful wife, at least in the mind of a noble.
@@Bluecho4 Those organizations might have their own rules and ways of enforcing their rules, but giving it a 'law rating' might not get the point across cuz it might imply that they have a legal authority to enforce their (or the city's) rules, granted/recognized by the city itself. Then again, I don't know if law rating is something the players will see, but having more clear language is probably helpful for yourself too, so your old notes never trip you up lol
That’s such a cool idea to make Capitol essentially into one big game of Diplomacy! But also worked in very subtly so that the players have no idea!Super neat idea and innovative way to cause the world to feel alive. 👍🏻👍🏻
Matt, I seriously had to rewind and watch the beginning like 10 times because I laughed so hard at how you said assume, assOOOOOOOm lol. So great. Love listening to your vids while I work and you have given me a lot of courage and inspiration to work on my own ideas for games. Thank you!
As someone who could spent an endless amount of time developing new characters but has a really hard time creating semi-realistic cities, towns, cultures and politics, this was extremely useful to me. Thank you.
This is giving me so much fuel to work on my own campaign setting, thanks for the inspiration! Btw my idea for the Dead Lady would be to give her the orange district. I would say it is walled off and the gates rarely open for any other reason than to let her Death Knights and Revenue Men through, making it an obstacle for the players to get in (diplomacy or stealth) while also providing reasons as to why these undead aren't constantly terrorizing the rest of the city and why Church or the Navy haven't done anything about this blight on their home. I would also make it so that only the outer ring has been "zombiefied" and that little orange area towards the center of the city has remained untouched. This is where the Revenue Men are based and also where the survivors of the desecration (those in who were out of the district when this happened) band together. I can even imagine them having formed a small militia for their own protection and in the hope to one day reclaim the district for the living (perhaps led by a relative of Lenora, a nephew or even one of her children). I imagine these survivors, even the Revenue Men, have very strong emotions about this desecration. Not only are they suddenly living shoulder to shoulder with the undead (who outnumber them heavily), a lot of those undead were former co-workers, friends and family. There needs to be an extremely good reason as to why they haven't fled from the district right after this tragedy. Just some thoughts. Thanks again for the video :)
For the Guild running the docks, I think it would be cooler if the Guild was called The Scales (or something) and the Guildmaster's title was The Fulcrum. Great stuff, keep it coming!
I imagine the nobility controls the mints, but the guilds have finagled in their own paper currency in recent years. Perhaps the exclusive medium of exchange among the guilds, but nonetheless prevalent in the sphere of trade.
You know Matt, Looking at this map, there would definitely be a race around the city annually, probably involving sprinting, swimming, and horsemanship.
Thank's for posting your twitch stuff here, Also i totally plan to use the information you given here (perhaps even steal some of it) For my own campaign! The way you have handled this and wrote thing's down has really helped me develop as a Gm so thank you.
I listed to everything at 2x speed to get through twice the content. With Matt, I sometimes listen to the first couple minutes at 1.5x speed to attune a bit, then crank it to 2x. Most things I listen to I wish I had 3x speed.
Each of the factions has their own currency BUT the merchant's guild has the best credit and is guaranteed to back their currency so it has become the default in most of the city. There are businesses that will accept no other.
Usually medieval currencies are minted with precious metals so that the value of currency can be retained when traveling out of borders. But your idea would be kind of neat as long as you could do it without bogging down gameplay
Just a worldbuilding bit that Matt might find amusing. There's a setting I'm working on where the gods are all dead, and divine casters now get their power from Fonts housed in state churches. This results in a lot of changes to the way divine spells work. For example, Summon Planar Ally doesn't contact a god, it contacts someone on duty at the temple containing the Font, and instead of sending an elemental/celestial/fiend, you get a member of your church's Order Militant who happened to be on-call at the moment. Given that these are state churches, you also end up with some variants on class powers based on what the King demands of the church, and at least one of the nations uses Paladins as Tax Collectors, because it's obvious when they break their oaths, and that variant gets "Detect tax evasion" instead of Divine Sense. (They can also touch an item as an action and determine its value in GP. Or more specifically, they can determine how much tax needs to be paid on the item. If it's already been paid then the power doesn't work.) The end result is that Clerics of that nation can cast "Summon Tax Collector".
I don't know if you read these comments, but I have some suggestions for the dead lady. First, many of these old European towns that you are basing Capital off of have large catacombs, for storing the countless dead from plague and whatnot. It would be cool if these catacombs were the 'undead highway' for the death knights, allowing them to conduct special ops in secret. Also, I don't know if a large metropolitan area would jive with having a large portion of the city go undeveloped without reason (wouldn't having a bunch of ghosts in a part of your town be problematic?) So I propose that the dead lady should be granted the title of Marquess. Acting as a march for the prince, her job is to act as a buffer from any raids of various mercenaries and condottiere groups. Undead are cheaper to maintain than walls and guards, no?
Having an undead faction warding the marches would make lots of sense. And yeah, Rome and Paris each have CRAZY catacombs. Probably the closest thing in the real world to the size and layout of an old-school dungeon too (though not as many traps, obviously).
"...On the stone was etched a galactic map, and a single word more ancient than the clans themselves: Hiigara. Our home." God it is my favorite thing when authors just stumble upon the same phonetic poetry.
After listening to the bit about the CIA analogue at the college, Student Information & Services popped into my head. I always thought that title could be sinister in the right context.
Peter the Great of Russia organized his government into Colleges and the term for his secret police was the Third Section (likely where Star Trek got Section 31). It was the Third Section of whatever college it belonged to but I forget the name of the college.
Oh man, so stoked for the stream. Capital is shaping up to be super cool. I don't understand how taxes work in a splintered city where the overall leadership has dissolved though. Like presumably the prince collected taxes from all of Capital, but now that he's gone, wouldn't the factions just collect taxes for themselves from the area/s they control? Why would they consent to the dead lady collecting taxes from their regions? Furthermore what does she do with the taxes once they're collected? There's no prince to give them to. Would she just hoard it all for herself, I can't see how much use a vampire would have for money. And I think it would make zero sense for her to collect it all from the other factions' areas, just to distribute it back to those factions afterwards. Essentially I guess it boils down to this: Who is she collecting taxes FOR?
@Danny BRITZMAN Do you allow strangers into your home and give them the power to make decisions on how your home should be maintained? If not then you have no leg to stand on judging me.
You're not a bad guy, you're just not as left-leaning as Matt is. Also he tends to represent people with political ideas other than his own as axiomatically bad - consider when he outs the nobles' conservative behavior as "toxic" and refers to the major political figureheads of the nobles as "an asshole" and "the main bad guy". He's showing a clear bias for one way of thinking in this video, which is a shame considering he is supposedly aiming to make his campaign "politically sophisticated". I personally don't consider shallow binary moral code such as what is presented in this video as "politically sophisticated". I'm basically saying you're not a bad guy, you just have a political position other than Matt's, which is fine.
@@grumbunting7795 I was being tongue in cheek lol, I was raised in California. I am more than used to left wingers jumping down my throat for daring to question their orthodoxy.
Hey Matt! Interesting tidbit. The University of Cambridge actually has quite a bit of power. There's been a long-running tension in the town of Cambridge for sometime between the city council and the university, mainly due to how much of the land in Cambridge the university colleges own. I.E. planning developments being shut down by the university, because they own the land the council want to use it. You get this to a much lesser extent with other newer universities around the country, but due to its age, Cambridge university has amassed quite a bit of wealth. Just thought you might be interested!
I feel...overwhelmed.Not because of the video no.But because I have just read Matt Colville,the product.Stumbled upon a comment while rewatching an old video,looked it up and realised I had no idea.I felt "sad?" but I understood that was how it had to be.I found the silver lining under a review about saving private ryan and despite being too young and too uninvolved to care, I did.Mathew Colville,I know this comment is unimportant but, as a person and not a "product" you are an inspiration,and if you have to be a product then you are the most "human" I have seen, thank you for that.
If I have a single thought, it seems to me as if you are stashing nobility into the evil side, and guilds into the good side which whilst it does simplify things, doesn't diversify identity at all. Just makes the nobles bad and guilds good.
It was surprisingly common in the medieval period--especially considering fantasy's everyone has weapons all the time approach to the period--for the wearing of weapons to be banned in cities except for knights & nobles (and sometimes the guard, though frequently even they were only allowed *sharp* weapons if they were manning the walls, being limited to maces when walking the beat), though usually there were exceptions that allowed people to *transport* weapons to or from their places of lodging, since they'd need them as soon as they were on the road and need a place to store them in the meantime. They just couldn't wear them on their belt and had to go directly from the gate to their inn while the guards eyed them suspiciously. Also knives generally didn't count because they were generally useful for eating and other common everyday tasks...but a more military-specific dagger like a rondel definitely would.
The greatest stream of this or any age, some would say... Great job Matt, you continue to be an endless source of inspiration and fantastic ideas. Looking forward to the next stream
The "Hoard of the Louse" might be a fun Freudian slip to use when someone announces him, though. (@44:30) A cheeky bard heralding the entrance of an unpopular aristocrat in one of the guild halls, perhaps.
Ohh Ohh another idea for the Dead Lady. Not only did her husbands knights act as the "FBI" for Capital, but his former distract contols the only bridge(s) out of the city. They were the small but elite force used to keep land attacks at by and force enemies to deal with the Navy instead. This helps explain why none of the other factions in the city are to upset about a vampire running around. She's still doing her job if keep invaders out and sending out death knights when needed. I also love the idea of people only coming and going from the city via boat through the docks. No one in there right minds wants to travel through thr Dead ladys District. I could see a cool quest where the party needs to get out the city undetected and needs to travel through the Hunted Distrect and over the abandoned bridge.
Hey Matt! Sorry if you've answered this before. Is there a particular reason you're using spreadsheet software here vs. "regular" writing software? When you do you use which and what's your general approach to "word processing"? (Maybe something for the next Q&A video) Cheers!
I feel like the Dead Lady should run something that would require some artistry, but now it is only mechanical. Copying books and transcribing plays seems interesting, although might not give her much sway...
Writing illuminated manuscripts at 500 copies per day (because skeletons don't take lunch breaks) can be really powerful IF they write what The Dead Lady says so. Maybe they slip some minor political propaganda, or some lesser known part of history that doesn't show some country in a good light, and send these books all over the world. People read what other people have written, and believe it because it's in a book.
I hope the noble houses have good qualities about them. So far I'm getting a new = good, old = bad vibe and I don't like that. Not that this has to be something I like, just figured I'd share my thoughts
Was wondering about this myself. Seems like the nobility are maybe bit too obviously meant to be antagonists? At one point he even qualifies one of the admirals by saying "oh, but he's a good guy". Hopefully of the guild heads has negative aspects as well. If the game is supposed to be as politically nuanced as Matt wants it to be, there shouldn't be a clear cut "good" and "bad" guy team.
By the way he's discribing the groups, I would argue the guilds are evil and the nobles are lawful neutral. The fact that the guilds are moving in, changing laws to fit them, destroying tradition, inflating the currency with their out of region wealth and destabilizing the government.
Hello Matt! Long time fan, first comment, so here goes: Shirome sounds awesome! About her name, Japanese pronunciation is a little funky- as you wrote it, it'd be pronounced "she-r'low-may" (may as in the month), which is kind of awesome because it could mean "White eyes" or "white of the eyes". The discrepancy in pronunciation could give a lot to her character (perhaps she chooses to change it to anger her parents, or her parents purposely changed pronunciation to be more Riojan). Also "The White Eye"...sounds like she has some under-the-table dealings going on. The pronunciation how you say it, "Shiromi", could mean..."white meat" or "white fish". Her parents would not be happy about that at all, and there's a tie in with the docks. BUT of course, it's all fantasy, so it ultimately doesn't matter :) (I'm an English teacher in Japan with some fluency, but by no means an authority on the language, just wanted to share!) Thanks Matt!
I'm imagining the Docks District being controlled by young upstarts because they hired some druids or wizards with Move Earth. The old (noble owned) harbor got filled in, and the upstarts own the land they created. It's a bigger, better harbor now, and the old noble warehouses are sinking into the mud and overrun by wererats.
I love the faltering nobles versus the ascendant guilds. I love how this has a Florence type feel to it. Can't wait for the characters to run afoul of these rivalries.
Water & Power would have been cool if the Dead Lady was trying to secretly use it to manipulate time. Like secret scientists, experimentation and attempting to build some sort if time machine.
The bureau of intelligence thing could also work kinda like Bletchley Park, with code breaking and cypher decription of communications. So having a pool of smart people to recruit is useful.
Great Steam -- very helpful as I'm currently working on my own world for a new campaign. Not sure if this is a good idea, but I wonder if the Navy's power in someway would come from official diplomacy -they are the face of Capital to the outside world. This could be a conflict with the university that focus on intelligence gathering. One is official diplomatic relations and the other is clandestine operations, which can compliment, but probably conflict now that there is not a prince to direct and coordinate.
Matt, just a thought here. Why not move the spy network to the finance district, has strong love/hate ties to a thieves guild, trades in secrets and make the university all about training adventurers and sponsoring dungeon explorations. The university obtains power by selling their powerful artifacts or hoarding them. Make the university a guild, or circle of Mages that is generally in conflict with the nobles, but especially with the clerics and their school of thought.
As someone who cannot access Twitch at work due to bandwidth restrictions (yeah yeah yeah, so they say) I really love catching whatever I can of you man!
I love that there's a tragically doomed undead lady in this one. Builds off of one of the plot hooks you developed for that common world you created onstream some eons ago. No creative thought goes wasted, it just gets recycled!
"We don't want to complicate the game for the players in a way that isn't fun for them just because we think its realistic." Always excellent advice. Also I'd like to suggest "The Commonroom" as a scholarly-yet-sinister name for an intelligence agency.
I would keep the different currencies for the different districts but keep a universal currency that is also being used by the new guilds. It would be the old system versus the new system and the new system being "we are one people, one currency"..... and of course the old guard would have to begrudgingly take the new currency, but they would give you only 90cents to the dollar. So if you have their currency you get a discount. Players can track their wealth in the universal currency, while treating house currency as something like gemstones. You could then assign different values to the house currencies depending on how their power raises and falls throughout the play.
You could call the office of operations something similar to “Human Resources” or the Office of Resources. Sounds like they could be like a Librarian or a clerk of some kind. You wouldn’t think that the person who orders office supplies knows the biggest secrets in the kingdom.
The Dead Lady could be exceptionally rich, as zombies would make exceptional miners - they can work 24/7, don't need to worry about poisonous gases and would be unaffected by the cyanide used to leech gold out of low-grade ore.
My inital thoughts for dead lady, was she was in charge of manpower. Because the undead are still they're own people they use their new bodies to their advantage. Many workers are zombies or skeletons, if people want spies they can hire ghosts to possess people or infiltrate buildings. But as queen of the undead, her people need her approval to work and her say is final. So is someone wants spies and she forbids them, they're f'd. and those upset her have to dead with an army of undead. The reason she might forbid something is because house come to complain that too many of her people are helping *insert rival here* and because she wants to be left alone, she will make decisions out of annoyance, frustration or grief. So she isn't always a very rational person to deal with.
Docks: small square dot Shirome Manor, Estate. Docks: The large Rectangle: Berth Office along with the company houses. pubs Docks: Northern Square dot: The Bazaar and The Fulcrum Guild house shop: inland depot. pubs Fisheries is next to docks between manor and bazaar :merchants living L block is dock workers living.
@@seanschraidt3985 You would be correct, but the original diplomacy map was shaped like Europe. I was referring to the shape, not the colours. I looks like an abstracted aerial view of the Imperial city from TES IV: Oblivion
So, couple ideas/suggestions. In in earlier video, the concept of dueling was stated to be a very prevalent thing in Riojan culture. Yet weapons are banned in capitol unless you are a knight. To me this is very conflicting, unless the dueling idea was dropped. in which case ignore this. Perhaps the title of knight isnt as weighty as it once was. With the decline of noble power, the lesser houses cling to their ability to name knights as their only remaining relevancy. So perhaps capitol is full of up jumped soldiers and sell swords who were knighted as payment for doing some service for a lesser lord. I believe it might have been game of thrones or something that coined these people as "peacock knights." Knights that strut around capitol sword at the hip like some sort of status symbol. Imagining imagery here of a man, sort of beaten clothing, chainmail slightly rusted in places, perhaps a bit of dirt here and there, yet a sword gleaming in the sun light. "Knights" that care nothing more than to have the prestige of carrying a weapon in capitol. I know this next part is a little counter to the work/ideas that you already have for The Dead Lady, but maybe someone else can use it if they read this. I have always been partial to undead that adhere the the eternal. Maybe she views the system of using paper currency as a passing fancy of the mortal nobility that wants to break with tradition. I've always loved the idea of undead bankers. Maybe she deals with the exchange of gold to the paper money of capitol because she secretly views it gaining something for nothing. Perhaps shes also a money lender, and this is where the undead debt collectors comes into play. If you wish to repay her you must do so in coin or goods and not in capitols paper currency, this would of course cause strife with the other nobles. But what can they do? Shes a vampire.
Only about 25 minutes into the video but I was going to say that maybe the nobles are looking to put their own players into a position of power of within the guild. For example, maybe there is a owner of a famous brothel that holds a lot of power within the docks outside of the guilds. There could be a male owner of the brothel or maybe it’s a full blooded Riojan woman from fallen Gentry. That could add a lot of intrigue if instead of getting power OVER the guilds but getting power WITHIN the guild.
I had an idea for Ghostwise Halfling tax collectors. Being telepathically told you owe money is pretty creepy. A Halfling family that can communicate without anyone else hearing it, that's a great resource for any leader.
Always appreciate you reposting twitch videos on UA-cam!
It truly was the greatest stream in this, or any age.
Matt is a river to his people.
The adsense offers him a golden treasure, yet he is poor. For he is a river to his people!
"We don't want to complicate the game for the players in a way that isn't fun for them, just because we think it is realistic" this is something I and the dm's I played with should have followed more
@@scottanderson8167 hahaha exactly^^
Only rule is Rule of Cool
"My husband cared much for feudality and tradition; for justice and honor. Look what that brought him." -The Dead Lady.
The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge do have temporal power based in huge capital reserves and extensive property assets. The high administrative positions are often occupied by people of or linked to political parties, government, big business and the civil service. The greater Russell Group of universities (of which Oxbridge is the premier members) holds sway over government policy from both an in group perspective and as a key element in the economic success of Britain as a whole.
Completely agree. Oxbridge has a crazy amount of soft power, but it still does still have other more direct power, as you mentioned. But the soft power is enormous, up there with the CoE and the 5th Estate.
Hungover52 that's insane.
I was hoping the Dead lady would be in charge of construction. i love the idea of a horde of zombies in hardhats and safety wear on a building site just ruining everythings.
Magnificent scenes I'd say.
That's a Health and Safety nightmare.
I fail to see how scary sleep horses are related.
The idea of a demonic horse Nightmare being actually named "Health And Safety" is so Terry Pratchet-like, that I think he must have written it, and I just don't remember what book it's from.
But I am of course stealing it, and now the most dangerous Death Knight in my world now rides "Health And Safety".@@jameswright21
"There are two certainties in life. Death, and taxes." - Words of House Valetta
I know it's a bit on the nose but I couldn't help myself :P Alternatively those words could be the threat used by the Revenant Men to those who refuse to pay their taxes.
Rather than Bureau, what about Chamber? That sounds more scholarly to me
I would go with a secret society. i.e. skull and bones
Like the Star Chamber?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber
Matt: “Is Carravaggio important? No!”
Me: *Heart attack*
Evil Matt strikes again.
If the churches are controlled by the nobles, then surely there would be a sizable contingent in the population that would dislike the guilds, or outright hate them. There is no way the nobles would not leverage their influence with the populace to their advantage.
Yeah, this video didn't really sell me on the central tension of the setting. Everything put forth in this video makes it sound like the guilds would have popular support. Hopefully there are some noble Nobles and some dastardly Guild Leaders to balance out the setting some.
Moreover, presuming this is a world where the gods of the world are unmistakably present and granting magical power through their clergy, how could there NOT be sizable popular support for the traditionalist/clerical factions? The gods are with them after all!
Even just in the mundane realm, it wouldn't just be nobles and paid-off flunkies getting upset in this new cosmopolitan paradise: it's every poor resident of the capitol shoved aside to make room for a new fancy guild hall, or all of sudden feeling like an alien in their own home when the neighborhood they grew up in is filled with foreigners speaking strange languages and bearing uncertain loyalties.
I think the central tension's a dramatic setting to be sure: but Matt's created a powder keg, and I don't think his good guys would be anywhere near as popular or squeaky clean as he's suggesting.
He did say that portions that benefit from the nobles support their ideals, but the majority of the city is diversely populated and the nobles are insistent on maintaining power only for the local Noble families and old traditions. It completely makes sense that the guilds would have most of the popular support as they more accurately represent the people of the city.
@@Jon-id7ki not necessarily. People often don't support things that benefit themselves. Tradition and religious doctrine are commonly very potent drivers of behaviour. The guilds are new and different, many common people would oppose them on principle
Yeah, there really should be at least two religious sub factions in the city. The old more traditional "Orthodox" Temple who are strongly alighned with the nobles, and the new "Protestant" Temple who are in theory neutral but in practice tend to ally themselves with the guilds.
"The Lords of Capital" sounds like something written by Karl Marx
“By Karl Marx” sounds like something written by Friedrich Engels
Engles, marx, tolkein collab where we finally discover aragorn's tax policy? Cant wait to get to that big writers' room in the sky.
@@fenzelian GET HIS ASS 🔥
Am I the only one that screams "College of Information Acquisition"
"CIA"
Great Stream. Reaffirmed a lot of how I have created worlds. Suggestion for what the Dead Lady might control, the High Court. Where the Nobles and guild leaders go to settle legal disputes. "If we can't settle this here perhaps the Lady Lanora will see my side of things?" Perhaps her husband/family were the Lord Magistrates. Money comes from "gifts". The Death Knight FBI was its lawmen. Continue the idea of a mostly neutral/indifferent society and gives her something to do besides sit and ponder her husbands murder. And on another note. Let me see some 1s on those power rankings.
I really liked the idea of zombie tax collectors: the undead are less likely to keep money for themselves because they don't care. Also the undead would be really good for repetitive, administrative tasks since they don't sleep and imo don't get bored. Their efficiency could be one of the reasons why they are tolerated.
Zombies in suits and ties, and skeletons are painted in very respectable colors.
Shame i couldn't watch live, but this was a really interesting video. Btw, my name is "Alvaro", I'm probably the founder of the oldest noble house. lmao
Coolest name
go watch on Twitch for the two hours of elided anecdotes
that map reminded me of Metroid Prime’s Chozo artifacts.
Ploxxon Yes! And also reminded me of the doors in Mass Effect.
Personally I though it looked like data clusters on a HDD analysing tool. 🤔
Metroid Prime was the first thing I thought of, too.
53:20 "When verisimilitude fails, authenticity is no defence"
I love it! We have a DM just now that we're trying to coach and he very much stands by the mantra of "... but that's what it would be like in real life" - suffice to say half the players have already "checked out" and the rest of us aren't far behind.
I'll be quietly whispering this phrase in his ear at our next game. Thank you Matt! I have your pdf and can't wait for the hardcover copy!
How'd it end up going with this DM?
35:56 had a moment and a half where i introduced my players to a clan of evil barbarians named Morgoth. When i came up with the name i thought "Wow this sounds cool. Cant believe noone has used this name for something". The leader of the tribe was a dragonborn warrior, who i named Arkhan, with the same thought. Sometimes that extra google is worth it.
"You're probably all just warlocks!" I'm gonna have to use that
Just got the the part where you discussed each district having its own currency. I also thought about it in my campaign and also came to the conclusion that it would be tedious. But one of the twists that I wanted to do was for the PCs to find that a suspect in a noblemans murder had a stash of a different factions currency in his house. And the way I went about it in the end was that they all used gold, silver and copper but each faction used their own emblems on the coinage. All the coins were the same value, they were just diffrently "printed", much like the 2 EUR coins here in the EU.
Hey Matt, about the guilds taking over the Docks from the Noble houses, you could say it was due to some sort of failure or incident of a Noble house that led the Prince to contract it out to The Fulcrum. Grear vid btw!
I have been watching your videos since about middle of summer 2017. I found out about you when Matt Mercer mentioned you in one of his videos. Haven' t commented on one until now. This one has really given me some inspiration and help with building my world. I am really glad I chose to watch this one and even more glad you chose to make and post this video. I have used your videos to help me through alot of downs and what I refer to as "dead spots" in my creations. so wanted to say Thank you for what you share on here.
Of all the wonderful videos Matt puts out, these worldbuilding streams are easily my favourite because
A) They're long.
B) We get to see Matt doing what he does really well.
C) Worldbuilding is my favourite activity of all time.
This was absolutely fantastic. Great to have a document you can tinker away at and it grows arms and legs over time. Very cool. Loved watching you get caught by an idea and run away with it :D
I cannot hear "House Vorona" without at the same time hearing "My Sharona"...
As someone who has written fantasy for many years (and never finished a story) I'd like to say that this video has helped me organize my worldbuilding in a way that actually makes it feel possible. Thank you.
It's hilarious that you seemed to have accidentally named the wizard head of the university Prospero, when Prospero is also the name of one of the main characters in Shakespeare's The Tempest, _who also happened to be a wizard_ .
It's doubly hilarious that almost immediately after deciding on this name, you talk about how common it is for writers of fantasy to name things that happen to be reflected in the real world. Amazing.
"Law covers a lot. It covers both Arrest Powers, and Military Might, and things like Security."
Makes sense. After all, from a certain point of view, _ALL_ temporal authority is a military one, because all Laws are violently enforced. We can talk about civic responsibility and the social contract all day, but in the end we obey rules because someone will come in to _make us_ if we don't.
For that matter, it's quite reasonable to assume that Thieves Guilds and Assassins Guilds would have not inconsiderable Law ratings, because they can also assert their authority. That's what the gangs and legbreakers and "button men" are for.
I imagine that the Dead Lady doesn't see herself as being the head of House Voletta. The other nobles do, because she's powerful and terrifying, but she doesn't. She's the duchess, yes, but that doesn't make her the head. I imagine, to her, the only person who can be called the Lord of House Voletta is her husband. She's just acting in his stead, while he is temporary indisposed by being dead. Which she has every intention to rectify, at the earliest opportunity.
She _directs_ House Voletta, and its quarter of the city, and the Death Knight FBI, because someone needs to keep everything in order for when her husband returns. She is the Undying Steward of House Voletta, managing its affairs on the Duke's behalf. Nothing less can be expected of a dutiful wife, at least in the mind of a noble.
@@Bluecho4 Those organizations might have their own rules and ways of enforcing their rules, but giving it a 'law rating' might not get the point across cuz it might imply that they have a legal authority to enforce their (or the city's) rules, granted/recognized by the city itself.
Then again, I don't know if law rating is something the players will see, but having more clear language is probably helpful for yourself too, so your old notes never trip you up lol
I loved that too!! It also has rhe fact the Shakespeare's Prospero was supposes to be the Duke of Milan and so is an aristocrat sorcerer.
That’s such a cool idea to make Capitol essentially into one big game of Diplomacy! But also worked in very subtly so that the players have no idea!Super neat idea and innovative way to cause the world to feel alive. 👍🏻👍🏻
Matt, I seriously had to rewind and watch the beginning like 10 times because I laughed so hard at how you said assume, assOOOOOOOm lol. So great. Love listening to your vids while I work and you have given me a lot of courage and inspiration to work on my own ideas for games. Thank you!
What about the "Chamber of Inquiry", or if you really want it to be CIA, you could do "Chamber of Inquiry and Acquisition"
Edit: spelling of inquiry:)
*Inquiry, right?
@@Dorian_sapiens Yes;)
I fixed your misspelling of Assassination. ;)
As someone who could spent an endless amount of time developing new characters but has a really hard time creating semi-realistic cities, towns, cultures and politics, this was extremely useful to me. Thank you.
This stream is a treasure trove of awsome campaign ideals. Thanks for doing this :D
This is giving me so much fuel to work on my own campaign setting, thanks for the inspiration!
Btw my idea for the Dead Lady would be to give her the orange district. I would say it is walled off and the gates rarely open for any other reason than to let her Death Knights and Revenue Men through, making it an obstacle for the players to get in (diplomacy or stealth) while also providing reasons as to why these undead aren't constantly terrorizing the rest of the city and why Church or the Navy haven't done anything about this blight on their home.
I would also make it so that only the outer ring has been "zombiefied" and that little orange area towards the center of the city has remained untouched. This is where the Revenue Men are based and also where the survivors of the desecration (those in who were out of the district when this happened) band together. I can even imagine them having formed a small militia for their own protection and in the hope to one day reclaim the district for the living (perhaps led by a relative of Lenora, a nephew or even one of her children). I imagine these survivors, even the Revenue Men, have very strong emotions about this desecration. Not only are they suddenly living shoulder to shoulder with the undead (who outnumber them heavily), a lot of those undead were former co-workers, friends and family. There needs to be an extremely good reason as to why they haven't fled from the district right after this tragedy.
Just some thoughts. Thanks again for the video :)
Rioja - Spanish Red Wine region
For the Guild running the docks, I think it would be cooler if the Guild was called The Scales (or something) and the Guildmaster's title was The Fulcrum. Great stuff, keep it coming!
I'm stealing that idea. Thanks, to you, and Matt.
I imagine the nobility controls the mints, but the guilds have finagled in their own paper currency in recent years. Perhaps the exclusive medium of exchange among the guilds, but nonetheless prevalent in the sphere of trade.
You know Matt, Looking at this map, there would definitely be a race around the city annually, probably involving sprinting, swimming, and horsemanship.
Thank's for posting your twitch stuff here, Also i totally plan to use the information you given here (perhaps even steal some of it) For my own campaign!
The way you have handled this and wrote thing's down has really helped me develop as a Gm so thank you.
I was in the middle of catching up with this video on twitch, thanks for posting here so I can 2x speed the rest, lol.
You aren't the only one
You listen to Colville at 2x speed?? He already speaks pretty fast^^
I listed to everything at 2x speed to get through twice the content. With Matt, I sometimes listen to the first couple minutes at 1.5x speed to attune a bit, then crank it to 2x. Most things I listen to I wish I had 3x speed.
Each of the factions has their own currency BUT the merchant's guild has the best credit and is guaranteed to back their currency so it has become the default in most of the city. There are businesses that will accept no other.
Dinuial that could work
Usually medieval currencies are minted with precious metals so that the value of currency can be retained when traveling out of borders. But your idea would be kind of neat as long as you could do it without bogging down gameplay
a faction based city? is this just like the guilds of ravnica one?
That's Ravnica, City of Guilds to you
@@roondar6141 I can't wait to Return to Ravnica! Btw anyone see the Awesome Spoilers for Ravnica Allegiance
Just a worldbuilding bit that Matt might find amusing.
There's a setting I'm working on where the gods are all dead, and divine casters now get their power from Fonts housed in state churches. This results in a lot of changes to the way divine spells work. For example, Summon Planar Ally doesn't contact a god, it contacts someone on duty at the temple containing the Font, and instead of sending an elemental/celestial/fiend, you get a member of your church's Order Militant who happened to be on-call at the moment.
Given that these are state churches, you also end up with some variants on class powers based on what the King demands of the church, and at least one of the nations uses Paladins as Tax Collectors, because it's obvious when they break their oaths, and that variant gets "Detect tax evasion" instead of Divine Sense. (They can also touch an item as an action and determine its value in GP. Or more specifically, they can determine how much tax needs to be paid on the item. If it's already been paid then the power doesn't work.)
The end result is that Clerics of that nation can cast "Summon Tax Collector".
I don't know if you read these comments, but I have some suggestions for the dead lady. First, many of these old European towns that you are basing Capital off of have large catacombs, for storing the countless dead from plague and whatnot. It would be cool if these catacombs were the 'undead highway' for the death knights, allowing them to conduct special ops in secret. Also, I don't know if a large metropolitan area would jive with having a large portion of the city go undeveloped without reason (wouldn't having a bunch of ghosts in a part of your town be problematic?) So I propose that the dead lady should be granted the title of Marquess. Acting as a march for the prince, her job is to act as a buffer from any raids of various mercenaries and condottiere groups. Undead are cheaper to maintain than walls and guards, no?
Having an undead faction warding the marches would make lots of sense. And yeah, Rome and Paris each have CRAZY catacombs. Probably the closest thing in the real world to the size and layout of an old-school dungeon too (though not as many traps, obviously).
"...On the stone was etched a galactic map, and a single word more ancient than the clans themselves:
Hiigara. Our home."
God it is my favorite thing when authors just stumble upon the same phonetic poetry.
I always love your stuff! The 3 hour version is better for me because of how much I enjoy your streams.
High part for me - Dea(th)d Lady and Taxes.
So you're telling me that someone in this setting is literally in charge of Death and Taxes? Lol.
Its the price of living
After listening to the bit about the CIA analogue at the college, Student Information & Services popped into my head. I always thought that title could be sinister in the right context.
Peter the Great of Russia organized his government into Colleges and the term for his secret police was the Third Section (likely where Star Trek got Section 31). It was the Third Section of whatever college it belonged to but I forget the name of the college.
Church of Saint Ysabella the Unyielding. :)
So was I the only one getting almost a Warhammer vibe from Matt when he was describing the church? :)
... the Resolute.
Church of Saint Ysabella, the quite persistent
Oh man, so stoked for the stream. Capital is shaping up to be super cool.
I don't understand how taxes work in a splintered city where the overall leadership has dissolved though. Like presumably the prince collected taxes from all of Capital, but now that he's gone, wouldn't the factions just collect taxes for themselves from the area/s they control? Why would they consent to the dead lady collecting taxes from their regions? Furthermore what does she do with the taxes once they're collected? There's no prince to give them to. Would she just hoard it all for herself, I can't see how much use a vampire would have for money. And I think it would make zero sense for her to collect it all from the other factions' areas, just to distribute it back to those factions afterwards. Essentially I guess it boils down to this: Who is she collecting taxes FOR?
I sympathize with the nobles more than the guilds, guess im a bad guy.
@Danny BRITZMAN Do you allow strangers into your home and give them the power to make decisions on how your home should be maintained? If not then you have no leg to stand on judging me.
Danny BRITZMAN share your opinion of me all you like. I’m just pointing out that you are a hypocrite.
You're not a bad guy, you're just not as left-leaning as Matt is. Also he tends to represent people with political ideas other than his own as axiomatically bad - consider when he outs the nobles' conservative behavior as "toxic" and refers to the major political figureheads of the nobles as "an asshole" and "the main bad guy".
He's showing a clear bias for one way of thinking in this video, which is a shame considering he is supposedly aiming to make his campaign "politically sophisticated". I personally don't consider shallow binary moral code such as what is presented in this video as "politically sophisticated".
I'm basically saying you're not a bad guy, you just have a political position other than Matt's, which is fine.
@@grumbunting7795 I was being tongue in cheek lol, I was raised in California. I am more than used to left wingers jumping down my throat for daring to question their orthodoxy.
States aren't anybody's private property, so the whole analogy with homes is bullshit.
Hey Matt! Interesting tidbit. The University of Cambridge actually has quite a bit of power. There's been a long-running tension in the town of Cambridge for sometime between the city council and the university, mainly due to how much of the land in Cambridge the university colleges own. I.E. planning developments being shut down by the university, because they own the land the council want to use it. You get this to a much lesser extent with other newer universities around the country, but due to its age, Cambridge university has amassed quite a bit of wealth. Just thought you might be interested!
Not finished yet, but if it’s a printing press, is there likely a Counterfeiting agency? At the least there could be a counterfeiting adventure🙂
Wow wow wow. This is sooooo good, more content like this please! earned a new sub
I feel...overwhelmed.Not because of the video no.But because I have just read Matt Colville,the product.Stumbled upon a comment while rewatching an old video,looked it up and realised I had no idea.I felt "sad?" but I understood that was how it had to be.I found the silver lining under a review about saving private ryan and despite being too young and too uninvolved to care, I did.Mathew Colville,I know this comment is unimportant but, as a person and not a "product" you are an inspiration,and if you have to be a product then you are the most "human" I have seen, thank you for that.
If I have a single thought, it seems to me as if you are stashing nobility into the evil side, and guilds into the good side which whilst it does simplify things, doesn't diversify identity at all. Just makes the nobles bad and guilds good.
It was surprisingly common in the medieval period--especially considering fantasy's everyone has weapons all the time approach to the period--for the wearing of weapons to be banned in cities except for knights & nobles (and sometimes the guard, though frequently even they were only allowed *sharp* weapons if they were manning the walls, being limited to maces when walking the beat), though usually there were exceptions that allowed people to *transport* weapons to or from their places of lodging, since they'd need them as soon as they were on the road and need a place to store them in the meantime. They just couldn't wear them on their belt and had to go directly from the gate to their inn while the guards eyed them suspiciously. Also knives generally didn't count because they were generally useful for eating and other common everyday tasks...but a more military-specific dagger like a rondel definitely would.
A new take on "Death and Teaxes" with the Dead Lady. :D
The greatest stream of this or any age, some would say... Great job Matt, you continue to be an endless source of inspiration and fantastic ideas. Looking forward to the next stream
The "Hoard of the Louse" might be a fun Freudian slip to use when someone announces him, though. (@44:30) A cheeky bard heralding the entrance of an unpopular aristocrat in one of the guild halls, perhaps.
Ohh Ohh another idea for the Dead Lady. Not only did her husbands knights act as the "FBI" for Capital, but his former distract contols the only bridge(s) out of the city. They were the small but elite force used to keep land attacks at by and force enemies to deal with the Navy instead.
This helps explain why none of the other factions in the city are to upset about a vampire running around. She's still doing her job if keep invaders out and sending out death knights when needed.
I also love the idea of people only coming and going from the city via boat through the docks. No one in there right minds wants to travel through thr Dead ladys District. I could see a cool quest where the party needs to get out the city undetected and needs to travel through the Hunted Distrect and over the abandoned bridge.
I've seen this map, and I didn't recognize it... That's just so brilliant... Thanks!
The Dead Lady is the single most coolest-est idea I have ever heard!!! So much awesome!!!
Ehrmagerd.... my mind is aflame with ideas.
Hey Matt! Sorry if you've answered this before. Is there a particular reason you're using spreadsheet software here vs. "regular" writing software? When you do you use which and what's your general approach to "word processing"? (Maybe something for the next Q&A video) Cheers!
I thought he came up with the rioja name because he just loved the wine so much
I feel like the Dead Lady should run something that would require some artistry, but now it is only mechanical. Copying books and transcribing plays seems interesting, although might not give her much sway...
Writing illuminated manuscripts at 500 copies per day (because skeletons don't take lunch breaks) can be really powerful IF they write what The Dead Lady says so. Maybe they slip some minor political propaganda, or some lesser known part of history that doesn't show some country in a good light, and send these books all over the world. People read what other people have written, and believe it because it's in a book.
I hope the noble houses have good qualities about them. So far I'm getting a new = good, old = bad vibe and I don't like that. Not that this has to be something I like, just figured I'd share my thoughts
Was wondering about this myself. Seems like the nobility are maybe bit too obviously meant to be antagonists?
At one point he even qualifies one of the admirals by saying "oh, but he's a good guy".
Hopefully of the guild heads has negative aspects as well. If the game is supposed to be as politically nuanced as Matt wants it to be, there shouldn't be a clear cut "good" and "bad" guy team.
By the way he's discribing the groups, I would argue the guilds are evil and the nobles are lawful neutral. The fact that the guilds are moving in, changing laws to fit them, destroying tradition, inflating the currency with their out of region wealth and destabilizing the government.
Hello Matt! Long time fan, first comment, so here goes:
Shirome sounds awesome!
About her name, Japanese pronunciation is a little funky- as you wrote it, it'd be pronounced "she-r'low-may" (may as in the month), which is kind of awesome because it could mean "White eyes" or "white of the eyes". The discrepancy in pronunciation could give a lot to her character (perhaps she chooses to change it to anger her parents, or her parents purposely changed pronunciation to be more Riojan). Also "The White Eye"...sounds like she has some under-the-table dealings going on.
The pronunciation how you say it, "Shiromi", could mean..."white meat" or "white fish". Her parents would not be happy about that at all, and there's a tie in with the docks.
BUT of course, it's all fantasy, so it ultimately doesn't matter :)
(I'm an English teacher in Japan with some fluency, but by no means an authority on the language, just wanted to share!)
Thanks Matt!
I'm imagining the Docks District being controlled by young upstarts because they hired some druids or wizards with Move Earth. The old (noble owned) harbor got filled in, and the upstarts own the land they created. It's a bigger, better harbor now, and the old noble warehouses are sinking into the mud and overrun by wererats.
I love the faltering nobles versus the ascendant guilds. I love how this has a Florence type feel to it. Can't wait for the characters to run afoul of these rivalries.
Water & Power would have been cool if the Dead Lady was trying to secretly use it to manipulate time. Like secret scientists, experimentation and attempting to build some sort if time machine.
The bureau of intelligence thing could also work kinda like Bletchley Park, with code breaking and cypher decription of communications. So having a pool of smart people to recruit is useful.
I suspected that the map was based on the Imperial City in Oblivion.
Loved the livestream of this, but having condensed version is going to help on the rewatch for sure.
Great Steam -- very helpful as I'm currently working on my own world for a new campaign.
Not sure if this is a good idea, but I wonder if the Navy's power in someway would come from official diplomacy -they are the face of Capital to the outside world. This could be a conflict with the university that focus on intelligence gathering. One is official diplomatic relations and the other is clandestine operations, which can compliment, but probably conflict now that there is not a prince to direct and coordinate.
Having your powerful wizard called Prospero is made even better by the Shakespeare reference.
The Church of St Ysabella the Merciless (I feel like that has greater law & order connotations than Pitiless)
Yeah Merciless probably was the word I wanted, but Pitiless caught my eye. I'll probably change it.
Matt, just a thought here. Why not move the spy network to the finance district, has strong love/hate ties to a thieves guild, trades in secrets and make the university all about training adventurers and sponsoring dungeon explorations. The university obtains power by selling their powerful artifacts or hoarding them. Make the university a guild, or circle of Mages that is generally in conflict with the nobles, but especially with the clerics and their school of thought.
As someone who cannot access Twitch at work due to bandwidth restrictions (yeah yeah yeah, so they say) I really love catching whatever I can of you man!
This was an incredible stream. Always a font of inspiration, Matt!
I love that there's a tragically doomed undead lady in this one. Builds off of one of the plot hooks you developed for that common world you created onstream some eons ago. No creative thought goes wasted, it just gets recycled!
That bit about the imperial university and the intelligence agency is just inspired
this is Amazing stuff!!! I love it:)))
"We don't want to complicate the game for the players in a way that isn't fun for them just because we think its realistic." Always excellent advice.
Also I'd like to suggest "The Commonroom" as a scholarly-yet-sinister name for an intelligence agency.
I would keep the different currencies for the different districts but keep a universal currency that is also being used by the new guilds. It would be the old system versus the new system and the new system being "we are one people, one currency"..... and of course the old guard would have to begrudgingly take the new currency, but they would give you only 90cents to the dollar. So if you have their currency you get a discount. Players can track their wealth in the universal currency, while treating house currency as something like gemstones. You could then assign different values to the house currencies depending on how their power raises and falls throughout the play.
You could call the office of operations something similar to “Human Resources” or the Office of Resources. Sounds like they could be like a Librarian or a clerk of some kind. You wouldn’t think that the person who orders office supplies knows the biggest secrets in the kingdom.
The Dead Lady could be exceptionally rich, as zombies would make exceptional miners - they can work 24/7, don't need to worry about poisonous gases and would be unaffected by the cyanide used to leech gold out of low-grade ore.
instead of bureau of intelligence maybe 'college of current events' or modern affairs
First minute goes buy...
Me:"I am soooo stealing this for my campaign! Oh my god!"
Sounds like the book is going to have really cool rules to play with, excited.
My inital thoughts for dead lady, was she was in charge of manpower. Because the undead are still they're own people they use their new bodies to their advantage. Many workers are zombies or skeletons, if people want spies they can hire ghosts to possess people or infiltrate buildings. But as queen of the undead, her people need her approval to work and her say is final. So is someone wants spies and she forbids them, they're f'd. and those upset her have to dead with an army of undead. The reason she might forbid something is because house come to complain that too many of her people are helping *insert rival here* and because she wants to be left alone, she will make decisions out of annoyance, frustration or grief. So she isn't always a very rational person to deal with.
I would be interested in seeing if Glen Cook's books have a sales uptick due to your videos. Keep up the good work!
Docks: small square dot Shirome Manor, Estate.
Docks: The large Rectangle: Berth Office along with the company houses. pubs
Docks: Northern Square dot: The Bazaar and The Fulcrum Guild house shop: inland depot. pubs
Fisheries is next to docks
between manor and bazaar :merchants living
L block is dock workers living.
Matt says it's diplomacy, all I see is the Imperial city from Oblivion.
@@seanschraidt3985 You would be correct, but the original diplomacy map was shaped like Europe. I was referring to the shape, not the colours. I looks like an abstracted aerial view of the Imperial city from TES IV: Oblivion
So, couple ideas/suggestions.
In in earlier video, the concept of dueling was stated to be a very prevalent thing in Riojan culture. Yet weapons are banned in capitol unless you are a knight. To me this is very conflicting, unless the dueling idea was dropped. in which case ignore this.
Perhaps the title of knight isnt as weighty as it once was. With the decline of noble power, the lesser houses cling to their ability to name knights as their only remaining relevancy. So perhaps capitol is full of up jumped soldiers and sell swords who were knighted as payment for doing some service for a lesser lord. I believe it might have been game of thrones or something that coined these people as "peacock knights." Knights that strut around capitol sword at the hip like some sort of status symbol. Imagining imagery here of a man, sort of beaten clothing, chainmail slightly rusted in places, perhaps a bit of dirt here and there, yet a sword gleaming in the sun light. "Knights" that care nothing more than to have the prestige of carrying a weapon in capitol.
I know this next part is a little counter to the work/ideas that you already have for The Dead Lady, but maybe someone else can use it if they read this. I have always been partial to undead that adhere the the eternal. Maybe she views the system of using paper currency as a passing fancy of the mortal nobility that wants to break with tradition. I've always loved the idea of undead bankers. Maybe she deals with the exchange of gold to the paper money of capitol because she secretly views it gaining something for nothing. Perhaps shes also a money lender, and this is where the undead debt collectors comes into play. If you wish to repay her you must do so in coin or goods and not in capitols paper currency, this would of course cause strife with the other nobles. But what can they do? Shes a vampire.
Dueling while part of Riojan culture and beliefs can easily be illegal. Faith can contradict conventions of everyday life.
The Dead Lady sounds freaking sick.
I LOVE that.
ive always loved these kind of world building videos, always loved doing it myself. Also really like Rioja sooooooooo
Dang, I love this! And that start.... I asSUUUUME!.. LOL
Only about 25 minutes into the video but I was going to say that maybe the nobles are looking to put their own players into a position of power of within the guild. For example, maybe there is a owner of a famous brothel that holds a lot of power within the docks outside of the guilds. There could be a male owner of the brothel or maybe it’s a full blooded Riojan woman from fallen Gentry. That could add a lot of intrigue if instead of getting power OVER the guilds but getting power WITHIN the guild.
I had an idea for Ghostwise Halfling tax collectors. Being telepathically told you owe money is pretty creepy.
A Halfling family that can communicate without anyone else hearing it, that's a great resource for any leader.