Social ranking system

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 10:06 pm

HAs anyone worked up such a system? Or know of one in another system?

Let me explain a bit of what I am looking for.

Wealth is power, but I would like a concrete way of relating that to the powers of the character classes, as well as to give me an idea what social ranking a character with personal power and wealth would compare to others.

Now a good bit of it is rather obvious. However power is also perception and a man may not be king, but if he somehow controls 40% of the economy of a given country, and similiar numbers for several other kingdoms and city states, he is very powerful indeed. More powerful than a King.

Say, someone like Gates and Microsoft. Or the collective people who control oil and natural gas.

So has anyone seen, or created, a system that codifies this sort of thing?
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Tadhg · Post by **Tadhg** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:12 am

Hi Tree.

Do you have World Builder or Living Fantasy from the GFW series?

LF has some stuff on classes and wealth and I'm pretty sure there is info in WB as well.

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Birthright · Post by **Birthright** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:48 am

The rules for ruling domains in the Birthright setting include "Regency Points" which represent the influence of rulers, guildmasters, high priests, nobles, etc.

What exactly do you want to get out of this kind of system?

Rigon · Post by **Rigon** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 2:06 am

I thought there were similar rules in CZY.

R-
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 4:21 am

I have World Builder and CZY, but not Living Fantasy, so I'll check out the other two I have and see what they say.

I never looked at Birthright, so I don't know. I think Birthright is available as a free download over at WOTC, so I'll check it out there.

What do I want to do with it?

I do a lot of politics in my C&C (Well, any game I run) and its always being asked, "How powerful are they?". Which is not in reference to their class level, but to their wealth and influence.

Now granted, I could arbitrarily decide all of this, but if someone knows of or has worked out a system I would rather use a codified system. Something that I could quickly work out with consistant guidelines, etc...
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The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

Next Con I am attending: http://www.neoncon.com/

My House Rules: http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

Geron Raveneye · Post by **Geron Raveneye** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 9:53 am

If you have A Magical Medieval Society - Western Europe, check it out for a wealth of information on quasi-medieval settings.

Birthright · Post by **Birthright** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:14 am

Treebore wrote:
I have World Builder and CZY, but not Living Fantasy, so I'll check out the other two I have and see what they say.

I never looked at Birthright, so I don't know. I think Birthright is available as a free download over at WOTC, so I'll check it out there.

What do I want to do with it?

I do a lot of politics in my C&C (Well, any game I run) and its always being asked, "How powerful are they?". Which is not in reference to their class level, but to their wealth and influence.

Now granted, I could arbitrarily decide all of this, but if someone knows of or has worked out a system I would rather use a codified system. Something that I could quickly work out with consistant guidelines, etc...

Sounds like Birthright might be a bit more detailed than you are after, Treebore.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:44 pm

Geron Raveneye wrote:
If you have A Magical Medieval Society - Western Europe, check it out for a wealth of information on quasi-medieval settings.

I actually use that, but it takes a lot of time to write up a manor, let alone towns and cities. I would have to spend days figuring out Outremere as a whole. I have to admit writing up Ludensheim, Botkinburg, and Diamond Vale has given me a great base line to guess the wealth of the rest of Outremere.

If Birthright is too detailed that will actually be fine with me, I can always scale the detail back to the level I want.
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drakahn99 · Post by **drakahn99** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 11:56 am

the l5r system works prety well for what your saying it doesnt nesecarily need to be something on paper, normaly i meantly asign the values of status to players on a 1-10 and "glory" 1-10 to players and npcs and if they have done alot to bring up thier "glory" then more will know thier alignment and more about what they have done reciently and the status of the ruler of the kingdom will very depending on the true wealth of the kindom and how much power his lords have.

keep in mind though that when a player amases a significant amount of wealth the nobility should tend to get scared of the "userper" amasing a significant power base. pasrticularly if they are seen as being from a forign land or not from noble birth. so probably would act to remove said wealth or seek to discredit the characters so they will be unable to leverage any of tehir funds. come to think of it i havent seen this happen in a RPG game ever that ive played in. altough i have ran a couple where this started happening but the games ended before they could find out what was truly hapening.