Death by Dark Ages...

[the_eggwhite]

I found that last night's dark ages game, whilst fun, was very tiring to run. I suspect it was just because it was quite a small game, and a lot of our more vocal or flambouyant characters were not there, so we had to keep poking things to keep the game going. The court couldn't quite reach the critical mass of hubbub and activity required for it to look after itself and leave us STs able to draw back and use a light touch. Still, I think I managed to slip in some clarification of the relationship between the council of elders (Primogen) and the Prince's Household (Council), and drop a few more hints as to the Prince's personality and way of doing things.

Really do need to fit a revolving door on the council chamber, though. Or perhaps one of those "take a ticket and wait for your number" systems. Still, it means that working to get a position of authority is always going to be a viable goal, if perhaps not a goal in the longest term.

Comments

[reindeerflotila.livejournal.com]

...aaaahhhhh....
power structures

how I love them.

[themadone.livejournal.com]

I think the Tremere fight shouldn't have taken so long to kick off. The Prince should have given the go ahead the moment he was insulted by their gift. No-one else was going to start it whilst they were under his hospitality. Or maybe nuuki shouldn't have spent so much time talking to them, so they'd have left earlier?

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

You are, of course, assuming that delays had anything to do with the Prince. You also assume that there were not more complex interactions taking place of which you were not aware.

Tremere openly turning up to a court is... unusual.

Also, he didn't find their "gift" insulting as such... but exactly what he did make of it is something to find out in character. Whilst the prince is widely known to be a bit of an arse, he's actually quite a complex (and very tiring) character to play - things are unlikely to be as simple and straightforward as they seem.

[themadone.livejournal.com]

*shrug* Regardless of the reasons behind it, waiting to kill the Tremere did have the court standing around waiting for the go ahead rather than causing the usual mayhem and trouble we'd normally do for a fair while.

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

So why were people waiting? Why didn't anyone do anything about them? There were two unacknowledged cainites of a clan considered to be worse than scum sat in court, in a domain where they are far from welcome. Was there a royal instruction for everyone to sit around staring at them?

The court officers present were:

The Prince, who's first instruction on the matter was very straightforward and very specific. The repercussions of how this (amongst other things) was handled will become apparent over time.

The Seneschal, who could have determined that the Tremere were a threat to the domain and instructed others to deal with them - particularly in the absence of either sherriff or deputy sherriff.

The Chamberlain, who would have been well within his purview to deal with a situation which was disrupting a court, either through personal or by instructing others to deal with it.

The Deputy Scourge, who has all of the authority of Scourge when Wymer is not present. They were all unacknowledged.

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

(by the way, these are not meant as criticisms, more as things you might want to think about...)

[themadone.livejournal.com]

I had no idea I had the power to kick people out - thought that'd be the sherrif's job. Not that they were being disruptive. They were better guests than some we've had.

And yes, there were orders to wait.

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

The court jobs all overlap... The Chamberlain is responsible for courts - kind of a combination of the Harpy and Keeper of Elysium in modern nights. If something's disrupting court (and I'd say stifling normal court activity counts) then it's something that the Chamberlain ought to be looking at. Their action could be to demand the Sherriff does something, or in the absence of the Sherriff, get someboyd else to deal with it.

Quite a lot of court roles covered it, really:
Seneschal - It was his responsibility for reasons I won't go into.
Chamberlain - It was disrupting a court by stifling normal activity and behaviour.
Scourge - All of the visitors were unacknowledged cainites.
Sherriff - The sherriff is responsible for dealing with threats internal to the domain and upholding the traditions. I think it'd be fairly easy to call them a threat.

I think part of the problem is that people don't really know what the positions entail, or what they can get away with doing.

As for Orders to wait... interesting... I shan't say more because it's all something to deal with IC. I want to say more, but to do so would have an IC effect - things need to be said IC, and questions need to be asked IC. OOC discussion of exact chains of events would be inappropriate.

[lawrencegillies.livejournal.com]

I was delegating! Isn't that what command is all about?

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

You can delegate responsibility for something, but it's still your responsibility too... you just get to point the finger and say "I delegated to him - he cocked up" and get to pass on some of the punishments...

[urizen.livejournal.com]

Annoyed I missed out. i have been having thoughts on better organising the councial and court as a whole to try and galvanise things some more. Next time...