Types of characters you'd like to play?

[LittleSoul]

Hard to make even regional policies when neighbors are empty towns are just too busy at struggling with running own town. To make empire you need people. And.. I guess empire is also counted as organisation which means having two chars under one would be CR and that complicates things even more.

I wonder how difficult this was to deal with back in the old days when there really were 'kingdoms'. I've seen the old old notes with their regions shown. Unless those towns were also empty mostly? Of course there were so many more players so maybe characters got spaced out a lot more.

I mean, technically with regions, I don't know if that's an organization unless you consider yourself an official citizen.
Unless the rule there is - you live in the town, the town is supposedly claimed to be under this rule, so therefore you cannot have any chars living in towns supposedly ruled by the same people who live three towns away? Seems a little silly. It makes me wonder about San D'Oria. They've got a 'sister town', or had, I don't know anymore, but they used to. Is it against the rules to have someone live in San D -and- have another char live in the sister town?

Probably a bad idea because they're next to each other, but from a technical standpoint, is that considered "a group or organization"?
In a lot of cases it seems like it's in name only. Rarely do multiple towns actually work together for the same cause on a regular basis long term.

Just wondering.

[SekoETC]

Kiii used to be a part of the Empire of Zuzi, and this one player got in trouble for having one character in Kiii and one in Zuzi. Although the real trouble only started when they were both in Kiii, there was a newspawn thief and since one of them didn't have a weapon, she asked in public if she could borrow one, then immediately responded with her other character, and borrowed a weapon from her own character and hit the same guy with two characters. I had no idea they were the same player until afterwards. It was very awkward.

[Wolfsong]

I suppose how I'd do it would be to have one larger town (city-state) with a large sphere of influence and a strong military that patrols often through its surrounding areas. Other towns can exist with a degree of autonomy, but have to pay tribute (taxes) to the larger town in return for "protection" - essentially a mafia racket. Pay us to keep us from taking our dues by force, etc. Maybe have a loosely codified set of laws that are enforced in all tithing territories. That way, even though it's all under the one umbrella of leadership, it isn't a part of the same organization exactly, though I wouldn't discourage people from being actually loyal and devoted to the head town/city-state.

Naturally, the military would be sent out on expeditions to farther flung towns to war for tribute and captives, and the captives would be ransomed back to their hometowns for even more tribute, or kept as slaves to pay off war debts. Freedom could be bought, earned, etc.

The town would need to be strategically placed, though, to avoid getting steam-rolled by angry neighbors while the majority of their military forces are away - an island would do it, with a protected harbour, since rakers are fast enough to still make expeditions worthwhile.

[Marian]

Except this kind of thing never, ever works in Cantr. All you'd be doing is spreading your few active, reliable citizens thin, meaning less people who could be awake in an emergency, less newspawns, less RP and so more sleepers... there's absolutely no practical benefit to controlling more than one location and several significant downsides.

The example given earlier of the Final Fantasy town, well their 'sister town' hasn't existed for a long while now, much like the 'empire' of Zuzi that was also mentioned, and I don't think they were ever run as a practical, functional alliance even when they did. Really I can't think of any examples I've ever come across in the game where this was the case.

[JosiahH]

Definitely seems to me like "soft power" is more effective (or, at least, is having its day right now). I don't know much about the history of Klojt (none of my characters have actually spent much time there) but it seems basically to be the centre of the civilised world (at least the English-speaking world) not because it has acted aggressively toward anyone, but just because it has worked so hard on developing its one single location.

Still think the kind of scenario Wolfsong describes would give fun rp opportunities, even if it is ultimately doomed from a logistical point of view.

[Wolfsong]

Except this kind of thing never, ever works in Cantr. All you'd be doing is spreading your few active, reliable citizens thin, meaning less people who could be awake in an emergency, less newspawns, less RP and so more sleepers... there's absolutely no practical benefit to controlling more than one location and several significant downsides.

The example given earlier of the Final Fantasy town, well their 'sister town' hasn't existed for a long while now, much like the 'empire' of Zuzi that was also mentioned, and I don't think they were ever run as a practical, functional alliance even when they did. Really I can't think of any examples I've ever come across in the game where this was the case.

You wouldn't control more than one area, though. Picture it if Klojt suddenly decided to demand Doryiskom pay them tribute, and if they refused, sent people over to forcibly take tribute, etc. Doryiskom can continue to run itself, but has that link to Klojt now. And it would give town militias something to do again instead of "stand around and social RP all day pretending to be a soldier."

[sherman]

Except this kind of thing never, ever works in Cantr. All you'd be doing is spreading your few active, reliable citizens thin, meaning less people who could be awake in an emergency, less newspawns, less RP and so more sleepers... there's absolutely no practical benefit to controlling more than one location and several significant downsides.

The example given earlier of the Final Fantasy town, well their 'sister town' hasn't existed for a long while now, much like the 'empire' of Zuzi that was also mentioned, and I don't think they were ever run as a practical, functional alliance even when they did. Really I can't think of any examples I've ever come across in the game where this was the case.

Indeed, it's more apparent now than it used to be... Active people are scarce resource. Even to the point that getting someone take responsibilities running a town for being like right hand might be difficult since people don't want to take them. (or at least this been trend what I have seen, one guy ruling and doing all and even if he/she asks help at running town nobody does it)

Patrols and all sounds nice but.. They would be terrible idea to do, town would be bright open for attack cause you would probably send your best and most active ones out..So empires don't work in this game, at least not with current population. And empire with 1 town is not empire, it's more like City-State like Sparta or Athens was..

Also other thing that stops people doing empires is that most follow the basic 4 rules and most don't really care to follow others and are more wanting to do own thing than co-operating