On Leadership
Before I get into any of the in-game stuff, and HOO BOY is there a lot of it, I wanted to touch on some out-of-game considerations on who you choose for a leader.
making all your decisions in-character is all well and good, but at some point, you have to take certain realities into account. The most important of those realities is out-of-game time.
Whoever you choose to be the leader has to be "in" the game enough to work on it at times other than when we play. Perhaps it shouldn't be this way, but your chosen course of action and story that is developing take a little more maintenence than can be provided on a single saturday. Plans need to be made during the off-days, so that we don't hear complaints about how we're not rolling enough dice.
What that means is that the leader has to be someone who is willing to put in the extra time. Experience would tell me that there are only a few of you who can do that.
Despite all the in-game reasons for any of you to step up and take the reins, some of you CAN'T, because you're unable or unwilling to put in the time. That's no big deal--just a reality.
Looking over the boards really says it all. You're picking a PLAYER to lead, as well as a character, and that leaves only the following realistic options: Liz, Gertie, Kat, or Mik. Jeremiah has some posts here, as well, but far fewer than the others. However, Jeremiah, as well as Tim and Greg have far too much going on in real life to devote the same kind of time and effort that you guys do. In fact, I'm willing to bet that only the four of you msg board junkies will actually read this post. That being true, we begin to see the ranks of potential leaders thin out.
My second criteria is my inbox--Kat has the lock on DnD related e-mails there, but the other three are hot on her heals as of late. Tim, Greg, and Jeremiah are nearly *But not completely* silent once more. (This is not to say that Tim, Greg, and Jeremiah aren't great players--you've all shined brightly at one time or another. They're just players with more to do in real life. We need to respect that, and at the same time reward the players that go the extra mile)
Lastly, MSN Messenger. Kat and Mik fall way behind here, and Gertie and Liz are neck-and-neck. Liz has her beat in total messages, but a good share of those are not DnD. Take out all the I Love you's, etc., and we're at a pretty accurate count.
Even so, Mik and Gertie SPECIFICALLY do not want to lead. Liz was a tad uncomfortable with it, but is willing to do so. Mik chose her character, and managed to convince her to do it. They seem to have Gertie along for the ride. That leaves Kat. Kat is a little scattered, and is our newest nerd. Yet, she is definitely "in" the game enough to make it a possibility.
That really leaves just Liz and Kat.
Now we can go to the in-game reasons. It all comes down to stats. L'Aurel's INT and CHA are both low. Makes strategy hard. WIS is high, but not outstanding. Nonetheless, she is a semi-legitimate baroness.
Justice has amazing CHA, good WIS, and a fair INT--far better rounded for actual leadership. But she is NOT a baroness. In the best of all worlds, L'Aurel provides legitimacy to the outside while Justice leads the in-group discussions. I dunno if that can happen or not, but it's all out on the table. I hope that that helps.
). 
