Dominions

[GRStrayton]

Damn it! I just posted my first in a series of articles regarding player character dominions in December and now I see WotC is doing an article on them this month! So for those of you who don't subscribe or who are just interested in different take, here's a link to the first short article. The main information about running dominions in a monthly cycle is in the PDF linked from there.

The next article will contain information about physically constructing your dominion (whether it be a keep, a wizard's tower, a thief's hide-out, a druid's grove, etc.) as well as attracting followers and henchmen.

Dominions Legends & Labyrinths

 

[Rune]

Looks fun, but I couldn't find a couple of details that I would like to see. For instance, is the resource point mechanic only a means of tracking stability (in which case, a new (stable) dominion would start at 0), or is some other mechanic attached?

And, a related question:

Is their some other mechanical yield gained from a dominion, other than XP? Income from taxes, Faith from the flock (to be used in Rituals, or something), or the like?

 

[Alex319]

If I understand it correctly, the "resource points" are calculated per month - they don't carry over from month to month or anything like that. Each month you calculate (Gold invested that month / 1000) + (Total of all resource points from events that month) and if it is positive, stability goes up; if it's negative, it goes down; if it's zero, nothing happens. The only thing that is tracked from month to month is stability.

One question I have is if you get positive resource points and your dominion is already at Invulnerable (so it can't go higher) do you get the major quest reward or the minor quest reward? If you only get the minor quest reward, then the optimal strategy would be to let it drop and then raise it on alternating months (because one major quest reward is worth more than two minor quest rewards)?

 

[GRStrayton]

Looks fun, but I couldn't find a couple of details that I would like to see. For instance, is the resource point mechanic only a means of tracking stability (in which case, a new (stable) dominion would start at 0), or is some other mechanic attached?

And, a related question:

Is their some other mechanical yield gained from a dominion, other than XP? Income from taxes, Faith from the flock (to be used in Rituals, or something), or the like?

Great questions. Yes, the resource point mechanic only determines the stability for that month. And yes, there will be additional benefits for having a stable (or better) dominion -- contacts at the local Thieves' Guild who can provide you with secret information, the arrival of sages who can research new dungeons to explore, additional followers (whether they be men-at-arms, acolytes, apprentice wizards, etc.), and so on. I REALLY need to finish writing up the system so I can get it posted!

If I understand it correctly, the "resource points" are calculated per month - they don't carry over from month to month or anything like that. Each month you calculate (Gold invested that month / 1000) + (Total of all resource points from events that month) and if it is positive, stability goes up; if it's negative, it goes down; if it's zero, nothing happens. The only thing that is tracked from month to month is stability.

One question I have is if you get positive resource points and your dominion is already at Invulnerable (so it can't go higher) do you get the major quest reward or the minor quest reward? If you only get the minor quest reward, then the optimal strategy would be to let it drop and then raise it on alternating months (because one major quest reward is worth more than two minor quest rewards)?

Another great question. Yes, that's correct, if you are already at Invulnerable, you only get a minor xp bonus. You can voluntarily spend less money on a particular month, which may or may not cause your stability to drop. Eventually, if it does drop, you can try to restore it to Invulnerable by spending more of your hard earned treasure. However, that also opens the chances that you have a really bad month and despite the amount you spend, the Stability decreases again.