Celebrim
Legend
One thing GURPS taught me is that you can't pay too much attention to ensuring a mechanical balance to in game world events. The problem I observed in GURPS was that players were presented with two choices. They either could do little or nothing to advance in game world resources, and then spend out of game world resources to buy them. Or, they could make collecting in game world resources a focus of play, and then present the GM with a dilemma - either reward the player for good RP by giving them character building points for free or else deny them access to something their character appears to have earned until they saved up the metagame resources to purchase it.
After a while, I resolved to award or subtract points for in game resources on the basis of whether the player's play deserved it. If a character acquired a new ally, new contact, fame, greater wealth, status, military rank or new ward, I wouldn't let the rules overrule that. Story came first. But this raises at least two big problems. First, why ever spend points on resources instead of character building when you acquire both XP and resources through play? But more to the point, why bother tracking those points at all? After starting the game, it certainly wasn't for balance.
The fact that you gained followers if you built a castle in 1e struck me as being much the same sort of problem. Whether or not a person has followers ought to depend more on how he is known, than what is written on the character sheet. Nothing magical happens in the community when you cross a certain level. The magic happens because of your fame, reputation, relationships and show of power. The important point isn't your level, but whether you are a 'somebody'. If you build a castle, perhaps someone might come to serve you, but there is no mechanical requirement that they do. Similarly, I did away with the Leadership feat in 3e.
