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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 137438" data-attributes="member: 83">Alex, I'll take "Things in Empires" for $200...By no means an exhaustive list, but:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Transportation Network - It doesn't have to be roads.  It could be canals, shipping lanes or teleport circles.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Bureaucracy - Gotta have it.  Virtually every empire from the dawn of time has had some manner of Imperial Bureaucracy (with the Imperial Chinese taking the cake).  This includes tax collectors, judges, scribes, customs agents, building inspectors, etc.  Everything requires a permit or a charter to operate legally (ie, businesses, adventuring companies, spell casters, merchant companies).  You can make the bureaucracy either a minor inconvenience or a major nuisance.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Taxes - Somebody has to pay for all of those civic improvement projects and the PCs just discovered a huge treasure horde...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Entertainment - Most empires need something to distract the huddled masses from their miserable existence.  In Rome, it was gladitorial games and chariot racing, but you could use the Aztec precursor to bastketball (where the losing team was sacrificed to the gods), the Mongol version of polo - grab the goat carcass (still played in Afghanistan today or Olympic games.  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Art - Most empires had some manner of well-defined artistic expression, from poetry to sculpture to plays.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Codified Law - Whether it is the Code of Hammurabi, the Canon of Augustus or the Code Napolean, virtually every empire has well-codified laws.  Whether they are applied evenly is another matter!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Powerful Military - An empire doesn't survive very long without a powerful military.  It can be land, sea or even air-based.  Most empires started off with a home grown army, but added increasing numbers of mercenaries and/or foreign troops over time (which eventually contributed to the downfall of many empires) as the citizens got lazy.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Underground - You are going to have a certain segment of the population that doesn't want to play be the rules.  They may disagree with the empire for financial, philosophical or religious reasons, but they want to do their own thing.  The "underground" can range from radicals that are actively seeking to overthrow the empire to those that just want to be left alone.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Secret Police - For routing our the Underground!</li> </ul>I use all of these elements, to one extent or another, in my own Faded Glory setting.~ Old One</blockquote>

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