Does Axioms Have Advisors Or A Council?
Hardcoded and universal mechanics are bad so some leaders might have something like you see in other games but most wouldn't
Note:
I took a long break from posting in March and then I posted a ton of social simulation and magic related posts which put off some people. I want to clarify that in many cases the social simulation *supports* the strategy component of the game. As you’ll see in this article.
There are a lot of games out there including grand strategy, kingdom management, and more traditional 4x with advisors or a council or something like that. And these usually apply to every faction in the game. This is very boring and limiting and is especially amusing for games that purport to be about history.
Axioms is a game about emergence and procedural generation and also about important individual characters that actually interact meaningfully. As such, what other games handle by illogical fiat Axioms handles through having a proper social simulation.
Laws And Commitments
So Axioms has a series of mechanics we can aggregate as “Commitments”, discussed in some of the previous posts. Oaths, Vows, Promises, etc. It also has “Laws” which are basically a set of modifiers and restrictions on in game mechanics.
Finally we have the “Administration” system. This involves beauracracy related stuff like magistrates, legal authority, civil service positions and so forth. Rome for instance had a vast array of Magistraces. basically the areas of authority of a particular magistrate, their mandate. So you might have informal advisors for the Consuls or the Tribunes but you didn’t have a “council”.
In Axioms you’ll have emergent political and administrative systems. Although if you do a campaign mod or something you can define the existing state of the world yourself. These systems will be defined by Laws, Commitments, and Offices generated by the important characters in the game.
Important Polity Roles
Every character in Axioms has their own “Intelligence Network” but characters will interact with this depending on their personal Consciousness. Networks can share data as well and there is also “public” information. Basically if some piece of information is know by a very large number of characters it becomes “public”.
For a character who wants to focus on intrigue and deceit there are a lot of ways to go about it. Specifically, I had someone on Discord[Link] ask how they would go about being a spymaster for a king. Having the resources of a nation is of course a valuable asset. Sure you are under the authority and eyes of a superior but you gain a lot in return.
I think it might be better to talk first about *why* a character would have a subordinate in such a powerful position. Each character in Axioms has Attention Points that they get every turn and which roll over, to some degree, if you don’t use them all. So you just can’t do everything yourself.
And as a turn based game with a social simulation every characters has ample options to soak up their attention. Additionally there is some level of “competence” in different areas so a ruler may be focused on martial knowledge or magic research or diplomacy.
Depending on the structure of your polity you might have formal or informal positions for this kind of thing. Perhaps the polity has a secret election for an intelligence chief or perhaps a particular position always leads in that area and so forth.
Asking To Get State/Dynasty Resoures
In a case where there is a monarch or dictator or in which you are asking for family/dynasty resources the general system is simple but the details can vary.
Your character, or an NPC, would make a proposal for an agreement to the character to be served. Personal relationship, trust, social heft, talent in the field, blackmail or gifts, promises and other commitments and so forth would be weighed on a scale vs the power of the position and the allocation of resources for support.
This would be pretty similar for any other position. For public positions like diplomacy characters will be somewhat aware of who is good at it. Promises and other commitments also contain useful information. A character says they’ll do a thing. Then either they do it or they don’t. Other characters remember this when evaluating for the future.
Non-Monarchy Systems
Similarly we can consider Roman history. In a hypothetical situation you advance up the different levels of magistracy and people remember how well you did when evaluating you for future levels. Something like a tribal federation is somewhat similar. Oh this guy is a good general let us keep giving him leadership over our military.
You’ll also have some level of ideological effect. Appointing leadership roles based on who exemplifies the civic virtues of the polity. This works to some degree. There are loose links between skill in one area and general intelligence. Of course you can also have savants who excel in one specific area.
The game tracks personal attributes, magical aptitudes, and “skills” in different areas. But the available level of knowledge about other characters for a given character is limited. You’d have to be in proximity to another character, or investigate them, or hear of their exploits to get an increasingly accurate picture of their abilties. I fully expect this to be a very love/hate part of gameplay. Of course a lot of things depend on factors beyond the personal as well. Circumstance is a large part of Axioms.
Did you leave GE server after being criticized? Your idea sounds good, but it should involve more specific practice, describing the process in detail.