Declaring a Heir/Successor

[Grayford]

What if there was an option supported by game mechanics where a King/Queen could declare a heir to the crown? This person would immediately become royalty and have a claim to the throne. When the monarch kicks the bucket (or otherwise is out of power) the appointed heir takes their place.

It would give Monarchies something new and align them more to their true form. Plus it would offer quite a bit of fun while adding to the atmosphere. Think of all the stories and RP.

Thoughts?

[vonGenf]

Only Dukes have a claim to the throne. Anyone who thinks otherwise better have the Dukes in his pocket, otherwise it won't work.

i.e. make them Dukes.... :)

[Charles]

How would you choose between the dukes?  I suppose it could be interesting to have wars of succession.  It would require some changes in game settings. 
The duchies could be divided into temporary mini-realms, and would remain as such until the dukes can agree on which one of them would be ruler.  All lords and knights would be assigned to temporary ducal armies.  Dukes can choose to support any other duke.  Once all dukes are supporting one duke all things are set back to normal. 
Like most ideas I have, I assume someone will shortly respond with "No, that is too complicated."

[Zakilevo]

How would you choose between the dukes?  I suppose it could be interesting to have wars of succession.  It would require some changes in game settings. 
The duchies could be divided into temporary mini-realms, and would remain as such until the dukes can agree on which one of them would be ruler.  All lords and knights would be assigned to temporary ducal armies.  Dukes can choose to support any other duke.  Once all dukes are supporting one duke all things are set back to normal. 
Like most ideas I have, I assume someone will shortly respond with "No, that is too complicated."

Pretty sure Tom said no to a civil war. I think he is content with the option to rebel for now.

[Indirik]

If you want the dukes to pick the next ruler, then just set the election as "duke representative".

[Ketchum]

This request only applies to Monarchy government system it seems. Sound like a good idea at first... ;)

Perhaps what the suitable term we are looking at a new post in the Monarchy government system called Crown Prince

[Broose]

Someone the king chooses takes the throne immediately after he's gone? That could probably be exploited pretty easily. You can do this already through RP anyways, the heir just needs to be elected. Which makes sense, because a king isn't really a king if nobody in the realm recognizes his claim, and I've always thought of ruler elections in monarchies as an abstraction for the support from the nobility.

Sorraine in FEI uses the General position for the heir to the throne. It's a nice way to make that position slightly less useless.

[Charles]

Fair enough.  I did not know civil wars were previously nixed.  They would be neat though.

[vonGenf]

Perhaps what the suitable term we are looking at a new post in the Monarchy government system called Crown Prince

My point was that, with the new Duchy system, it's very easy to elevate you chosen heir to the title of Duke of the Duchy of the Crown Prince. Make it a Prince of Wales / Duke of Asturias / Dauphin type of thing.

[Tom]

Among the things we could make more configurable could be what "elections" are called. Because you are right, in a Monarchy realm, they aren't really elections, they are more like recognizing a claim. We could certainly improve the game a lot by just changing a couple texts.

[Draco Tanos]

Tom, are there ways to flag things so the text is flavored for different conditions?  Like unique wording for elections (conclave for theocracy, elections for republic/democracies, etc), for RTOs (rogue region vs. one with an actual lord/lady), etc?

[Foundation]

There is but it is a pain. :P

[Indirik]

Personally, I don't care for the idea of a mechanics-named successor. I agree that from a thematic point of view it makes sense. But from a game-play point of view it seems like all it would do is cement the power structure of the realm into one clique. Once they got it, it would be game-over for everyone else. Which is exactly the point of hereditary succession. So, it doesn't get my vote...

[BardicNerd]

I just want prestige based voting back!

There were enough elective monarchies, and even in those that weren't, sometimes (probably often) it could involve a bit of politics in recognising the claim of the proper heir, so I'm okay with their being elections, you can always RP naming a successor.  Though configurable names for elections and such would be cool.

[JPierreD]

The possibility of the second tier of nobles (currently Dukes) being able to carry different titles would be nice, such as Prince, Archbishop, and such.

The benefit is naturally RP-wise, the problem is it could confuse new players. Perhaps if we had a standard name for the first (rulers), second (dukes) and third (lords) tiers, plus  custom titles, such as the council positions (Generals called High Constable, Judges called High Justice, and so on)...

Two suggestions for the current Ruler > Duke > Lord relationship: Sovereign > Grandee > Lord and Sovereign > Ruler > Lord.
Technically Dukes are rulers, just not sovereign ones. If they are displayed as so or simply as notable nobles (grandees, which means great ones) would depend on the power of the crown over their lands.