International banking system

[pcw27]

Government members, priests, armies? Really? What do they care for your guild? Even if you had powerful friends in on it, they'd probably never get away with using the realm's resources for your guild's aims.

In your own realm it's just a matter of asking the judge to enforce the oaths of your fellow nobles. If you get cheated through the bank by someone out of realm, well that's where the fun comes in. The more gold we tie up in the bank the more governments will have to bow to our wishes. Suppose we get really well entrenched and a realm judge isn't cooperating, we could expel their entire realm and seize all their assets in the guild. Is it really worth it just cause you're too proud to fine a delinquent debtor?

Closing guild houses: This also actually costs gold too. It'd also mean lowering the maximum full member count and reducing places where people can join the guild and interact with it.

No need to close them, just kick out the embezzling region lord. He can then spend his own gold to tear down the guild hall if he's that spiteful.

All of your solutions to making people pay is to spend a ton of money, basically, a ton more than what they owe you. By all means, try if you wish, and if you'll have fun trying to make it work, but you could basically do your whole scheme even more easily by keeping track of everything you want to do on a spreadsheet on your computer (and/or on the wiki), instead of using an IG guild. Suddenly: no upkeep, no taxes.

The problem with that is it's impossible to delegate responsibilities because I have no way to keep tabs on my subordinates. If I was just handing out loans myself it would be even easier to cheat me and I have nothing concrete to prove what happened. With a guild every single elder can see the same evidence I do that a branch manager is embezzling.

Guilds' primary use is for coordinating multi-realm military activities. Their secondary use is RP. Guilds with other activities rarely succeed in their aims.

I'm planning to spread the guild by offering accounts as a way to move money to the front lines. As for role play, people can now role play corrupt bankers.

[Dishman]

I'm currently playing with the idea of something similar to this with food. If you could redistribute the food vast distances efficiently, it might be worth the effort.

[Chenier]

I'm currently playing with the idea of something similar to this with food. If you could redistribute the food vast distances efficiently, it might be worth the effort.

It doesn't take a lot of nobles to be able to redistribute food over vast distances. Works great with a few priests, actually, with one priest from realm Y operating in realm Z, and one priest from realm Z operating in realm Y, given both are either lords, stewards, or bankers.

[Dishman]

I've approached more rural lords than priests, but I might be fishing the wrong hole. Thanks for the advice.

[Penchant]

Also some valid points though I don't 100% agree with you. Banks don't just provide a safe place to stash your savings. They provide many services like investing and raising capital, and insurance. Like in my earlier example, it can help you build up your army or establish a guild. In the BM context they might be able to provide some kind of food/insurance services too. Maybe not every character will have use for it, but some will.

Investing and raising capital make no sense in BM as there are no businesses to invest or raise capital for. Insurance could maybe be done with rural lords, but doesn't make much sense as the only time rurals will really have an issue is during war, meaning they know when to get insurance and it would not be very profitable. If you need a loan, the smart thing to do is just to talk to a duke and not have to worry about upkeep and infrastructure. I liked the idea initially and he can feel free to do it, but I simply don't see a way for it to be successful at all.

[Chenier]

I've approached more rural lords than priests, but I might be fishing the wrong hole. Thanks for the advice.

Priests can travel quicker and do not need to pay for troops to avoid risking bandits (which isn't as big as an advantage as before, but can still be useful). Which means they can stay out of their realm and purchase food indefinately, because being out of one's realm means gold comes in as bonds, which is the new and only currency for food nowadays.

[pcw27]

Investing and raising capital make no sense in BM as there are no businesses to invest or raise capital for. Insurance could maybe be done with rural lords, but doesn't make much sense as the only time rurals will really have an issue is during war, meaning they know when to get insurance and it would not be very profitable. If you need a loan, the smart thing to do is just to talk to a duke and not have to worry about upkeep and infrastructure. I liked the idea initially and he can feel free to do it, but I simply don't see a way for it to be successful at all.

There may not be businesses but there certainly are things worth taking out a loan on, workshops, granaries, fortifications, recruitment centers, region investments, new religions. They all cost money and sometimes you need to pay for them ASAP.

You're correct that right now its easy to get someone to just cough up some dough for you but part of my motivation to make this bank is I want to change the way people in BM treat money. We need more greedy people BM we need more frugal people in BM. I want dukes to stop handing out 100 gold to whomever asks because they need that money to pay off that loan they took out in order to upgrade their fortifications during the last war.

[Chenier]

There may not be businesses but there certainly are things worth taking out a loan on, workshops, granaries, fortifications, recruitment centers, region investments, new religions. They all cost money and sometimes you need to pay for them ASAP.

You're correct that right now its easy to get someone to just cough up some dough for you but part of my motivation to make this bank is I want to change the way people in BM treat money. We need more greedy people BM we need more frugal people in BM. I want dukes to stop handing out 100 gold to whomever asks because they need that money to pay off that loan they took out in order to upgrade their fortifications during the last war.

I believe there's a lengthy entry about this time of behavior in the background section. Handing out gifts to people is a display of prestige that fully fits the era. It's also politically rewarding.

It's hard to incite people to be greedy when the players (and even the characters) enjoy the same quality of life regardless of how much gold the characters have. Nobody ever has to chose between the comforts of a luxurious life and charity, because in BM, the comforts of a luxurious life are only charged to adventurers.

[pcw27]

I believe there's a lengthy entry about this time of behavior in the background section. Handing out gifts to people is a display of prestige that fully fits the era. It's also politically rewarding.

But that by no means meant no noble ever needed money and couldn't get it. Feudalism was not a gift economy which is what Battle Master often turns into.

It's hard to incite people to be greedy when the players (and even the characters) enjoy the same quality of life regardless of how much gold the characters have. Nobody ever has to chose between the comforts of a luxurious life and charity, because in BM, the comforts of a luxurious life are only charged to adventurers.

Are you kidding? That's the purest greed there is. Do you think billionaires make billions to pay for their personal luxuries? By the time they reached a hundred million dollars they could already afford more luxuries then they could ever possibly enjoy. The rest of it's all about the pride of accumulating wealth, the thrill of seeing what you can create. That's the kind of greed I want to see in Battle Master, senseless, proud uncharitable greed.

[Chenier]

There is infinitely less things to spend wealth on in BM than in the real world. You can probably count it on your hands.

It doesn't mean that there are never cases where nobles don't have as much gold as they'd want, but it does mean that overall, characters have drastically lower needs for loans than RL ones might have, because they are both wealthier and have less things to spend that wealth on.

[pcw27]

There is infinitely less things to spend wealth on in BM than in the real world. You can probably count it on your hands.

It doesn't mean that there are never cases where nobles don't have as much gold as they'd want, but it does mean that overall, characters have drastically lower needs for loans than RL ones might have, because they are both wealthier and have less things to spend that wealth on.

That's where salesmenship comes in. What ever those few things are it's my creditor and branch manager's jobs to make them believe they NEED to buy whatever it is we want to give them a loan for.