101 Ways to Start a Blood Feud

[pcw27]

It's long been bemoaned that the game doesn't support feudal warfare between lords. It does however have duels. Usually these are just conflicts between two nobles. In the feudes I imagine I see several nobles pairing off for duels to surrender or even death to defend the honor of their duchy, region, guild or religion. The key to all of these is that instead of just having one duel they need to get everyone's knights and friends involved. Think Montagues vs Capulets only without an insipid love story.

I've never heard of such a thing happening, but I think it would be great if this became the norm. It would ad vibrancy to different realms and give newbies a real sense of where they belong within the nation.  It also gives people something to do during peace time. Plus if feudes get bad enough the leadership might even go so far as to start a war to give the feuding parties something to distract them.

So here we go:

1. Form duelists guilds. They'll inevitably come into conflict over who's got the best fighters.
2. In multi religion realms, challenge members of other faiths to test who worships the one true faith.
3. When a knight asks for money, don't just give it away with a nice pat on the back. Loan it with the expectation of being repaid. If they don't pay it back, take it up with their lord. If he wont pay you, blood feude!
4. Be intensely territorial, if anyone sets foot in your region without greeting you tell them they're banned for life. Try to get the judge to enforce your demand.
5. If a lord changes duchies. GET REALLY REALLY MAD. I still don't get why I've never seen someone complain about this. I guess the feature is still so new no one's thought about it. Dukes need to realize that when this happens the lord and his new duke have essentially just conspired to steal land from them. The lord has just declared you an incompetent leader and spurned you for another. It's a huge insult and a direct loss of tax gold to you.

[Buffalkill]

I like it. I like it a lot.

[Eduardo Almighty]

My char Erik won some duels, lost some... many because of honor and insults. Now he's traveling around, enjoying training matches against old rivals. However, many times you can just ignore the duel and give an excuse... people are used to do it, mainly the ones with old chars. They don't care to look like cowards.

I'm used to put in practice many of your ideas with him

[Lacedaemon]

Duelist guilds are illegal aren't they?

I would like to see more exclusive religions with convictions that they are the one true faith. That would be fun.

6. Settle elections man to man. Duel the contenders to decide the better man.

7. Have "keep what you kill" laws in your realm: If a knight kills his Lord he becomes the region lord. If a Lord kills the Duke, he becomes Duke, if someone kills the King... Thus only the STRONG will rule.

8. They only won because they were hiding behind lesser men. Anyone who beats you in the field is too much of a wimp to face you alone!

9. Form an infiltrators guild. Nobles can refuse duels, but not stabbers! Then target some poor random Lord and blackmail him for a ransom.

10. Start a marauder's realm! Whenever you walk into someone's region, blackmail them for a ransom. If they don't pay, maraud the place and then run away to the safety of your fortress.

[vonGenf]

Duelist guilds are illegal aren't they?

Duels for sport (and guilds that encourage them) are illegal; however since the new training match option was added the concept of a dueling guild can find an appropriate game mechanics for their matches.

[pcw27]

Duels for sport (and guilds that encourage them) are illegal; however since the new training match option was added the concept of a dueling guild can find an appropriate game mechanics for their matches.

I didn't mean a guild which duels for sport but one in which people train a lot, brag about how well their training went, discusses upcoming tournaments, that sort of thing.

Training matches with money on the line could be a good way to drive conflict.

Duelist guilds are illegal aren't they?

I would like to see more exclusive religions with convictions that they are the one true faith. That would be fun.

6. Settle elections man to man. Duel the contenders to decide the better man.

That alone is just a duel, but a realm could be run with political parties. Three nobles join together to contend for the government seats with the king appointing the winning party (assuming they're all still alive).

7. Have "keep what you kill" laws in your realm: If a knight kills his Lord he becomes the region lord. If a Lord kills the Duke, he becomes Duke, if someone kills the King... Thus only the STRONG will rule.

I think people would just ignore the duel challenges for the most part. I don't think that would create the sort of factionalization I'm looking for, it'd tend to cause chaos instead.

8. They only won because they were hiding behind lesser men. Anyone who beats you in the field is too much of a wimp to face you alone!

This is supposed to be about intra realm conflicts.

9. Form an infiltrators guild. Nobles can refuse duels, but not stabbers! Then target some poor random Lord and blackmail him for a ransom.

Blackmailing lords will probably just get them arrested, although I can see infiltrators becoming a part of the blood feude.

10. Start a marauder's realm! Whenever you walk into someone's region, blackmail them for a ransom. If they don't pay, maraud the place and then run away to the safety of your fortress.

Again, that can only be accomplished in a foreign realm which wouldn't create an intra realm blood feud, it would just create a regular war. In the past I've seen people who attempt to start wars by looting without orders get shot down pretty quick.

[pcw27]

Excuse the bump but I'd like to know if there are any new thoughts on this one.