I'm resurrecting this thread since it was referenced in response to my call for new "knight game" updates. I've read over this thread again and I want to point out a couple things.
First, the fact that one of these mechanics if misused by an incompetent or malicious steward could harm a reason is not a downside. Yes it's a downside for the lord, but not for the game. The chance for tangible consequences means more meaningful conflict and more player to player interaction.
As it stands the steward already has more power to harm a region than any of these other proposals might give them. Since they are able to buy and sell food they can starve a region. This can be far more detrimental than hiring too many militia. As for building too many buildings I doubt that could even be achieved since a knight wont have the personal funds for it. As it stands I'm yet to hear of a single example of a steward griefing by destroying a region through starvation nor doing so through incompetence. If that hasn't happened why should we be concerned about anything along those lines with construction or militia?
If we're considering letting stewards construct guilds I don't see any reason they should be barred from constructing temples, or at least shrines as well. Again the name of the game is encouraging p2p. Two religions in a region means potential meaningful conflict with the possibility of meaningful consequences. This is what we want, players waring and dueling and politicking over tangible character motivations. Once again I don't buy for a second that this practice could lead to bankrupting a religion whether through griefing or just reckless spamming of temples. Shrines cost at most 2 gold on tax day, Sanguis Astroism has dozens of them. Church of Aaron had about ten before I died, a number equal to the total nobles. So a religion can easily sustain one or two shrines per knight. Shrine spamming is already prevented by the escalating cost of building more than one per region. I just built a second shrine in Golden Farrow, a third would cost me 250 gold. That's a good three weeks wages for your typical knight, and after that it gets even more expensive. I don't see the average steward even caring to build more than one maybe two shrines. Temples are already restricted to one per region, small temples also cost very little and expanding them requires an elder priest.
I'm in favor of a court ability as well. It has the advantage that it not only gives knights more to do but lets newbies learn the mechanics of lordship before they have one of their own. The idea that they might be less effective when conducted by a knight seems reasonable to me. I don't think Dukes are a better candidate for this for the simple reason that Dukes already have plenty to do. Holding court in any region is a minor ability for the realm judge compared to their more important duty of enforcing laws for nobles and dealing with prisoners. So it doesn't meaningfully take away from the judge for more nobles to have this same authority.
Here's another one, let stewards add to the monster and undead bounties.
