Nightshade is just about to get Great House, and it has me thinking about the family system a lot. The family system, first off, is probably the thing that brings me the most enjoyment in Lusternia. I just love it. Nightshade is the coolest, most best thing to ever happen to me in an IRE game, and I've spent so long, and taken a lot of crap to come to this point, and now I want to faint. All of this being said.


I would love if smaller families (IE, those not yet lesser house) had more versatility within the family system. Getting LH was moderately a pain, getting GH was downright torturous. So here are some things I'd thought about, that I felt like would be really neat.

+ Smaller families (maybe those with 5 or more?) can "banner" to a GH or LH, this gives no population points (Or 1 if you want to be generous!) but is mostly for flavor, and so give these families a little more RP room.

This would show up on the family tree of a GH or LH under say...like "Loyal Families: Nightshade, Stormcrow, Blahbleeblah." Or something, right below the regular "Bannerhouses: blahblah,"

+ Smaller families can select a divine to favor, it isn't the same as having them as a Patron, but it's just another RP-flavor that could keep things fun.Again, this wouldn't do anything particular aside from this.

Okay, so maybe I didn't think of too many things a small family could do, but ahhh, it's just so depressing to be trying to get to GH, and feasibly participate in the family system, and just, not being able to move as fast, or to get as many kids as the next guy. Anything that can really be done to help alleviate some of that would be a plus, in my opinion.

Some stuff on GH's:

+ I think it would be really cool if GH's could pick a Great Spirit/Supernal/Demon Lord/etc like they pick patrons. It wouldn't do anything but show up on their family tree, but I just think this would be so cool.

+ I think it'd be cool to have family images/crests what-have-you, on family tree.

+ I would -love- if GH's and LH's could formally ally with another family. It would be distinct from bannerhouses in that they wouldn't give anything to the other house, but it would be more of like, an affirmation of sharing the same goals, what-have-you, just another flavor on family tree.

+ More perks for hitting certain honour benchmarks. (How cool would it be that at like, 500k or something, houses got to adopt in 10 month increments instead of 12 for example.)

I'm not really sure how feasible these are - maybe none of them are possible at all, but like I said, I am definitely in favor of anything that could lessen the soul-crushing disappointment that is having a small family, and being unable to do much more than 'just hang in there'. I understand the limits of the system currently, and I know that it is very complex. I understand that being spoonfed is totally not desirable, and you get rewarded for putting in the effort. But dang. There has to be something more, in my opinion.

As someone who has actually designed heraldry for her iddy-biddy little family, I'd love to see some way to include it in an easily-accessible place for other people. Especially if we can try to avoid the strictly classical heraldic terms that tend to make people go "huh?" if they aren't a student of arms and are otherwise prone to what I describe as "goofy-woofiness." Would mean that forestal families could have things representing them that aren't formal shields with supports, that kind of stuff! These would obviously integrate easily with the existing seal and standard stuff.

Even if it's nothing but flavor, giving dinky families something to do sounds great! Heck, making it flavor-only seems best, even, since that encourages people to RP more, and that's theoretically why people join families in the first place (I WILL HEAR NO EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY LA LA LA).

The chops system exists for family symbols. Generally speaking, Lusternia doesn't engage in the strange naming conventions of heraldry (like Achaea does/did - I remember when it was brought in, and that was a long time ago...). In example, the symbol for House Farain is an upside-down cross with angel wings. None of this argent dragon pent pon field of sable frogs or whatever.

Smaller families, any family really, can easily have all of this by just... roleplaying it out. The player side of House Shevat has a fairly detailed symbol, with meanings behind each element. These elements and themes are all over family-centric designs. We are also associated with Lord Elostian; He is (or was) our Patron, no matter that we can't make it mechanically true yet. I think it's pretty obvious, even to an outsider like me, that Shee-Slaugh is associated with Mother Night. If a Magnagoran family wanted to pick a favorite Demon Lord, what's stopping them?

And honestly? I would not want to see this kind of stuff on the family tree. Symbols and loyalty and (non-Divine) patronage are the little nuances that are fun to learn (or make up!) as you discover your family. If you put everything right up front, what's to encourage questions, people wanting to know more, the actual roleplay of a family?

I totally agree that these things can be roleplayed, indeed, the Nightshades have a very strong bond with the Shee-Slaugh, in a very frenemy kind of way, but I always like little mechanics like that because they're just plain fun, and having a small family is depressing, and anything that could spice it up on top of that RP is just awesome, imo. And I don't care if Nightshades can easily be understood to be primarily Night-based, I want to have her on my family tree gosh darnit.

Eventru:

The chops system exists for family symbols. Generally speaking, Lusternia doesn't engage in the strange naming conventions of heraldry (like Achaea does/did - I remember when it was brought in, and that was a long time ago...). In example, the symbol for House Farain is an upside-down cross with angel wings. None of this argent dragon pent pon field of sable frogs or whatever.

I'd completely forgotten that chops existed.

Maybe if a group has a chop designed, they can toggle whether or not it's shown when people read about the clan/family/whatever? Or does that happen already? I'm too poor to afford one yet.

AquaNeos:

I'd completely forgotten that chops existed.

So did I, and I've even bothered to design them a few times.

Too expensive for the little fluff they offer :/

(starts designing one for Isune, anyways)

That reminds me, I need to craft another stamp. Mine decayed. :-(

eritheyl:


Too expensive for the little fluff they offer :/

I feel like letters are sent only very infrequently.

As long as messages exist, letters are just vastly more effort for mostly the same effect. I send mail as much as possible for anything IC, but I understand why most people don't.

The dilemma in choosing between letters and messages is rather clear-cut for me.

If it's something formal (invitation), really long (design), or really important (applications), use a letter. Otherwise, save yourself the trip to hell and back.