Families have been since the beginning of Imperator one of the most important, yet simultaneously least dynamic, aspects of the political system, with the only important things simply being the loyalty of the family head and making sure that each family has enough posts. I'd like to propose fleshing them out by creating family households.
Every Great Family has a household, led by the head of the family, which includes its family members, their wives, family holdings, and employees. Households employ a variety of characters (giving more opportunities for characters to earn wages and thus amass wealth, as well as statesmanship); these roles include:
1. Family tutor - educates the children in the family
2. Orator - defends family members in trials, increases popularity of family head
3. Steward - manages family estates, gives bonuses to productivity in provinces owned by family head, as well as increased income for family
4. Scribe - in charge of letters, grants Senate seats to party of faction head
5. Household Guard - head of the household guard, decreases assassination chance, has potential loyal cohorts in event of civil war (size depends on wealth of family); cannot be from family
These jobs need not be held by members of the family, and in the case of the Household Guard, cannot be; instead, Great Families can hire members of Minor Families to fill positions in their household, giving more novi homines the opportunity to rise in the ranks of the political system. Furthermore, I would make it that members of Minor Families, when they generate, generate with one male and one female, in order to increase number of potential wives, and that a member of a Minor Family can have children if married to a member of a Great Family (they would have, by default, one living boy and girl at a time, in order to keep the number of characters down but also allow minor families to develop some sort of lineage). Lastly, in order for a member of a Great Family to adopt minor characters, rather than the free-for-all that has existed, it must be somebody who is both within your own household and married to a member of your family; however, because of this, the player can still ask minor characters who are married to divorce their wife, so long as their wife is not a member of another Great Family.
Once a character enters public office, they leave their post in the household, although minor characters that have previously received employment will remember their previous benefactor, considering the head of the household a friend. This should allow for a fairly regular turnover of employed characters, giving wages and statesmanship to younger characters so that they're ready to hold office as soon as possible, especially in a Republic. And of course, I should note that in monarchies, this system would be superfluous (most of this is already handled by the formal political offices), so it only exists for non-ruling families in monarchies.
Overall, this will create a world that feels more "lived in," giving characters a way to have a career before entering the political arena (or afterwards), as well as help the power of families ebb and flow over the course of the game (a family head that is able to consistently fill his staff with high-ranking officials should be a major political threat, but if his heir is an imbecile and unable to make good hires, then it should be able to come crashing down).
Every Great Family has a household, led by the head of the family, which includes its family members, their wives, family holdings, and employees. Households employ a variety of characters (giving more opportunities for characters to earn wages and thus amass wealth, as well as statesmanship); these roles include:
1. Family tutor - educates the children in the family
2. Orator - defends family members in trials, increases popularity of family head
3. Steward - manages family estates, gives bonuses to productivity in provinces owned by family head, as well as increased income for family
4. Scribe - in charge of letters, grants Senate seats to party of faction head
5. Household Guard - head of the household guard, decreases assassination chance, has potential loyal cohorts in event of civil war (size depends on wealth of family); cannot be from family
These jobs need not be held by members of the family, and in the case of the Household Guard, cannot be; instead, Great Families can hire members of Minor Families to fill positions in their household, giving more novi homines the opportunity to rise in the ranks of the political system. Furthermore, I would make it that members of Minor Families, when they generate, generate with one male and one female, in order to increase number of potential wives, and that a member of a Minor Family can have children if married to a member of a Great Family (they would have, by default, one living boy and girl at a time, in order to keep the number of characters down but also allow minor families to develop some sort of lineage). Lastly, in order for a member of a Great Family to adopt minor characters, rather than the free-for-all that has existed, it must be somebody who is both within your own household and married to a member of your family; however, because of this, the player can still ask minor characters who are married to divorce their wife, so long as their wife is not a member of another Great Family.
Once a character enters public office, they leave their post in the household, although minor characters that have previously received employment will remember their previous benefactor, considering the head of the household a friend. This should allow for a fairly regular turnover of employed characters, giving wages and statesmanship to younger characters so that they're ready to hold office as soon as possible, especially in a Republic. And of course, I should note that in monarchies, this system would be superfluous (most of this is already handled by the formal political offices), so it only exists for non-ruling families in monarchies.
Overall, this will create a world that feels more "lived in," giving characters a way to have a career before entering the political arena (or afterwards), as well as help the power of families ebb and flow over the course of the game (a family head that is able to consistently fill his staff with high-ranking officials should be a major political threat, but if his heir is an imbecile and unable to make good hires, then it should be able to come crashing down).
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