Political Changes Houses 2/8/2005

[GM_Chris]

Creating a House
Like creating a guild, the first step in creating a house is to choose a leader. The leader of the house will be the recipient of the allegiance points from the guilds who make up the house and will be solely responsible for who, if anyone, gets the house’s allegiance. In addition, the house leader will manage the house’s “Organization Point” pool. Organization points will be discussed later in this section.

The next step in creating a house is to create a house charter. The charter provides the GM staff with the name of the house, the date it was created, the leader, and the “founding guilds” of the house. There must be a minimum of two guilds plus a leader to create a house. The house charter is a strictly “out of game” document.

After a leader has been chosen and a charter created, the house leader then needs to obtain enough allegiance points to qualify for and maintain a level one house (see the chart on page $$). It takes more allegiance points to create a house than it does to maintain one.

When enough allegiance has been gathered to expand the house, the leader may choose to increase the level of the house. This is done at the end of an event. Higher-level houses can make more commodities and trade more resources however; expanding too quickly can be dangerous. Any time a house goes 2 consecutive events without the minimum amount of allegiance points to support their current level, the organization collapses and the house will then need to be reformed at level one.

Organizational Points
The number of “Organization Points” available to a house is equal to the house leader’s total allegiance. Also, the house’s level determines the maximum number of organization points a house can spend and the number of commodities they are allowed. The higher the level of the house, the more organization points the house can spend and the more commodities they can have (See the chart on page $$). Organizational points can be spent to create Market Places and to create Commodities. Market Places and Commodities are described in greater detail below.

Market Places
Market Places represent the House’s ability to trade one resource to create another. This may only be done between events. As mentioned in the Resource Section, there are three levels of resources: Primary, Secondary, and Mystical (See Resources on Page #). As the House progresses in levels, the amount of one resource needed to create another lowers and the access to higher levels of resources increases.

There are three types of market places, primary, secondary, and mystic. A primary market place allows the house to trade seven (7) cloth, food, or shelter resources to obtain one (1) cloth, food, or shelter. When a primary market place is formed the house must declare what primary resource they will be trading in. Primary market places may be upgraded to provide a better trade ratio but the ratio may never drop below 3 to 1. It costs 100 Organization Points to start a primary Market Place and costs an additional 100 Organization Points per one resource the ratio is dropped. For example:
House Iron Rose starts a Food Market Place. This costs 100 organization points and they can now trade seven food for one of any other primary resource. After the next event, House Iron Rose has become a level 2 house and has more Organization points to spend (300). They decide they want to upgrade their food market place and open a cloth market place. Now they can trade 6 food to get 1 other primary resource and can trade cloth at a 7 to 1 ratio.

A primary market place can be upgraded to a secondary market place by spending 150 organization points. A primary market place that has been upgraded to a secondary market place still allows for trade of the primary resource at its current ratio but will also allow the house to trade steel or hide at the same ratio. When a house upgrades a primary market place to a secondary market place, they must declare which secondary resource they will be trading in. A house must be at least level 4 before they can upgrade to a secondary market place. For Example:
House Iron Rose decides to upgrade their food market place to a secondary market place that trades hide. Their food market place currently trades at a ratio of 5 to 1 and costs them 300 organization points. They spend the additional 150 organization points (for a total of 450) and they now have a food/hide market place. They can now trade in 5 food or 5 hide for any 1 primary resource or trade in 5 hide for 1 steel.

A secondary market place may be upgraded to a master market place. A secondary market place that has been upgraded to a master market place allows a house to trade the mystic resource for primary or secondary resources. The market place can also be used to trade the primary resource and secondary resource it was originally formed to trade. The trade ratio remains the same as it was before the secondary market place was upgraded, however, a House may lower the ratio of a Master Market place to 2 to 1 by expending 100 Organization Points per 1 resource the ratio is dropped. A house must be at least seventh level before a master market place can be created. It costs 150 Organization Points to upgrade a secondary market place to a master market place.

Commodities
A Commodity is a refined resource that can be used by the craftsman to create advanced items (see item creation page ##) and to bolster trade routes through the creation of buildings (see buildings on page #). There are 5 commodities in game. The commodities and the resources required to create a commodity are:

Commodity/ Resources Required/ Corresponding Path
Focusing Materials/ Gems, Iron, Stuff, Hide/ Empath
Rarified Herbs and Spices/ Food, Cloth, Stuff, Cloth/ Healer
Brewed Liquids/ Food, Hide, Stuff, Steel/ Rogue
Written Works/ Cloth, Hide, Food, Gems/ Sage
Refined Materials/ Steel, Hide, Stuff, Cloth/ Warrior

A house may ONLY create commodities between events and are limited in the number of different types of commodities that they can create (see the chart on Page $$). In the beginning, Houses are only able to create one commodity. As they advance, Houses will be able to change their commodity and produce more commodities. In addition, Houses will have the option of specializing by lowering the number of resources needed to produce the commodity. It costs 200 Organizational points for a house to gain the ability to produce one commodity. It costs an additional 200 Organization points to reduce the resource cost to make the commodity by one. When the resource cost is reduced, the right-most resource listed on the chart above is removed as a requirement. A commodity must always cost at least two resources to produce.

Start......Maintain....... Max OP..... Max Commodities
200.......... 100.......... 200.......... 1
300.......... 250.......... 300.......... 1
400.......... 150.......... 400.......... 1
500.......... 250.......... 500.......... 1
700.......... 200.......... 700.......... 2
800.......... 600.......... 800.......... 2
1000........ 400.......... 1000........ 3
1200........ 1000........ 1200........ 3