As the ruler of a stronghold you can't do everything alone. Well you can, but if you have people to help you, you get better results. There are three main roles and two subsidiary roles that can affect the way a Stronghold is run. The more suitable each person is for the role they hold, the more effective your stronghold management will be.

If you control a large area, separate domains or more than one settlement, you will need an administrator to oversee them for you. It might just the senior ranking military commander in the area (certainly in rural and countryside areas) but you might also choose to appoint a specific surrogate leader (especially if it is a large area or you want to reward someone with a title) to oversee things on your behalf.

One of the things you, and your stewardship committee, must do is maintain a balance between Economy, Loyalty and Stability. As soon as they get out of balance, your population starts to get edgy and argumentative.

Balance

When you build a Stronghold you must keep Economy, Loyalty and Stability in balance – When you start off, this means they must all be within one point of each other - for example 1,0,0 or 5,6,6 or 22,21,22 are all in balance. Anything outside of that balance (such as 7,8,9) means that there is tension in your stronghold and things start to go wrong. Just out of balance might mean the price of cabbages goes up and your commoners get hungry and grumpy. Right out of balance could mean a full blown civil war. And we all know how the Wangate Cabbage Shortages of ’03 led to the revolution that overthrew the Grand Poobah of Wang … you have been warned!

As your stronghold gets bigger, it becomes a bit more resilient. For example a quickly quelled food protest in the docks district, might not be enough to upset the traders in the Merchant District, or the Rich Folks in the Central District. This is measured by Variance which is examined later.

These are the people who oversee the stronghold and make day to day management decisions, they work in background and their skills are used to judge how well they do. This can include the PC who owns the town, NPCs or a collection of PCs - however, the basic day-to-day stuff still happens in the background.

• There are three major posts
  • Executive: The face of the stronghold (Normally the Lord/Lady - although you could take on of the other roles and appoint a mayor to handle the day-to-day running). The one that people look to for leadership, directions and guidance. How the population react to their leader is based on Charisma. You can choose to use one of three charisma based skills (Diplomacy, Intimidate or Bluff) to manage your city. Be careful though. If you use Intimidate people follow you from fear, Bluff means you are tricking them into following you – Diplomacy means they follow you from respect. Intimidate suits an Evil Overlord, Bluff suits some sort of hidden and underhand government, while Diplomacy is honourable, above board and people follow though respect. And I will be checking your alignment and how you RP the role. Anyhow, for the example later, I am going to assume that Diplomacy is the norm and the other two are exceptions.
    Key Skill: Diplomacy. (Bluff or Intimidate)
    Possible Titles: Lord; Lady; Mayor; Governor.
  • Chancellor: The person who looks after the money. They know what taxes are due, who owes what, and who is trying to take advantage of you. They look after your stronghold’s taxes, businesses, vaults, debts and treasury. This is a professional skill, and normally it is measured on Profession(Merchant). You would have to make a very good case for any other standard Profession sub skill – although I could see someone with a niche skill, such as Profession(Accountant), in this role.
    Key Skill: Profession(Merchant)
    Possible Titles: Chancellor; Treasurer; Steward; Quartermaster.
  • Advocate: To make the right decision you have to know the mood of your people. It doesn't matter how good your diplomacy skills are, it is easier to sell people a version of something that is palatable to them, and the Advocate provides feedback from the populous to help make those decisions. In Evil or Hidden regimes, feedback is just as important – if only to tell you where the rebels are, or who is starting to uncover secrets. This ability to feedback good information about your population is measured by the skill Knowledge(Local).
    Key Skill: Knowledge(Local)
    Possible Titles: Councilor, Magistrate, Bailiff.
• There are two minor posts that only affect variance in larger strongholds
  • Moderator of Churches: The Moderator of Churches oversees the Council Of Churches and advises on whether new religious organizations should be permitted in the stronghold. It is only effective in larger strongholds when you calculate variance.
  • Marshal: The Marshall oversees the stronghold's guards and ensures they behave in a proper manner. It is only effective in larger strongholds when you calculate variance.

Add the Skill Modifiers from each of the three main priary councillors, then using the Total calculate the Stewardship Consumption Modifier by applying the following formula - (Total-10)/5

Which basically means if the committees total Steward Skills = 15, then you can discount one point of Consumption. If total Steward Skills = 20, then you can discount two points of Consumption. Etc …

Every stronghold is assumed to start out with an alighnment of TN and variance 1. That means the Stronghold stays in Economic Balance if Economy, Loyalty and Stability are all within 1 point of each other. So Economy 2, Loyalty 1, Stability 1 - is in balance. As is Economy 4, Loyalty 3, Stability 4. However, Economy 5, Loyalty 3, Stability 4 is out of balance (at variance 1) as there is a 2 point difference between Economy and Loyalty.

However, the variance can change.

Rulers' Attitude

If the rulers are consistent (lawful) the population have a better idea of the rules and the more the rulers 'care' about their people, the more tolerant the residents will be. So basically, Lawful and Good increase variance, Chaos and evil reduce it. Calculate the council's overall alignment by 'adding up' the alignments of the various councillors - any neutral element of an alignment is ignored, then Cs ans Ls cancel out, Gs and Es cancel out - and take the remainder.

Examples

Council Overall Variance table.

Affecting the Council's Alignment.

It is much easier to manage a stronghold with a high variance, rather than with a low variance and you can affect the variance by manipulating the Council's Alignment. Entourage Assistants can be brilliant for this.

There are two minor posts on the Stronghold council, Moderator and Marshal, that can be used to help manage the Council's Overall alignment - however, they must have the right levels of influence to be effective.

• Marshal: You may count the Marshal's alignment IF the Stronghold council controls at least once defence point per Semi-Wilderness Hex, Rural Hex and Urban District under its control.
• Moderator: You may count the Moderator's alignment IF the Religious Buildings (A Holy Grove or anything on this list) in a Stronghold generate (at least) one point of loyalty per Semi-Wilderness Hex, Rural Hex. Urban Hex and District under its control.