Institutional and Leadership Experience

 There are by now a number of institutions in Cothon-Gadeed and its hinterlands which have been invested in and developed by, or are outright run by player-characters. Most ambitious, perhaps, is Sesel's iqta', which includes the fortified tower he was granted permission to construct by the Souffets, as well as a colony of Klackons he installed on his lands. Fort Bugeater is now another such stronghold to be developed by him and Censor Pako; but there are also Fort Doghouse in the Ocean's Throat; Bob Hall in the nearby caverns; also in said caverns, the renyu tribe of the Was'go; within Cothon itself are Durham's Ringing Anvil, Fa Min's dojo, Heijo's teashop, and the confraternities of Najm (St. Iskameen) and of Arngeir (a saint whose name the scribes don't immediately recall, unfortunately). There is also still, in Old Tsurr, the Crag Keep of Lord Althis and his compatriot (whose name the scribes have also forgotten, alas).

Nods have been made toward the various ways these institutions might be further developed, or put to use by their patrons. But these have mostly been material, either as acquisitions or assets of the institutions, related directly in some way to money or other directly material gains. What I want to explore now is the possibility of the development of the "spirit", one might say, of the patrons of these institutions. Pockets can certainly be lined by leveraging institutional growth--but what about, instead, seeking growth of one's qualities of leadership and of the esprit de corps of the institution itself?

I've seen systems where player-characters can earn experience for the expenses they spend on building and maintaining domains, which I am not currently proposing. Instead, per a conversation with Jacob (player of Sesel), I've had a different kind of thought, one more closely tied to the idea of learning through leadership and the commanding of followers and retainers.

So this is my thought:

Institution holders with man-at-arms or magic-using type followers who send these followers on a quest or expedition should earn for themselves some fraction of the total experience points earned by their followers, as a part of their growing experience in command and leadership. For this game, in the same way that retainers or followers under the command of a player-character earn 50% of the PC's experience "sui-generis" (i.e. it doesn't come out of the total pool of xp), then leadership experience will also be generated separately and not come out of the pool of experience of those followers sent on the mission.

The leader's experience gain will not be a fraction of any individual's earned experience, but instead a fraction of the entire pool of experience points. Just what fraction is right isn't immediately clear to me, and we will almost certainly have to run through some different ventures at this before coming to the right portion. My initial thought is 20% of the total experience of the expedition; but it's not clear if this will be too generous (I still want to see institution-holding PCs adventure for the sro's share of their xp) or if it would be too stingy (thus making it unworthy of the attention of an institution holder to even bother).

The offering of bounties might be an additional method for characters to earn leadership experience points, especially for those who are higher in level, flush with cash, and yet who do not personally direct any men-at-arms or magic-users who might adventure on their behalf.

I don't have a clear sense of how bounties or rewards might translate into experience points in this way. My first thought is perhaps that a bounty of 200 dinars x character level might be the maximum amount that could earn experience for one-to-one rates (dn to xp), but putting such a flat cap on experience from quests doesn't seem quite right. A fraction like what I suggested for other institution holders seems more appropriate. But perhaps this shouldn't be a separate class of inspiration for a quest; perhaps those who inspire a quest through offer of bounties or rewards should earn the same fraction of experience points from an expedition as those who send their direct vassals on a quest, and the bounty just happens to be the means of inspiration, instead of any sense of loyalty or fealty.

I'm interested to hear what others think of this idea; and also interested in testing this idea out directly for those interested in inspiring quests and earning experience indirectly through the success of their underlings in such expeditions.

It should be noted that direct leadership of followers or retainers in a larger context, i.e. in battles or other military matters, would garner a leader-type experience in the normal fashion, through the defeat of enemies and the acquisition of spoils. What is under consideration here is the sending or inspiration of followers or retainers into adventurous undertakings of their own.