Suggestions about the town hall.

[ElvisLives]

I browsed through the new features section and didn't find anything related to this so sorry if it has been suggested before.

As it is the town hall is pretty bland. You can bribe and that is about it. I suggest that the town hall actually have several positions available that are filled with random people at the start but can be filled by your people during elections. Each individual position can be bribed which would increase their loyalty to you unless they're being bribed more by someone else.

An example of these positions would be:
Tax Collector: Bribing this person would lower the tax rate for you and if you bribe them enough they could raise the tax rates for other people. If you fill this position during an election with someone VERY loyal to you, you might even be able to skim some off the top.

Sheriff: Bribing this person would lower the chances of a raid occurring or increasing them for your opponents. Higher loyalty or filling the position might lead to more targeted raids, maybe even against other town hall members but with a low chance of success unless you can find (or fabricate) evidence against them.

Judge: Changes the severity of punishment for if you or others are found guilty of a crime. Basically a raid from the sheriff would capture someone for a week while they await court and then the judge would give sentencing.

Prison Warden/Executioner/torturer: Maybe the same position, maybe not. Increases jailbreaks or accidental death in jail. If the judge sentences 'Light torture' you could bribe for even lighter or more severe.

Mayor: This position would cause a small loyalty bonus/penalty with all other positions.

Town Council: This would actually be 4-6 positions that all had the same abilities. To change the current laws. Each position could propose one change per week but the entire council would have to vote on it for it to pass. You could change the laws so that kidnapping the homeless was legal. Prostitution was legal. Torture was legal. Slavery was legal. Etc. Or you could do the opposite if you have enough influence to survive/avoid the raids and wipe out your opponents.

Each position would come up for elections eventually and here is where gangs come into play. If you wanted you could force an election by killing an elected official. The murder would be required because they would not start an election until they had proof of death or something. In addition, if you propose one of your girls/daughters/sons for the position your gangs could run legal campaigns, lightly illegal campaigns, smear campaigns against an opponent, or highly illegal stuffing the ballot box campaigns.

Having a girl/one of your children in an office would effectively make them not work anything else until they are out of office.

Allowing the player to run for office would be difficult because of the chance for murder but I could see it working. It would also allow for gangs to have a bodyguard action for preventing town hall deaths.

Also, as an unrelated note: what about a house for the player? Something as expensive as a brothel and you can house girls/children there but they can only work certain jobs from there like town hall jobs if the above got implemented.

So thoughts or comments?

[DocClox]

It would be nice to expand Crossgate's civil service a little. I'm not sure about elections (do they even have the concept in Crossgate?) but seduction, blackmail, bribery and if all else fails, assassination could all be on the cards.

Not for a while though.

Also, as an unrelated note: what about a house for the player? Something as expensive as a brothel and you can house girls/children there but they can only work certain jobs from there like town hall jobs if the above got implemented.

The player has a house already, although you can't do much with it. If it was me, I'd take the penthouse suite in a brothel and armourplate the damn thing. Or the dungeon - at least you can escape through the catacombs if things go seriously pear-shaped.

But yeah, adding rooms and managing it the same as a brothel is doable. The question then this what stops the enterprising player from turning it into a brothel. Easiest way might be to have a player suite as a facility you can add to any building, and then give bonuses based on the quality of the player's digs, so he has an incentive to spend money on things that don't directly generate cash.

[ElvisLives]

It would be nice to expand Crossgate's civil service a little. I'm not sure about elections (do they even have the concept in Crossgate?) but seduction, blackmail, bribery and if all else fails, assassination could all be on the cards.

Not for a while though.

The player has a house already, although you can't do much with it. If it was me, I'd take the penthouse suite in a brothel and armourplate the damn thing. Or the dungeon - at least you can escape through the catacombs if things go seriously pear-shaped.

But yeah, adding rooms and managing it the same as a brothel is doable. The question then this what stops the enterprising player from turning it into a brothel. Easiest way might be to have a player suite as a facility you can add to any building, and then give bonuses based on the quality of the player's digs, so he has an incentive to spend money on things that don't directly generate cash.

Good to hear the politics will be fleshed out eventually.

As for the house, have you ever played a game called Europa 1400: The Guild? If not I suggest you do so because the game that's been created here is like a simplified mirror of that game.... just with more porn. It is a fantastic game that you can pick up from amazon for $10 or less.

Back to the point, in the Guild players own a house which starts off pretty simple but can be expanded upon as the game progresses. These expansions started with simple things like security features that reduce by 2-4% the chance of a burglary being successful, 1 extra "action point" (usually took 6 points to do anything), small health modifiers, and prestige bonuses. But they could be as complex as new rooms which allowed you to throw parties (the ballroom), hire spies (the backroom), have an affair or 5 (music room), hide money (cellar), or to write letters (library).

If you bring these ideas over to Whore Master, then yes the player could turn his house into a brothel but he would lose the bonuses from each room he converted since I doubt you could host a successful dinner party while louts from off the street fuck not 6 feet away. And what is to keep the house from having an optional escape route into the catacombs anyways? Sure it's a bit dangerous of an escape route but the player is living a dangerous life as it is.

Edit: Oh almost forgot, don't bother with the Guild 2. They fucked up the sequel.

[necno]

Crossgate is a city founded by villains along a popular smuggling route through a dense forest. The government in the city is corrupt and often replaced as old leaders get killed. 
Yes i just did this then