Boardroom and Curia Question

[Emerikol]

So I picked this up and I like it. I have some questions and I do some explaining here but if you just want the questions skip to the bottom.

I've been thinking about how to organize the various major factions in my primary campaign city. The city is super big (think Rome but it's not a capital and it's more of a trading city).

The city is ruled by an Oligarchy in the form of a city council. Various vactions include the priesthood of the dominant religion, a college of wizards, a paladinic order, various guildmasters, the captain of the dwarves, and the captain of the city watch. That is just to name a few big ones.

Some of the guilds are actually fronting for criminal enterprises. Various groups exist in the city and they vary in power and reach.

I think most of those groups I mentioned I could easily start out with just a regular stat block. There are a few though I have questions about (yes there is a question in here somewhere).

QUESTION #1
I noticed that it was suggested that you can "build" a heirarchy of entries. So for a criminal enterprise you could stat out the entire organization but you could then stat out individual elements of that enterprise as well. So for example if a large tavern and brothel were being operated by a criminal enterprise, it might get a stat block of its own. Right?

QUESTION #2
The temple for this particular goddess is a big deal for the city. Lots of pilgrims. But the religion is a pantheon and various chapels to various gods can be found throughout the city. Probably dozens. Would you stat a single chapel or not?

QUESTION #3
I guess I'm wondering how far down you think I should go in stating subordinate pieces of large organizations. This city at some point could become a "sandbox" of sorts for a group of adventurers.

[Emerikol]

Not related to the questions. I just wanted to comment that I really liked that so many examples of such variety were given. I think this was a great approach. Often for me examples are more useful than additional rules text.

[Michele]

That's a question I asked myself a few times. My answer was that if the subordinate organization had some relevant degree of autonomy, it needed its own separate stats. If it was only a local/specialized branch of the overall organization, which actually took all decisions, then I considered the whole as one organization only, with no separate stats for the branch.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

QUESTION #2
The temple for this particular goddess is a big deal for the city. Lots of pilgrims. But the religion is a pantheon and various chapels to various gods can be found throughout the city. Probably dozens. Would you stat a single chapel or not?

Being the same religion doesn't mean they're part of the same organization - a Southern Baptist church isn't going to abide by the proclamations issued by the Pope, because while they follow the same religion (Christianity), they are different organizations*. With a pantheon, you're very likely to end up with chapels being largely independent of those associated with other gods. This particular chapel may well organizationally be part of a larger cult of that goddess (or not), which could be a significant factor in statting it up, but chances are good it's largely independent of the other chapels. Of course, if all the chapels in the city are centrally managed (perhaps by those in the chapel of the King of Gods or whatever), then statting them up as a single organization would make a good deal of sense.

*For that matter, one Southern Baptist church is unlikely to be directly influenced much by what another one does, because while they follow the same religion more closely than in the Baptist vs Catholic example, they're still different organizations. At least from how I understand them.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by Michele

That's a question I asked myself a few times. My answer was that if the subordinate organization had some relevant degree of autonomy, it needed its own separate stats. If it was only a local/specialized branch of the overall organization, which actually took all decisions, then I considered the whole as one organization only, with no separate stats for the branch.

This is a great point. I see my criminal organizations being fairly autonomous day to day. The religious organizations less so but still pretty autonomous.

The degree of autonomy though is definitely a factor. I think you are on to something with that idea.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Being the same religion doesn't mean they're part of the same organization - a Southern Baptist church isn't going to abide by the proclamations issued by the Pope, because while they follow the same religion (Christianity), they are different organizations*. With a pantheon, you're very likely to end up with chapels being largely independent of those associated with other gods. This particular chapel may well organizationally be part of a larger cult of that goddess (or not), which could be a significant factor in statting it up, but chances are good it's largely independent of the other chapels. Of course, if all the chapels in the city are centrally managed (perhaps by those in the chapel of the King of Gods or whatever), then statting them up as a single organization would make a good deal of sense.

*For that matter, one Southern Baptist church is unlikely to be directly influenced much by what another one does, because while they follow the same religion more closely than in the Baptist vs Catholic example, they're still different organizations. At least from how I understand them.

I will admit in my fantasy world there is not as much denominationalism. Each god in the pantheon has one priest who is supreme for that god and generally speaks for the god. Their title in fact is "voice of the god or goddess".

I do though see by its very nature that the day to day business of a chapel or shrine is pretty autonomous from the main body. Communication is not what we have today. So while the Catholic church in the middle ages could exert it's will across continents, that took time and most day to day decisions were done by the local bishop or even parish priest.

So the city itself has as it's patron the goddess I mentioned above, they are all part of the Celestial Host. Most people view the "religion" as a veneration for the entire Host. People would not say they worship god or goddess X and not Y. What they might though do is have a very special veneration for a particular one.

One good way to think of it would be to view it the way Catholics view saints. St Paul's Cathedral or St John's Cathedral are all Catholic churches. People who are doing something related to a particular saint might say a prayer to that saint. That is why people say there is a saint of this or a saint of that. obviously there are not that many gods in this pantheon but the idea still holds. The gods just have a broader perview.

So the "voice of the Gods" types are like Cardinals. They as a group decide policy for the entire religion.

Almost all the chapels though have a focus on one of the gods. Those chapels could expect aid from any other chapel or member of the religions regardless of whichever god that chapel was focused towards.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

Communication is not what we have today. So while the Catholic church in the middle ages could exert it's will across continents, that took time and most day to day decisions were done by the local bishop or even parish priest.

Yes, but don't forget Boardroom and Curia has a stat for the reaction time of the organization. That takes into account the TL (and therefore the issue you mention above), but not only that. It might be that the local priest's reaction in front of a given range of difficult problems is simply: do nothing on your own, just report up the chain of command and wait for orders. That causes a delay, of course.

[Willy]

Some cultures gave also sealed written orders to selected officials, to be opened only in a certain situation which was described beforehand.

That gave for example roman province governours a way to act immediately, and not wait days or weeks until rome answered. But since the orders where fixed they may not be appropriate for the situation. At least in one situation the local governour followed the orders blindly and messed it up completely, because the barbarians he should attack immediately, if they entered roman territory were much stronger than expected. He lost the battle and a entire province.