A feudal lord's guide to the Focuses

[TheDarkMaster]

Hunting: Spend all day playing games. Live a long and fulfilling life dodging your duties.

Carousing: Spend all day partying, maybe make some friends.

Theology: Make the people in fancy robes happy.

War: Learn the finer points of bigger army diplomacy. Maybe actually kill that guy you hate.

Family: Spend some time with your wife/husband/kids. More importantly, do your royal duty!

Business: Learn ways to make money other than taxing peasants and demanding tolls on barely maintained roads.

Scholarship: Make the people in fancy robes mad.

Seduction: Make men/women mad.

Intrigue: Make everyone mad.

Rulership: Do your fucking job.

 

[RedBishop]

I like it, let me give it a try
Hunting: be healthy, live long and prosper! hey look, a doggie, more health, yes, give me all the healthz

Carousing: party and try to make some useful friends until you get those fancy blue icons

Theology: wut? there is a theology focus?

War: Make me army bigger to crush all those factions!. why do I never get the rivalry to kill the guy I hate?

Seduction: Make men/women mad, AKA how to get your wife to try to poison you.

Family: Spend some time with your wife/husband/kids, maybe get forgiveness for those escapades from the seduction focus. yes, be a good old man and play with your grandchildren while your kingdom crumbles.

Rulership: Do your fucking job and die fast stressed and depressed, no one said being a king was easy.

Business: Learn ways to make money other than taxing peasants and demanding tolls on barely maintained roads.

Scholarship: Oh yes, nice stars, nice moon, I think the moon calls me, I might be a werewolf and maybe eat my genius heir and leave the kingdom to his dull witted brother

Intrigue: how to get some easy counties for my 7 bastards

 

[Bernard95]

Lol, I might as well give it a shot too.

Hunting: Gain an obsession for hunting your arch-nemesis, the Great White Whale... I mean Stag which is somehow really healthy for you.

Carousing: Get drunk and party hard, possibly just enough that you might develop a certain craving or otherwise go play some Total War.

Theology: Wait, theology is supposed to make you believe more in your own religion? Just when I was thinking about to coverting to this cool new heresy.

War: I'm totally as good as a strategist as Alexander the Great because of that +3 martial.

Seduction: For the skirt-chaser or man-hunter in all of us. Don't forget to seduce anything with a pulse!

Family: Maybe my family won't be out to get me if I make nice with them?

Rulership: When you find out it isn't always great to be King...

Business: Would I rather have my face on some coins or have a whole lot of coin?

Scholarship: What if I told you studying too hard can make you totally crazy?

Intrigue: Roleplay as a super-villian, get back at your liege, and generally cause some chaos.

 

[MandarinB]

Hunting: Medieval Ages Survival Kit, live to 95! Or, waste your time searching for a extremely rare animal (Robert Baratheon Simulator pt1)

Carousing: Make Friends, Get drunk of the taxpayer money (Robert Baratheon Simulator pt2)

Theology: Free Piety and priest friends to use against the current Pope

War: Free martial for inbred Kings, Duel all the guys who hate you from that one bar fight

Seduction: How to get STDs, Assassinations, and Bastards. Its good to be King! (Robert Baratheon Simulator pt3)

Family: Trying to make sure your family doesn't kill each other during your pilgrimage, plus finally getting the wife to sleep with you

Rulership: Pissing off your vassals over a fucking robbery that happened on their land, In other words: Being King

Business: Littlefinger Simulator

Scholarship: How to stop being Iconoclastic Basilieus

Intrigue: The best way to dictate your Kingdom without too many wars

 

[DPS]

Hunting: Who knew that becoming Captain Ahab was good for your health?

War: Learn how to fight well, then find out at no one wants to fight you.

Carousing: Throw a party, and either become a drunk or a geek.

Family: Make your wife like you. Force your kid to spend time together and enjoy it, or else.

Seduction: Get herpes and make your wife hate you.

Intrigue: Find out most people in your realm are actually pretty boring. Frame 'em for crimes anyway if it suits your whims.

Theology: Priests like you. Who cares?

Scholarship: Priests hate you. Who cares?

Business: Watch priests screw up your trade missions.

Rulership: Get stressed out. Work sucks.

 

[Azhcristokos]

Hunting: When medicine fails, throw yourself in front of bears and wild boars to cure that pesky case of leprosy.

War: Fight until you die - or never, if your rival, the court chaplain of the Baron of Nowhere, hides in his castle like a Karling his whole life.

Carousing: Party forever!

Family: Sit back, relax, and enjoy married life with your one-eyed hunchback wife and your worthless heirs.

Seduction: Screw the kingdom; bed the king.

Intrigue: Learn that even in times of strife, in most of the world, nothing is happening at all.

Theology: Thoughts and prayers!

Scholarship: Learn the joy of being the only one who knows how to read.

Business: Never have to borrow from or banish Jews again.

Rulership: Experience the thrill of becoming miserable and stressed after decades of nothing happening.

 

[Knotz]

Hunting: Live weirdly long despite a dangerous hobby, spend years hunting your nemesis, seduce beautiful strangers in unlikely places, build a pyramid to your dog. My name is Godfrid. Duke Godfrid.

War: Proof that gaming results in actionable real life skills.

Carousing: Party like its 999! In other words cannibalize your children!

Family: So wholesome you'll get the impaler trait just to balance things out.

Seduction: Become the living, breathing most eloquent argument for chastity in the Church's arsenal.

Intrigue: Cross between Trump's twitter account and Varys.

Theology: Probably why the emphasis with religion is on faith and not the scientific method.

Scholarship: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

Business: Putting money before personal integrity before it was cool.

Rulership: The devs meta-joke as to why the game doesn't feature the intricacies of rulership in more detail.

 

[hagagaga]

War: Duel some guy who's been your rival since before your last character died. Who is this count? Why is he a rival for an emperor?

Hunting: For some reason, Paradox believes that medieval rulers were vampires who could become healthier by stealing the life force of animals.

Intrigue: Assassinate to your heart's content.

Seduction: Do something that, when NPC's do it, annoys you to no end. Also do the wives of those NPC's.

Rulership: Sit at home and do nothing. Have a stable realm. It's like being Jain, but in a more interesting part of the world.

Business: Have money. Go on trade expeditions. Bring a priest and anger whoever it is.

Carousing: Have parties and make the other guys in your realm like you more.

Family: Get your wife to stop plotting your assassination.

Scholarship/Theology: People actually do this?

 

[TheDarkMaster]

War: Duel some guy who's been your rival since before your last character died. Who is this count? Why is he a rival for an emperor?

Most of the time, that's the only way I actually get rivals in the first place. The worst is when it's a critical vassal that you're suddenly rivaled to.

Scholarship/Theology: People actually do this?

Theology means the very nice pilgramage decision as a Christian. Scholarship means getting those key techs ASAP as a pagan.

 

[Fishman786]

Hunting: Gluttony.

War: Wroth.

Rulership: Pride.

Scholarship: also Pride.

Business: Greed.

Seduction: Lust.

Carousing: Sloth

Family: Lust and Sloth!

Intrigue: Where to begin!

Theology: The only true route to escape the suffering and misery of this mortal world and look forward to the eternal life instead.


Signed,

Your Court Chaplain.

PS: there's this cool heresy I just heard about on my trip to Socotra, I think you'll rather enjoy it...

 

[Baldwin XI]

Theology: Probably why the emphasis with religion is on faith and not the scientific method.

Considering that a medieval Franciscan monk, Roger Bacon (~1219-1292), helped lay the groundwork for the scientific method, your statement needs a bit of work.

 

[Knotz]

Considering that a medieval Franciscan monk, Roger Bacon (~1219-1292), helped lay the groundwork for the scientific method, your statement needs a bit of work.

Considering my statement was an off-handed joke, no it doesn't.

Besides lets not pretend, contributions of Mr Bacon notwithstanding, that religion emphasizes verifiable, falsifiable, measurable phenomena above faith.

 

[adriankowaty]

War: Duel some guy who's been your rival since before your last character died. Who is this count? Why is he a rival for an emperor?

Hunting: For some reason, Paradox believes that medieval rulers were vampires who could become healthier by stealing the life force of animals.

Intrigue: Assassinate to your heart's content.

Seduction: Do something that, when NPC's do it, annoys you to no end. Also do the wives of those NPC's.

Rulership: Sit at home and do nothing. Have a stable realm. It's like being Jain, but in a more interesting part of the world.

Business: Have money. Go on trade expeditions. Bring a priest and anger whoever it is.

Carousing: Have parties and make the other guys in your realm like you more.

Family: Get your wife to stop plotting your assassination.

Scholarship/Theology: People actually do this?

Hunting: Quite useful to extend ruler's lifespan. Especially when you're over 50.
Intrigue: Useful if you don't have skilled (24+) and loyal spymaster, otherwise unnesesary.
Seduction: Do you need proper heir? All your sons/daughters are useless idiots, inbred or even imbecile? Try this! Spam your bastards and legitimize one, who's eiligble and skilled enough! Also useful when somebody is trying to produce bastards for you.
Rulership: Do you need stable realm or perhaps to improve your stewardship? Try this! Only risk is to get depression or stress, however depression is useful to get rid of useless rulers!
Business: Do you need money or perhaps positive modifiers increasing your demense effiniency? Do you want to improve your stewardship? Get this!
Carousing: Useful when you want to get board games modifier or just improve relations with vassals. Otherwise not so much.
Family: Haven't tested yet, so I'm unsure what I'd get with this above better family relations.
Scholarship: Always useful. Technology points are always welcome.
Theology: Poorer brother of Scholarship. Useful when you want to get additional learning bonuses. Otherwise, not so much.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

Family: Not tested yet, so I'm sure what I'd get with this above better family relations.

As I said in the OP, family focus is best when you want your ruler to do their royal duty (IE: Have kids with their spouse).

 

[Rationalsanity]

Hunting: Immortality. Take it! It's yours!

War: Maybe kill someone the game says you hate. Also Wargaming.

Carousing: Alcoholism prevents civil wars.

Family: Get heirs, prevent them from killing each other (hopefully). Warning: Do Not Expose to Gavelkind.

Intrigue: Tyranny free injustice.

Seduction: Screw them before they screw you.

Theology: Books, and pilgrimages. The weakest type of rulers on the map like you more.

Scholarship: Heliocentric theory or Lovecraft: The Early Years.

Business: Get rich or die (from stress) trying.

Rulership: Piss off vassals with fair decisions, then die from stress.

 

[Urzhail64]

My personal favorite:

Seduction: The ultimate in schadenfreude: A very indirect way of seeing who loves you more - your lover or your spouse while they try to kill each other. It's kind of like assassination in some ways.

 

[Narvait]

Hunting: free health.
War: more martial skill.
Intrigue: imprison/ kill bad people free.
Seduction: sleep with genius babes, do not recognize failed heirs.
Carousing: never learned to use it properly.
Family: naah.
Business: free money.
Rulership: never got anything good out of it. To get depressed and do Kurt Vonnegut?
Theology: free piety. Much needed for Holy Orders.
Scholarship: faster techs.

 

[DPS]

As I said in the OP, family focus is best when you want your ruler to do their royal duty (IE: Have kids with their spouse).

Well, since somebody had to be a party-pooper and take this thread seriously, it also gives you the same +1 health bonus as the hunting focus.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

Well, since somebody had to be a party-pooper and take this thread seriously, it also gives you the same +1 health bonus as the hunting focus.

I kinda started the thread in the first place just because I wanted to make the, "Do your job!" joke.