Right now there are LOADS of ways to acquire rivals and start feuds with other houses, but very little to actively choose to do to these rivals besides murder them. You can try to sleep with their spouse... if they have one, and if that wouldn't just cause you more headaches than it's worth. You can try to steal an artifact... if they have any. You can send a rude poem... if you have the rare Poet trait. And you can try to duel them. That's basically it. This means that most of the time, rivals/feuding houses either do nothing or just try to kill each other, since most characters in the world are not rulers and have no artifacts to steal and many don't even have spouses. This leads to the irritating murder spam between people who have no good reason to be choosing such a nuclear option (see my complaints about which here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...y-checks-to-non-ruler-murder-schemes.1548972/) and the scorched-earth genocide of rival houses down to the last innocent toddler.
So what I'd like to see is a few more options for revenge that don't involve murder. The duels are a good starting point, I think, because they offer both a tangible reward (prestige) and an intangible sense of accomplishment (you humiliated that jerk in front of the whole world!) that can RP-wise appeal to the many people on earth who aren't, you know, crazed killers who think death is the appropriate reward for starting a food fight with them. Perhaps open up some of the lower-stakes interactions that already exist like the "sumptuary law" debate (look at this jerk's ugly fashion sense!), the board game (look at this dumb jerk who can't win at chess!), or the Learning-based religious debate (look at how this jerk sins before God!) as ways to score small amounts of feud points, and as ways for courtiers and other non-leaders to interact with their rivals. Or if not those exact activities, something similar that offers a way to humiliate your rival in public and earn some kind of reward, be it prestige, piety, or money.
This would make house feuds more varied and less "last act of Hamlet all day every day." And it would frequently make something interesting happen in my royal court completely organically. There's already an event where two of your knights try to duel each other, why not make this sort of thing something they can choose on their own? My court poet could be sending rude poems to my adulterous knight, my cup-bearer could be "accidentally" spilling the wine on him, my ladies-in-waiting could be roasting his ugly hat, all instead of starting yet another dumb 5% chance of success murder scheme that goes nowhere and does nothing.
Murder is a fine and classic revenge, but it's not the ONLY revenge. Let's make the seething hatred of our fellow human beings more varied and interesting!
ETA: And OF COURSE this would all be tied to personality traits, with the low-honor low-compassion folks still choosing to stab their problems away, the arrogant or brave ones wanting public humiliation of their enemies, and the more forgiving/humble/shy types less likely to engage with any of this nonsense at all!
*prayer hands emoji*
So what I'd like to see is a few more options for revenge that don't involve murder. The duels are a good starting point, I think, because they offer both a tangible reward (prestige) and an intangible sense of accomplishment (you humiliated that jerk in front of the whole world!) that can RP-wise appeal to the many people on earth who aren't, you know, crazed killers who think death is the appropriate reward for starting a food fight with them. Perhaps open up some of the lower-stakes interactions that already exist like the "sumptuary law" debate (look at this jerk's ugly fashion sense!), the board game (look at this dumb jerk who can't win at chess!), or the Learning-based religious debate (look at how this jerk sins before God!) as ways to score small amounts of feud points, and as ways for courtiers and other non-leaders to interact with their rivals. Or if not those exact activities, something similar that offers a way to humiliate your rival in public and earn some kind of reward, be it prestige, piety, or money.
This would make house feuds more varied and less "last act of Hamlet all day every day." And it would frequently make something interesting happen in my royal court completely organically. There's already an event where two of your knights try to duel each other, why not make this sort of thing something they can choose on their own? My court poet could be sending rude poems to my adulterous knight, my cup-bearer could be "accidentally" spilling the wine on him, my ladies-in-waiting could be roasting his ugly hat, all instead of starting yet another dumb 5% chance of success murder scheme that goes nowhere and does nothing.
Murder is a fine and classic revenge, but it's not the ONLY revenge. Let's make the seething hatred of our fellow human beings more varied and interesting!
ETA: And OF COURSE this would all be tied to personality traits, with the low-honor low-compassion folks still choosing to stab their problems away, the arrogant or brave ones wanting public humiliation of their enemies, and the more forgiving/humble/shy types less likely to engage with any of this nonsense at all!
*prayer hands emoji*
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