Playing as Lord Mayors/Burghers?

[Kilkakon]

This is something I've love to see. I love Republics, don't get me wrong, but the main thing that they stop me doing is having fun starting from one county and moving up to taking over everything. It's also not possible to play as a vassal of a friend unless they start as a King, which is quite an advanced start. Note I'm not asking for minor Burghers to be playable, just the ones who rule the whole county (The city version of a Count).

What sort of features would set them apart from republics? Obviously they shouldn't inherit everything from Republics as they aren't that large. Male exclusive Elective/Open Elective is probably sufficient for succession. Unsure if the family mansion should be in play, definitely not trading posts as those imply significant economic power.

I'd say when they hold a duchy they can turn it into a republic by decision, and have a pretty low demense/a tax penalty so people would want to change to republic pretty quickly.

Anybody else have any thoughts on this? I'm just sharing some of my own!

 

[Kilkakon]

Anybody had any further thoughts on this?

 

[Vaximillian]

Don't forget that this is a dynasty game overall. Your character must have a family mansion or whatever landed title in order to continue to function. Without it your game will be over as soon as you lose an election. Also you'd need a system for election. If you copy it from existing merchant republics, then all the lord mayors gain five times more court and whatnot. It's not as easy task to implement playable lord mayors in the game, you see.

And don't even start on theocracies...

 

[Kilkakon]

I'd think something similar to Feudal Elective, but only working on courtiers (which includes your family), would be something workable.

 

[Dirt McStain]

I think mayoral elections could be modeled in a way where your candidate has a favor to win percentage. If you're below 51% then a random courtier is picked or generated as the new mayor. That should keep the court size down. I'd like to see a mayor start in a republic where you can work your way up to a patrician family.

 

[highsis]

I want this. In fact, I want to start as a landless commoner and clime through the ranks to become knights and eventually a baron. lol

 

[Kilkakon]

The game does have a focus on rulers, as Vaximillian said. Unfortunately the bottom rung just has to be a Baron or Burgher, which even then is a bit out of scope for CKII.

I suppose we could partition to have peasant revolts or adventures as a starting point, but it's just going to be the same thing (effectively) as using ruler designer in the first place. You might have to edit save game to put in Peasant Leader though.

But that aside, I do think it's a bit of an oversight for Lord Mayors not to be playable.