Okay, I am stuck trying to think about Treaties. I just signed up for a Play-By-Post “Legacy” game, and “The Fall” was caused by a war between the pro-technology “Lawgivers” (my faction) and the anti-technology “Servants of the One True Faith” (another player faction). The Servants themselves dismiss me as infidels, I have a bonus when shooting these Luddites…we’re pretty much Threats to each other. Yet, I, the Lawgivers, owe a Treaty to those dastardly Servants (because I have to hand out Treaties to every family in the game)! Not only that, but I also owe a treaty to the thuggish Tyrants (a third player faction) who had took advantage of the large-scale war to seize power in the Wastelands.
The “Servants”, bless their soul, has not yet decided how to hand out treaties, but considering how much the lore dictates our hatred towards one another, the Servants will denounce me as “Corrupt” and will also take a Treaty on me…so I get to owe two Treaties to my hated foe!
Now, to alleviate the pain, the Tyrants do owe two treaties to me, because they’re “afraid of me”…but that makes even less sense. If you’re afraid of me, you should not be giving me a Treaty, but fighting me.
So I must be misunderstanding what Treaties represent in this game. What do they mean? I had assumed they represent diplomatic connections and influences that one Family has over another, but it’s clear that the Lawgivers doesn’t really have any influence on the Servants, and vice-versa. They are mortal enemies. Are Treaties the equivalent of “blood money”, then? (I harmed you, sorry, here’s something to make it up.) That makes slightly more sense…but is still kinda odd.
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The idea for treaties was that they represented soft power one family held over another – the more treaties you have on someone else, the more groups within that faction and Homeland society at large will expect that faction to go along with your wishes. This can be equitable (in a trade pact, both parties might gain large amounts of Treaty on each other) or one-sided (when one party surrenders to stop a war, they might give the other party a lot of Treaty on themselves).
So, in your example, the Servant’s judgement has some moral weight; at least some in your family are willing to pay or do something for the Servants to draw a line under that judgement. Meanwhile, the Tyrants have power from dominating the wasteland and have grudges against you from your pursuit of justice, but their fear of you means that each of you have a lot to hold over the other when you come to the negotiating table. The Call in a Debt move abstracts away a lot of these negotiations, but that’s what Treaty is meant to represent – an irresistible obligation, that once called in is settled.
Possibly where the confusion is coming from is that you expect to be on a war footing when game starts. Think of it more like a post-war or cold war situation – things are tense between families and factions, but between the threats and opportunities if the wasteland and the need to rebuild after the Fall kicking off in direct warfare is inadvisable, and instead most friction between factions is resolved by obligations and debts. Does that make sense?
I think it does James. Thanks!
Ok, nice 🙂 Might write this up for the blog, or as a sidebar to place into a revised edition.
Just my 5 cents here (4 in fact):
1) It helps to think of Treaties as leverage. They are afraid of you, if you “ask nicely” they will comply fearing the consequences.
2) The Servants seem to run on the assumption that there are other people on the Homeland besides your Families. And their true power is manipulate this “public opinion”… one way or another you have to grudgingly respect the extent of their influence.
3) …Aaaand you have to run your Lawgiver errands, dealing with the Servants and those who listen to them, whether you like it (and them) or not.
4) “If you’re afraid of me, you should not be giving me a Treaty, but fighting me…” – for some reason they feel that if they butt heads with you, they’ll loose. So much they are willing to make concession and appease you.. with 2 Treaties. Focus on WHY they are so afraid of you 😉