This is an example of the new Action format (it's not very different), but existing modifiers. In this case the very key Rule Holding action. I'll use it as an example to illustrate some difficult design choices.
Advantage/hardiness have deliberately been excluded in this example.
Rule Holding (Law, Temple, Manor, Guild, and Trade) [Realm, Regent]
You spend considerable time and resources advancing the causes your domain, thereby increasing the level of one of your mundane holdings.
Type: Regent; Realm – Rule holding can be used as a realm action by spending one court action for each holding ruled beyond the first.
Cost: GBs equal to the new (increased) holding level
Domain Difficulty: DDC 10 + Province + Holding (New holding level)
Realm – When using rule holding as a realm action the DDC increases by 1 per holding ruled. The increase in DDC applies equally to all holding ruled.
Modifiers: Prosperity; Stability.
Influence: Yes – You can use influence.
Restrictions: You may take 10, but you may only take 20 when taken as a regent action.
You must specify the type of holding you are ruling. You can only rule one type of holding with each action. If you want to rule different types of holdings, you must use multiple actions.
Check: On a successful check, target holding’s level increases by one.
Special: For this to be possible, a level must be vacant; if there isn’t room you need to either successfully contest another regent’s holding, or wait until the province level goes up.
The basic premise is simple. Spend GB equal to the new holding level. Then find the difficulty by adding province level + new holding level to the base DDC 10. Simple!
Let us assume that you have a guild (1) in a province (5). There is a vacant slot and you want to rule your holding. It will cost 2 GBs and have a DDC of 10 (base) + 5 (province lvl) 2 (new holding lvl) = 17. Not too hard, but not easy either.
Now, let's look at modifiers:
- Stability: Unsurprisingly YOUR stability impacts your ability to perform the action (as it does almost all your actions). Let's assume a stable and lawful domain with a +1 Stability.
- Prosperity: When ruling a holding the prosperity modifier would apply directly; it's easier to rule in a prosperous than a rebellious province. Whether or not the province ruler likes you or not doesn't really matter in this context; if he want to keep his enemies down, he has to use other means to hinder them. Let's call it a Content province, giving a +2 bonus.
So far you have a +3 bonus...still a good bit away from Taking 10!
But wait, as a player you can easily rack up some additional modifiers:
- Description: This works only for players, not for NPCs. If you made a nice description, you can get a +2 bonus (or more, but only for lesser actions and only for exceptional descriptions).
- Supportive: Let's assume that your domain has a few decent AAs with applicable skills (for increasing your market shares that is). Then you could have one of them (or several together if you think it will help) Adventure/Ply Trade for another +2 bonus (or bigger if they got really lucky or are exceptionally skilled).
See, that's another +4 in bonuses...total +7...enough to Take 10!
If your stability or the province prosperity was less good you might need more bonuses:
- Misc: You could make a Decree that give you a short-lived +2 Misc bonus in that province.
- Synergy: You could do several thing together; do a Decree, make a festival (which could also temporarily boost prosperity, giving a better bonus there too), agitate, personally adventure in support etc., enough so that the DM will give you a +2 synergy bonus for your concentrated efforts.
Not so easy to gain as the other bonuses, but possible to achieve if your really need them. Assuming the same bonuses as above and a +1 festival boost to prosp, you could now be up to a bonus of +12! Not that this will happen with every action, but it goes to show what you can accomplish, even without spending a single point of influence.
