@deadculture said in L&L Options?:
@Tempest Which is something most Lords and Ladies games sorely lack: compelling political vicissitudes to drive a story. It always ends up being a zero-sum game where two political interests are aligned in complete opposition, because even if there's a peaceful transition for someone's rise, someone likely gets dinged for it. Conversely, it is why player vs player action like civil wars and stuff never end well or are just killed in the cradle by staff: because the attrition will cost the game players or derail the theme.
One of the frustrating narratives encountered in political games is that the zero-sum game is a predetermined outcome - that in each encounter someone has to win, and that means another has to lose, the same way that it happens in a sword fight. After all if you're sparring with Joe either he wins or you don't, and it's clear who the winner is.
Politics doesn't work quite like that. For starters the very idea you walk away from a negotiation with Joe leaving him red-faced and fuming while you get what you want is a silly one; it's kind of a trope in books, but that's because the author set it up that way and the geopolitics are perfectly aligned to accommodate the total win for the protagonist. On a MU* player agency guarantees this is rarely seen; piss Joe off and he (or perhaps his player) will rather take a bigger loss than give you a win.
Worse, political games aren't that different than action-based ones (or any others, for that matter); it's all done for fun. If you piss off everyone you meet then they won't want to play with you, and how well is that going to work for your illustrous career as a political force? This isn't even a rhetorical question - I've seen disagreeable players of highly-ranked characters rely a hundred percent on their title to try and carry the day, thus missing the point of both how to be political and to play games.
The best politicians on MU* are people whose scenes you love being part of. Which, weirdly enough, is the same as in any other kind of MU*.