Senate Ideas

[Tiberio]

Okay folks... we realize the Senator system needs a revamp(har har). If you have any ideas on how you think the system should run, feel free to post your ideas in this thread

- Example -

Senators are supposed to be representatives, but from the game standpoint almost all senators represent only themselves. The tithe system allows a Cainite to jump into the voting arena without any ill effects. Possibly implementing a requirement that a Senator must be backed by 2-3 Citizens to become a Senator. These citizens cannot become Senators unless they withdraw their support of said Senator. Should a Senator fall below the mimimal amount of Cainites he/she is representing, they will not be recognized as Senators. This would be similar to the 3 Cainite requirement used in the previous Dark Ages game to become a Primogen, just without any clan restrictions.

[Ahzrael]

perhaps a vote of three (excluding votee) to become a senator and those voting for representative are represented by votee

[helena]

I think that a primogen council period will solve a lot of the issues we've been having with the lack of senators or too many senators. Then just a majority vote - the 3 votes necessary is ridiculous. Makes it hard on days when not a lot of people are at game, and 3 people can pass whatever the heck they like.

Since everyone seems to hate Princes, I actually liked the idea at last game to have a Seneshal that is basically dependent on the Senate, but can provide a tie-breaker or act on the city's behalf if there aren't a lot of senators, or if there's a diplomat, etc. Kind of like the President now, with the Senate/Council/whatever overruling them later if needed.

[Tiberio]

Well it looks like the Senate isn't going away for the moment, considering that the votes are in favor of keeping it.. but we can adopt similar mechanics to it. I still think there needs to be a required amount of senators to pass laws and decrees, along with the Prefect Legis being present to record them, but as for making urgent decisions (such as matters of city security) majority rules in such cases. If you check the Senate forum, a proposal was brought up by Helena Mohiam for the position of Decurion, which would be in effect, the Diplomat(s) in charge of greeting visitors from other courts. As for a Seneschal type position... Alex may need to chime in here... I believe this position would be of Consul to act as a overall authority of the Senate. Have to be careful with this one, as this can be just as a Prince in terms of power. ex Marc Anthony. So we would have to work out the powers of the Consul to keep them in check with the powers of the Senate.

[Cesario Giordano]

My two cents...

we can always discuss this whole thing in character and flush out the senate idea. The main problem is lack of definition in character about what it can do and what other positions are responsible for. If those can be flushed out in character then I think there won't be quite as much intrigue or argument that was created would not be quite as much and wouldn't be as near as creating involvement on the boards. Lets face it the past 5 days, these boards have been the most active they have been.

[Tiberio]

That's more than doable.. however I'd like to have a few ideas of they players of where we'd like to take the system before jumping into that balefire. That and bringing it up in character while the current vote of disbanding the Senate is in play, would be in bad taste on my part. There is a common ground, but I totally agree that it needs more specifics detailed to prevent future miscommunications. I'd like the forum boards to be used as much as possible to at least come up with the specifics so we don't waste an entire game session purely on Senate politics deliberating the topics at hand.

[vito]

Heh, didn't see thgis thread before posting. I started IC in the sins of the father post.

[Magdeline la Toulousine]

In my never to be humble opinion, as it stands the position of Senator seems to be the title given to anyone willing to buy a vote. It garners no respect, since any Tom, Dick or Harry can throw their tithe into the pot. If the object is to create a council of leaders then there needs to be some other measure in place than 'show me the money.'

I guess what needs to be established is: What are you hoping to accomplish? Once there is a clear goal then you can begin to develop a system to achieve that goal.

[Galen]

Here is a thought and a simple change which ties in the idea of having other cainites support a senator.

Currently a Sentor need only toss in a single point of influence...be it reascources, church, street...whatever...what if we require MORE of a tithe to be senator? which would almost garuntee that a Senator need the backing of other members of the Forum?

For one that would give the Senate and the Forum itself that much more power, and easier for the Forum to take actions in business, polotics, and whatnot...even further...any influence tithed to the Forum would be unusable be the individual player/character.

Say a Senator needs to Tithe 10 influence points....he/she would need either a TON of influence...or the backing of many other Forum members... tracking this might be difficult but if a flow chart or something could be created it would be pretty easy... or at least...my pituful excuss for a brain-thingy thinks so..

-Nathan