Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Hints and Guidelines, How To's on Registration, Activation, NWN, etc.

Moderators: Forum Moderators, Active DMs

Post Reply
User avatar
Edens_Fall
Arelith Supporter
Arelith Supporter
Posts: 1065
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:45 am
Location: North America

Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by Edens_Fall » Wed Jul 28, 2021 10:56 pm

The Arelith Settlement Management Guide
2021 Edition


Welcome to the guide for running a settlement. Please note that we will be addressing time in both In-Game (IG) measurements and Real-Life (RL) quantities. Information was compiled by EdensFall from various sources gathered via Forums, Discord, and Arelith Wiki which are listed at the end.


Elections

If you wish to run for election in a settlement, you must be a citizen of that settlement. To become a citizen, you must speak to the Registrar NPC. They can usually be found in governmental buildings. Their titles vary per settlement, but they are usually located in the town hall or similar structure. This registration cost is 10,000 gold.

Any citizen may run for leadership of the settlement in an election if they have been a citizen for at least one IG year prior to running. To challenge the current leadership, speak with the registrar NPC. If the last election was more than one IG quarter (28 RL days) ago then another election can be called. Once begun an election runs for two IG weeks (4.67 RL Days). Citizens may vote by speaking to the Registrar or may even join the election themselves as an additional candidate. Characters can also register for elections early, putting their name in the next election whenever it is called.

When an election is active, all citizens will be notified in the combat log upon login.

Various settlements can handle leadership differently using player-made systems (via Roleplay). Some are ruled by a mayor, a king or even a council. Regardless these positions are elected through this same election system. It should be stated, though, that only player citizens get a vote in these elections. The NPC residents and merchants get no say. Also, there is no reason elections need to be fair. It is possible to use bribes, intimidation or even assassination to defeat opponents in elections. Although these systems are not controlled mechanically by the game engine nor by the DM team, if they overstep into the bounds of the NPC power structure or violate the rules in some capacity the DM Team may step in and work with the leadership team to correct any issues.

Each character may vote only once, and it is against rules to vote for your own character on another of your characters. It is also against the rules to vote with characters who have not been active in roleplay in the settlement prior to the election. A warning is displayed with the registration NPC. And those who violate this rule can see their ability to both run for election or vote in elections suspended by the DM Team.

If a character changes citizenship from another settlement, they are not allowed to vote in elections for one in-game year.

When one puts their name in to support the settlement in upcoming leadership challenges, they must designate a faction to represent. This Faction name will appear next to yours when citizens view who can be voted for, so do select something appropriate.


Understanding Factions

To create a faction IG simply type -factions to begin. Any factions you are in will appear here for you to view and manage. You can view a list of members, see salary, and rank information, and even leave the faction. Characters can also create their own new faction here. Anyone can create a new faction, though newly created factions may not appear for interaction until after the next reset. Factions can have only one owner (the creator) and they will expire if the owner does not check in with the -factions command for 30 real-life days. Anyone not a faction owner will be removed from the faction if inactive for 30 days.

Once created, faction leaders can add ranks and members, set salaries to be paid to these members on the first of each month, and assign powers to ranks or individual members. All gold for the faction salaries comes from the associated faction bank account and the owner can assign power to access the account to any rank or member. When the balance of this account reaches zero, salaries stop being paid. Gold left in accounts of expired factions is lost.

The -factions menu also lists OOC messages for faction members. These messages are not considered in-character and should be information for players instead of their characters. Members will be notified in the combat log upon login if one of their factions has active messages. Owners can leave messages for specific characters by starting the messages with [PartOfName] or specific ranks with {PartOfRankName}. Owners and those with the power to see all messages will see every message.

NOTE: The faction you represent is extremely important as you will be running as a representative of it, and the entity to hold power should you be elected is the faction itself, under your representation. This means that the leader of the faction can ultimately change its representative to the government whenever it deems it necessary and that a member of a faction can’t be removed from its roster if they’re currently holding office under that faction’s name. Bear in mind that the organization’s name will appear after yours on the ballot. Who or what you are representing can have a profound impact on who decides to support you.

Once a vote is cast it cannot be changed or withdrawn. If you have called for the election/leadership challenge you are already voting for yourself.

Candidates can withdraw their challenge/running at any time. If your candidate has dropped out a citizen can re-cast their vote for another; however, it is up to the diligent citizen to cast their vote a second time, as they will otherwise be uninformed of their candidates dropping out.


BE WARNED: Election Interference

In Character Interference:
Harpers and Assassins have additional ways to interact with settlement elections.


Assassins:
If an elected leader is assassinated via an assassination contract, an election cycle is started.

If a registered election candidate is assassinated via an assassination contract, they are removed as a candidate


Out of Character Interference:
Elections are an important part of the in-game social experience. Out of character (OOC) interference of an Election process can result in a punishment. This includes, but is not limited to, using out-of-game methods to coordinate voting activity.

Settlement Leaders Authority

Congratulations! You won the election and now stand at the top of power. So now What? Where do you start? What can you even do? Well let’s take a look!



Career City Officials (NPC)

First, you need to know who to speak with to get things done and there are none as helpful as those career officials of the settlement who simply refuse to retire out of loyalty to their settlement.

Dockmaster
  • only talks to settlement leaders
  • Settlements can no longer charter “off island” imports.
Trade Czar
  • if settlement leader, lets you set purchase prices
  • if settlement leader, lets you set sale prices
  • lets anyone donate items or sell items
  • lets anyone purchase from Expanded Warehouse
Registrar
  • lets non-leaders sign up for citizenship
  • lets anyone call an election if appropriate
  • if settlement leader access trade menu (open trade route, close trade route)
  • if settlement leader remove citizen via Exile or Pariah (speak name to get list of matches)
  • if settlement leader allows bank account access (deposit/withdraw)
  • if settlement leader allows tax management (change tax rate)
  • if settlement leader allows management of player positions
  • if settlement leader view vassal menu (view/become/release)

Appointing City Officials

No leader can rule alone. They need trusted people who share their ideals to help carry the burden of governance. Thus, a leader may create officer positions or departments by speaking to the Registrar. To do so (s)he must give the name of the position, its salary, and the name of the first holder (who must be logged on).

The leader may, at any point, change the holder of a rank or remove a rank.

Anyone holding such a position may create other positions underneath their own position. They may hire and fire the holders of those positions and set their salary. However, any salary then comes out of the bank account of the holder of the rank.

For example, the leader appoints a guard captain and gives them a salary of 1000g a month, then the captain creates five guardsman positions with 100g salaries. Each month, the captain gets 1000g from the settlement account, and 500g of that is immediately transferred to his subordinates. If the captain created another six guardsman positions with 100g salaries, he would then take a net loss each month of 100g.

Anyone may resign an office they hold by speaking to the Registrar. If one or more leadership positions are vacant at any time, anyone may call an election (even if it's not been a year since the last one).

Leaders will not be paid by default. They are encouraged to set up offices that they can hold to salary themselves.

Other specific actions can be taken by settlement leaders, or characters appointed to these powers by the leader. A writ gives these powers to characters and are required to make these actions. Writs can also be given to whole divisions of employees. Available actions include:
  • Exile and revoking exile or pariah status
  • Changing tax rates
  • Trade agreements
  • Setting Quartermaster prices
  • Releasing settlement quarters or shops
  • Giving salary to employees and divisions
  • Removing gold from settlement accounts
  • Removing employees or divisions
  • Making the settlement a vassal controlled by another settlement
  • Set an official faith up to 1 + 1 for every 60 citizens. Characters of matching faiths while within the settlement have an uptick of .1 piety.
  • Giving power to employees or divisions to do the above actions


Trade Management

Settlements have quarterly requirements of resources and so maintain supplies. The settlement Quartermaster NPC lets citizens and leaders interact with these things. Quarterly required items include food, wood, cloth, metal, and stone and how much is needed depends on the number of registered citizens and exiles. Larger settlements will need substantially more resources each year. Settlements that fall below these requirements will suffer reduced tax income and salaries. All trade is managed by the community leader(s). They can arrange contracts with dockmaster NPCs which will import goods from the wider world at cost. Contracts with legitimate nations will have a lower cost than 'pirate' Contracts.

If the balance of any of the base resources (cloth/stone/food/etc.) reaches zero a 1% tax will be added to all owned homes and sales tax. This tax is 1% per resource type defaulted on, per budget quarter, and it compounds (default on two resources for two years in a row and the tax will be 4%). The extra tax is not collected by the city nor added to the settlement’s treasury. Ending a budget quarter with a balance above zero on the defaulted resource will remove the tax penalty for that resource.

Settlements also maintain supplies of general items. These extra supplies are referred to as the Expanded Warehouse and can be bought and sold by speaking to the Quartermaster. Unlike other NPC stores, however, the supplies are not unlimited. Once the items sold to the Quartermaster run out, they can no longer be purchased. Prices can be adjusted by settlement leaders to encourage trade in specific items.

If the amount currently stored falls short of the amount needed to pay the quarterly maintenance cost, the settlement will automatically attempt to buy from the surplus generated by other settlements. The cost to import resources from elsewhere will be very high. Settlements can only buy from settlements that have a trade agreement in place with them.

There is a safeguard in place that helps prevent people from buying out a settlements resource below its quarterly resource needs (This is to help prevent others from quietly sabotaging settlements without any RP/Counterplay). Know however this safeguard is not completely reliable, and a wise leader will take efforts to monitor their trade.


International Relations

Community leader(s) can open trade agreements with other nations. Opening a trade agreement means that the other nation will be able to buy resources from you (and, if they reciprocate the agreement, your nation will be able to buy from them). See below for more on trade.


Vassal Settlements

Community leader(s) can also make their settlement a vassal of another settlement or release a vassal they already have. Community leaders have control over vassal states: they can perform any of the community leader actions on the vassal state by speaking to its Registrar and Trade Czar NPCs.


Settlement Services


Citizenship Bank Storage

A settlement has the ability to provide citizens with storage space within settlement banks. All settlements will provide each of their citizens with a minimum of 3 slots to store items inside. The size of an object does not matter. Settlement leaders can spend resources (paid every quarter IG year) to expand the storage space for their settlements up to a total capacity of 12. The amounts and costs are listed below.
  • 3 Slots (free)
  • 6 Slots (5,000 Stone, Metal, Wood)
  • 9 Slots (10,000 Stone, Metal, Wood)
  • 12 Slots (15,000 Stone, Metal, Wood / 70 X Number of Citizens) or (15,000/70) X Number of Citizens.
  • Once citizen population goes below 70 the price defaults to a set 15,000

Settlement leaders can also restrict storage space to individuals based on their race. For example, if Cordor restricted their bank storage to only be used by humans up to 9 slots, and only human nobles could access up to 12 slots. Then all other races could only access 3 slots total.

If settlement leaders decide to revoke or reduce storage, items will still be stored but new items cannot be added. If citizenship is lost due to inactivity, you can purchase it again and all your items will remain safe.


Clean Wells

A settlement can pay 5,000 stone each quarter to maintain clean drinking water within its city. A small price to pay for a healthy population.


Free Food Rations

A settlement may choose to ensure their population is health by giving out free food. This will be seen in the battle log as a net gain to food by those citizens in the within settlements boundaries. “How there is no such thing as a free meal” and the settlement must pay a cost in food resources each quarter to offer this service. The calculation for this cost is:

(# of Citizens/3) X (600/Efficiency), efficiency defaults to 3


Landed Nobles

Settlements can also grant loyal citizens or stanch supporters the status of Landed Nobility. Those granted Noble rights, not by birth but by deed. Often used as a way to reward a settlement leader’s strongest supporters or those citizens viewed as valued members of the community. Whatever the reason you have for choosing your settlements Nobles, do so with care as such a posting comes with many perks.
  • Appointed by elected Settlement leader.
  • Landed Nobles must be in the settlement faction.
  • Can own special noble “estates”
  • Granted one (1) extra vote in elections if citizenship count is above fifty (50).
  • Cannot be Exiled, Pariah, or Evicted.
  • Receive 5% of settlements tax revenue.
  • Settlement can have a maximum of four (4) Nobles, with the Settlement leader able to remove one (1) per quarter.
  • Can grant minor forms of Nobility (akin to the award) by owning a special noble property. Four of these minor nobles can be appointed (via faction menu).

Taxes and the Treasury

Settlements can collect income by charging taxes on services. This includes the purchase price when buying a quarter or shop in a settlement, and the registration fee for new citizens. Leaders can also charge a percentage tax on items sold in player-owned shops. By default, this is 10%. Meaning 10% of every sale goes to the settlement's account. The rate may be altered by settlement leaders by speaking to the Registrar.

Any community leader can withdraw or deposit funds in the settlement account. If the balance reaches zero then salaries (if any) will stop being paid, the exile list will be cleared (see below) and the current leaders are removed from office.

THE TREASURY IS NOT YOUR PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNT

Should a settlement’s treasury fall to a balance of zero gold, you have messed up severely. The current leadership of the settlement will be removed by the settlement administrator, and hopefully whoever replaces them will be able to ensure the treasury begins to fill once again.

Meaning that a settlement leader should think very carefully about who to give access to

withdrawals from the treasury too.

A leader can also set salaries to individuals that draw from the treasury, usually government officials.


Exiles and Pariah

A settlement leader has certain powers to punish those they deem deserving of such.

Pariah
Settlement leaders can declare a person a Pariah within their settlement. This REQUIRES prior RP with the would be target person to person, else it is considered a rule break.

Pariah penalties:
  • Cannot buy/sell from PC/NPC shops.
  • Cannot use ship travel TO the settlement, but they can FROM
  • Can only donate to the trade czar
  • Loses access to settlement services (but may still vote during elections)

If the character signed up to run for leadership in advance of becoming a Pariah being labeled a Pariah (or Exiled) will not cancel the registration and they can still win the election.

Pariahs can use leadership/intimidate/disguise (DC: 40) to bypass the restrictions for all but settlement storage.

There is no resource cost for a Pariah.

Exile
Exiled characters are unable to enter the town and use services unless in successful disguise. They will be thrown out of town upon failing a disguise check. Characters are not allowed to vote in elections in the settlement from which they are exiled.

Settlements have a maximum number of exiles. This rate is 3 exiles plus 1 for every 10 citizens (or for every 20 citizens for Cordor).

Note: If the character signed up in advance to run for leadership, being exiled (or Pariah) will not cancel the registration and they can still win the election.

Exiles cost the settlement resources annually. These resources are spent on keeping these individuals on the exile list.

Every exile in place costs the settlement 5,000 units of each resource annually. This amount can add up quickly and cause a drain on the settlement’s warehouse.

Every property owned by a settlement through the Brokage System increases the cost of each Exile from that settlement by 1,000 units per upkeep on the property (1,000 for Low, 2,000 for Medium, 3,000 for High, etc.)

There is some debate if having an Expanded Warehouse for your Settlement also increases the cost of Exiles by 1,000 units. However, I am unable to give a certain answer for this topic. Simply keep in mind that it is a possibility.


Use exiles sparingly and only for the most serious of cases. When the decision is made to exile someone, a member of the settlement’s government with the proper authority to issue exiles needs to meet the following requirements to serve the exile notice, otherwise the settlement administrator will remove the exile (due to lack of proper procedure and/or paperwork).


Important Exile Notes

The Exile must be met with and informed in person of their exile. Messages sent by Speedy Messenger do not count and the person informing them of exile must have the POWER to exile them as well. (If you believe a player is avoiding RP with settlement leaders OOC to avoid Exile/Eviction please contact the DM team).
If you do not know the name of the person to be Exiled, then you show the body/head to the settlement registrar (It is advised you take a screen shot of this to provide to the DM team if the exile is challenged). This method should only be used as a LAST RESORT. All other rules of prior RP are still required.

Skilled individuals who can disguise themselves can often sneak back into settlements even if exiled (Must beat a DC 40).

You may declare someone to be a “Pariah” and grant this person no legal protection. Such people can be attacked and banished from your lands, and you can make their crimes publicly known. You won’t use resources to maintain vigilance against them so they can still wander into your settlement freely, but it does make it so dealing with them is simple and straightforward.



STOCKPILE UNITS

This section details what can be converted into “resource units” and what each goes into, plus their value per single piece.

FOOD
Nuts (1) = 3 units
Berries/Fruit (1) = 3 units
Small Meat, Food rations, Travel provisions (1) = 5 units
Medium Meat, Ripplebark, Fish, Scarfin, Sweetberry (1) = 10 Units
Large Meat (1) = 15 Units
Food rations (fish) (1) = 50 units
Travel provisions (cooked) (1) = 50 Units


WOOD
Softwood (1) = 30 units
Hardwood (1) = 50 units


CLOTH
Hide (Small) (1) = 5 units
Hide (Medium) (1) = 10 units
Hide (Big) (1) = 20 units
Cloth (Small) = 5 units
Cloth (Medium) = 10 units
Cloth (Large) = 20 units
Leather (Small) = 10 units
Leather (Medium) = 20 units
Leather (Large) = 40 units
Bolt of Cloth = 50 units * Best for cloth resource/cotton
Bolt of Silk = 75 units


METALS (Ingots only)
Lead (1) = 50 units
Iron (1) = 100 units
Steel (1) = 125 units
Tin/Zinc (1) = 150 units
Copper (1) = 200 units
Silver (1) = 250 units
Brass/Bronze (1) = 300 units
Mithril (1) = 350 units
Gold (1) = 400 units
Adamantine (1) = 500 units
Greensteel (1) = 510 units


STONE
Marble (1) = 50 Units
Granite (1) = 50 Units
Bricks (1) = 40 units


Special Thanks to those sources from which information was gathered


Arelith Wiki (wiki.nwnarelith.com/Main_Page)

The Arelith Settlement and Warehouse Guide for Dummies
  • Alice Highfen-Scarlett
  • Astra V. Starlock
  • Isabel
  • Lily Blake
  • Meriam Fuzzypaw
  • Rann McClow
  • Tabitha Fuzzypaw

Forum/Discord (www.forum.nwnarelith.com)
  • Flower Power
  • Blood on my Lips
  • Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia
  • AstralUniverse
  • msheeler
  • GrumpyCat
  • Morderon
Last edited by Edens_Fall on Thu Aug 26, 2021 5:05 pm, edited 7 times in total.

User avatar
Edens_Fall
Arelith Supporter
Arelith Supporter
Posts: 1065
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:45 am
Location: North America

Re: Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by Edens_Fall » Wed Jul 28, 2021 10:57 pm

Please let me know if anything is wrong, missed, or someone didn't recieve credit.

THANK YOU!

User avatar
Edens_Fall
Arelith Supporter
Arelith Supporter
Posts: 1065
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:45 am
Location: North America

Re: Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by Edens_Fall » Thu Aug 26, 2021 5:07 pm

Guide UPDATED! Thank you to FLOWER POWER for the corrections!

Tabby
Arelith Gold Supporter
Arelith Gold Supporter
Posts: 178
Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2019 7:03 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by Tabby » Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:37 am

Ohh was my ingame book used for this? :D

Dormant Character: Tabitha Fuzzypaw - Shelved, searching all corners for treasures and secrets.
Misty Scrollsinger - Still searching answers, but is now elsewhere

Rolled Character: Björn Njald - sailed on new adventures


User avatar
Edens_Fall
Arelith Supporter
Arelith Supporter
Posts: 1065
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:45 am
Location: North America

Re: Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by Edens_Fall » Tue Dec 14, 2021 7:08 pm

Tabby wrote:
Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:37 am
Ohh was my ingame book used for this? :D
It was!!

Tabby
Arelith Gold Supporter
Arelith Gold Supporter
Posts: 178
Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2019 7:03 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by Tabby » Tue Dec 14, 2021 7:41 pm

Edens_Fall wrote:
Tue Dec 14, 2021 7:08 pm
Tabby wrote:
Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:37 am
Ohh was my ingame book used for this? :D
It was!!
<3 <3 <3 Neat!

Dormant Character: Tabitha Fuzzypaw - Shelved, searching all corners for treasures and secrets.
Misty Scrollsinger - Still searching answers, but is now elsewhere

Rolled Character: Björn Njald - sailed on new adventures


perseid
Posts: 333
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:01 am

Re: Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by perseid » Thu Jan 13, 2022 10:58 am

Minor quibble, not any citizen can run for election. Pariahs can but the registrar will refuse to deal with an exile including a disguised exile from what I've seen. Because of this guranteed rejection it's in some ways wiser to focus exiles on pre-empting people of political concern rather than people who are a concern due to violence (as the ladder can still succeed at their goal by beating the dc).

User avatar
Edens_Fall
Arelith Supporter
Arelith Supporter
Posts: 1065
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:45 am
Location: North America

Re: Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by Edens_Fall » Thu Jan 13, 2022 2:20 pm

perseid wrote:
Thu Jan 13, 2022 10:58 am
Minor quibble, not any citizen can run for election. Pariahs can but the registrar will refuse to deal with an exile including a disguised exile from what I've seen. Because of this guranteed rejection it's in some ways wiser to focus exiles on pre-empting people of political concern rather than people who are a concern due to violence (as the ladder can still succeed at their goal by beating the dc).
If exiled before an election, then yes they can't run. However if a PC calls an election and then is exiled it doesn't kick them from the event. If they win the exile is removed.

But yes, if a leader wanted to just exile anyone he thought could run against them they could do that.

perseid
Posts: 333
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:01 am

Re: Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by perseid » Thu Jan 13, 2022 9:32 pm

Edens_Fall wrote:
Thu Jan 13, 2022 2:20 pm
perseid wrote:
Thu Jan 13, 2022 10:58 am
Minor quibble, not any citizen can run for election. Pariahs can but the registrar will refuse to deal with an exile including a disguised exile from what I've seen. Because of this guranteed rejection it's in some ways wiser to focus exiles on pre-empting people of political concern rather than people who are a concern due to violence (as the ladder can still succeed at their goal by beating the dc).
If exiled before an election, then yes they can't run. However if a PC calls an election and then is exiled it doesn't kick them from the event. If they win the exile is removed.

But yes, if a leader wanted to just exile anyone he thought could run against them they could do that.
Correct. I guess the ladder part is more strategic but I mainly brought it up as a note for "Any citizen may run for leadership of the settlement in an election if they have been a citizen for at least one IG year prior to running. "

User avatar
Edens_Fall
Arelith Supporter
Arelith Supporter
Posts: 1065
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:45 am
Location: North America

Re: Arelith Settlement Management Guide

Post by Edens_Fall » Fri Jan 14, 2022 2:26 am

Ah, I see. With the new changes, I really need to update the guide. I'll see if I can clarify that bit.

Post Reply