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Hello,
I figured I'd give some advice as to what the Devs should be making sure gets implemented into Pathfinder Online. In my online gaming past I've played a lot of games but one game in particular stuck out above many others with its Political and Religious structure.
The idea was to give the players the ability to be guards, guard captains, demagogues, judges, and the like for politics by allowing players to vote or give support to players while others in politics sponsored people running for a particular office. These people got rare garbs that they could wear to show they were on duty and after their term was up the garb would be removed from them. This allowed guards to enforce laws for towns and demagogues etc to create laws. If there were bad political leaders you could have others attempt to impeach the person in office.
As for the Religious system, there were roughly 10 gods in place and Clerics could attempt to become a "priest" of a certain god. A priest or high priest (one of higher athority that could hold "Mass") would test the person on their knowledge of the god/goddess, the gods that were enemies of the religion, and etc. Once a person was admitted they could pray for certain benefits (They were given a prayer spell that could do minor "boons" associated to that god/goddess.)
After someone attained the status of High Priest (Which was much harder to do in this game because the player had to be a Legendary Aisling, by submitting some type of content like artwork, poetry, etc. that would win an award before they could become a High Priest.) Anyways, High Priests would set Mass times on the message board in front of the temples (which players could leave notes and High Priests could remove notes to clean it up and submit new rules and leave request forms to join the faith that players could fill out and send via mail in-game.)
A High Priest would have other priests assist them in the mass and anyone associated to the faith that was present within range of sight would gain a "boon" or "buff" (which was better than an individual prayer as a Priest, which would only affect the caster and sometimes those that were "grouped" in the party and also a Mass buff would last longer.)
Priests and High Priests also had the ability to "consecrate" items to add the god/goddesses favor to particular equipment like armor, shields, weapons, etc. Albeit only a very small buff but helpful. (In the game I played it was +1str, +1dex, +1wis, +1int, +1con, + 1% hp/mp regen, or +10% magic resist. Which would need to be nerfed in Pathfinder to buffs that weren't as strong if Paizo wanted to implement this small addition that gave Priests more flavor for joining a particular god/goddess. These types of items, once consecrated, were destroyed on death as they were then magical in nature and "perishable".
I believe this really sparked interest in players playing a healing class (which is often underplayed) and gave people the incentive to join politics and religion. It also made for great religion wars, and a "My religion is better than yours because" type of structure as you being a Priest of your religion held yours in higher regard. I think in general it also gave the players a feeling that they were able to be a part and help run the system and feel more a part of the world itself instead of "guards are always NPCs" or "go click on this NPC that's a cleric of so-and-so".
So what I'm saying is, I think the two above systems would really put Pathfinder in a situation for contending with some of the top MMORPG's because it'd be the 2nd game, that I'd know of, that players actually help run and control the world as part of the political and religious system. And lets face it, there's quite a few major gods/goddesses and this would really allow for some GREAT roleplaying and both systems would help provide groups/structure/and possible hooks for PvP with religion vs religion or politics vs politics from town x and town y.
I'm sure this would take quite a bit of careful planning and coordination to help these systems to be without flaw but the game is in Beta and Paizo would be shooting themselves in the foot by not adding this.
If you approve of this concept for Pathfinder Online please reply stating you Approve and if possibly flag this thread for the Devs. Thanks and I hope this gets the attention of the Devs.
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I think the religion part would be hardcoded from the Portfolios of the gods/goddesses (probably just the Core gods/goddesses and maybe others later if expansions arise).
The religious part ran by players would be admitting new members, kicking people out of the temple for a temporary set time (maybe a day or week depending on how disruptive. Also the gods would not allow fighting in temples so kicking people out wouldn't be abused.) The players would also maintain the hierarchy by as High Priests could remove Priests and it would take Multiple votes of High Priests to remove a High Priest. (Additional hierarchy could be included). The players would set the tone of Roleplaying required to join a temple as some religions may be hardcore while others may be very lenient. (The game I played had a few that spoke in-character all the time and it was pretty difficult as they required a decent deal of knowledge of their god before they'd admit someone. Another guild was very lenient and just admitted someone if they could answer like 3-4 questions as it was considered the "noobie" religion.)
The order would be as follows:
Acolyte - Anyone that joins that is not a Cleric. Gets prayer spell.
Priest - Cleric that joins the faith. Gets prayer spell and can consecrate items and do some minor priestly duties at the temple.
High Priest - Has access to Temple Messageboard, prayer spell, minor and major duties at temple. There can be many high priests but obtaining this status should require difficult requirements and be someone that has been of the god/goddess's faith for over a month or more.
As for the Political system, I would say that's completely up to Paizo. In the game I played people needed to get votes and someone to back them up for running for office, the further down the chain the higher amount of votes and the hard to obtain it. Office by someone for like 1-3months ( I can't remember the exact duration.).
Respected Citizen - helpful people that answered questions from new people in town. (Kind of like putting yourself up as a Noobie Advisor). They also could dye clothing with the help of a tailor (which was the only way to dye clothing). RC's can also admit players into a township as a citizen.
Judiciary Branch:
Guard - people that upheld the laws created by the Demagogue of the town. They had the ability to cast a Banishment spell that they could kick people out of a town temporarily (1-xhours). Guards must save screenshots of any substantial evidence (which can be hard sometimes.) like excessive cursing, murdering someone (intentional by either directly or indirectly), or other disruptive behavior. Guards must follow the laws of the town and if they use their power outside of those laws players can screenshot and report to Guard Captains.
Guard Captain - Must have served more than 4 terms of Guard. They organize meetings and discuss laws, resolve quarrels, and clarify points. Guard Captains enforce guards to attend the meetings so all guards of the town are on the same page. Can also cast Banishment.
Judge - No uniform, unlike others. Administer fair and impartial judgement to citizens in town. Laws written by Demagoguery, Judge must be able to interpret the laws, not leaving room for ambiguity. Judge appoints prosecuter, defendant, and jury, when cases are brought to court. Must have served 8 terms of Guard to run for Judge. Judge should be most experienced of the 3 officials. Judge serves as council to Guards and Guard Captains. Evidence is sent to the Judge in Screenshots. If guilty judge can send someone to a generic jail for x hours.
Legislative Branch:
Demagogue - Job is to study and ensure the well being of the township. Propose and pass laws that protect the community as a whole. They write laws that are carried out and enforced by the Judiciary Branch. They have the ability to "exile" criminals from the township, which is permanent unlike Guards/Guard Captains ability. No one should be exiled unless they've been tried in court by a Judge first. Demagogues clean junk and old messages off town's community board that lists active rules and positive communication amongst the citizens of a township. They can also admit players into a township as a citizen.
Burgess - These are essentially the same as Guard Captains are to Guards. They supervise Demagogues and suggest methods of improvement. They schedule and administer routine meetings of the Demagogues. They may also veto and remove any or all laws that they believe are inappropriately written. They should consult with Demagogues, or other officials, before taking action to avoid seeming tyrannical, insensitive, or irrational by not getting input from others.
Here's a website that details the political positions as they stood within the game: http://www.darkages.com/community/lore/Xilan_Politics.html
Some adjustments would be taken as to the extent of exiling, banishing, term length, and how many players can be in x office at one given time. Also, this game had the ability to bring up a tab to view who was online and listed their town and title next to their name if they held office, making it easier to know who was online in office at that time.
This could possibly be remedied by having a messageboard that auto posted once someone entered office and a Demagogue could remove them as they get stale or system could. Or system could change post color for messages over x months to show as stale. In the game I played, you could click on a messageboard, it would open a screen, then you could click on a post and it would open a letter showing the details of the individual post.
Paizo wouldn't have to setup the political system exactly as they did but Paizo would definitely be dropping the ball on letting players immerse themselves and be a part of the game.
The type of system is EXACTLY how .hack//sign displayed itself with players holding terms of guard and etc. So if anyone has ever seen that anime then you have an understanding of what level of depth this brings to a game.
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Practically Paizo just has to setup the structure and populate the message boards with some generic guidelines then watch as the players run for office and setup laws and enforce them. With the structure being robust like this, it becomes extremely hard for 1 person to monopolize the system (and if someone does and it becomes a problem a GM can simply remove them from office if they deem necessary due to substantial evidence.)
Players love to get involved and feel like they are a part of a community. It's essentially the same as Paizo's messageboards. No employees will answer questions and give advice. Moderators are assigned to help clean up things despite not getting paid by Paizo, and etc etc.
Some people love the sense of "power" they obtain while others enjoy helping and ensuring fair justice. If someone isn't a good political candidate they will have a hard time getting votes and despite the person's reason for obtaining a position as long as they follow the laws and do their job then they are successful. You'll have some that are better than others, just the same as Moderators, GM's, etc.
So in conclusion, after the framework is designed and implemented it should be up to the players to form and maintain laws within Religion and Politics. Laws will never be permanent as you'll have new people in position to change and maintain existing laws. If Paizo doesn't wishes to restrict much of this freedom then the system would feel much like a quest or a system in which the player themselves aren't really able to be a part of or contribute to.
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Great! If that's so then they are already on a GREAT start for the success of this game. If they can incorporate the religion hierarchy aspect then I think we'd see a bit more clerics active and would make them more interesting than "healbots". It also opens up a lot for people to roleplay and to actually pick a deity and feel attached to that cause.
If you like or agree with this then play flag for devs or reply that you approve. Anything we can do to help the devs. Since it's a bit complex maybe the political structure I listed could help them implement their ideas a bit easier and the idea of the religious structure would get notice and would hopefully get implemented by Beta so they could work out any bugs.
Btw thanks for informing me that some of this is in the works. It will greatly help the game's success. Hardly any games allow the player to be a part of the world via politics or religion.
Goblin Squad Member
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Most of what you’re hoping for will be created by players interacting with other players. For instance a group of players will decide to band together and create a settlement/organisation. From those in character (IC) and out of character (OOC) interactions players/characters will be assigned various roles. PFO will include tools that will allow characters to be assigned to different positions within the settlement/organisation. These roles will affect the DI of a settlement and/or give certain characters control over finances, resources, and how the organisation is run.
In relation to Priesthoods. I wouldn’t be surprised if a character has to perform quests in game that allowed them to become official parts of a religious originations. Much like assassins will have to join an NPC guild to gain access to various abilities. We’ve also been told that our characters will be able to advance their reputations with an NPC organisation at the detriment of decreasing our reputations with opposed organisations. I suspect that being part of a religious group will allow characters to learn special restricted skills and abilities, which very well may act in a similar fashion to your prayer ideas.
While we haven’t been given the nitty gritty on all of the above, it certainly sounds like PFO will be able to cater to the gameplay style you’re hoping for.