Designing an Asian Colonial-Era Sandbox - Part 3 (What is the Empire?)

 Part 1

Part 2

WHO OR WHAT IS THE EMPEROR?

1. Tween-king, spoiled and ignorant, prone to whimsical decrees

2. Mummified corpse, as interpreted by coterie of court-mediums

3. A revolving door of princelings continually assassinating each other

4. An especially holy rock, covered in mantras for how to live

5. Title shared by three different individuals, bureaucracy paralysed

6. Ate an immortality peach. Seven hundred years old, irredeemably senile 

7. Gnomic pronouncements dispensed by proto-Babbage-Engine

8. Highest-ranking scholar, but 'knowledge' is a thousand years out of date

9. A broken-telephone system of eunuchs relaying information to and from a baffled king

10. Absolutely NOT a horse wearing a robe. It is a crime to even think that.

WHAT WAS THE EMPIRE'S STRENGTH, NOW A LIABILITY?

1. Vast and powerful military ... now obsolete and shackled to centuries-old tactics

2. Meritocratic civil service exams ... now a Kafka-esque profusion of minor bureaucrats

3. Famous thinkers and scientists ... now calcified into tradition-bound schools

4. Rich and affluent trade cities ... now competing fiefdoms ruled by rival families

5. Unifying national religion ... now geomancers and diviners obsessed with interpreting signs

6. Monasteries as centers of culture ... now a profusion of competing apocalypse sects

7. Government by organised ministries ... now obsessed with court infighting

8. Independent and capable clans ... now a scattering of bandit-kings and warlords

9. Thriving merchant economy ... now actively profiteering in collusion with outsiders

10. Elaborate public works ... now prone to failure with consequent flood/famine/earthquakes

WHAT DOES THE EMPIRE HAVE THAT IS VALUABLE TO OUTSIDERS?

1.  Conqueror-worm silk

2. Medicinal fungi

3. Necromantic bone-china

4. Radiant jadestone

5. Tea. It's very good tea

6. Longevity pears

7. Wool-monkey fabrics

8. Porcelain serving-golems

9. Hell-turtle ivory

10. Edible dream-scrolls

Mutiny Rules / Pay

Rules are generated out of necessity.

A few sessions ago, my players ran out of food and tried to eat their own crew for the second time. The crew has been entirely wiped out and re-hired three times now.

I need some mutiny rules.

I played around with modifying the Injury and Death / Ship Damage rules for simplicity and consistency, but I'm thinking of trying a Dice Pool instead for that ol' gambling feel. 

MUTINY RULES

When PCs give their crew a reason to be dissatisfied, Add Dice to the Mutiny Pool, then roll all the dice in the pool.

Minor Grievance (+1d6)
- Crew is inconvenienced or treated poorly
- Crew is forbidden from doing something they want to do
- Crew members are placed in danger

Significant Grievance (+2d6)
- Crew members are killed in the normal course of events
- Crew members are placed in reckless danger
- Crew is promised pay, and they are not paid

Severe Grievance (+4d6)
- Half the crew is killed 
- Each week at sea with no food
- Crew is actively sacrificed for the PC's benefit, and the Crew finds out

If any dice show a 1, roll 1d8 on the MUTINY TABLE and add the number of dice in the Mutiny Pool (MP). 

MUTINY TABLE 
1-2: MP +1D. No other effect
3-4: MP + 2D. No other effect
5-6:  MP + 1D Crew is demoralised. Impaired Damage to enemies of the PCs until the next Port Rest 
7-8: Crew demands additional pay now (Does not count as Port Rest, not paying is a Grievance)
9-10: MP +2D. Crew is fractious. They refuse to fight at all until the next Port Rest. 
11-12: MP +3D. Crew is openly rebellious. They refuse to take any orders without incentives
13+: Mutiny! The crew attacks the PCs and tries to seize the ship

PORT REST
To reset the Mutiny Pool, PCs must let the crew rest in town for a week and pay them their regular wages. This replaces the old system of paying wages regularly: now wages are a way to reset the Mutiny Pool.

The idea of wages isn't very piratical, but I don't like the math that comes with calculating loot shares.