User blog comment:Solljós Lysling/Warbands or Houses?/@comment-35332852-20200218114633

I think in the event that Houses took on the chain of command, a few things would happen. First, I think it would mean the removal of Warbands as a whole, as their usefulness is already kind of low even with the CoC contained within them. I think it would make sense to utilize some combination of Great Houses, Minor Houses, and possibly Duchies in order to designate the size and success of a House. Since Houses already have certain ranks, they would have to be combined to some degree. Certainly we could not have Lords and Jarls. I think given this would be a significant change, it would make sense to declare a new Era and thus some rank changes would make sense. I like the idea of Lord-Captain as a rank, replacing Jarl and leading a House. A Minor House might have some lesser leadership rank, and a Duchy (if those were utilized) even lower. Of course, as has been the tradition under my rule it would make sense not to ever close a House.

There would have to be demotions and promotions, so it probably makes the most sense to simply have me choose the Lord. Perhaps anyone above a certain rank is eligible (although that would mean some Houses could not have Lords the way Houses have sometimes had a Lord due to their simply being the last remaining member). We'd have to figure out if Earl becomes more of an honorary rank with only the responsibility of maintaining a Coat of Arms for their Family (and perhaps posting roll calls/keeping track of them) or if Earl was replaced or combined with a traditional Chain of Command rank and given more responsibilities. Either way, the position would be chosen by the Lord most likely, or perhaps taken over by the highest-ranked member of a Family.

Interestingly, I think this would solve one problem, which is old members returning to their House and winding up with a Lord or Earl rank by default without having earned the rank (and possibly being unworthy of it or at least having no knowledge of present WA).

Overall I think having Houses and then Families utilized as units of the chain of command would work perfectly fine. Not better than Warbands (the only real difference is Houses have just existed longer, so for some older members they will always have some extra sentimentality), but considering the differences between the two are not very significant at present, reducing the clan to that single system might be a wise move. I've always felt the duality of CoC and Houses was an essential part of WA, but have kind of been changing my mind. The idea that House ranks do not have actual power/responsibility is kind of unclear I think, and most new members seem to just not grasp how the double system works. Overall activity has been low, and while I don't think going full throttle on Houses would solve that, I think it's a decent way to grapple with the fact that the games people play and who they play them with vary to such a high degree. It's really difficult to place people into Warbands with any common ground outside of some kind of lore background, but even then most members aren't interested in lore (which doesn't mean they shouldn't be members).