Except that you would all be murderers and the courts could possibly strip you of whatever title or property you were trying to take?

There will probably be professional focuses within a small family but there is nothing stopping you from branching out, leaving the house, and going about your own life. If dad happens to be a carpenter and you want to own the business, it'd make more sense to learn from him passively (this will help raise your skill level), get involved in the family business, and have him will everything to you upon his (hopefully natural) death.

I don't think the game would be able to prove that he had his friends murder his family. If your friends did murder your family I would assume you could get the title unless there is a specific mechanic in place to prevent this but I wouldn't think so.

Well, there are specific mechanics to investigate crimes. So while the family member who profits may never be directly tied to the murders, their friends might very well be - and end up suffering the consequences.

It might be better to hire some professional assassins, just to be safe. Also....um, please don't join my family! :P

Except I wouldn't be the murderer. I would be organizing someone else to be.

In the real world killing family to rise in nobility wasn't so uncommon. For example: In Rome there was Emperor Claudius who had a son named Britannicus, after his wife was unfaithful to him he exiled her and remarried a new wife (Agrippina) who already had a son (Nero). Before Britannicus could come of age to become Emperor Agrippina poisoned Claudius and then poisoned Britannicus leaving her son Nero as the rightful Emperor.

Agrippina did not poison directly she paid servants to poison food or the doctor to poison during treatment.

Because of the way a game would work, If this was a game the doctor or servant would be the ones that have their titles stripped since they are the ones who did the poisoning. There is potentially no evidence of Agrippinas involvement so how could she possibly receive punishment.

By process of elimination if you can get people to kill everyone that an npc knows (except yourself) then wouldn't you be the only one possible of inheritance?

This isn't actually something I am hoping to do lol, I am just curious how it could be balanced. I feel like there will be ample opportunities to kill NPCs in this game.

Maybe women could turn a profit by constantly marrying soldiers that fight on the front lines haha

In a world with discord and multiple accounts I'm sure they could get around it if they really wanted to.

I would say in historical terms, this sort of thing happened quite frequently :)

Of course all it takes is one friend spilling their guts to get a lighter sentence and your plan is undone!

Posted By Karrade at 12:45 AM - Fri Feb 17 2017

I don't think purely NPC families will be found with a lot of power or titles longer term, people will jump at marrying or being born into the good ones and snap them up. Especially if you can filter this in the search criteria.

If I remember correctly, taking over a noble or his/her heir requires accumulating story points through playing and participating in the story. New players can't just take over a duke or count, or even a mayor.

Aside from the nobility, the superiority of a family depends entirely on who you want to become. Being the son/daughter to a rich merchant might be fun, but it won't provide you with the things needed to become a warrior or a crafter.