[@Cyclone], thank you for your encouragement and your advice.

Regarding your last paragraph: I quickly realized while planning this RP that there would be no perfect solution which allows me to have my cake and eat it too. I definitely [i]don't[/i] want minmaxing, stat rolling, or for people to otherwise "win" my game. But by the same token, this being the goal for many [i]characters[/i] was inevitable, given the IC circumstances. Even if they have no ambitions of their own they must concede that they will only have a feasible chance of standing up to the Nhirian Empire under a unified rule, and everyone ought to have a different idea of who will be most capable, or the most deserving, within this role.

Furthermore I wanted other players to be just as much a source of conflict as Nhir itself. I think I wrote about this in the mechanics section already but seeing as how this game will generally have a lot of talking and not a whole lot of fighting (at least at first), those different voices need to be the biggest obstacle between Thraxia and its due progress. This inherently entails a certain degree of competition, and an "us vs. them" mentality.

You can see the dilemma. I had to choose between encouraging IC conflict and stifling it. This same choice is also between players being rivals or partners. If they come as a packaged deal then the [i]story[/i] will benefit most from the former, at the OOC's expense, and vice-versa.

Ultimately however it all comes down to metagaming. If the players can keep these bitter sentiments IC then I believe we'll have no issues. And I'm assuming the best of everyone until someone gives me reason to doubt his true motives for playing.

Thank you again for your comments. While I must currently focus on moving forward with the IC, I will take some time—eventually—to review what is already written, and assure that it does not give the wrong impression.