Remedi

I'm normally more of a lurker, but I had a couple ideas I hadn't seen in the thread already, and ways to combine a couple that have... Going from the idea of the homestones, we have the "mayor", or whatever you want to call him, who places the stone and founds the town. His job in the town is then to organize the citizens toward a goal. To enable this, all who wish to live in the town must pay a tax, the timer for payments would be tracked individually and not time down while the player is offline. Paying taxes keeps you listed as a member of the town, and allows the use of communal lots and items, perhaps even the aforementioned immunity to griefing while you're offline. A certain percentage of these taxes must be spent on something that benefits the town in some way. Some examples: expanding borders, upgrading city-wide defenses, paying guards, or supplying guards with weapons. You could even add communal benefits like an orchard that is free for any citizen to harvest from, with city workers replenishing saplings; or a bank that uses one of the many ideas for personalized locking chests, all stored in a place where they can be watched, for a reasonable enough sum to prevent the guards themselves from taking advantage of their position, of course. The mayor can try and take more money than he is alloted. So, towns have to enact safeguards to prevent abuses of the tax controls. Auditors, careful attention to how quickly and how lavishly the mayor's house grows, etc. If the people catch their mayor dipping into city coffers, they can install a new mayor. Naturally, this means that some system must be in place to prove the claim, and prevent false accusations and abuse of the power. All of the additions to a town that the mayor pays for come from members of the town who provide the services rendered, which ensures that the money stays in circulation and citizens can pay future taxes.