Challenges within House of Lords

Empire of Medieval Pursuits Challenges

The purpose of a challenge within the Empire of Medieval Pursuits is to provide a way of settling disputes between Lords of disparate opinion within the confines of the Empire. It may further be used to obtain compliance in the form of votes from other branches within the Empire to make decisions within the House of Lords. This structure allows a Lord to increase the votes he can utilize on a topic within a House of Lords meeting to sway the topic in the direction they believe is in the best interest of their population. This can be used for any topic that comes up for vote within the House of Lords including game rules, which branch holds the crown events and who will be crowned King. A challenge can take any form of contest as long as there is a distinct winner and loser of the contest. Hereafter are the rules and guidelines for Challenges within the Empire of Medieval Pursuits.
Conventions of Challenges
A challenge can take place to take other lords votes over any publicized topic or to settle any publicized dispute. It is the Lords duty to act in the best interest of their population. Since all branches are not alike and have different needs there will be differences of opinion on what is best for their population. These challenges give each of the branches a way to gather additional votes to get any given topic included in the game.
1. General Requirements
a. Only a Lord may issue a challenge.
b. Challengers are to meet within the defenders domain at a location of the defenders choosing
c. Challenges can be decided by any contest where a winner and a loser is determined at its end
d. All of the defeated parties votes shall be taken by the victor. Allies of the victor of the challenge shall retain their votes
e. Heavy Combat melee is the default method of determining the victor of a challenge if the challenger and the defender cannot agree to an alternative challenge format and the default for what shall be risked is the vote for one topic
f. Challenges can be announced and carried out up to a year before the voting session in which the topic is to be decided takes place
g. All participants of a challenge must be members in good standing
h. All challenges must be publicly announced no less than two weeks before they can be required to commence by the issuer
i. Challenges are always considered public affairs and witnesses are encouraged
j. Branches are not required to declare their allies before the challenge takes place
k. A Challenge Document will be filled out when the challenge is made and turned over to the crown with the victor announced after the challenge has taken place.
l. The challenge document must be turned over to the crown within 2 weeks of the challenge taking place or before the HoL meeting, whichever comes first
m. All branches of the challenge must be listed on the challenge document
n. The challenge document must have all of the elements as shown in the example in Challenge Addendum 1
2. Votes
a. Only the branch that wins the challenge will get the votes from the defeated. The allies of the winning branch do not gain or lose votes.
b. Branches and their members that lose their votes cannot fight on the same topic
c. The defeated branch losses all of their votes within the parameters of the challenge
d. Once a vote topic is lost, the lord that loses his/her vote on the topic no longer has control of that topic
e. A lord may, at a minimum, risk their votes on one topic for the voting session, and at a maximum, risk their votes for all topics within one voting session

3. Topics
a. Anything under discussion within the House of Lords meeting that is subject to a vote to be put into place is to be considered a Topic
b. All topics are subject to challenge
c. All topics must be publicized 2 months prior to the HoL meeting so challenges can take place prior to the meeting
d. Any topic being considered for ratification by the HoL not publicized 2 months prior to voting shall be delayed if a challenge is issued as long as the issue in question shall be resolved by the outcome of the challenge. If the results of the vote are not substantively affected by the outcome of the challenge it need not be contested.
e. Topics brought up during a HoL meeting that are not contested, may be brought into play. If any Lord challenges then the topic will be brought forward at the next meeting. The contesting Lord must carry out his challenges before the next HoL meeting. If the contesting Lord does not carry out his challenge then his votes are forfeit.
4. Participants
a. Members of another branch cannot fight for the branch unless their branch is allying themselves for that challenge
b. Only members of the principal branches can take part in a challenge unless they have chosen to become an ally
c. Branches may ally themselves on either side but all branches that participate in a challenge are risking their votes
d. At large members can fight may contest for any branch but once they lose on a given topic they cannot fight contest again for that topic, at a minimum, risk their votes on one topic for the voting session, and at a maximum, risk their votes for all topics within one voting session

Challenge Addendum #1


Certificate of Acknowledgment

I, (Lord/Lady's name), hereby acknowledge that a challenge was issued by (Challening Lord/Lady's name), and on the (day) of (month), 2010, we carried out the challenge of (stating what challenge was done i.e. combat, chess, whatever) at (location of challenge) and (state winner's name) won the challenge and will be granted my vote on the topic of (name topic) in the upcoming House of Lord's meeting.


Dated _______ day of __________, 2010.

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Lord's signature

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Lord's signature