City-wide metrics¶

Public trust¶

What it represents: The population’s confidence that the Patrician and the guild system will maintain order, provide essential services, and keep the city functioning. Not affection. Vetinari doesn’t need to be loved, but a pragmatic acceptance that things work.

Starting value: “Business as usual”, the baseline after centuries of pragmatic tyranny. The city functions; people grumble but go about their business. The Patrician has arranged things so that removing him would cause chaos, which people trust him to prevent.

Decay behaviours:

Recovery behaviours:

Special cases:

• Vimes effect: If Vimes personally intervenes in a failure, trust recovers faster in the Shades and Cockbill Street, but may cause resentment elsewhere (“he cares more about them than us”).

• Moist von Lipwig effect: If Moist is put in charge of fixing something, trust initially drops (con man!), then recovers dramatically if he succeeds.

Budget¶

What it represents: City Treasury. Not just gold in the vault, but the city’s capacity to spend on repairs, compensation, and investment. Includes tax revenue, guild contributions, and emergency borrowing capacity.

Starting treasury: “Comfortable but not extravagant.” Vetinari runs a tight ship; there’s reserve for genuine emergencies, but not enough to fix everything at once. Major projects require guild loans.

Income sources per “turn” (say, monthly):

Expenditure costs (per remedy application):

Special behaviours:

• Crisis spending: During a major incident, the Patrician can authorise emergency funds beyond normal budget, but this depletes reserves and may require guild approval.

• Guild loans: Available immediately, but the guild will expect favours later. Mr Boggis doesn’t forget.

• Narrative effect on income: If trust drops below a threshold, tax collection becomes “difficult” (passive resistance, “mistakes” in accounting).

Regulatory pressure¶

What it represents: The combined force of the guilds, the nobility, and the Patrician himself demanding action, compliance, or accountability. Not a measure of laws, but of enforcement attention.

Starting value: Moderate. The guilds regulate themselves; the Patrician regulates the guilds. A stable equilibrium of mutual suspicion.

What increases it:

What decreases it:

Thresholds for intervention:

Political stability¶

What it represents: The absence of coup, revolution, or civil war. Not the same as trust, a stable city can have grumpy citizens. Instability means factions are actively maneuvering against each other or the Patrician.

Starting value: High. Vetinari has arranged things beautifully. Everyone could overthrow him; no one can agree on who would replace him.

Relationship to other metrics:

What decreases stability:

What increases stability:

“Election” thresholds: Ankh-Morpork doesn’t have elections, but it has succession events:

Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson is the wildcard. He’s the rightful heir to the throne, he’s loved by the Watch, respected by dwarfs, and utterly uninterested in power. If stability collapses, his existence is both a threat (someone could use him) and a safety valve (he could unite factions if he chose). He won’t choose. That’s the tension.

Legitimacy¶

What it represents: The moral and historical right to rule. Different from trust (pragmatic confidence). A leader can be trusted to run things competently but lack legitimacy (usurper). Or have legitimacy but squander trust (incompetent heir).

Starting value: High. Vetinari has ruled for decades, was “elected” by the guilds (however that works), and maintains order. No one questions his right to rule, only his decisions.

How it differs from trust:

What affects legitimacy:

Recovery rate:

Special case: Carrot: If Carrot ever chose to press his claim, legitimacy would transfer instantly to him. Not because he’d be better (he might be), but because he’s the rightful king. Vetinari knows this. Carrot knows this. Everyone knows this. Carrot’s decision not to claim the throne is the only thing maintaining Vetinari’s ultimate legitimacy. If Carrot ever changed his mind, the Patrician would step aside. Probably with a faint smile.

Metric behaviours¶

Passive metric dynamics¶

Independent of individual events, the engine applies background drift each day:

Regulatory pressure

• Rises by 1.0 per detected-but-unresponded event, 0.2 per event under remedy

• Falls by 2.0 after a full quiet week with no visible incidents

Political stability

• Falls by 2.0 per day when public trust drops below 25

• Rises by 1.0 after a full incident-free week

Legitimacy

• Rises by 0.5 per month when political stability has remained above 50

Crime level

• Rises when Watch coverage falls below 50% (scaled by deficit)

• Suppressed slowly (−0.1/day) when Watch coverage exceeds 80%

Global trust from district aggregate

• Recalculated each tick as a weighted average of residential district trust (weighted by density and political influence)

• Blended 70% district aggregate, 30% existing value for smoothing

Budget income model¶

Monthly income is applied to the city budget and scaled dynamically by city conditions:

This framework gives you everything needed to understand how the city responds to crises, without requiring numerical balance. The Patrician’s decisions become meaningful trade-offs:

• Fix Nap Hill’s water quickly (high political influence) or Small Gods’ water (more people affected)?

• Use budget for technical fixes now, or resilience investment for later?

• Blame the Thieves’ Guild (accountability) and risk their support, or compensate victims and hope the problem doesn’t recur?

• How long before regulatory pressure from the merchants forces action?

• Is political stability strong enough to survive a week of river fires?