I agree that the combat form of persuasion is something that we should
keep, even if folks don't use it.
Let's make it 2 forms:
1) Persaude to desert. You pay money, and the bribed noble will
abscond (vanish) with the funds, perhaps having 1/2 or more of his men
desert as well.
2) Persuade to join: You pay money, and if the bribed noble joins your
faction, you have to pay NP's.
Now that economic concerns are encouraging players to form more
contract nobles, this sort of combat ought to grow in popularity.
It was my impression that the large number of oath nobles in the alpha
discouraged this sort of thing, other than to harvest abandoned
nobles...
-- g