Last Names and Kinships

One of the recent additions to the pledge rewards is early access to pick a last name. I think it would be interesting to see last names wrapped up into a Kinship system.

Kinships would be similar to guild relationships, except they would represent a personal relationship between the characters. The distinguishing characteristic of this system would be that the head of the Kinship could share his/her unique last name with others.

This system is not a replacement for guilds--a character could be a part of both a Kinship and a guild.

The Kinship would absorb and manage the Family Crest concept (also a new reward) that can be displayed on shields, tabards and house flags. Kinships would also be added as another level of permission that could be applied to objects.

 

I was JUST thinking this as well. I would love to see this implemented. Several MMOs have tried in the past to accomplish something similar but never seem to pull it off in the manner you explained.

I would like to add that if "Kinships" were included in the game could a large enough kinship try and found a village/town/city? It would be amazing to see a large Kinship able to run an entire citizenship. Perhaps they could rent houses while trying to manage the costs of the village/town/city. If a single Kinship was "known far and wide" as the best crafters of a certain type you could try and travel to their holdings in search of a specific item, but do you even know where they are located?

 

There have been quite a few towns created in UO, that people effectively ran. Even Pks (well the good red PvPers) would be welcomed in them.

A mechanism of perhaps hiring NPCs to "Patrol" the town would be good, to stop any fights, unless a tavern had a free4all policy in it (every town needs a rough pub).

Having NPCs that would defend against outsiders attacking, would make for communities to chip in to keep their homes safer.

 

So, would the first person to pick a certain last name be the one to design the family crest? Can people change last names, like if they get married, adopted into the family?

 

The head of the Kinship should be able to manage the design of the family crest. I would expect that both crests and family names could be changed. The crest should be changable through some sort of in-game transaction with the government. The family names should require a MTX service to make sure the choice is well thought out.