Quote Originally Posted by Anonymouswizard View Post
Ah, yes. Because declaring yourself Prince always works.
I didn't say it would work! I just said I half-expect them to declare it.

More seriously, I'm not sure this is a strict loss for the Prince. It's not as good a win as putting a more loyal servant on the throne, but it's still somebody likely in their debt.
Depends on how the party approaches it. If they take a "live and let live" approach towards the Prince, the Prince may be willing to let them have their little fiefdom but prepare to pull them back under his control when necessary. If they go full antagonistic towards the Prince, he will pull out the stops to... fix the situation.

I mean, you also need to decide how obvious the Prince wants their rule to be.
At the moment, I anticipate the Prince will expect them to hold College Town in his name. Whether that happens by them overtly turning it over to him once they have control or they take control and the Prince just treats them like they are his vassals will be determined in-game.

Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
They do want to take over. But they have other more important things that require their personal attention, so they send some of their vassals to take care of it.
Huh... That could work.

Actually, feudalism might be a good model for this situation. The people at the top have a claim to a large territory, but they can't control all of it directly themselves.
That is where I was going with the Prince sending a Baron to oversee College Town once it is under control. The Baron runs the day-to-day, but reports to the Prince.