Creating political power groups

[fusangite]

Fusangite, thanks for your critical eye!


A city-state ruled by a Shah that falls under the jurisdiction of a Padishah. It used to be the capital city 100 years ago. It is a major port. The nation is modelled after Sassanid Persia.

That's a great period in history to build off. You have some lucky players. It sounds like, then, the city does rule some of the agricultural belt around it but that most of the economy works off trade and manufacturing. So, it seems like the important constituencies are going to be:
(a) the merchants
(b) the landowners
(c) the artisans
(d) the guard
(e) the churches

one of the princes seeks to make the Holy City in the center of town public land, so that greedy landowners can capitalize on its prime real estate.

Remember: land transfer in pre-modern societies was rarely accomplished through pure cash payment. Generally, the transfer of land required that many conditions be met.

So, the risks of courting the masses directly is that the lord to whom they're beholding would be pissed off, right?

I would think so. It is pretty insulting; you're these people's master. If someone has business with them, they should talk to you.

As for the promises being made to the masses,

Ok -- let's figure out who these masses are. I see four main categories:
1. Agricultural Labourers: These people will live outside the city gates in the rural agricultural region around the city. They will be responsible to the local landowner.
2. Urban Labourers: These people will be the intermittently employed muscle in the city, probably one-time refugees from the countryside. During times of siege, they are probably conscripted into militias; they are probably intermittently hired by merchants as ship labourer and to aid with unloading at the docks; during peaks in seasonal industries like fish-drying, wine-making, threshing, etc. they are probably hired to aid artisans.
3. Small Vendors: These people purchase discarded products in one area of the city, usually discarded or inferior, and sell them elsewhere at a minute profit. Or they will make inexpensive food for sale like bread.
4. Alms Collectors: There is often a seamless transition from category 3 to 4. Many small vendors are cripples or widows who perform some small service are, depending on their health and the time of year either type 3 or 4. Both of these groups benefit from any local dole like bread and circuses.
5. Stigmatized Aristans: Often people who practice certain trades perceived to be unclean or otherwise problematic, though technically part of the artisan order, are treated like the bottom rung of sociey. Pearl divers, tanners, executioners and other people working in ritually or physically unclean industries, are treated socially on a par with alms collectors even though they might actually be relatively skilled or prosperous.

there are several matters that interest the people beyond those you mentioned:

2. Making sure the holy manticore receives the animal sacrifice of the worst traitors so that the shadow of Ahriman does not fall on the city (a superstition)

Which churches believe in this? This could determine a lot about which church likes whom.

3. Proof that the messiah has returned/ protection of the so-called messiah /freedom to follow the so-called messiah's new religion/society

Again, which churches believe in this prophet and which do not? And what kind of church wants to re-make the social order? Is this a faction within an established church or a new church with no established position?

4. Improved treatment of a leper colony

How do you handle this within D&D rules? Unfortunately, the rules of this game force one to ask the question: why haven't some clerics shown up and cured these guys?

5. Insuring the protection of their leader - a blacksmith demagogue

I don't know what you mean here. Whose leader?

 

[Whimsical]

Roleplayingtips.com has an excellent article which contains an easy system that can bring your static political groups into living, evolving, & interacting entities.

A Simple Method For Campaign Creation: Managing Complex Systems Over Time In A Campaign World

 

[Altalazar]

Just call up Karl Rove and see if he'll write a new D&D sourcebook. He may be out of a job soon. Actually, that would be pretty cool. I wonder if anyone with real-world political experience would ever do that - write an RPG sourcebook on politics. I'd suspect that they'd have to be retired first - due to all of the negative political points they'd get for being associated with D&D.

We've all seen those threads about famous people who play RPGs, D&D in particular. I wonder if there are any politicians who have copped to it.

 

[fusangite]

Just call up Karl Rove and see if he'll write a new D&D sourcebook. He may be out of a job soon. Actually, that would be pretty cool. I wonder if anyone with real-world political experience would ever do that - write an RPG sourcebook on politics. I'd suspect that they'd have to be retired first - due to all of the negative political points they'd get for being associated with D&D.

We've all seen those threads about famous people who play RPGs, D&D in particular. I wonder if there are any politicians who have copped to it.

Well, if it enhances my credibility on this thread, I am a retired politician.

 

[Quickleaf]

Here are 3 of the main factions that I've identified. Given all of your advice, Fusangite, I'm heavily in the process of revising these factions.

The Arconte Conspiracy
Led by the eldest son, Prince Jahandir (minister of intelligence). The conspiracy seeks to instill Jahandir in his father's throne for 3 reasons:
(1) Pay off the city's debt. The truth is Jahandir plans to do this by increasing the already high tax on Hamaveran (a tribute city once run by a wicked king who the Shah conquered). This is the city where his adopted sister hails from; he hopes to intimidate her into marriage when she sees the suffering of her people.
(2) Reform the Rat People leper colony and improve their plight. The truth is, Jahandir was born one of the deformed Rat People, and only through the magic of his father's vizier did he escape his condition. He loathes the Rat People's appearance, and hopes to create an underground city for them where no one will have to see them ever again.
(3) Improve treatment of prisoners and overhaul the prison system. The truth is, Jahandir, himself under house arrest, wants to free those spies of his that were taken into custody for "treason" along with a powerful witch who he intends to use.

The Elitist Party
Led by the middle son Ardeshir (ambassador). The party seeks to instill Ardeshir on the throne of his father for 3 reasons:
(1) Preserve the cultural heritage of city-dwellers. Truth is, this is a thinly guised intitiative to strip the Saka nomads of the few economic advantages they have by calling upon old laws declaring certain industries the property of the state.
(2) Rid corruption in the Holy City. Truth is, Ardeshir was an acolyte of the Holy City who wanted to use the magical Cup of Djemscheed to divine the location of the bandits who kidnapped him as a boy, that he might have revenge. When the high priest refused, he left the clergy. Ardeshir has lost much of his faith, and despises the monks of the Holy City, who he claim have a corrupt theological justice system that operates behind closed doors, the monks are given food and lodging without working for it, and the Cup of Djemscheed is being misused by the high priest. This last complaint is purely fabricated in an attempt to access the Cup.
(3) Assign the Silver Company as an anti-cultist task force. Ardeshir and his followers feel threatened by the Zurvanite communal style of living; thus he has associated them with the wicked (and practically non-existent) cult of Ahriman, to justify action against them. Ardeshir also knew he needed military backing, and thus choose the Silver Company mercenaries, who are under significant political pressure. By promising them a place in the new government, he hopes to woo them from his father's side.

The Militant Camp
Led by the youngest son, Sanjar (General-Chief of the Anusiya). The camp seeks to instill Sanjar in his father's throne for 3 reasons:
(1) Bring those "beyond the law" to justice. This includes the Silver Company mercenaries, certain "false prophet" religious figures, and several protected monsters (including the holy sin-eating manticore) known as the Ancient Ones. Sanjar teeters very close to offering to avenge the cause of anyone who allies with him.
(2) Restore traditional values. In particular, Sanjar wants to return to the practice of training all youth in the martial art of Varzesh-e-Pahlavani. He also wants higher taxes on foreign goods, cracking down on spies/unhealthy foreign elements, and renewal of old sexist laws limiting a woman's influence in warfare and politics.
(3) Improved pay and status for warriors. Sanjar is no fool. He knows that this is an empty promise. The Anusiya are already overpaid and heralded as heroes (rightly or wrongly). The promises he makes border on the ridiculous: Entry into paradise, A kingdom to each of his men, etc. The truth behind this rhetoric is that Sanjar intends to use the money to buy off military aggressors who are waiting to pounce on the city in a moment of weakness. By paying them off, he buys himself time to launch his own coup, guaranteeing they do not act during his military operation to take the throne.

Which churches believe in this?

There is only one main church - The Temple of Fire, center of the Mazdayasi faith. Everyone in the city pretty much believes in the holy manticore & shadow of Ahriman myth...though there are a few exceptions. The Mazdayasi faith is modeled after Zoroastrianism. In addition, there is a group of communalists called the Zurvanites - they are considered heretics. The cult of Ahriman are wholly evil, but also disbanded and mainly limited to small covert action. There is a popular legend of the Sayoshan, a messiah like figure, which is very popular among the commoners and less popular among the nobility.

How do you handle this within D&D rules? Unfortunately, the rules of this game force one to ask the question: why haven't some clerics shown up and cured these guys?

Well, just because someone has a cure doesn't mean they share it. Think about our world today...we have cures for many conditions that people across the world still suffer from. Why? Well, in the setting there are several reasons.
1. The Rat People are born physically disfigured. This is a trait they are born with, and thus it is not cureable through low-level magics.
2. The leprosy like disease that plagues them spreads quickly through their crowded living conditions. They aren't allowed to leave, for fear the rest of the city will be contaminated. It's hard to distinguish one Rat Person from another, so someone at the checkpoint who claims to be healed could be lying.
3. There is another disease called the Shadow of Ahriman that has affected pocket communities in the City of Rats - the leper colony. This disease is a curse of weredeath; in the evening those infected become ghoul-like parodies of themselves. It's hard to track this cursed disease, and many consider it to have been sent from the gods.
4. Zaotar, the high priest, believes the Rat People have been cursed for blasphemy. While he won't forbid priests from going into the leper colony, he certainly doesn't advocate helping them. Thus, there is only one group of saintly women who offer assistance to the Rat People. These woman have few clerics amongst them, and are too few in number to make a big impact in the conditions of the leper colony.
5. There is a small group of Rat People who don't want to be healed. They are led by an influential shaman who claims the purpose of their deformity and suffering is to reveal to the greater society the extant of their suffering, to create awareness for the horrid conditions in the City of Rats. The truth is, this evil shaman (called King Rat) is a wererat who tricks his followers into refraining from leaving/seeking healing so that he may be surrounded by people just as grotesque as himself. His greatest fear is his ugliness.
6. There is a group of thugs and assassins who roam the City of Rats, making it a dangerous place for those who don't have considerable strength of arms. Thus a cleric would need several fighters to escort them.

I don't know what you mean here. Whose leader?

The laborers, artisans, craftsmen, and vendors whose families have suffered at the hands of the Silver Company (very much like the templars, mercenary warriors turned bankers/loan sharks) are led by Khjer Izegoan, a popular blacksmith revolutionary. An exiled noble house secretly backs Khjer's movement, though he only lets them think they're in control. The reality is, he is the backbone of the popular movement calling for the surrender and trial of dozens of Silver Company mercenaries. He is just using the exiled nobles, but it's a dangerous proposition, because if it's found out they're supporting him, the thin ice he already treads on will be shattered and the state will take action against him.

 

[fusangite]

Looks like you're off to a great start Quickleaf! You've got some lucky players. Glad I was able to contribute a little.

 

[Quickleaf]

Cheers! And thanks! And congratulations on retiring from politics too.

 

[dungeon]

yeah what quick leaf said! congratulations!

 

[Altalazar]

Well, if it enhances my credibility on this thread, I am a retired politician.

That certainly lends credibility here, though I suppose one might wonder what level of politics you were at. Anything approaching national and I'd think a candidate would not want to touch RPGs with a ten-foot pole (though it is standard on character sheets...)

But for my own idea about a politican copping to gaming, it only counts if you are up for re-election again - retired politicians generally stop worrying about image...
(Now that I look at you again, maybe things are different in Canada...)

 

[fusangite]

That certainly lends credibility here, though I suppose one might wonder what level of politics you were at. Anything approaching national and I'd think a candidate would not want to touch RPGs with a ten-foot pole (though it is standard on character sheets...)

But for my own idea about a politican copping to gaming, it only counts if you are up for re-election again - retired politicians generally stop worrying about image...
(Now that I look at you again, maybe things are different in Canada...)

When I retired from politics, one newspaper in my home town ran an interview that was about 40% a description of the Champions campaign I was in and the character I played. Describing Brown Bear and the Justice Hurricane was part of my strategy of preventing myself from getting involved again.

I wasn't exactly a major political figure where I lived (I never held public office) but when I was deposed from my old job, it did make the front page of the major daily papers in my jurisdiction.