DM's Request: How to run politics?

[FungiMuncher]

Here's the situation: When I started my campaign almost two years ago, a couple of my players said that they were interested in politics. In that time, I've touched on politics just a wee bit. Now, after a brief break, I'm picking up the campaign again in January. I'd like to include some more politics. The problem is that I really have no clue as to how to do it well! Most of my villians have been pretty upfront about their villany.

I could use some general advice on how to get started, as well as anything specific related to my campaign.

Some campaign background: I have seven PCs at about six-seventh level. The world is pseudo-historical, taking place in Alexandria in the dark ages. Rome has fallen (sacked by barbarians, but susequently conqured by undead). Egypt is controlled by Constantinople (before the Muslims existed, or at least invaded). The party leader is a psychic warrior, with contacts in a secret psionics organization. They're heavy on fighter types, weak on rogues. They have been investigating the troubles caused by an ancient cult of Apep worshiping snake-men.

They just returned from the Shadow Realm (finding the snake-men base), and are traveling to one of the islands, to try to recover a minor artifact. The artifact was stolen by a rogue over a hundred years ago, and he retreated to this island. They're hoping to find the artifact in the possession of one of his ancestors. The artifact should help against the snake-men.

I'm thinking of modeling the island town after the Freeport suppliment I have.

Well, I sure could use some more ideas! What aspects of the NPCs should be best developed to make a more political game (and how best to do this)? How can I balance role-playing/political encounters with some nice, juicy fights?

I got three weeks to prepare all of this. Hope you guys can help.

Thanks

FM

 

[Thanee]

A bit general, but still...

You could think up a main villain/main background storyline, which is deeply involved in politics (intrigue, throwing kingdoms at each others throat, or similar stuff). Then think about how the politics will be used to further the vile masterplan and how the PC's might get involved in the first place (i.e. contacted by some political figure in their vincinity to unveil something, which will lead them to the big storyline eventually).

To throw in some fights will be the easiest of all things. They could clash with the henchmen of the villain at numerous occasions and eventually, if the villain finds out about them and how they intervene with his or her plans, they might become a target themselves, which will doubtlessly lead to further fighting.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Mark]

Here are some links to help you do some research-

http://home.earthlink.net/~pdistan/ History of Western Philosophy

http://members.aol.com/MrDonnHistory/World.html Mr Donn's World History

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/mainhist.html Manas History and Politics

http://www.le.ac.uk/hi/bon/ESFDB/frameset.html European State Finance Database (Middle Ages)

http://www.ihrinfo.ac.uk/hop/ History of Parliament

http://radicalacademy.com/adiphilmedieval.htm Histories of Medieval Philosophy

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/ancient.html#table Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page5.asp History of the Monarchy in the United Kingdom

Hope that helps!

 

[Umbran]

I could use some general advice on how to get started, as well as anything specific related to my campaign.

To see politics done well, you might look at some books. Katherine Kurtz's Deryni books, J Gregory Keyes Empire of Unreason series and George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series are al good esxmples of well-done politics driven by people.

 

[Chronosome]

I'll second Umbran's Song of Fire and Ice recommendation...the series inspired my first real shot at politics in my campaign, and it's going very well...

 

[Piratecat]

I faced this same question when I developed Eversink, and here's how I did it:

1. Develop your major power centers. Who are the groups playing around in politics?

In my case, it was 3-4 major merchant families and 4-5 minor merchant families riding on their coattails. I also added in a town council, an assassin's guild, the main church, and a powerful organization of adventurer mercenaries. With this, I had enough people for major and minor political plots.

Make sure that every organization and major NPC has a secret. The secret may never come into play, but it will be REALLY useful in helping you build adventures. For instance, one of the secrets in my game is that Lord Griggan had visitations of what he thought was an angel, who would tell him secrets about other Families. Griggan's wife's secret was that she was pregnant by another man - an elf - and she was terrified of what would happen when the baby was born. That sort of thing.

2. Determine the minor power centers. Every group has leaders, some of whom are opposed to one another.

I took the families I was using for my main plot, and predicated an old matriarch and her bitter, conniving son. I also had a former assassin who is politically prominent, some people who desperately wanted the PCs' help/approval, and some people who were jealous of the group.

3. What are the groups currently up to? There are two main types of political adventures. One has the society in status quo, but the arrival of the PCs shakes things up like a rock tossed into a still pond. The other has the political forces striving towards something, and the PCs can help or hurt these plans.

4. Why are the PCs important? They can help or hurt. they may become the "flavor of the week", invited to lots of parties then dropped when something better comes around. They may become actually useful, in which case they could be adopted.

Remember that in politics, suggestion is as important as fact. The PCs may only say hi in passing to a political boss, but if someone else sees them "conferring", rumors are going to fly.

 

[Drawmack]

I play heavy politics. Here are some really cool things you can do with this scenario.

1) the easiest if you have enough money is get Freeport: City of Adventure. They are looking for a new see lord right now and that could be one of your PCs.

2) This is the harder route but could prove more fun and rewarding as well.

First you have to define a political ladder in the society you're playing in. Basing it on the dark ages it might look something like Peasant, Military (Militia), Knight, Fief Lord, Noble, King.

You have to have them work their way up this ladder. Them being fighter types helps. Maybe a Fief Lord wants the snake men taken care of as well, so he approaches the PCs and tells them that if they can defeat the snake cult he will give them rule over his militia. Once they have that control the Fief lord starts having them raid against other local Fief Lords, in the long run they find out he is the leader of an upheavale to overthrow the King. Now is the politics do they continue raiding for him in the hopes that he will make king and give them all their own fief's or do they alert the current king hoping for nighthood, or do they play both sides of the fence hedging their bets to move up the ladder no matter who wins. Then in the outcome does the winner trust them after their trechery has been outed? This could go anywhere.

 

[spacecrime.com]

Because I'm just shameless...

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32681

Unfortunately, it will arrive in three months and not three weeks. But it should still be fairly useful to you when it gets here...

cheers,

 

[Sir Edgar]

Listen to Piratecat. Those are very good points! When you're playing power politics in a game, it's important to put everyone into different factions in one way or another. Each person has their own objective and plans to reach their objective.

You may want to know that ancient Rome was a place where political (and physical) backstabbing was commonplace for the sake of election. One emperor was rumored to have even started a fire that burnt down much of the city so he could bypass the Senate and re-build the city the way he wanted to.

You currently have Rome destroyed, but maybe you could have a former senator of the Republic from there want to take the city from the undead and rebuild it. He knows of an ancient artifact on the island that was long ago held by the Romans when they ruled Egypt. It belonged to a mummified Egyptian king but was stolen and now in the hands of the snakemen. It has the power to turn back undead and can help the senator and his forces re-gain power in Rome. So, he sends a messenger to ask the party to help retrieve the artifact.

There is another senator who has found out about the relic, too. He finds out because the old sage who told the first senator was his dear friend and had mysteriously died. When he goes to visit the daughter, he learns that he had told the first senator about the relic and then the same night died in his sleep all of a sudden. The daughter is suspicious and thinks he was murdered by the first senator. She tells him that the artifact is also incredibly dangerous and could destroy all of Rome not just the undead.

So, this second senator tries to stop the first senator and sends a group to stop the adventurers. He gets the aid of the local Egyptians who wanted to preserve the artifact and return it to the tomb. But the Cairo government also wants the artifact believing that it will bring great power and prestige to its rule. And from there it goes.

What do you think of something like that?

 

[Azure Trance]

Wow. Stellar ideas. I'm saving this in my favorites ;D