wanted: king. must be patient, wise and able to speak directly to a god..

[alsih2o]

how are leaders chosen in your world?

i was just reading about how kings heads were anointed in eirope, and later their hands and sholders were anointed, giving them a "kingly touch" that allowed them to heal disease with their hands.

this sounds very paladinish to me. with the proven strength of very visible gods all leaders come from the church in my homebrew.

i am wondering, how are leaders chosen in your world? divine right? birth? deeds? proof through combat? spin the bottle with kobolds?

 

[Ruined]

The ones in my current game mostly come from noble lineage, which is of great interest right now because the current king has left no heirs, and his cousins are fighting to attain the post.

And then there's the 'enemy' country, where ascendancy is largely proven through assassination and political machinations. Fun indeed!

 

[arwink]

Variable.

Seldarn: Emperor's line was named by the gods as leaders, and held the position through magical power and the support of the major churches.

Reldengard: Heriditary clan leaders, mostly held through force at arms. The official leader of the country is whoever can be bothered showing up at the emperors court.

Borr: A newly settled kingdom on a distant continent that's ruled by the guy who actually bothered to go there and start the first colony.

Charos: Heriditary members of psionic noble families elect members to the council, and the leader of the council tends to be the most powerful psion who avoids assasination and mind-seeding for the longest time. Noble families aren't above adopting commoners if they have power, wealth or some sort of use.

Orcs: Leaders are chosen by the gods, but such a state is temporary and subject to change the moment an axe takes the leaders head off.

 

[Voadam]

Two general options

1 Gather an army, take over a land, proclaim yourself king.

2 Be the heir to the throne when the old ruler dies.

My old merchant wizard character went adventuring with a character who was mayor of a large but empty city. They became friends and the mayor asked him to establish a trading base and join the city's government as a consul along with another wizard who had been there for years. My character did so and was established as a leader of the people when the other wizard finished an epic ritual summoning a lost roman-like nation back from nightmare (ravenloft) shooting the city's population from 500 to five hundred thousand. My character took an active role in leading and shaping the new nation and dealing with other nation's leaders. He was known as the First Merchant's Consul, eventually part of a triumvirate that ruled the nation until one of his proteges (another PC) became emperor.

 

[diaglo]

aristocrat NPC class.

pre-1edADnD.

and then when 1edADnD came along i added some of the stuff out of the DMG

 

[blackshirt5]

Bungee Jumping/Sword-fighting.

 

[Henry]

i am wondering, how are leaders chosen in your world? Spin the bottle with kobolds?

Clay, I've been inspired by you to change the entire nature of my campaign world! My players will have you to thank for it! Thank you!


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Seriously, it's usually political maneuvering or force of arms (or both) that determines it in my homebrew campaign. However, there are only three or four kingdoms - the rest is just wild land, and the occasional city-state.

One kingdom/city-state is ruled by a combo of merchants and a war captain - anything that turns a prophet, particularly slavery of humans and gnomes, is fair game.

One nation is a confederacy of city-states with common ideology - they govern themselves, but contribute to a mutual fund for things like trade roads and defenses.

One Kingdom is traditional divine right, supported by several knightly orders and wizards and clerics. So that's the only real "king & queen" to speak of.

Finally, there's one that exists as a democracy ENTIRELY WITHIN a dormant volcano - but is so remote that most people don't even know or care it exists.

The rest is a hodgepodge - dictatorial pirate-holds, communal hamlets, iron grip city-states with locks on trade, and wilderness forts who make their own law.

 

[Gez]

I've got an empire and several monarchies, where it's a hereditary thing.

In the Massany republic, there are five main cities. You may buy citizenship to the officials in one city (a hefty fee). Once you're a citizen, you may become a Grand Citizen. This lofty status requires you to have the patronage of another Grand Citizen, to have done service to the city, and to get the tacit or vocal approval of all other Grand Citizens. Every ten years, the GC vote one of them to be the mayor of the city. The mayor of the capital is also the president, and the mayor of the four other main cities are also ministers of various important offices (trade & marine, army & logistics, justice & churchs, magic & lore).

In the Chandrale plutocracy, you have to own land and a manor, and then to get chosen by the Council of the Elders. But you don't hold real power. You need to work with the other lords to get things done.

The grey elven sailors of the Grey Coast have a form of cooperative anarchy. Being overwhelmingly Chaotic Good and smarter than the average humanoid tend to produce societies that would never see (correctly) the light of the day in the real world. Anyway, they have no clear ruler, and not even official spokeperson. The only form of autority are ship captains.

Finally, the semi-secret gnome country (un)known as the Collegium works more like an academy than like a country. A form of "scholascracy."

 

[Gez]

In another campaign, we had a fairly detailed background for a fantasy Nippon-like empire, where the nobility was noble, because, well, they could trace back their ancestry to a mythical dragon. Each noble family had its own "mark of the dragon" that was usually like a slight difformity (longer fingers, unnatural eye, skin or hair color, presence of some scales at localized places, and so on). As time passed and bloodline thinned, most families began to lose their marks. And a war against mysterious warriors made of shadowstuff that seemed bent on killing every dragon-blooded aristocrat hasn't bettered the things for the "blood nobility", which is now outnumbered by the "land nobility" (no mark, but possession).

 

[SnowDog]

Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government! Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony!

Sorry, someone was bound to say it.

I haven't had to explore it much in my current game, but I've always run worlds where the church likes to meddle in such affairs, while large aspects of the secular government want to remain separate.

I have yet to run a world where the Good Churches get all politically involved with no hidden motives whatsoever. Maybe I should try it .