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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 2039478" data-attributes="member: 22882">I'm running a somewhat similar game right now.It's set probably a bit higher-tech than yours, with one nation being steampunk and boasting 19th century tech and the other being more 17th century, with extremely advanced plate armor that's rapidly becoming obsolete, extensive sword use and (poor) firearms available that are in many ways inferior to longbows.The King of the latter country (the one the PCs serve) is a morally ambiguous figure at best, a common-born knight and spy who was involved in a series of ruthless assassinations and double-crosses.  He finally rose to the throne by taking advantage of a massive civil war, the exhaustion of the old nobility due to nearly 60 years of knightly conflict, and the trust and affection of a niave princess.The steampunk nation is the worst sort of 19th century technocracy, convinced of its inevitable progress but unable to address the most basic spiritual and material needs of its citizens.  A decadent and depressed upper class presides over an overworked and desperate lower class, with extensive, and unfufilling, crossover between the two.  Their ruling oligarchs are ambitious and driven idealists who refuse to acknowledge the misery of their populace.And the remnants of the wicked eldritch empire that ruled both areas 5000 years ago are desperate to regain their power...IMO, the key to a good conspiracy campaign is to set up the factions, their leaders, the motives and goals of both, how they operate, and, most importantly, what each group knows about the others.For example, I have basically seven major power groups - the Kingdom of Ivalice, the Kingdom of Ordalia, the Republic of Romanda, the old nobility of Ivalice, the Murond Glabados Church, the ancient Murondi Empire, and the lower-class rebels of Ivalice.  The Church is allied to the Kingdom and the lower-class and noble rebels, the Romandans to the Ordalians, and the Empire to the lower-class rebels and the Ordalians.The Ordalians (led by their current monarch, old and hidebound, and his son, an impetuous warrior prince) want to weaken Ivalice so they can press old territorial claims, and the King of Ordalia personally wishes to oust the King of Ivalice because the latter replaced relatives of his.  To accomplish this goal, Ordalia is working with Romanda (its traditional ally) and the remnants of the Murondi Empire (with which it shares a religion).  Ordalia doesn't know the details of either ally's power, but has a general grasp of what they can accomplish.  It prefers direct conflict to espionage and is the junior partner in the present cold war, but should open war break out it would be a powerhouse.  It employs limited magic but frowns on overt displays of eldritch might, such as summoning demons.The PCs, assuming they constitute a faction unto themselves, generally know nothing, at least to start. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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