DM in trouble (acted without thinking)

[Cake Mage]

You see I started this game with two countries in a "cold war" so to speak. I have the Human Kingdom, which rules over the elves on the continent going to war against the Dwarves's country. Now for the life of me I can't think of any reason good enough why they are going to war. It's been about 6-7 game sessions now and I even had the Dwarves invade and take over a city of the Human's. It was resolved through "rigorous negotiations", as I told the PC's, but I still don't know why they are at war. Can you guys, my guys, my friends and peers, come up with something to help me out? Neither country is evil or anything, but I kind of need something political.

The Human's Kingdom has a king and also has like a democracy, much like the US's Democracy but where the president is there is a King and the king is always a relative, born in to power. So no voting for the king, but the people vote for the diplomats and such. The Kind is basically a good guy but his political power is being slowly drained away by the not so good diplomats. So I kind of want it to be the diplomats fault as to why they are a war.

The Dwarves, I don't know what I'm going to with them. I haven't thought too much about how there government is run or anything so its all freeform here. I think though that they should have representatives for all there clans much like the mountain dwarves of Krynn in the Dragonlance series.

Please, Please, Please help me out pr else this cool-idea-for-a- game-of-mine will never work.

 

[Sidran]

Your screwed


J/k


About the help you seek hrmmm.....

Ok so the human kingdom ( lets call it the United Kingdom of Nod for right now) has fears that the Dwarven Politka Goverment is up to something.


After all they are short, they have large beards, and we are suspicious of their large headed axes.

You have basically set up the incident that started the cold war...
In our RL world the Cold war was a Scientific arms race ( who could get to the moon first) It was all about who was more macho really in effect. It was not a invasion war it was a crafty spy war. So what you have is a escallated cold war. Something has set the two powers at each others throats, and this cause is scarry enough to the dwarves to have them take a city, and give it back threw rigorus negotiation.

Perhaps its as simple as the land that is now ruled by the UKoN is the ancestral land of the Dwarves who have come back from a long journey. ( Like a Exodus from this part of the world else where, and then back) The Dwarven kingdom is very socialistic, and true to the agressive nature, and the greedy nature of the dwarves they want the land that is supposed to be theirs. ( the whole exodus bible story revisited) So here is the over all idea


Dwarves traverse a great distance to inherit the land that was promised by Jumping Jahosephat, there god

They get their but do not fullfil the prescripts of their God, and are sent to wander for 100 years in the wilderness ( the land where the settle and build their present day kingdom

100 years pass and the veil of forgotten memory is cleared away and the Rememberance of the promise returns to them.
They travel happily back to the land of milk and honey to find that a human kingdom has claimed the territory and united the clannish people of the region together.

Angered and distraut the Dwarves head back to the mountainous cities and discuss what to do with the humans

What sets them off is that when they send a scouting party into the land of the humans they are attacked as spies, and two of the party are hung and staked so that all may see the end of spies

Unfortuntely the Humans in their fear of the unknown attacked and killed one of the Chiefs of the Clans ( One of the Main dwarven Chieftans), and his Shaman

The act of violence started the war against the town in which the dwarves where staked, and the subsequent troubles between the two kingdoms.

While the Human king is very very sorry about the misunderstanding, and is willing to have the Chieftain resurrected he of course will have no "Dwarf" in his kingdom other than on official business.

The war is now locked down int a cold war situation neither side really in for a fight, but neither willing to back down.

The human kingdom wants no less than that the dwarves stay where they are and for the moment maintain very little trade.

The Dwarves want the land they were promised.. they are offended by the Hu-mann's offer of desicrating their dead by returning their spirit from the Halls of Valhalla or what ever

The arms race is really a competitive race to find a lost magical item that will once and for all decide the ownership of the land.

 

[Bihor]

A sneeky elf in the shadow

Ther could be a old elf senator or diplomat, who whants to discerdit the king to return is elven kindom to the glory of old.
He could proposee things to the senate that make the dwarf angry. Like exploiting mines near the dwarf.
He could become the major vilain.

Sorry for the spelling

 

[Buttercup]

I can think of a couple of possibilities. First, let's talk about the government styles. What you described for the human kingdom is analagous to England/United Kingdom. They have a monarch with no real power, and an elected body that makes all the decisions. Now, what if your Dwarven state were modified socialist? Each clan would be like a collective. They would send a representative to the council of clans, which would make binding decisions for all dwarves. Individual rights would be nonexistent--the group good it the only consideration.

If you set it up like this, the cold war could be just like the one we actually had IRL for decades. The two sides hate each other because of their drastically different world view. The humans would view the dwarves as tyrants & oppressed, and the dwarves would view the humans as decadent and vice-ridden. The humans would want to 'liberate' peoples and communities under dwarven rule, and the dwarves would want to 'purify' the human controled communities.

To make it more interesting, throw in some other issues, like control of certain resources. This way, the politics can be considered merely a front by the more cynical members of either society.

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

So far you have some good ideas for a RL scenario. Let's look at it a different way. The King and his family for untold generations have ruled as they should providing a figurehead for the actions of the diplomats. Lately the King has seen a need to re-establish control of his own homeland. The Diplomats who once came to him with any idea now come not at all. The King knows of only one way to regain control - WAR. With a victory the King can downplay the Diplomats and re-assert his families dominance in the political arena. The Diplomats while powerful don't have control of the army the king does. The Dwarves are not innocent in this either. They are willing to see the King "win" a minor war but won't stand for a drubbing. So on each side you have those that play the money vs those that play power vs those that play politics. So it is up to the Diplomats to contain the King whilst not losing public support yrt not crossing the line and send the Dwarves back to prepare for a "real" war. Hope that helps

 

[Cake Mage]

Wow these ideas are awesome. I could never come up with some of these backstabing political senarios. I love it. right now I think I'm gonna use a little bit from everyone to fit it in real nice. the king regaining his power, the Elf noble wanting to re-establish his kingdom, the UkoN (funny)and the Dwarven country going at it like that is gonna work real nice. I also like the struggle with the resources between the everyone as well. Keep 'em coming. Thanks

 

[Pyske]

Since you still seem interested in more suggestions:

Bandits or monsters raided a dwarven village. The dwarves moved in troops to guard the area, but because the area was near the border, the humans feared that they were massing forces for an invasion. The humans send a few nasty letters full of threats and warnings, which as far as the dwarves are concerned, came from nowhere. The dwarves overreact, tossing the human diplomats out of the kingdom. The humans prepare for war. The dwarves see the humans buying up weapons and gathering forces, and prepare their own forces. Brinksmanship ensues. An inadvertent border crossing (or possibly a scouting expedition) leads to a skirmish, reinforcements arrive, and the first major battle of the war is fought.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[Ferret]

The dwarves and humans have a steady flow of trading, the humans didn't want to pay so much for the swords and get the orcs to get them, they steal them, and everyone gets angry etc

 

[Wampus Cat]

Stereotypically, dwarves go to war for two reasons: goblinoids (see previous post) or greed. In your case, how about dwarven prospectors discover a gold seam in human territory, and ambitious dwarven ministers concoct a plan to conquer the one town to get concessions that just happen to include said gold-filled mountain. Then you can escalate or de-escalate from there.

 

[ForceUser]

Wars are often fought over resources. Iraq invaded Kuwait to gain control of oil. The US protects Middle Eastern resources for the same reason.

What resource do both dwarves and humans value? Metal. The availability of steel weapons, armor and other devices are one thing that enabled ancient Europeans to conquer large portions of the world in a relatively short time frame. Technology and war go hand in hand. Perhaps a human region sits on lands rich in mineral resources that the dwarves covet, so they have claimed "the right to retake their ancestral home" to possess it. Perhaps the humans envy the dwarves their metals and the resulting technology, so they have decided to take it out of fear and greed. After all, if they didn't attack now, the dwarves were bound to do so later. Pick a region or several regions of your world as trouble spots that are fought over, then detail what resources the owner of the land would control.

Often, there are several cascading factors that result in war. Resources is a big one, and so is religion. Religion is often used as an excuse to attack, such as during the Crusades. Perhaps humans use magic (learned from the elves) in their daily lives, or it is an accepted part of life, while dwarves see arcane magic as heretic and evil because it does not originate from worship of a higher power. Thus, the dwarves now have two reasons to war - securing vital resources for the future, and expunging heretical magics from their world. Or maybe they are secretly indifferent to magic, but use it as an excuse to justify their expansionism. Alternately, perhaps humans view the dwarven diety suspiciously because they don't fully understand it. Since dwarves are dirty and live in the earth like maggots, and their god encourages this, maybe dwarves are evil. They are all shrewd, lustful, and greedy, just like their god, and their greed will one day threaten the humans' sovereignty. Better, then, to wage war in the name of Allmighty [INSERT DIETY HERE] to cleanse the world of the dwarven threat (and, incidentally, to pick up large tracts of arable land that can generate taxes from new landlords).

War is easy to justify. It's peace that's hard to maintain.