Other D&D Variant Domain play, what, if anything, do you use?

[cbwjm]

I've been thinking about domain play recently, not because I need to, but because I've started reading through birthright again. There's a few things out there that can be used depending on how much detail you want.

• The Rules Cyclopedia is fairly detailed using 6 mile hexes, each of which have varying resources available out of vegetable, mineral, and animal. Combined with the number of families on that hex you get a certain amount of income.
• Birthright uses provinces, each approximately 1000-1500 square miles (about the size of Cumberland in the UK). The details are fairly abstracted, you have law holdings which control territory, guild holdings which can provide more money and set up trade routes, tenple holdings, and magical sources that allow realm affecting magic. Domain play is very structured, it might be more than many would need.
• I used dungeon world tags when describing my territories, and I think I'd probably use this for domain level play due to how simple it is. It's loose in requirements, you don't really have to define specific numbers, instead you can say that a PC's new barony in the border regions is growing, has an iron mine and lumber as resources, and owes fealty to a duke. There might be challlenges that need to be overcome to secure the barony like orcs, goblins, or a dragon. It's simple.

There are other systems, like Reign, which might provide what you need. I'd be interested in hearing what others have used, if your games have moved into domain play.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I've been thinking about domain play recently, not because I need to, but because I've started reading through birthright again. There's a few things out there that can be used depending on how much detail you want.

• The Rules Cyclopedia is fairly detailed using 6 mile hexes, each of which have varying resources available out of vegetable, mineral, and animal. Combined with the number of families on that hex you get a certain amount of income.
• Birthright uses provinces, each approximately 1000-1500 square miles (about the size of Cumberland in the UK). The details are fairly abstracted, you have law holdings which control territory, guild holdings which can provide more money and set up trade routes, tenple holdings, and magical sources that allow realm affecting magic. Domain play is very structured, it might be more than many would need.
• I used dungeon world tags when describing my territories, and I think I'd probably use this for domain level play due to how simple it is. It's loose in requirements, you don't really have to define specific numbers, instead you can say that a PC's new barony in the border regions is growing, has an iron mine and lumber as resources, and owes fealty to a duke. There might be challlenges that need to be overcome to secure the barony like orcs, goblins, or a dragon. It's simple.

There are other systems, like Reign, which might provide what you need. I'd be interested in hearing what others have used, if your games have moved into domain play.

If I ever had a group of players interested in pursuing domain play, I would use ACKS II (as I mentioned in the other thread). It is modular (allowing you to be as detailed in your sim as your group wants to be), has a very well thought-out and explained economic system, and covers a variety of different kinds of governance.

 

[jdrakeh]

I'm of the opinion that no iteration of D&D (or its many clones) really does domain level play justice. When I want that kind of game, I personally use Aria and Aria Worlds. It's a dense system, almost ridiculously so, but it's the only system I've seen that really does domain level play justice.

 

[cbwjm]

I'm of the opinion that no iteration of D&D (or its many clones) really does domain level play justice. When I want that kind of game, I personally use Aria and Aria Worlds. It's a dense system, almost ridiculously so, but it's the only system I've seen that really does domain level play justice.

I've not heard of Aria, is it a complex system?

 

[jdrakeh]

I've not heard of Aria, is it a complex system?

Mechanically, no. BUT the authors needlessly redefined almost every bit of standard RPG terminology within its pages, making reading it a real chore. It took me literal years to finally get through all of it. It was a true endurance test. I knew that it would be worth it, though (it won an Origins Award, after all). The terminology, the large page count, and my own ADHD all worked against me, however.

 

[Jahydin]

If I ever had a group of players interested in pursuing domain play, I would use ACKS II (as I mentioned in the other thread). It is modular (allowing you to be as detailed in your sim as your group wants to be), has a very well thought-out and explained economic system, and covers a variety of different kinds of governance.

Agree. Not to sound like a broken record, but I don't think there's anything else that even comes close. Curious what others offer up though.

I did see An Echo Resounding by Sine Nomine Publishing. Haven't read it myself, but is an add-on for OSR systems that might appeal to those looking for more abstract domain rules.

 

[Distracted DM]

I've been thinking about domain play recently, not because I need to, but because I've started reading through birthright again. There's a few things out there that can be used depending on how much detail you want.

• The Rules Cyclopedia is fairly detailed using 6 mile hexes, each of which have varying resources available out of vegetable, mineral, and animal. Combined with the number of families on that hex you get a certain amount of income.
• Birthright uses provinces, each approximately 1000-1500 square miles (about the size of Cumberland in the UK). The details are fairly abstracted, you have law holdings which control territory, guild holdings which can provide more money and set up trade routes, tenple holdings, and magical sources that allow realm affecting magic. Domain play is very structured, it might be more than many would need.
• I used dungeon world tags when describing my territories, and I think I'd probably use this for domain level play due to how simple it is. It's loose in requirements, you don't really have to define specific numbers, instead you can say that a PC's new barony in the border regions is growing, has an iron mine and lumber as resources, and owes fealty to a duke. There might be challlenges that need to be overcome to secure the barony like orcs, goblins, or a dragon. It's simple.

There are other systems, like Reign, which might provide what you need. I'd be interested in hearing what others have used, if your games have moved into domain play.

Can you elaborate on the "used dungeon world tags" part?

 

[Tonguez]

I've not heard of Aria, is it a complex system?

Aria is less game and more world building exercise, you start by creating a map, determining topography, seasonal cycles and weather patterns and major geological features. Then you create Heritage Groups (Species, Nations, Cultures) and then start 'play' where you are essentially playing as a Society advancing through its history and occasionally zooming in to one of its culture heroes or rulers (the closest thing to individual PC).

The mechanics were % rolls but in typical 1990s fashion they were a shambles to read through the 800-odd pages and went into excrutiating details. Luckily I was a player via PBEM so fortunately didnt have to keep checking back on every possible parameter to be rolled.

There is a fudge version which at least has easier rolls

 

[cbwjm]

Can you elaborate on the "used dungeon world tags" part?

Sure. It's the dungeon world system which is used for settlements (or steadings in dungeon world terms) but I think it can probably be used well enough for a PC's new barony. It uses tags for population, prosperity, and defences which is sort of rated by a number but uses descriptors instead (so a 1 in prosperity is instead poor, while a 5 is rich).

So you can have something like:

Draven's Watch, a moderately prosperous (most mundane items available) town with a steady population (neither growing or shrinking) defended by armed guards.
Other tags for Draven's Watch:

• Resource: Iron Mine, the reason it was settled.
• Blight: Orc and Gnoll raids (the other inhabitants of the valley the settlement is located in)
• Oaths of fealty to Harrison's hold, a local lord who guards the eastern marches; support of Oakhurst, a small village located in the nearby forests.
• Trades with: Oakhurst (meat and animals skins from Oakhurst), Harrison's hold (supplies them with iron)

Because it is just tags/descriptors you can expand it as you'd like, I threw in arcane and divine levels as well but didn't have a nice simple word to describe them. By the end of the campaign the orcs were allied with the town and the gnolls suffered a devastating defeat so that might result in the town growing after the blight tag being removed. It makes it easy to think about as you just make adjustments to the tags, adding new ones or removing old ones. I'm pretty sure it would work out well for PC domains.

You might start using fronts from dungeon world to threaten larger domains, perhaps signs of a growing army of the mountain king that is going to sweep out of the mountains, but otherwise tags seem to do the trick and don't rely on too much book keeping for the DM or player. Even with a general description of the town, it's still less than a page to describe everything about it.

 

[dbm]

I have three main options in my library, and which I would use would depend on how I wanted ‘domain play’ to feature.

Savage Worlds has a simple ‘base of operations’ system, which has tailored implementations for different genres including fantasy, supers, sci-fi, and horror. The PCs can have or find a base at GM discretion, and then there are features that the base can have which provide bonuses to the group. For example, in a fantasy base you might have a scrying room. Every time the PCs advance they can add a new feature to their stronghold, and this will also trigger some kind of base-of-ops focussed encounter, too. It’s a very simple, no real maintenance, system for having a base as a background feature which provides tangible benefits.

Legends of Anglerre has a system for modelling bases and organisations using Fate. This is the ‘Fate fractal’ in action, so you could do it in any Fate game however this is a detailed worked example. Organisations / bases have stats of their own, plus aspects and stunts. It’s more mechanically rich than the Savage Worlds rules and provides more support for maintenance, complications, or conflict if these are things you want to feature more in your game.

Lastly, there are several GURPS supplements on running organisations or territories. These are the most detailed, as you might expect. If you really want a campaign to focus on the details of these things GURPS has you covered.

Sticking with D&D? Rules Compendium is on the shelf too.