• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

help me brainstorm a kingdom

Okay. I can think of a couple of ways the King/Queen might respond to Val and Gunter's return, with Val's senior Knight and with the news that they have found no assistance in the north in fighting pirates or discovering the ultimate fate of the Red Saint....

1) they're given respect for their efforts but their overall failure means they're simply thanked and ignored.
2) they're told that their failure is a devastating one, that the kingdom is in serious danger, and they've helped not at all. They're told to leave because they've disgraced their families.
3) They're thanked profoundly and asked to help solve another riddle around the Red Saint's disappearance.
4) ??

And what would each of these reactions lead to? What options for the PCs? I guess I really do need to start with WHAT did happen to the Red Saint?

That is all excellent. Maybe you should write up notes on your favorite idea and your least favorite and see how that impacts your story. I have found that often my initial idea is correct HOWEVER at times that it wasn't the next idea or least favorite turned out to be far better and led to a really breathing living environment in my game world. Try it out.

Then whichever you choose you can identify what that impacts in the overall story as well as the minutia. What is the Red Saint?
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

Some things I thought of were how does the kingdom defend against the jungle? does it have patrolling rangers along the jungle edge? do druid-shaman attempt to keep peace with the jungle spirits?

Does the kingdom have an extensive navy? You say that there are 'knights' but how do they fit - metal armour sucks in tropical heat, or are they more baronial bodyguards. Also the barons are pretty much petty chieftains overseeing one or more villages, what is their role and relationship to the King? are their any rebel barons vying for the throne?


Anyway riffing of the four options you've presented

1) they're given respect for their efforts but their overall failure means they're simply thanked and ignored.

=> they do however come to the attention of the oppressed Cult of the Red Saint who now attempt to contact them.

Perhaps the so called Pirates are infact this same Cult

2) they're told that their failure is a devastating one, that the kingdom is in serious danger, and they've helped not at all. They're told to leave because they've disgraced their families.

=> They are exiled into the Jungle where they come across the ruins and encounter the Yuan-Ti and the spectre of the Red Saint who has been the only thing keeping the Yuan-Ti away from the Kingdom


3) They're thanked profoundly and asked to help solve another riddle around
the Red Saint's disappearance
.

=> War against the pirates obviously:)


4) The Red Saint is being held captive by the King who in reality is a shapeshifting imposter
 


A series of questions to ask:

1) Who is nominally in power?
2) Who is actually in power?
3) Of the various factions not in power, which if any want to be in power?
3) What is the personality of the current King?
4) What rituals and traditions are considered essential to establishing the dignity, legitimacy, and sanctity of the monarchy?
5) How stable is the current political system?
6) What are relations like with neighbors?
7) What is the overall present overall alignment of the nation?
8) What is the present alignment of the ruling class? If this is different than in #7 , what sort of tension does this create?
9) How strong is the dissident faction within the nation, that is, the group of people with the opposite outlook on life?
10) How does this alignment tension within the society manifest itself culturally? What markers are used by the different groups to recognize each other?
11) How interwoven into normal life are the religious affairs of the nation? Are there certain roles or aspects of public life - notaries, lawyers, undertakers, butchers, physicians, certain bureacratic classes, navigators, scribes, etc. - that are wholly dominated by one or more priesthoods?
12) How interwoven into normal life is magic and the arcane? Are professional wizards common? Are ordinary people aware of the more common sorts of spells (charm person, knock, invisibility) and their capabilities and take precautions against them? Are wizards feared, revered, or are they treated as mundane tradesmen? Is it common for people to have fairies or spirits living with them in their homes, gardens, or private shrines? Do ordinary people have some knowledge of placating and communicating with fairies and spirits?
13) What ethical tension is present because of enduring local traditions that may still exist in contrast to the overall alignment. What is the societies views on hot button issues like slavery, heresy, torture, necromancy, abortion, capital punishment, cannibalism, toleration, civil liberty or how to establishing justice (that is, do they still practice dueling, formal trial by combat, trial by ordeal, etc.)?
14) What is the approximate technology level of the society?

I note that you've answered some of these fairly well. In particular, I think that #13 is answered in a particularly interesting way because of the culture tradition of infanticide of those found physically imperfect. I would suggest emphasing the healthiness and relative prosperity of the culture, but alo create a number of unique undead to personify the consequences of this choice. The spirits of vengeful cripples, mutes, the spirits of the neglected blind and deaf, and the spirits of abandoned babies are all suitable to a fantasy setting you've created. You also need to outline the extact directions this tension is pulling society. For example, there might be a faction that thinks the solution is to make the tradition of euthenasia more orderly so as to avoid some of these undesirable side effects, while another things the tradition is itself repulsive and are trying to spread feelings of compassion toward the handicapped.

I notice that you have the eldest daughter inheriting. Is this meant to be a matriarchy (a queendom, rather than a kingdom?), or is that just coincidence? Is sharing royal power with your spouse typical or unusual in the society? (For example, the current Queen of England is not co-regal with her husband.)

On some of the questions I think you should be asking, I don't think you've spent enough time. I'd like to know more about the internal structure of the society. Nominally, the King and Queen appear to be corulers. Are things as they appear, or does one hold the real power? Are the Barons sufficiently powerful collectively or individually to thwart the rule of the monarchs? Who actually holds the purse strings? Who actually is in charge of the army? You've got a highly enfuedated setting, one of the problems with this is typically the army is actually run by the Barons (who have control over the knights), and the monarchs practically have to beg or bribe the Barons to use it. Where is the loyalty of the commoners push come to shove - to their city/baron or to their nation/queen? Note that the more effectively the monarchy gathers taxes, the more the tendency of the commoners to see the Barons as protectors, and the less effectively the more the commoners will tend to see the Barons as rapacious and the monarcy as their protectors. So, there is a tension here.

Equally, how large is the actual royal domain of the monarchy? How much real power do they have all the way out to the frontier?

You describe the military and the clergy as the more typical way to change your social station. This describes a nation with practically no middle class. All wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of an aristocracy, and the only way to get a share is push yourself into the aristocracy by rising up sufficiently to gain titles of your own. This is I would note however a rather rare situation for a seafaring nation (China might qualify) because it implies only nobles own ocean going vessels and engage in trade (directly or indirectly). If there is no nascent middle class, where does the self-motivated and ambitious commoner turn if they can't enter high society but still want to prosper? If sea faring is locked away as the province of the nobility, what about trading up and down the nations rivers? Is crime a viable alternative to wealth? Piracy? Smuggling? Banditry?

You've got a comparitively huge elven population in the nation. How do the races get along? Is it a cosmopolitan setting, or do elves mostly keep to themselves in separate almost fully autonomous Baronies? Exactly how do you manage to have a culture where physical imperfection can be a death sentence, but the elves apparantly tolerate half-elven children (or vica versa, men tolerate half-human children)?
 
Last edited:

Oy Celebrim! You've asked me questions it will take a year to answer, and go far beyond what I need for a few weeks of adventure... but I'll have fun coming up with the answers!

Just a little bit because the politics are playing in to my current adventure idea; the Queen is indeed the true ruler, though by law her husband is equal in authority as her spouse. This society is quite gender-equal, and also sees marriage as a VERY strong bond; two people who marry become almost as one politically and economically, though divorce is not forbidden and is legally provided for both parties.

The barons run the army; their sons and daughters are the backbone of the fighting troops, who are used mostly as border guards, naval troops (marines, I'd guess) and internally as something like the national guard. The King and Queen have their own tax-collecting agency, which is only moderately lax, and is disliked by everyone, Barons and commoners alike. Most individuals would probably find their loyalty more on the side of their baron than the kingdom, but they still have a sense of national identity.

There is a middle class, but it is fairly small. Most ships and such are owned by the nobility, though it isn't forbidden for anyone else to own one; they're just unlikely to be able to make that initial investment. Much of the middle class is craft-oriented; they'd be small-time merchants, but not larger scale. It's also not impossible to buy one's way into the Baronial ranks; if you can get a deed of property, and go establish a village on the edge of the kingdom, and keep it going for a few years, you become a Baron. So there's a lot of natural buy-in in that respect. Or you can always marry your eldest child to a Baron or Baroness and move up that way...

I'm developing an adventure wherein the PCs are trying to track down the Red Saint's historic movements. And there is a current group in power (the Queen) who really would prefer they not succeed, because she's afraid they'll discover a dark family secret (the Franke family had the Red Saint assassinated 500 years ago). If the common people find this out, it could cause trouble for the Queen; the Red Saint is a popular folk-hero today. It would be rather like people now finding out that (a real) Robin Hood had been murdered by Sir Guy of Gisborn, and then Guy's daughter married King, and her great-grand-kids are still on the throne today... maybe not a reason to overthrow them, but still a chip away at loyalty to them.
 

1) Who is nominally in power? - Queen Bereth Franke and here husband and coregent King Rothgar. Unanswered, questions: What formal titles does Queen Bereth claim? Who was King Rothgar before he married Bereth Franke, and what independent power base does he have?)

2) Who is actually in power? - In theory Queen Bereth, but in practice the feudal Barons hold sufficient control over their holdings, subjects, and military force of the kingdom that the monarchy cannot dismiss the concerns and rights of the Barons. A sufficiently large rebellion by the Barons would almost certainly be successful, and minor acts of rebellion such as resisting the imposition of taxes are common. Thus the Queen must reach at least some level of political compromise with the Barons if she wants to retain control of the realm.

3a) Of the various factions not in power, which if any want to be in power? - No sufficient answer. At this point we don't know if the Franke family has a serious rival to the throne based on an ancient claim. We don't know if there are Barons that dream of the throne or at least independence. We don't know whether Bereth has a rival within the Franke family itself who would happily move Bereth out of the way if an opportunity presented itself. We don’t know if there is a prehuman faction desiring to reclaim its former glory, or what contacts and allies they have within the human community. We don’t know if Bereth has problems with racial or ethnic groups that desire independence. Do some of the elves chafe under human rule? Are there ethnic groups that look quite different than the Viking type and are they well treated and loyal to a ruler who doesn’t look like them?

3b) What is the personality of the current ruler? - No sufficient answer. Is Bereth competent? What is her alignment? What traits does she have. It would be good at least if Bereth and Rothgar were written up as seven sentence NPCs.

4) What rituals and traditions are considered essential to establishing the dignity, legitimacy, and sanctity of the monarchy? - We have the beginning of answer. Given the importance of marriage in the society, it's almost certain that a royal marriage is very public and highly ritualized. The solemnity of the royal marriage acts as the sign and surety of marriage as a whole in the entire realm. Therefore, probably the betrothal, the announcement of the betrothal, the wedding itself, and even the post-wedding journey/procession are surrounded with ritual and elaborate tradition. Likewise, one of the most important powers of the throne is probably the power to govern marriage. Like many real medieval kingdoms, it’s not at all improbable that a good portion of the throne’s taxes come through some sort of marriage tax required to become officially married. This of course creates tensions within the society, as it’s possible that among the very poor the existence of any sort of tax is creating social rebellion in the form of unofficial marriages. This is likely seen as a danger to public order and morals by some. In many monarchies, it’s the birthday of the ruler that is an important public holiday. In this case, it’s almost certain that it is the anniversary of the marriage of the ruler that prompts an important holiday (probably lasting more than a single day, since the anniversary of the marriage of the heir must be similarly solemnized but to a lesser degree). Similarly, it’s unlikely that this culture uses the word kingdom, or queendom, or even monarchy to describe itself and its system of rule. With two officially coregel rulers, ‘monarchy’ doesn’t capture the intention – diarchy or even genearchy is more likely. Likewise, with queens equal to kings, this isn’t a kingdom but a desmanse (domain) or realm.

5) How stable is the current political system? – Given the outlet of the society on the frontier, I’d say that it’s probably fairly stable at present. Discontent with the current political system can always be channeled into carving out your own niche at the edge of the nation. However, without an answer to 3a and 3b its really impossible to answer this. If Bereth is incompetent and her enemies powerful, that’s entirely different than Bereth being the greatest queen in three centuries and her enemies few and unpopular.
6) What are relations like with neighbors - I think you’ve covered this fairly well in your write up, so I won’t repeat it here.

7) What is the present overall alignment of the nation? – When in doubt, neutral is always a good choice. Even in a society that tilts to LG or CE, it’s likely that a plurality if not an outright majority of people are neutral – too concerned with the everyday realities of their own survival to worry over much by ideologies. But a tilt here can have pretty profound impacts on the daily life of the society, and critically, on how the PC heroes find themselves relating to it. Additionally, with a big enough nation you can have different regions and subcultures with different tilts. For example, out on the frontier, morality has gravitated to a chaotic good viewpoint. Back in long settled lands, morality has gravitated to a lawful good viewpoint. Troubling both is a ruthless subculture of river merchants, smugglers, and sometime pirates that tend to chaotic evil. The LG culture in civilization tends to see the CG’s on the frontier as backward and tends to unfairly equate the lot with the CE subculture. The CG culture therefore sees the LG culture as being out of touch, arrogant, and oppressive. You’ll need to come up with cultural markers for the different major cultures – accents, clothing preferences, food preferences, etc. These different cultural markers behind the culture together, but also creates points of tension and objects of scorn with the other cultures. Note that if you really want to get complex, you can have competing cultures with the same overall alignment – slightly different takes on how to live well.

8) What is the present alignment of the ruling class? – When in doubt, either pick the same as 7, or pick one degree more lawful than what you picked in 7. It’s usually in the interest of the ruling class to maintain the status quo and encourage loyalty to itself. However, it is not at all rare that the ruling class is hypocrites. For example, if the overall alignment of the society is lawful, it’s not unusual for the ruler to be a primarily self-interested chaotic that by some perspectives is little more than a parasite on the culture. The majority may or may not be aware of the problem since it is fairly easy for a chaotic ruler to pretend to be lawful given the deference that such a society gives its rulers.

9) How strong is the dissident faction within the nation, that is, the group of people with the opposite outlook on life? – Every culture is going to have a counter culture. How strong that counter culture is depends on how much faith people have in the present dominant culture.

13) What ethical tension is present because of enduring local traditions that may still exist in contrast to the overall alignment? - I mentioned you've already done a pretty good job of answering this important question, but I think that you have an inevitable hot button issue that you haven't mentioned yet, which is, for lack of a better term, environmentalism. You have a society based on settling and carving up the rain forest AND you have a society with a significant elven population. This is almost certainly going to create tension between the human culture that wants to settle everything and turn it into simple safe productive farm and pasture land, and an elven culture which by sterotype is going to want to prefer a wilder, less tamed, more natural nation even at the expense of reduced population, security, and productivity.
 
Last edited:

Did you figure out what you may do Gilladian?

Loosely - I have about a month to finalize, as we're not playing for at least one more week due to my work schedule.

I've decided to focus on the fate of the Red Saint and the politics that play into researching his death and the history behind it.

I'll continue to work on Vanhark as a kingdom, and I'm also going to post my adventure-specific notes, after the scenario. I'm still interested in more input, so feel free to make comments!
 

Loosely - I have about a month to finalize, as we're not playing for at least one more week due to my work schedule.

I've decided to focus on the fate of the Red Saint and the politics that play into researching his death and the history behind it.

I'll continue to work on Vanhark as a kingdom, and I'm also going to post my adventure-specific notes, after the scenario. I'm still interested in more input, so feel free to make comments!

Awesome. Keep us informed. I love this kind of stuff! Love it.
 

Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top