D&D General House of the Dragon has me thinking about Succession

[babi_gog]

What I am looking for is ideas to make the game run not ideas why not to run the game if that makes sense. So go ahead and poke holes so I can fill them, but don't just keep saying 'its not what happened in real life'

Right, what is needed here is a justification for why the regent came to be, what reason for having a regent take and hold power. And also keep the power.

I'm going to set aside the question of the spouse as successor for now.

Now one option for this would be to have the eldest child (the heir) be out of the country (doing some exploring or other such thing), when the father died, though already having had children. In this case the nobles of the nation declare that he is king, however to keep the nation and government going they appoint the now dowager Queen as

"Regent until the the return of the King or her being deemed incapable of holding the office".

Now by the terms of the Regency Charter, dowager Queen is regent, until the King returns - he never does so, however there is also no body recovered and no one knows what happened to him. (This also leave the plot hooks of children of the lost King, real or not to appear). Thus we get to where we are today, with the need to now find an heir or appoint a new "Regent".

 

[babi_gog]

I was actually talking mostly real world there, but yeah I assume that no one is marrying someone they don't trust.

Yeah combining families... if I marry my daughter to your son our 'houses' combine. It always seemed odd that someone who just 'combined' houses would want to separate them on death (a tragedy enough)

Often arrange marriages between houses, the parties would never have met before the wedding.

Also the house did not combine, but become close allies, often it would be the heir of one house marring the second or third child of another - very rear I think for the heir of two house to marry, unless there was no one else around. The houses would only merge when the heir to one house was also the only heir to another.

 

[Velderan]

I will look up Kull

It's not a good movie, so I'll put a summary in spoiler tags if you want to save some time. lol

Spoiler: Kull plot summary as it relates to this thread

Kull kills the previous king, who with his dying act makes him the new king (basically because everyone will be aiming to knock him off if he's king). Kull is tricked into marrying a woman who is actually a powerful evil sorceress. She puts a spell on him to make him appear dead and becomes Queen since everyone thought he was dead.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

It's not a good movie, so I'll put a summary in spoiler tags if you want to save some time. lol

Spoiler: Kull plot summary as it relates to this thread

Kull kills the previous king, who with his dying act makes him the new king (basically because everyone will be aiming to knock him off if he's king). Kull is tricked into marrying a woman who is actually a powerful evil sorceress. She puts a spell on him to make him appear dead and becomes Queen since everyone thought he was dead.

yeah I think I blanked it out of my head but I remember kevin sorbo taking an axe out of ice...

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Right, what is needed here is a justification for why the regent came to be, what reason for having a regent take and hold power. And also keep the power.

I'm going to set aside the question of the spouse as successor for now.

Now one option for this would be to have the eldest child (the heir) be out of the country (doing some exploring or other such thing), when the father died, though already having had children. In this case the nobles of the nation declare that he is king, however to keep the nation and government going they appoint the now dowager Queen as

"Regent until the the return of the King or her being deemed incapable of holding the office".

Now by the terms of the Regency Charter, dowager Queen is regent, until the King returns - he never does so, however there is also no body recovered and no one knows what happened to him. (This also leave the plot hooks of children of the lost King, real or not to appear). Thus we get to where we are today, with the need to now find an heir or appoint a new "Regent".

now I haddn't considered the oldest child going missing... I have to dwell on that

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Often arrange marriages between houses, the parties would never have met before the wedding.

So let me get this straight, you think that is better for a D&D game then the sage/wizard and the warrior king falling in love?
edit: maybe I wasn't clear the elf isn't just some 3rd born woman. She is an elven sage (I think like a wizard) who has family ties to teh old elven royalty. She is smart wise and charismatic and spent years 'co ruleing' with the king

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

blood seems a very antiquated idea. if the king/queen is doing a good job (metaphorically the trains are all running on time) why would anyone want to change... and as for 'family' the 3 kids are still a ??? in my mind, what happened when the 1st born came of age to rule at 26? what happened years later when the twins did... there there children.

I just assume that when you marry you BECOME family (on a legal and spiritual and mental level) if we are not in Birthright or similar with blood line powers, does it matter who's blood you have?

of course but I am at this point looking for ideas to work WITH the idea, not just shoot it down.

this reminds me of the Mummy movies where the priest was punished with immortality and super magic and locked in with bugs to eat him forever... but if he ever got out he would be all powerful. Was it dumb to give him almost god like powers, yes, but if you rewrite it so they didn't make him all powerful and immortal, then the movie never happens.

What I am looking for is ideas to make the game run not ideas why not to run the game if that makes sense. So go ahead and poke holes so I can fill them, but don't just keep saying 'its not what happened in real life'

I guess I’m not interested in ideas that don’t make sense to me. Sorry I can’t help.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I guess I’m not interested in ideas that don’t make sense to me. Sorry I can’t help.

that's okay not every concept is for everyone.

 

[Zardnaar]

Alot of unfair succession laws (by our standards) were done to reduce claimants. More claimants more chance i
of things going wrong eg the King of England decides to claim the French throne via his mothers lineage.

There's pros and cons of every succession type.

HotD doesn't seem to have any succession laws male preference by tradition.

 

[Omand]

@GMforPowergamers you seem to feel (based upon a few posts), that by a child inheriting the throne and taking it on as soon as they come of age this is a tearing apart of family alliances and somehow a disruption of good order.

Step back and think about that again for a second. The individual coming to the throne is a child of the deceased king and the elf queen (or queen-consort, depending on your model). They are literally a combination or mingling of the blood of two families. They are a merging of family alliances. Their mother's relatives are all cousins and uncles. Not of the royal line if you believe in the concept of bloodline, but very influential in the nobility and the royal court and government in general.

This actually creates more opportunity for intrigue and shenanigans. You now have people not raised within the Royal family who are very close to it (potentially). They may abuse their influence, or try to. They may try to throw their weight around, or not. They might be great advisors, or parasites on the body politic. Overall, however, they will most definitely be sources of possible adventure and disruption.