Idea for a Fantasy Nation

[Kid Charlemagne]

For reasons unrelated to the thread, I was thinking about Portugal, and how they created an empire from a tiny, tiny nation - largely because they saw the importance of sea power and exploration, and used the monetary gains to reinvest in that sea power... Eventually, they fell by the wayside, but were pretty powerful for a while.

I was thinking about creating a nation in my campaign world that pursued a similar path - but then it occured to me: What if a nation decided to exploit a different resource to build an empire, namely adventurers.

I'm assuming a small nation that decides to use adventuring parties to build their empire.

How would they do it? How would they maintain control (over the land, and over the adventurers!)?

What cool adventuring possibilities come to mind as a result of this strategy? How could it be worked into a campaign?

What do you think?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it's a good idea. For "adventurers," think "privateers" in the real world, and England and other powers pursued that path during the Age of Exploration to good effect.

 

[Ghendar]

For reasons unrelated to the thread, I was thinking about Portugal, and how they created an empire from a tiny, tiny nation - largely because they saw the importance of sea power and exploration, and used the monetary gains to reinvest in that sea power... Eventually, they fell by the wayside, but were pretty powerful for a while.

(bold emphasis above is mine)




Or England?

 

[Matchstick]

Hmmmm. What if the ruler of the kingdom controlled access to a great place for adventuring? In the palace there's a portal that can oly be activated by the king, it's a portal to the Elemental Plain of Challenging (but probably not deadly) Wealthy Wandering Monsters. Adventuring groups get access to the plane for a time once they complete service to the king.

Or maybe the ruler controls all the magic items. Take the normal D&D assumed setting, and then give control of magic items to one kingdom. And magic items, once removed from the kingdom, will eventually lose their juice without a visit back to the source of magic. For a group that's NOT part of that kingdom it might put a pretty interesting time limit on all of their adventures.

Maybe the kingdom is the only one that doesn't tax adventurers. That might make it a veritable haven for high level adventurers who are pulling down serious cash, and it would also make for a pretty interesting economy within the kingdom. And of course the adventurers don't want their haven changed, so any attempts to invade would bring instant wrath. Heck, maybe this kingdom is run not by a king or queen, but by a council of adventurers.

 

[DMH]

China isn't small, but their treasure ships plan was quite good for dominating their neighbors. The key was propping up leaders who were sympathetic to them. If they didn't pull back their forces when they did, most of Southeastern Asia would be under Chinese rule today.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I'm assuming a small nation that decides to use adventuring parties to build their empire.

How would they do it? How would they maintain control (over the land, and over the adventurers!)?

At a guess, I'd say the best bet would be in a situation where there was an exploitable land resource (ie, New World) where they could enlist adventurers to explore, trailblaze, and/or conquer in the name of their expanding empire. They could offer incentives- aside from monetary gain, they could offer such things as letters of marque, land (in the new world or even at home), titleage, or trade rights.

As far as retaining control over the land and adventurers, they'd be in the same position any monarch would have been historically. You'd have some who might throw in their lot with others, some who might be inclined to rebel. I think titleage and land would be the big incentives to keep them in one spot thought- after all, as fun as adventuring is, who wouldn't prefer to sit at home and earn vast amounts of wealth and influence without having to risk life and limb on a daily basis?

[Edit- I'm reminded of the Boosters of the American West. These guys would go around and try to stir up interest in settling new cities and towns out west by sometimes making outlandish and untrue stories about the towns they were boosting. Many of them were landowners trying to build up their own holdings, many of them were just in the employ of such. I could envision boosters of this sort being the chief operators of your empire- sending out the call to bring adventurers to their land with tales of treasure and glory.

I suppose an alternative, in conjunction with the booster idea, would be to base an empire around the economy brought in by adventurers. Make services and things that would cater to their needs, so they would bring back all that disposable income from the treasure hordes of dragons to bear in one place- the coffers of the empire. The nation of Ierendi on Mystara is a similar nation- though one that I don't feel had the best presentation. Gaz4 was a little too all over the place, but it had some great ideas, and the adventurer-based economy is one.]

 

[WargamerX]

Also consider the Dutch - they had a pretty vast sea power at the time - and even smaller than Portugal.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Or England?

Good point - although England (all by itself) is almost 50% bigger than Portugal; still that's closer than I would have thought.

In any case, the actual reality of the example is less important than the gaming implications. I also like the Portugal idea for another reason - their seafaring exploits were largely supported by one ruler who was perhaps more visionary than others, and the power wa relatively short-lived.

So I'm thinking of a small, relatively unimportant nation that due to the vision of their King decides to embark on this method of gaining empire - I like the idea that it would be started by a true, heriditary ruler, and the classic question of how to you keep the adventurers from taking over would come into play later...

I certainly see them using magic to maintain their control, and as means of transportation/communication. I like Matchsticks idea that they don't tax adventurers, giving them the ability to gain more wealth. In my game world wizards aren't allowed to hold noble titles - perhaps this country would eschew that tradition as well...

 

[Matchstick]

So I'm thinking of a small, relatively unimportant nation that due to the vision of their King decides to embark on this method of gaining empire - I like the idea that it would be started by a true, heriditary ruler, and the classic question of how to you keep the adventurers from taking over would come into play later...

I certainly see them using magic to maintain their control, and as means of transportation/communication. I like Matchsticks idea that they don't tax adventurers, giving them the ability to gain more wealth. In my game world wizards aren't allowed to hold noble titles - perhaps this country would eschew that tradition as well...

In such a country there wouldn't be a great need for a standing army, can you imagine what their militia would be like after attracting civilians/nobles that are mostly current or ex-adventurers? So they wouldn't need the taxes for the army. And for safe? Cripes just let any beastie poke it's head where it doesn't belong and there's adventurers ready to hunt it down. If I'm a peasant I want to live there! The streets are probably safe, there's sure the heck no bandits.

It would actually make a lot of sense to do this in a world full of adventurers. You'd want them as residents. The biggest problems would be ego-based I would think, which could lead to problems against the king, or between nobles. And those could be fun problems for players of any level.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Just make sure you don't end up with something like Union, where even the fishmongers are epic-level.