Idea for a Fantasy Nation

[Celebrim]

I still can't help but get the feeling that the posters here have rediscovered AD&D.

Well, I think the adventurers having to set themselves up as despots in order to keep extracting value from an imperial march, borderland or uncharted territory adds interesting political and economic dimensions to the game.

I used to game with a guy who, every time we cleaned out a dungeon or ruin would proclaim, "Awesome. Let's make this place our base!" It would be great if instead of being a ridiculous impulse, this became central to campaigns.

Have you for example read the 1st edition DMG?

This is a fantastic idea. There are all sorts of possibilities here:

You don't say? I believe that is exactly what E. Gary Gygax said 30 odd years ago when he stumbled on the idea one evening after certain session wargaming Polish Hussars.

I'm glad that the charms of D&D are starting to catch on with more people.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I still can't help but get the feeling that the posters here have rediscovered AD&D.

Have you for example read the 1st edition DMG?

I'll stipulate that this a valid point (and I read that 1st edition DMG in 1979), however what I'm really after isn't validation that this is an original idea, but rather looking for ways to implement this into a campaign. Those old rules just say, hit this level, get this amount of land and 7 sp per inhabitant per month. That's not really what I'm after. I'm looking for some cool flavorful ideas to mix in with the classic ingredients.

 

[Desdichado]

Instead of a nation, you could always do it more as a proto-nation. Something like the Vikings or Germanic tribes at the end of the Roman era, who exploited adventurers to lay the cultural groundwork for what later developed into nations.

They answered more to charismatic warlords who had ties to "the motherland" but who didn't necessarily owe allegiance to it.

 

[Celebrim]

I'll stipulate that this a valid point (and I read that 1st edition DMG in 1979), however what I'm really after isn't validation that this is an original idea, but rather looking for ways to implement this into a campaign. Those old rules just say, hit this level, get this amount of land and 7 sp per inhabitant per month. That's not really what I'm after. I'm looking for some cool flavorful ideas to mix in with the classic ingredients.

Fair enough. What style is your campaign world, high or low fantasy, classical cultures (Iron Age or earlier), medieval, or more modern (Reinassance Italy, Elizabethan England)? Are you infatuated with historical parallels, or do you go in more for making your fantasy world really alien and different, or do you like a mix (for example Ebberron and Forgotten Realms)? Is your campaign human or ethnocentric, or do races freely mingle?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I think a twist on what was done in Mystara/The Known World with Norwold.

Its a wild, sparsely settled region. In the setting a land rush between two massive empires is going on. Basically, adventurers are lured there with claims to swaths of land, as long as they clear it out, rule their territory in the name of their sponsoring empire.

Twist the premise would place your hypothetical minor kingdom outside the major powers attention, but with potentially a lock on access to new territory. Licensing adventurers to go into the wild frontier, using the minor nation as "home base". So you don't tax the adventurers' acquired treasure, having them building their homes in the minor nation, buying their luxury goods, etc. could provide for an economic boost. It also might throw the economy into an inflationary spiral...

Other clauses would allow the adventurers to keep using the minor kingdom as a sanctuary as long as those adventurers make no claims on territory in the frontier... unless they offer to claim the frontier plots in the name of the minor kingdom and rule the land as vasals to the king. As the frontier is pacified the minor kingdom can move settlers out to the frontier.

Another resource necessary for harnessing adventurers would be to have a storehouse of ancient knowledge that could be used for researching the next adventure target. Allow adventurers access as long as they contribute new learning. As the kingdom's academic resources grow, even the smallest nations can grow in influence.