D&D General If the king has no children could he name his wives cousin, whose young enough to be her son, as heir to the throne?, after all he's only a in law

[JMISBEST]

I've had a thought about something that could in the world my group will soon be campaign in but if it does happen it will be years after the campaign ends

My question is if the king, whose currently only the crown prince, has no children could he name his wives cousin, whose young enough to be his wives son, but not young enough to be his son, but despite that he's always treated him like the son he never had, as heir to the throne?, after all even though he is a member of the royal family he's only related to the king by marriage not by blood or even by adoption?

If it helps The Kings Cousin by marriage/his wives cousin, whose young enough to be his wives son, but not young enough to be his son, but that despite that he's always treated like the son he never had, is also the nephew of A Duke and by various marriage's he's related to 4 Barons, 2 Baroness's and 1 Earl. Does that make a difference?

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

The saga continues…

 

[Charlaquin]

Sure. Unless you don’t want them to, in which case, no. You don’t need anyone’s permission for your characters to do whatever you want them to do.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Sure. Unless you don’t want them to, in which case, no. You don’t need anyone’s permission for your characters to do whatever you want them to do.

Unless you want them to use fire on trolls. I hear that’s strictly forbidden.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Maybe the King changes the succession order to agnatic seniority.

The King does what the King wants.

 

[Ixal]

Not sure if there is any point in responding, but I do it one more time.

1. It depends on the local customs.
2. If there are any other people who, by custom, should inherit first.
3. If the other nobles are on board with it.
Joker: If the king is powerful and influential enough to silence all opposition.

Basically the king choosing his successor, either during his lifetime or through his will is not that unusual. Only if it is followed once he is dead is a different question.

 

[Krachek]

Historical nobility usually have strict order to access the throne.
Even the king can’t mess with that unless he want to provoke a civil war.
But Roman were able to choose their heir outside their own family.

 

[pukunui]

I've had a thought about something that could in the world my group will soon be campaign in but if it does happen it will be years after the campaign ends

You're thinking about stuff that could happen after the end of a campaign that hasn't even begun yet? For all you know, your character will die during the campaign, rendering any epilogue you come up with moot. Or something else might come up during the course of the campaign that changes your character's path, again rendering any epilogue you prepare in advance moot.

Have you considered writing a novel about these characters instead of playing them in an RPG campaign?

 

[Darrin Drader]

It's a fantasy world and it's your game. Do what you want.

Unless it's someone else's game, in which case they can do what they want.

 

[MGibster]

The thing with a hereditary kingdom is that you can really upset the balance when there's a question of who the heir is. So, sure, the king could simply declare that niece or nephew is now the heir. Will the rest of the kingdom accept that? What if someone else has a stronger claim to the throne as they are a direct descendant of a former monarch? What if there are factions who would see a different heir ascend the throne as part of their own bid for power? There's all sorts of things you could do with this situation.