kings and kingmakers

[Quickleaf]

A staple of fantasy gaming is the battle for the throne, whether it is a vile ursurper against a benevolent queen, a complex political feud between brothers, or a struggle to take back the throne from forces of darkness. Pivotal to these stories is the personality of the king...what are they willing to do to acheive power? how do they go about it? who are they allied with? And, perhaps most importantly, who bestows them with power - who plays kingmaker?

How do you use kings and kingmakers in your games?

Are they distant NPCs perhaps making a cameo when required? Or are they fleshed out quest-givers and foes who face the PCs time and time again?

Is the king good and the kingmaker evil (and must be placated)? Or is it reversed? Or is the situation more complex? What is the relationship between king and kingmaker?

 

[weem]

Are they distant NPCs perhaps making a cameo when required?

Basically, yes.

My current campaign (wrapping up soon) had the PC's meeting the King once, and working with his son (the Prince) for something important once, but I like to keep those things as rare as I think they should be. To me, there are many people between the PC's and people that important so it will be a rare thing to run into them, etc.

Some of these NPC's I have vague ideas of, others I know their names and that's about it - then, as the story seems to be heading towards crossing their paths, I flesh them out a bit more.

 

[Daern]

I happen to have wrapped up a long storyline involving a murdered king of a small frontier town. The murder was more or less the beginning of the campaign, and the heroes managed to find the missing heir, return him to the throne, and, finally, to bring back the head of the villain behind the whole thing. So our game this weekend was the long awaited coronation scene, and celebratory tourney!
So in this case, low-level PCs were themselves the king makers. Of course, in the grander scheme of things, this kingdom is the the smallest point of light amongst others, and now some larger political forces have turned their attention toward the Delver's Dale...
All in all, good fun, one of the PCs is the bastard son of the now coronated king, and he has even been recognized for his deeds.

 

[roguerouge]

Try taking a look at this next year: http://paizo.com/store/games/rolepl...hfinderAdventurePaths/kingmaker/v5748btpy88wf

 

[Gilladian]

In my long-running campaign, I have a Prince who rules the main realm, Greenvale. He's chaotic good, and a very lackadaisical ruler. His daughter was killed recently, leaving twin sons as his heirs. One son vanished on a battlefield and is presumed dead. The other had gone missing for a while and then returned (he was an adventurer). He's now the presumed heir.

The PCs discovered that the vanished son was really shapechanged into a bird by a powerful curse. They tried to rescue him, but were never able to do the job correctly. They could get him back human, but he seemed to be in some sort of autistic state, so he was better off as a bird with a human mind...

The other brother, unknown to anyone, is not really himself. He's been magic jarred by an evil lich who wants to rule the kingdom and the world. So that is a plot that will be exercised in future campaigns, maybe.

A third Nobleman has designs on breaking away a section of the realm and claiming it for his own. PCs are sort of aware of him, but have never dealt with him personally, as far as they know. One group met some of his retainers, once.

 

[kitsune9]

A staple of fantasy gaming is the battle for the throne, whether it is a vile ursurper against a benevolent queen, a complex political feud between brothers, or a struggle to take back the throne from forces of darkness. Pivotal to these stories is the personality of the king...what are they willing to do to acheive power? how do they go about it? who are they allied with? And, perhaps most importantly, who bestows them with power - who plays kingmaker?

How do you use kings and kingmakers in your games?

Are they distant NPCs perhaps making a cameo when required? Or are they fleshed out quest-givers and foes who face the PCs time and time again?

Is the king good and the kingmaker evil (and must be placated)? Or is it reversed? Or is the situation more complex? What is the relationship between king and kingmaker?

I'm running a Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign where the Prince of Pekal has died and left no heir. Currently from the recent war with Kalamar, there are only five duchies left so now the tensions are high as they debate amongst themselves who should take the mantle of "prince". The PC's have interacted with four of the five the dukes and have variable relationships with them ranging from good heroes to vile outlaws. The reason why the dukes haven't embroiled themselves into civil war is that the College of Magic wants to ensure that there is a "peaceful" transisition of power (anything that doesn't interfere with them) and that there is a foreign army at Pekal's border gearing up to invade.

For the PC's, any one of the dukes or duchesses can end up being the next Prince of Pekal. Sooner or later, the PC's are either going to have to chose a side or get out of the country.

 

[haakon1]

I run two campaigns in the same setting. The first party works pretty much exclusively now for an advisor to the local ruler, who runs adventuring parties for him. For their latest mission, to take out a treachorous baron who's threatening to rebel (Paizo's The Last Baron), they got a letter from the ruler authorizing them to act "with extreme prejudice" in the matter.

The other party are more freelancers, but have also done a mission for the advisor.

No one has ever met the ruler.