lease help with ideas for a political setting

[Aereas]

I am running a game and my players are all 12th level gesalt with normal cohorts. They are the rulers of a small kingdom that have a neighboring kingom on the same island. Those two areas are peaceful, but there are 3 other kingdoms I have semi-detailed who are not peaceful. Before I started, I thought I was doing decent, however when I started I realized that I know next to nothing about stuff to do in a political setting.

I have 2 wars planned, but I have no idea how to incorporate events before or after them. I would like to give the players a chance to avoid the wars, while not making it easy or impossible to do so.

If anyone could give ideas on how to run this campaign, or ideas on what to have the players do (either before after, or even during the wars) I would be very appreciative.

 

[STARP_President]

Find a way to start the war. Starting wars is easy - just make up a baseless pretense and there you go. Maybe the PCs kingdom is supposedly developing weapons of mass destruction?

But seriously, it sounds easy to me. The key to politics is intrigue, and the key to intrigue is lies. Lie to your players about the state of the world - make them think things are as they are. Make them think the other kingdoms are friendly, have their rulers as NPCs in your game who are supposedly friends. Have the PCs track down the source of raids on their borders, to find their genuine ally is doing it. Have them discover the ally wasn't doing it after all. Have them discover who is - ruthless mercenaries. Have them find who paid for the mercenaries - their aforementioned pretend ally! That's four adventures for you right there, and a good reason for a war if ever I heard one.

Alternatively, have two of the enemy kingdoms go to war. Then make the PCs choose sides - in order to keep the larger, more powerful enemy from becoming dominant, the PCs will have to fight alongside their enemies to see off the invaders.

For administrative help, you could check out Ray Winniger's Realm Rules in Dragon #293.

 

[johndaw16]

Here a few ideas that come to mind off-hand, I'm trying to keep to at least relatively plausible reasons for war as well.

1 - Define and establish the sort of resources that each kingdom has and doesn't have, then work out the sort of trading relationships that exist amongst the kingdoms. Once you've done this you can start thinking about what each kingdom lacks. Figure out what resources are important and work out what each kingdom is willing to do to get what it lacks. Pretty soon you should have the beginnings of a pretty heated trade war brewing. For example lets say kingdom A is on a small volcanic series of islands, these islands are rich in precious metals, ores, and jems. However kingdom A has little arable land, and what little they have is constantly threatened by the volcanoes and the ocean. Now throw in kingdom B a coastal country with a large fertile peidmont region just inland from the coast. Kingdom B and Kingdom A have a thriving trade going on exchanging food and precious metals. Now throw in the final piece Kingdom C, they're for whatever reason in similar straights as Kingdom A very little in the way of food resources. But Kingdom C is poorer than A and has to take what it can by force from the other two. Add in a few more details and you got a start.

2 - A perhaps over used excuse could be religious wars between the kingdoms. If you were going to do this I'd recommend you flesh out the various factions making sure to keep their goals very clear. I've had a bit of good luck running a war that involved a revolution within a very dogmatic heirarchical church. Upstarts preaching that they know the real "truth" are always great for stirring up trouble.

Those are just what come to mind right off. Just some other hints, I'd recommend working out the major NPCs on all sides and their motivations. Once you do this you'll know a lot better just how each side will react to a given situation. To make the diplomacy a bit more challenging for the PC's emphasize the cultural differences between the countries. Send peace envoys to the PC's and have fun throwing them for a loop as their best manners end up offending the visiting dignitaries. As mentioned before lies, lies, lies. The simpler the better. And remember no self-respecting politician lies without a good reason.

Hope that helps,

John

 

[Sigurd]

Involve other kingdoms

Its much more fun if the players have to figure out wierdness with the other kingdoms.

eg.

Have the players attack something terrible being done to the neutral countries by a warlike one. It should be something that would mean instant war for the player country. Have the warlike country threaten to go to war for the 'interference' by the players. Have the Neutral country stay neutral. The PC's have to find out why. What is the hold on the neutral that keeps it from standing up for itself?

s

 

[Stormborn]

Buy Dynasties and Demagogs from Atlas Games.
Wars start becuase of ambition and pride. Religion and Money usually relate back to those first two. Give us some details of your 5 kingdoms and maybe we can give more detailed help.

A simple but complex plot suggestion: A studious researcher has been studying the political families of the area and discovered that King A has a better claim to the throne of Kingdom B than King B has due to a closer connection to some prestigious Dynasty Founder. King A is ambitous but also devout and very lawful, King B is a decent ruler whose family has been on the throne for generations. Who do the PCs support when this all comes out? Maybe even keeping it from coming out could be the key to keeping the peace. Or publishing it could be the key to the PCs own ambitions. This is the stuff wars are made of.

 

[gizmo33]

IMO even dictators have to pander to certain groups that hold power within their realm. Your PCs might have answer to guilds, nobility, temples, or even the general population if they choose not to get involved in certain international events. Following Stormborn's advice, if the ambition and pride of your PCs is not enough, perhaps that of their constituents is.

STARP_President's ideas are cool - the only thing I would add there is that lies are hard in a fantasy game with detect lie, alignment detection, etc. johndaw16's religious schism idea might fall in the same category - you'd have to work out why Commune spells and the like hadn't settled differences in dogma. It probably takes a little work (or perhaps some new house rules) to get these kind of deceptions to work against 12th level characters.

Following on some ideas already presented here - perhaps consider the role that "multi-national" organizations play. Perhaps a certain cult or guild will withdraw it's support of one kingdom depending on it's actions. Perhaps there is a pope-like figure or group in your world that all sides would appeal to for aid. These are other ideas to create intrigue. Though I second the notion that knowing more about your kingdoms would help both you and us to flesh this stuff out.

 

[shametoy]

Recommended Reading..

Non-gaming book, but it has helped endlessly in running my games:

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.

With tons of historical references, from all ages (ancient rome to current times) i found it invaluble.

 

[STARP_JVP]

Plots to seize power are always good too. Maybe there are rebels who think the PCs reign must be ended. Or maybe you could put a twist on it and have an NPC who represents whatever counts as a loyal opposition. They don't oppose the PCs right to rule and they don't plot to overthrow them, but they think everything the PCs do is wrong for the kingdom. They therefore work very slowly to erode the PCs' power in favour of their own, but not by doing anything underhand or illegal.

 

[Aereas]

Info on the kingdoms

Thanks for all the ideas! They are very useful. Right now my players have brought up the idea of starting at a lower level and working up to a higher level mainly within the city. Possibly even helping work closely with the actual king. So right now I'm juggling the ideas of the old with the new, and I think I can put alot of my original ideas (thanks to all your help), and start the players how they want.

As for the kingdom info:

Triadora Island has two kingdoms on it. The capitol town is Merlande (The PC's home). Its a large town in a warm climate region (located just north of a desert) and has a poulation of about 3,000 adults). Its main religions, exports and imports are as follows:
Religions: Azuth; Selune;
Imports: Cotton; Leather; Lumber; Ore (Copper, Iron, Gold, Silver); Paper; Silks
Exports: Fish; Exotic Coral; Minor magical items; Seafood; Spices

I currently dont have many details for the other kingdom. It is a desert kingdom, and does maintain a strong trade agreement with Merlande. This is the main reason for peace between the two.

Janardun is a very small island that is ruled by a evil cleric of Gargauth. He beleives divine magic to be so supreme that he has outlawed the use of arcane magic. He is the most powerful cleric on the island and rules the temple, which in turn rules the city of just over 3,000 adults. He only allows worship to his deity or an ally of his deity within his city walls. His kingdom is within the edge of a magical dissaster that keeps the tempuratures really low (between -30 to 30 degrees). The main religion, exports and imports are as follows:
Religions: Gargauth
Imports: Cotton; Leather; Lumber; Paper; Silks
Exports: Armor, Ore (Copper, Steel, Tin), Slaves, Weapons, Wine

On the island of Narqual (also not extremly detailed), the ruling town is called Karmigia. The ruler (currently unnamed) rules with an iron fist. I'm thinking of having this a barbarian type town where value is placed on someone based on thier strength, and skill with a weapon. This island is the center of a magical catastraphe, and the reason why the residents dislike magic. The temperatures are always below 0 degrees, and it is practically a frozen wasteland that was a swamp before it froze over.

There is a cluster of volcanoe islands, but they are ruled by a council of dragons, and dont like visitors. The most powerful dragon of them (I'm thinking of using a hellfire wyrm) has been imprisoned, a few centuries ago, withing one of the islands, and he is slowly breaking free. There is a continent to the north of these islands that the dragons demand tribute from.

 

[Emperor Valerian]

Greed... simple and plain.

Have the desert kingdom send messages to your PCs that their caravans are being attacked in the PC's territory. PCs go out with a force expecting a group of bandits only to find the desert countries army! Reason? They want the island to themselves.

This little idea could lead to several sessions of:

1) Trying to find out whose attacking the caravans
2) Piecing together strange news from the neighboring country
3) Ambushing the ambushers, or
4) Heroic battle against the odds... and if this is lost
5) A campaign of escape and liberating their kingdom.