D&D 5E Members of a King's Council?

[MonkeezOnFire]

Dont forget the King's fool!

Bonus points if everything the fool says has a hidden meaning but everyone else dismisses it for petty nonsense.
Bonus bonus points if you make your players think you are doing this but what the fool says is actually petty nonsense.

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

Dont forget the King's fool!

you meen the Spymaster alternative identity ?

 

[Ganymede81]

So... what positions should the council have?


Trit

You could literally craft a council using each PC class as the theme, whether it is fighter, wizard, or warlock.

Fighter - Grand Marshall
Wizard - Court Magician
Warlock - King Richard III style witch/soothsayer/mystic
Cleric - High Priest
Druid - Ok, you get the point.

 

[Celebrim]

Stealing directly from ASoIaF, and adding my own twists to suit my campaign, thus far I have:

• Military Advisor (possibly also the captain of the royal guard, but perhaps those are two different roles)
• Political/diplomatic advisor
• Spymaster
• Financial advisor
• Magic/mystic advisor
• Religious advisor

My only objection is that these positions are likely to have Fancy Schmancy titles that go along with them. Also, it might not necessarily be obvious to outsiders what a particular functionary does. For example, a 'Chamberlain' is in theory just someone responsible for cleaning the King's bedroom, but the position has often traditionally extended to mean in practice 'Chief Diplomat', 'Prime Minister', or 'Royal Secretary' - since the real function of the office is determining who can be introduced privately to the King. Certainly the 'Spymaster' is unlikely to be called 'the Spymaster', unless, for whatever reason your culture favors blunt ostentation, in which it might be something like, "Lord X, His Royal Majesty's Master of Spies'. He might however go under a title such as the Lord Referendary, or the position might be so secret that exactly who is the King's spymaster might be something of a mystery (see below).

Some suggestions:

Military Advisor: Lord Marshall
Diplomatic Advisor: Lord Chamberlain
Financial Advisor: Lord Chancellor

Magic and religion are going to be touchy and difficult. The latter most especially because D&D assumes polytheism, so there won't be just one cult vying for the King's ear, nor is the king himself likely to be monotheistic in his practices. Almost certainly as a duty of the office he is called on to officiate at numerous religious observances. So the advisor might as much be an advisor on proper ritual and etiquette as much as a religious advisor. More on that as well.

Are there any positions I'm forgetting?

King's always need a 'Master of Ceremonies', who instructs the King on fulfilling the duties of his office correctly. A King is almost always engaged in some ceremonial duty or the other, and in a magical world the proper fulfillment of these ceremonies may well be a matter of the security and health of the state as a whole. Indeed, in a magical world the most important thing that a king might do is ritual.

King's will need a legal advisor. Although King's are often the source of new law, they are often bound by existing traditions and laws, and called on to settle disputes. Right after ceremony on the list of duties performed by a King is to be the nation's court of appeal, and chief judicial officer. So they almost always have a Lord Judiciary of some sort, who nominally heads the lower courts on the King's behalf, and advises the King on the wording of laws and the existing laws that are enforced in his name.

Beyond having various Great Offices and office holders that he takes advice from and delegates duties too, King's often have a bevy of personal advisors and councilors - usually individuals that are either friends of the King (and are often his cousins or other relations) and can give him council regarding his emotions and judgment without giving offense (and risking being beheaded). The King may often keep a trusted mentor or tutor from his childhood around as long as the old councilor is living, to ask scholarly advice of - "Where is Mercia, and what is their chief export?" for example. And generally, scholarly sorts that can answer questions like that will be on hand and can sometimes achieve high importance. These informal advisors could potentially be more influential than the ones that hold the official offices. Generally speaking if they don't come with titles of their own, the King will grant them something. So Lord Borax, Baron of Ginthia might be according to the peerage a noble of quite small rank, but if he went to school with the King and they've been bosom drinking buddies since their youth, it's quite possible the Baron of Ginthia influences policy more than some great lords in the Kingdom.

If Spymaster is a secret position, it's likely that the Spymaster 'hides' out among these more informal advisors and pretends to be one.

Would you as a player be happy with 5-7 advisors being introduced over one or two session?

Sure, why not? Just make them colorful enough to distinguish between them. If you haven't read it before, track down the old Dragon article on the 'Seven Sentence NPC'. That's a good place to start.

 

[icedrake]

Also, the king's council might cycle periodically to represent the shifts in political climate. If the kingdom is going to war, members of the court might ascend to fill specific needs / obligations.

The ruling council should represent the scope of the court: larger courts with sprawling bureaucracies and red tape may have a larger ruling council that bickers with infighting; small courts might have a lean council that only includes the most important advisers.

Just because the ruling council is small in size doesn't mean your royal court is by any means small. Anyone with the wealth and political connections could be in the presence of the king and advisers. All the titles and roles listed thus far could be functionaries of the court or on the ruling council. You don't need to have an official power position to sway policy.

 

[steeldragons]

The King should have representative of the major elements within their domain:

Military: generals - these are likely the king's own grown children, assuming he has them. One or two other trusted warriors of high renown. If the kingdom has a naval force, than an admiral is likely to be among the military heads as well. The captain of the king's guard is probably welcome -though not necessarily a regular attendee, and/or the castle's seneschal/castellan (who may similarly be the same person as the captain of the guard or one of the king's children or other military commanders) who is directly responsible for the protection of the king's person, home (castle), and household.
The Court Wizard/chief magic-worker, and/or another mage or two who might be directly responsible for the castle or king's person.
A high priest for each major recognized religion -if inclusively pantheistic- or at least the major religion followed/believed by the king [and thus, it can be assumed, his household and the "preferred" religion of vassals, and broader kingdom]. If the kingdom or nearby woods includes a large druidic following, with whom the king has good relations, perhaps a representative from the woods shows up from time to time as well.
A Spymaster.
A "Keeper of the Keys" (in charge of the money)
An Archivist/Loremaster...who may or may not be one of the court's mages.
A Guildmaster -top artisan or merchant group, whomever holds the most public approval or power among the common folk. Someone to keep an ear in the street and help keep them...in their place.

 

[Draegn]

For your players the "little people" may be more important. The halfling mage in our game tends to ignore the big players, her best friend in the city is Fritzroy the Falconer who is in charge of pest control. The two of them have a great time atop the city spires eating rabbit and pigeon pie.

 

[Voort]

King's always need a 'Master of Ceremonies', who instructs the King on fulfilling the duties of his office correctly. A King is almost always engaged in some ceremonial duty or the other, and in a magical world the proper fulfillment of these ceremonies may well be a matter of the security and health of the state as a whole. Indeed, in a magical world the most important thing that a king might do is ritual.

An excellent suggestion. Take a look at the real world post of the Queen's Remembrancer:

http://www.atlasobscura.com/article...ent-to-the-queen-on-a-property-leased-in-1211

Then imagine how that job would look in a kingdom that dealt with wizards and dragons on a regular basis.

 

[Gwarok]

Such a council would include not only advisors but also those directly responsible for day to day administration of the kingdom. People of power and influence, the ones who actually have the authority to enact the decisions of the king. "Hand of the King" types.

 

[Celebrim]

An excellent suggestion. Take a look at the real world post of the Queen's Remembrancer...Then imagine how that job would look in a kingdom that dealt with wizards and dragons on a regular basis.

The Queen's Remembrancer is actually the legacy office of the chief Royal Tax Collector. If you are familiar with Robin Hood, and the Sherriff of Nottingham, then the Royal Remembrancer would the Sheriff's direct superior.

The sort of position I'm thinking about is presently filled (in part) by the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps. The job of this person is to instruct the Monarch in all the proper niceties of dealing with visitors - particularly foreign visitors. But the larger job 'Master of Ceremonies', includes reminding the Monarch that during this ceremony they are to wear this particular robe, and bear this particular scepter, which is at all times to be crooked in the bend of the elbow of the right hand, and that they are to hold their left hand up with two fingers raised toward heaven, and that they are to proceed at a sedate pace, turning slowly to the left and right and nodding acknowledgment of their subject.... blah, blah, blah.

And you are right, this gets even more important when you are entertaining wizards, dragons, fairy godmothers, and deities on a routine basis. But even more to the point, these ceremonies may constitute actual magic rituals in a fantasy world, so that if the monarch forgets and holds the scepter in the bend of the elbow of the left hand, the crops of the kingdom fail that year.

If you've seen 'The King's Speech', the speech therapist in the movie ends up taking over this role as the King's defacto master of ceremonies and is then part of that bevy of unofficial advisors I mentioned usually surround the monarch.