AntiStateQuixote
Enemy of the State
Dwarf Politics in a Nutshell: the Dwarfs of Stonehome have a six member council. Each position serves twelve years and there is an election for one of the positions every 2 years. One of the six positions is King. King gets two votes and a ton of other "rights and privileges" that are not particularly relevant at the moment.
Elections are by clan. Every clan has one vote regardless of its size, prestige, etc. The wealthier/larger clans generally hold more sway because they are able to influence other clans to see things their way.
Clans decide their vote by whatever preferred means they have among themselves. Some clans have elections/primaries/straw polls. Others have a council of elders decide and some allow the chief of the clan to decide.
The election for King will be held in 18 months. The current king has held the position for several terms and seems likely to win again . . . but there are a couple of flies in the ointment.
1. One of the current Councilors is planning to abandon her position and run for King (Queen). She is also engaged to one of the PCs (a recently arranged [by his Dad and the Councilor] political marriage - owing to the PC's heroism - the groom-to-be has high prestige/honor which she sought to help her politically).
2. Another Councilor is seeking someone to run against the current King with an "anti-human" agenda. The dwarfs of Stonehome and humans of Edmund Keep have had a strong alliance for several (human) generations. This alliance is not particularly convenient at the moment (for reasons I will not detail here) and it's possible the Councilor could win a lot of support for an anti-human King.
3. The King's War Councilor (a King-appointed position) is going to run against the King on an aggressive "we need to conquer the mountanis completely" agenda. This agenda is not anti-human, so much as anti-humanoid that isn't dwarf or human ally - and it's likely to have a lot of support. He's a well-regarded warrior of great renown that came in second the first time the current King won the post. Backroom dealing led to the current King winning when this fellow dropped out of the race. He thinks the King is too soft and should be pressing a war advantage for gain in the nearby mountains.
The PCs have good reasons (including personally loyalty/friendship) for supporting the current king.
So, I'm seeing (potentially) several skill challenges.
1. Convince Councilor Drusilla not to run for King. She's the one marrying a PC. This is an easy challenge that may not even be a challenge based on role-play.
2. Convince Councilor Bronzekettle not to run an anti-human alliance candidate.
3. The PCs do not know about the War Councilor's plans to run and will probably not know until final candidacies are announced (6 months before elections). The will likely campaign against him, but I could see them joining him if they agree with his agenda.
4. The PCs can sway the elections with weekly group skill checks favoring one candidate or another.
I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to run the election.
In the meantime, they'll have plenty of adventuring/heroing to do that keeps them away from the dwarf city and makes it impossible for them to devote full time to electioneering/politicking.
Elections are by clan. Every clan has one vote regardless of its size, prestige, etc. The wealthier/larger clans generally hold more sway because they are able to influence other clans to see things their way.
Clans decide their vote by whatever preferred means they have among themselves. Some clans have elections/primaries/straw polls. Others have a council of elders decide and some allow the chief of the clan to decide.
The election for King will be held in 18 months. The current king has held the position for several terms and seems likely to win again . . . but there are a couple of flies in the ointment.
1. One of the current Councilors is planning to abandon her position and run for King (Queen). She is also engaged to one of the PCs (a recently arranged [by his Dad and the Councilor] political marriage - owing to the PC's heroism - the groom-to-be has high prestige/honor which she sought to help her politically).
2. Another Councilor is seeking someone to run against the current King with an "anti-human" agenda. The dwarfs of Stonehome and humans of Edmund Keep have had a strong alliance for several (human) generations. This alliance is not particularly convenient at the moment (for reasons I will not detail here) and it's possible the Councilor could win a lot of support for an anti-human King.
3. The King's War Councilor (a King-appointed position) is going to run against the King on an aggressive "we need to conquer the mountanis completely" agenda. This agenda is not anti-human, so much as anti-humanoid that isn't dwarf or human ally - and it's likely to have a lot of support. He's a well-regarded warrior of great renown that came in second the first time the current King won the post. Backroom dealing led to the current King winning when this fellow dropped out of the race. He thinks the King is too soft and should be pressing a war advantage for gain in the nearby mountains.
The PCs have good reasons (including personally loyalty/friendship) for supporting the current king.
So, I'm seeing (potentially) several skill challenges.
1. Convince Councilor Drusilla not to run for King. She's the one marrying a PC. This is an easy challenge that may not even be a challenge based on role-play.
2. Convince Councilor Bronzekettle not to run an anti-human alliance candidate.
- The challenge lasts 12 months
- The PCs accrue one failure automatically each month as Bronzekettle becomes more convinced of his plans
- The PCs can cancel one failure each month by spending a week convincing Bronzekettle not to run a candidate (group skill check Hard DC).
- The PCs can accrue one success each week as a group skill check as they turn public opinion in favor of the human alliance (Hard DCs).
- If at any point the PCs have successes (at least 6) doubling the number of failures the challenge ends and Bronzekettle stops
- If at any point the PCs have failures (at least 4) doubling the number of successes the challenge ends and Bronzekettle cannot be convinced.
- One or more PCs might secretly work against the others
- After 12 months (6 months before the election) Bronzekettle will make his decision. More failures than successes and he runs a candidate.
3. The PCs do not know about the War Councilor's plans to run and will probably not know until final candidacies are announced (6 months before elections). The will likely campaign against him, but I could see them joining him if they agree with his agenda.
4. The PCs can sway the elections with weekly group skill checks favoring one candidate or another.
I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to run the election.
In the meantime, they'll have plenty of adventuring/heroing to do that keeps them away from the dwarf city and makes it impossible for them to devote full time to electioneering/politicking.
