Political Games (D&D)

[cincinnati reds]

Hi, everyone!

Thanks again for your earlier help on lycanthropes and vampirism. Now I come humbly to the well again, seeking your assistance...

My players and I recently finished up our first 'adventure,' a dungeon-crawl which brought them to 4th-5th level over a couple of months, and we sat down and discussed what direction they would like the game to go. They want to go 'political.'

Now, I get 'political,' but I'm at a loss as to which direction to go in. The setting is a feudalism system, with a figurehead King, two Dukes who hold most all the country's power, and an assemblage of Lords who owe fealty to the Dukes.

What I would like you cats to do, if you don't mind, is post on this thread some of the things that you as a player or DM would like to see or have done in a 'political' game. Basically I'm asking you to brainstorm, brag, or just throw out those cool ideas that may have crossed your mind for a 'political' game but you never used - or did use, and if you like, tell me how they went.

I want your stories! Brag to me, so I can revel in your coolness and steal your better ideas for myself.

Or don't. But I'm supposed to start a political-type game this Sunday, it's Tuesday, and I'm still at a loss as to what to do. Cunning plots? Sinister maneuverings? What've you got? Please share with me.

Thanks! I look forward to reading this thread when I get home from work.

CR

 

[philreed]

You need this book for political games:

http://www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG3220.html

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

One thing I would advise doing is getting more input from your players. There's a lot of different levels and types of political play, which can be broadly defined as "a game with a political theme". Some games will revolve soley around talking with NPCs and trying to complete one's agenda through social means. Others might be game of espionage and intrigue. Other political games could be just like dungeon crawls or other D&D adventures, but with the characters adventuring for political reasons (fame, fealty, etc) instead of loot.

Overall, the best political game would tie all of these elements together. But there's a good chance that your players have different ideas of what a political game is, and it'll help to get this straightened out beforehand. To illustrate, let me say that Dynasties & Demagogues is an excellent book, and will be quite helpful to you (it also has a good intro adventure for you to use). However, it's definately most useful for the first type of political campaign; one in which the characters are interacting with NPCs in order to get some agenda fullfilled. It has rules for diplomacy, elections, and the like, but will not have anything for a more action oriented game. This is actually one of the things I like about the book, but different groups will have different use for it.

So, with all that out of the way... I think your best bet for a political game is the current relationship between the King and the Dukes. Giving the PCs the larger goal of restoring the King to true power will make for a pretty eventful campaign. There could be several reasons for this. The Dukes could be corrupt or incompetent, or both. There could be an outside foe, another country or even a supernatural evil, which requires the country to unite or fall. The characters could be friends, relatives, or retainers of the royal family. They might be fullfilling a prophecy or following the will of the gods, since royalty was considered to have a divine mandate to rule.

So just giving your characters this goal will open up all sorts of ideas. Make the Dukes hard to deal with. One of the main political themes is that one's foes cannot be defeated in combat, so they must be defeated in some other way. Even if the characters could penetrate a Duke's keep and slay him, there would be an heir to carry on the legacy. Not to mention that they'd be hunted as assassins. So, instead, they'll have to strike at the Dukes' holdings, foil their plans, and turn other nobles against them. Once the Dukes are unpopular enough, then the characters can move agains them, whether by force or simply by having the king take power back himself.

So that's what I'd do with the campaign. Like I said, the details depend on what you think you're players will enjoy- ask them if you're not sure. In addition to the book Phil listed, you might also want to check out a campaign book from the same company, entitled "Splintered Peace". It provides a political story arc in a detailed city with a lot of good NPCs. It's a long term campaign, meant to have other adventures between the different chapters, so it might be just what you're looking for. It does rely a lot on proactive PCs, though; if your players are the types who hear the latest rumors and return to their dark corner in the tavern, this isn't going to be for them.

Finally, here's some political adventures I've used in the past:

A religious festival is being disrupted by agents working for a scheming noble, who wants to both discredit the church and use the chaos as cover for an assassination attempt on a rival noble.

A bard who dislikes nobles is spreading anonymous songs and speeches in an effort to get peasants to rise against their rules. His private agenda is to gather a group of rowdies and rescue his sister, who was locked up by her nobleman husband when she began to display sorcerous powers.

The son of a wizard, after arguing with his father, steals a dangerous artifact and flees into the wilderness. Not only is he being tracked by the wizard's rival, but the artifact could potentially open a gate to another world and unleash a horde of dangerous outsiders.

One of the PCs has the opportunity to create their own estate and become a minor noble. To do so, however, they must be approved by a council of other nobles in a majority vote. The PC will have to research the nobles and learn their rivalries, so that he can get as many people on his side as possible. He might have to perform services for some of the nobles, or make promises that will later come to haunt him.

Another PC inherits an estate after a distant relative mysteriously dies. This was caused by an evil priest who wants to take over the estate in order to gain access to a lost temple beneath the keep. In addition to acts of murder and sabotage, he has been stirring up trouble between the humans and the nearby wood elves, in order to frame the elves for the problems and possibly start a conflict.

The PCs are taking a ship between missions. Once they board, they are to rendezvous with an ally and receive a sensitive report on his findings. However, they cannot find the ally at first, and must search the ship for him. They eventually find his body hidden in the hold, and must discover who on the ship murdered him and took the message. They could alert the captain or crew, if they're sure they are trustworthy. But the captain might want to dock early, which would give the murderer a chance to escape.

 

[cincinnati reds]

Wow, BG... you da man.

Thanks.

 

[cincinnati reds]

Okay, so here's my setup. Please let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas I can steal from you.

The characters are:

Ananda (female human Favored Soul of Kord), who has the whole melnacholy-do-the-right-thing-despite-its personal-toll thing goin' on;
Gamble, (male human Fighter/Bard), who is her younger cousin and has the whole lackadasical-why-work-when-you-can-slack thing goin' on;
and Rymic, (male human Rogue/Wizard), who has the whole what-did-I-do-to-make-the-international-theives'-guild-hate-me thing goin' on.

Ananda and Gamble were living with Ananda's father, Edoric, on the family farm when the adventure began. Gamble's father had abandoned him some time ago and he never knew why. They went off on an adventure without telling Edoric (to save the farm from being confiscated by the local Lord; they were behind on taxes) and, when they returned, found that Edoric had gone off on his own to find them. It had been nearly two weeks, and Talia, Ananda's mother, was totally distraught. So they set off to find him (and met Rymic).

The powerful,I-will-not-meddle-in-mortal-affairs-because-man-must-learn-to
-survive-on-his-own wizard of the Kingdom, Aristophanes, offered to help the PCs find Edoric is they recovered a book for him. They did, he let them use his scrying mirror, and they discovered this:

Edoric was bound hand and foot before two men in dark red robes bearing a golden hound sigul upon them; both men wore iron masks. Beside Edoric was a fourth man who was being commanded to kill Edoric (his name is James), but did not want to. One of the masked men said to James something to the effect of 'you swore to us, and we will kill your son if you disobey.' Whereupon the second masked man used his crystal ball to show James the face of his son, as a reminder of what would happen, and the crystal ball showed Gamble looking through Aristophanes mirror right back at them.

James is Gamble's father and Ananda's Uncle. And right before the second masked man anti-scryed the area to break the connection, James held his dagger to Edoric's throat and was about to kill him. They don't know whether or not he lived or died.

Now the PCs want to find James and seek revenge (though Gamble is secretly unsure about this); Rymic wants to know why the international-theives'-guild (The Congress of Shadows) is hunting him (I don't know why yet), and the players want to 'take the game political.'

I have the idea that the Duke of the East wants to wrest the throne from the powerless King and restore the Kingdom to its former glory, but don't really know how he would go about that (he's a devil spawn; his mother was barren and in her desperation to bear a heir made a deal with devilish forces).

So... ideas. If you've got 'em, I'd hear 'em.

Thanks again.