D&D General Politics (in your game)

[Imaculata]

Do you have lots of factions, racial tensions, social stratification, a struggle between church and state for dominance? Is there a monarch with unlimited power or a council of wise men or a dictator grimly holding on to power by playing the aristocrats against each other?

Pretty much all of the above. But I think more important is how this affects the players. My players often have to talk with political figures, and politics play an important part in getting things done. For this it helps if they know the goals and ambitions of an npc.

For example, in my current campaign my players have to deal with a religious leader, who made a deal with their enemy, to have them captured. In exchange he was promised the highest religious position in the land. He seeks this position in this manner, because of the social-political structure of the country; the position of high bishop is unattainable to him by succession, because of his low born roots. The new bishop is appointed by the king and by the previous bishop, who keeps a close circle of friends, who are all eyeing that seat. So if you are not part of that group, your changes of becoming the new high bishop are zero.

The religious leader of a local town, is trying to fight the same great evil as the party. But he believes that the only means to do so, is to strike a deal with their enemy, so he can become high bishop. His attempt to capture the players failed however, and now the players have opened an all out assault on his cathedral, where the final confrontation will take place.

 

[GuyBoy]

As a teacher of International Relations, I guess I have a horse in the race of this thread, but I view politics as absolutely essential in my D&D games, and don’t have too much sympathy with people who say “ keep politics out of....”, whether it’s about sport, the arts or RPGs.

Politics can certainly be “the resolution of conflict”, but it can also be its creator as well. It can also be a route to power/authority and wealth, as well as its “showbiz for ugly people” truism.
In our mundane world, politics interacts with economics (Marxism, Neo-Liberalism), with international relations (Liberalism, Realism), with rulership ( any “-cracy” you like) and with religion, even in our less spiritual world ( Huntington’s “Clash of Civilisations” being one example of many. Then we have conflict theories and personal politics ( inclusion, racism, homophobia, transphobia and many other important issues have been widely, and rightly, discussed on these forums.)

Fast forward this into a fantasy world where religions are demonstrably real, magic impacts power projection and distinct races/lineages exist. The equations get far more complex.

So, politics in my campaigns. Absolutely.....and love it!

 

[Zardnaar]

As a teacher of International Relations, I guess I have a horse in the race of this thread, but I view politics as absolutely essential in my D&D games, and don’t have too much sympathy with people who say “ keep politics out of....”, whether it’s about sport, the arts or RPGs.

Politics can certainly be “the resolution of conflict”, but it can also be its creator as well. It can also be a route to power/authority and wealth, as well as its “showbiz for ugly people” truism.
In our mundane world, politics interacts with economics (Marxism, Neo-Liberalism), with international relations (Liberalism, Realism), with rulership ( any “-cracy” you like) and with religion, even in our less spiritual world ( Huntington’s “Clash of Civilisations” being one example of many. Then we have conflict theories and personal politics ( inclusion, racism, homophobia, transphobia and many other important issues have been widely, and rightly, discussed on these forums.)

Fast forward this into a fantasy world where religions are demonstrably real, magic impacts power projection and distinct races/lineages exist. The equations get far more complex.

So, politics in my campaigns. Absolutely.....and love it!

Politics absolutely fine in terms of world building. A lot of fantasy literature revolves around kingdoms/empires or succession.

 

[humble minion]

For those people who do manage to make politics a big part of their campaigns - how do your players handle it? Does the PC party normally act as a single unit, allying with one political faction or another as a while after discussing matters among themselves? Or do different PCs ally with different factions? If the latter ... how has it worked?

 

[Zardnaar]

For those people who do manage to make politics a big part of their campaigns - how do your players handle it? Does the PC party normally act as a single unit, allying with one political faction or another as a while after discussing matters among themselves? Or do different PCs ally with different factions? If the latter ... how has it worked?

Usually the party picks a faction to support. Eg a Noble house.

I normally have my Elves as more Melinboneans and there's 7 major houses. 2 are outright evil with one good aligned and the rest in the middle somewhere but usually in the not nice category.

 

[OptionalRule]

It depends on the scale and stakes of the game. I usually include some form of it. Even in Lost Mines of Phandelver, the town is torn over a faction that wants to stay independent, and a faction that wants to join the Lord's Alliance.

 

[Steampunkette]

So... it's gonna depend on the society. Take Wolde, for example.

Wolde in my Ashen Lands setting is a gothic germanic style city-state with a heavy influence of english interlopers. Earlier in the campaign's history, a nearby kingdom was destroyed by the Emperor, but only because the populace actively opposed him against their own rulership. Many of those rulers managed to escape from Raven's Reach to Wolde before the hammer came down on the Druids that turned the populace against the Empire and their rebellion. (Later druids would become terrorists against Civilization and eventually succeed in assassinating the emperor, his family, and burning the capital and it's surrounding environs to ash... but that's another story)

So Wolde has it's own Princes (As part of the Empire it was a Principality rather than a Kingdom with the former ruling families kept in a place of power in order to maintain social cohesion) as well as the Raven Princes. So there's a lot of tension between those two factions since the Raven Princes have no one to rule and just SO MUCH MONEY looted from the Reach that is by law theirs...

But there's also a certain level of Raven Chic because of these interloper princes with their piles of cash. They may not rule society, but their galas and events influence fashion, culture, and thought, which has severely altered the way the society kind of works. One of the Raven Princes even married one of the Wolde Princes in order to combine the weight of their names and purse to push that family to primacy. And now there's a legitimate Crown Prince in Wolde for the first time in almost a hundred years.

But.

When I run a game related to the social/political aspects of Wolde, that's more of a Backdrop against which smaller battles are waged between the players and some noble houses. Most of which aren't particularly interested in the PCs off the bat because it's just another nouveau riche peasant rising up in society, of course. At least until they start causing problems or reach out to make contacts. At that point things start solidifying in... largely a high school way.

So you've got your different groups with their different interests, but there's also overlap, and people who are part of multiple groups but not fully welcomed into any one group, some backstabbing or perceived insults, and for the most part it's pretty static until the players come in and interact.

But only the politics the players -choose- to be a part of will matter except for any "Bully Group" political groupings. Who just do their best to harass and embarrass anyone they find threatening.

Now if I'd done something in Castle Valka, which is a very militant society, there'd be a lot less options for different political tacts because what the Steward says gets done and everything else is very militaristic "You take orders from X people and give orders to Y people and have minimal interaction with Z people"

 

[loverdrive]

Currently I'm running a game set in Northern Qazaqstan during the Russian Civil War, and before that I've participated in a campaign about 2003 invasion of Iraq.... So, yeah.

I generally prefer real world stuff to fantasy politics, though.

 

[payn]

For those people who do manage to make politics a big part of their campaigns - how do your players handle it? Does the PC party normally act as a single unit, allying with one political faction or another as a while after discussing matters among themselves? Or do different PCs ally with different factions? If the latter ... how has it worked?

For awhile, my players always tried to act as a neutrally interested party. Meaning they would pick the most reasonable side and help restore a balance or push them over the top and then move on. Eventually, I had to start making folks take notice of the PCs actions so they gained friends and enemies based on their actions. Sometimes this was obvious and other times it was subtle.

I have not had a situation where the party splits. I mean, the players and their characters have sometimes long in-depth conversations on how to proceed, but at some point the party comes together with a solution. Often, this is a half measure type solution and you know what the Punisher says about those!

 

[Oofta]

I tend to have a few factions, but I keep it fairly simple. In my current campaign I've probably put some thoughts into a dozen or so, but only half of those have really had much influence on what the PCs are doing.

In general, I find it difficult to balance and make more than a few factions truly compelling and fleshed out. So I know there's a group of elven refugees who sought sanctuary in the city, but the story arcs are largely driven by PC decisions so they've never been given much detail.

The factions can be explicitly political, the ruling council of their home base vs the more hierarchical city state neighbor. Others are guilds, whether thieves or merchants. Still others are associated to some external power whether gods, fiends or outsiders. Of course there's always overlap for many individuals.

Whether the players care largely drives how much of this matters. Sometimes it's all background noise and motivations for NPCs, other times the PCs are heavily involved. Just depends on what the group seems to enjoy and become invested in.