More of a mini-setting. I was going to write up a small, PoL sandbox type campaign setting, and was wondering if anyone had already done so with a similar premise:
The game starts in a realm ruled by a usurper, and there's an insurgency underway. The players can join the rebels, or the king, or wander off to the borderlands to find some dungeons to plunder. The optional "twist" being, the choice between the rebels and the usurper is grey, not black and white.
I have a few ideas already, but I wouldn't mind seeing how someone else approached this.
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One of my ideas was to have the court be set up for lots of intrigue. Various factions vying for second place, or even first place, if they're really devious. One source I was thinking of plundering for ideas about this is the old Enemy Within campaign, I remember reading that there's at least one court intrigue setup.
Another idea was that while the king and his family are in fact evil, he and the nobility put on a really good show of being honorable, decent folks, and their rule is only subtly oppressive. Meanwhile the rebels seem to be a rather unsavory lot, with little to recommend them other than the fact that they are ruled by a usurper. Meaning, the players may have a hard choice if they're going to choose sides in the conflict.
One thing I'd personally consider: shades of grey tends to work better with every evil having some good than with everything that seems to be good really being evil.
Like, if I were to consider the sides of a Robin Hood story, I'd say that the Merry Men-equivalent ARE criminals. With all the unsavoriness that entails - murder, pillage, rape, ruthlessness. The leader robs from the rich to give to the poor, but the rich aren't just robbed, they're hung limbless from the branches of trees on the main trade road. I might draw inspiration from the more upsetting stories out of the drug kingpins in Mexico and Columbia - Robin Hood sets himself up as a noble defender of the weak against a corrupt state, a merry outlaw who lives by his own rules, but his campaign of terror and silence has Sherwood and beyond
terrified.
And yet, there are those within the Merry Men who long for something more. Little John has been Robin's friend since childhood, and still has some of that idealism ("I know I'm bound to Hell for the things I've done, but I want my children to live in a world of peace, like Robin and I used to talk about, so that they don't have to join me."). Friar Tuck is an ally of compassion rather than encouragement ("We have two choices in this world: Robin or the Sherrif. I chose the ones who needed someone to look after their souls.")
Meanwhile, the Sheriff and his associates are powerful, corrupt, and decadent. Bribery is rampant and each soldier cares more about their own purse than about law and order. Petty violence on the common people is a regular occurrence, and none will reign in his excesses. Here I might loot from the
Gotham TV show - villains are out there doing horrible things (the Merry Men), and no good deed goes unpunished - people accept it, profit from it, encourage it. Because you can't speak out about it - you'll be killed in your sleep. But the Sheriff is a guy in a no-win situation ("How do I protect the people of this town from those monsters if I don't have a force to hunt them down?"), and Maid Marian is in with the criminals (she's a rebellious teen into drugs and a bit of an egomaniac - "NOBODY tells me what I can and can't do. This town is MINE."), but she's a tragic figure whose nihilism can risk all she has. The Lion-Hearted King is a warmonger who wants little to do with his backwater country in Nottingham, but who perhaps has an icy honor and a child he hopes to raise there.
The PC's? Well, in good ol' D&D fashion, they'll trop into town and start messin' up the joint. The important bit will be to have scenes showing the good intentions (and possible successful world-states) of both sides. You have Little John and his adorable moppets playing in the forest (only to flee in panic when the Sheriff arrives - PC's, quick, make a distraction, slow him down, or an adorable moppet might die!). You help out the Sheriff on patrol with some of his good buddies one night (they're all talkative and content and talking about their plans for when the Merry Men are finally gone), and the next morning you find them decapitated on the road, red arrows sticking out of them (the mark of the Merry Men). They should maybe take a few missions from each side at first, maybe even against a common enemy that, if war still rules their lives, will definitely overwhelm them ("The orcs in the north have been mustering, but our guards can't stop them if they're busy trying to hunt down Robin!" / "We've spied orcs mustering in the north, but we can't do anything about it while on the run!").
The "dungeons" here might be the fortresses and lairs of each band - dangerous, and likely to result in death if diplomacy isn't used.
The "dragons" here are each side's leaders (Robin and the Sheriff). As long as the rivalry continues, no peace can be lasting or achieved, so the PC's need to eliminate one before the Orcs come and eliminate everyone. "Eliminate" might mean slay, but it might also mean simply exile, or get to leave (Robin will leave with Marian, so you need to abduct her from where the Sheriff is keeping her and avoid the Sheriff's guards and get her to Robin and persuade them to work together and THEN Robin leaves and the Sheriff wins / OR the Sheriff will leave with Marian, but she'll never love him, so you've gotta get him to admit that to himself and get him fired by Richard), depending on how stuff shakes out.
