stages of rebellion

[Quickleaf]

The backdrop for our heroic-tier D&D campaign is the PCs gathering support/fomenting resistance against a scheming prince who would be king. I want to include several signposts along the way that their efforts are having an effect.

What kinds of stages of development apply to a rebellion?

In 4e-speak I'm thinking a skill challenge which lasts throughout the campaign using Stalker's Obsidian skill challenge rules. Every couple successes yields a tangible result, like inspiring a town to revolt against their lord or gaining blackmail information to leverage the prince with.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Thinking about it, a simple model for rebellion might have the following stages or chain:


General
1: Backdrop of injustice or detachment
2: Incident of realisation
3: Small conspiracy of like minds
4: Minor acts of opposition
5: Publicity or Propaganda
6: Recruitment of malcontents or radicals
7: Major act of opposition
8: Recruitment of the masses
9: Public protest
10: Major civic opposition – probably violent
11: Regime change, installation of new system or leader

Trying to apply it to your scenario

1: Backdrop of injustice or detachment
Their obviously has to be something not right with the Prince in the first place, he might have a reputation for being harsh, cruel, or decadent etc. This should probably be something distasteful to the common man but not completely unreasonable to the Princes piers or the society that he functions in.

2: Incident of realisation
This would be the moment when the rebellions founder finally could take no more. It would probably be something very personal to them that they could not overlook or ever forgive, and they believe it is wrong in every way. A classic example would be something like after months of overtaxing the persons village beyond their ability to pay the Prince himself orders the burning of the persons farmstead and the imprisonment, forced labour, or execution of the persons family as an example of what happens to trouble makers.

3: Small conspiracy of like minds
This stage would be the person seeking out others in his position, people sympathetic to his new cause, or radicals to aid him (maybe with their own agendas).

4: Minor acts of opposition
Once a small team is assembled they would look to start making trouble for the Prince. These first acts would probably be reasonably minor and be carried out in such a way as to make the Prince look foolish, weak or expose his faults or flaws.

5: Publicity or Propaganda
The next stage would be publicising the achievements of the previous acts of opposition in the hopes of fostering the sympathy and support of a greater population. Interestingly the Princes efforts (and failure) to capture or bring to justice the opposition group will also help to spread the word amongst the common man.

6: Recruitment of malcontents or radicals
With increased publicity and renown the opposition group would then be in a position to swell its ranks by recruiting from the greater population.

7: Major act of opposition
To really boost support and encourage more people to flock to their banner the opposition group would need to perform a major act of opposition in order to firmly establish themselves as a serious movement. This might be kidnapping the Princes right hand man, directly attacking the Princes residence and burning it down (poetic justice maybe), breaking into and releasing all prisoners from the Princes jail or labour camp, destroying one of the Princes businesses or revenue streams etc.

8: Recruitment of the masses
With a very public and major act of opposition under their belts (and no doubt the Princes extreme reaction) a major proportion of the population would be open for general recruitment and talk of downfall for the Prince would be on everyone’s lips. At this point revolution is almost inevitable and it would take severe and very decisive action from the Prince to turn the situation round.

9: Public protest
With the majority of the population on board the opposition movement would just have to get them out on the streets, probably marching on the Princes palace in one giant (and angry) mob. All along the route rabble rousers would be giving speeches working the crowd up and keeping them on mission.

10: Major civic opposition – probably violent
There is only one thing an angry mob is good for, and that’s rioting and swift justice. It would be likely that the mob would be able to cause mayhem in the streets (easily outnumbering any form of police or personal guard) and force their way into the Princes palace. The ring leaders would probably take this opportunity to storm the palace themselves for their final showdown with the Prince, either killing him themselves, capturing him and giving him to the mob or maybe even capturing him and forcing him to stand trial (though that is unlikely given mob attitudes, and any trial would be short with the obvious swift and bloody justice)

11: Regime change, installation of new system or leader
Once the old Prince has been dealt with the leaders would then have to control and calm the riotous mob and persuade them to return to their homes and become peaceful. They would then have to swiftly install a new leader or government or take control themselves. The weeks immediately following this change would be critical in cementing the change as the population is already primed for violent upheaval and any miss-step or perceived injustice might have them all out on the streets again with obvious consequences.

…then give it a few years and see if a similar thing happens again. History as they say often repeats itself, and once a precedent has been set many more malcontents might start thinking they could do much better.


The above of course doesn’t include for action from the Prince which would make the whole process much more dynamic and complicated.

As to making it all part of one giant skill challenge I’m not sure. It seems mainly like a lot of really interesting roleplaying situations, secret meeting in shady taverns, rousing speeches in village barns, night raids, evading the authorities as they search the streets. You might even get a bit of intrigue at the princes masked ball etc.

You could probably do some of it as skill challenges but I would say most of it would be skill checks as part of the roleplaying during certain events. To me there is a subtle difference, one is mapped out before hand, one is normal freeform roleplaying.

Anyway I hope these ramblings help in some small way.

 

[Quickleaf]

They do indeed, thanks Mesh Hong! That is an excellent breakdown.

I agree that a skill challenge isn't the way to go. Instead what I'm doing is coming up with a list of potential NPC supporters and minor quests which can aid their efforts.

The most structure I might apply is a list of "developments" which occur with certain triggers. For example, after stage #9 (public protest), a town (perhaps the birthplace of a rival royal leader) rises against its lord and asks for the PCs’ aid in ending the siege on the lord’s keep. The twist is the lord is a decent person and the town is led by a rabble rouser who wants something in the keep.

I'm also going to develop the Prince's response at each stage. For example, after stage #4 (minor acts of opposition), the Prince might fabricate trumped up charges against PCs in order to silence them and send thugs to rough up one of their supporters.

Thanks again for the framework, it helps me to get more organized about my campaign planning.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well, all the advice I recently heard on skill challenges is to avoid the "big ass high complexity" kind and rather split it up in multiple challenges. For a big plot like a rebellion, that's certainly advisable, especially since you can mix combats, quests and skill challenges as you see fit.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Something to add to Mesh Hong's list is a Catalyst should be 7.a - this is an event that sets the fire of rebellion burning, moving it from unrest to a true rebellion.

 

[Jack7]

I think everyone has given pretty good advice so far. MH did a very good job of basic situational analysis and likely steps of progression. They needn't necessarily proceed in that particular order though, that will be sitiautaionally determined by events on the ground.

Another thing you're gonna need is a really effective leadership organization if this is to be a true rebellion and not just a series of sporadic and geographically isolated temporary uprisings. Also, depending upon the geographic area involved (how spread out in actual terrain is the uprising to be, will it be localized to the capital or a major city where the prince is likely already in background operation seeking to gain influence and followers of his own, or will it be a national or kingdom wide operation) you will need a really effective and reliable means or set of means of communications. This is especially true in a non-magical, low magical, or primitive society or one in which much control over the means of communications and commerce/trade is exercised. What about espionage and spying? Does the prince have a good spy network (probably) and what about the opposition (the could possibly build up a good network over time). There is a lot of necessary and hidden support organization behind both a secret insurgency/coup/power grab, and an organized or developing rebellion.

Another thing you're gonna have to account for is push-back. How hostile or violent will the counter-insurgency, counter-rebellion become, and on who's side will the local and larger authorities decide, both in the early stages of the rebellion, and later on? And again how long will this go on? Will the authorities hope to ride it out or destroy the opposition through attrition, or will it be relatively quick from beginning to end, and how violent and brutal is the rebellion likely to become and how will they behave if they actually succeed? Will it bring about a possible entirely new form of government, like an American Republic, will it bring about a French Revolution Reign of Terror, will it simply exchange one tyrant for another, will it lead to society wide change, or just local exchange of princes?

All of these things, and things mentioned previously, might be signposts along your way.

Good luck QL. Sounds like an interesting scenario.

 

[Mesh Hong]

All very good points Jack7.

I think this is one of those classic examples of a great idea that is really hard, if not impossible to thoroughly plan for. So much depends on the actions of the PCs and their approach. A rebellion is such a dangerous undertaking that one mistake could either bring a catastrophic end to the rebellion or change it in a completely unexpected way.

I kept my list as simple as possible to represent a possible basic flow. In game it would be much more complicated and have several different layers (or social strata) all progressing at the same time.

As Jack7 states communication and espionage/counter espionage are major factors that will influence events, and their difficulties change over time. The bigger the rebellion becomes the easier communication should become but it will also become harder to spot infiltration by the authorities due to the increase in membership.

Information gathering by the rebellion should ideally come from at least one inside source, an informant or sympathiser close to the Prince (either a courtier or even servants who work in the Princes household). Members of other reputable organisations should also be exploited, e.g. members of the church who may have access to the Prince or his associates, local magistraits who can try to reduce convictions and pass on information that could be used to rescue captured allies etc.

I think this could be an incredably fun enviroment to play and DM in. But personally I would approach this with a general background, a bunch of generic stats (as you have already done - human minions thread) and a bit of serious thinking as to the morals and motivations of the main protaganists. Then just react in character during sessions, and plot and scheme between sessions But as to having the whole thing mapped out I think it would hurt the campaign freedom as well as your own sanity.

 

[green slime]

No one has yet mentioned the effect of outside agents. Other nations, even those far away will of course be paying very close attention, and probably trying to fund / persuade / coalign activities and factions to their own causes.

Add in important resources and the whole thing starts to get mired down

Look no further than the Democratic Repulic of Congo just to see how complicated things can get.

 

[Mesh Hong]

No one has yet mentioned the effect of outside agents. Other nations, even those far away will of course be paying very close attention, and probably trying to fund / persuade / coalign activities and factions to their own causes.

Add in important resources and the whole thing starts to get mired down

Ah yes, now we're talking. There is nothing like secondary or tertiary factors to really complicate matters.

This is why I love DMing. You take a simple situation then start to extrapolate to the nth degree, and before you know it you have a beautifully complex and realistic situation that is so far away from any sort of control (or maybe even comprehension) that your players (let alone your PCs) have no idea what is going on, and important events start to happen off screen that your players have no chance of ever finding out about or predicting.

Personally, I am often guilty of this sort of behaviour .

Getting back to the point. Yes I think that some sort of natural resource and an external influence would be great things to weave into the situation.

The natural resource would of course be a great target for the rebellion to disrupt or close down, hampering the Prince or making him look weak. One possible side effect of this could actually be a loss of support if the rebellion actually starts to cost normal people their livelihoods.

An external influence might be a good additional short scenario. The Prince could be looking to external forces or specialists to eradicate his trouble makers but this would require some diplomacy. The rebellion would have to disrupt that diplomacy.

As to rival nations wanting to use the situation to their own advantage as a prelude to their own invasion, I think this might be a step too far. I think Quickleaf stated that this was the heroic tier of the campaign, maybe this could be saved as a possible scenario after the rebellion in the Paragon tier.

 

[Jack7]

No one has yet mentioned the effect of outside agents. Other nations, even those far away will of course be paying very close attention, and probably trying to fund / persuade / coalign activities and factions to their own causes.

This is a very good point. It will depend of course on how advanced the society itself is and how advanced the surrounding societies are. In more primitive conditions communications will be slow and other nations might not even learn of events in time to properly react. Nor may their own communications or military/espionage/trade capabilities be advanced or fast enough to gather and develop the appropriate counterforces before the satiation is already resolved or beyond their influence. If however the various societies are advanced enough and exchange is common enough then other influences might very well want a stake in the game, up to and including overtly or covertly funding or supporting either the rebellion itself, or the prince. I am reminded though, as a sort of warning about outside influences, of the many European aristocrats and autocrats who either encouraged or suppressed democratic movements in other nations, only to regret that they ever stirred up such trouble when the same movements began in their own nations. In other words if rebellions and large scale "change movements" gain success and influence of their own, 'ware the wheel pilots and captains, even if you think your waters calm. The storm is soon upon you after nightfall.

I think this is one of those classic examples of a great idea that is really hard, if not impossible to thoroughly plan for. So much depends on the actions of the PCs and their approach. A rebellion is such a dangerous undertaking that one mistake could either bring a catastrophic end to the rebellion or change it in a completely unexpected way.

I kept my list as simple as possible to represent a possible basic flow. In game it would be much more complicated and have several different layers (or social strata) all progressing at the same time.

I think MH makes a good point here too. You don't want to overcomplicate planning at the intention stages especially because it is very hard to know how the PCs and others may influence events as they develop. Or in other words as has been suggested I wouldn't try to plan out everything that happens in the rebellion but would rather plan for the possibilities and the possible factors involved, and then let the situation develop as organically as possible. Always be prepared, but it doesn't mean that everything will happen as you think.