Then They Made Me Their Chief

[Mark]

How often have you played in a game where your character, or one of the PCs in your group, became the leader of a nation or region or tribe of people?

 

[Blackrat]

A few times. Once our paladin became the Baron of Stonelands. I've played a sorceror who took over a town.

In a game I ran about a year ago the orc barbarian of the party became King of the Bloodstone Lands. They were going to take over half of Faerun but an unforunate event with a flight of dragons ended up in TPK.

 

[jdrakeh]

How often have you played in a game where your character, or one of the PCs in your group, became the leader of a nation or region or tribe of people?

Never. And I've played in a lot of games. The closest thing that I've ever seen occur during actual play is PCs being rewarded with a knighthood and small land holding (usually a tract of land just big enough to support a keep or small tower) by a noble. I have seen previously retired PCs obtain minor political stature outside of actual gameplay (usually so they can be inserted back into the campaign world at a later date in a meaningful way).

 

[Lanefan]

Nearest I've got as a player is that the very first PC I ever played was first in line to the throne of his homeland. Only problem here was his homeland was on a different world....

As DM I've had a few PCs come in as nobility (highest-ranking was an Elf Queen, who later married a fellow party member thus making him Queen Consort - this worked out just fine), and had a PC end up becoming Queen of a realm as a result of the in-game story (this didn't work out so well but it's way too late now for a do-over).

I've had a few PCs try their hand at the stronghold-building routine, with mixed results. In my last game the whole party together built a castle (with help and encouragement from the local King, as reward for services rendered) in an otherwise-weakly-held area, and while they held no title, they became de-facto rulers of that part of the realm. This worked out exceptionally well.

Lanefan

 

[Fenes]

My current party is very high in their chosen home town's society.

 

[Aeric]

Once. But it was a Birthright game, and while it was different from most Birthright games in that it ran a lot more like a regular D&D game (minus the dungeon crawls, which were never a big part of my D&D experience anyways), the point of the campaign was to get my character to be the ruler of a small nation and face off against the setting's Big Bad.

 

[green slime]

I tried, but the player's didn't want their characters bogged down with that.

 

[Herobizkit]

Generally speaking, about 90-95% of players in all my history (myself included) made strongholds, conquered nations, and became leaders of men/elves/whatever.

Ye Olde Schoole of D&D (back in the colored boxes/Rules Cyclopedia days, and maybe earlier) to create their own kingdoms, AND had established guidelines to assist players with that endeavour. Even in today's convoluted PC P0w3rz-centric system of 3.x, we are still trying to convert old keeps, rescue victims of war and tyrrany, and forge our own destinies under our own flags.

 

[Robert Ranting]

At the conclusion of the Ravenloft game I was once in, our adventuring company became a major force in the Core, with teams of adventurers based out of chapter houses in several of the Realms of Dread. Additionally, the party cleric founded a new sect of the Ezran religion, the sorcerer/rage mage became the new Prince of the Shadow Fey, and my fighter/holy liberator character became the head of a socialist revolutionary army in Old Gundarak (currently still claimed by Invidia and Barovia). The campaign pretty much ended once we got to that point, but the DM maintains continuity between his Ravenloft games, so PCs and events from the third campaign (the one I was in) showed up in the fourth, and so on.

In my own games, I tried to engineer a plot wherein a PC was one of three possible heirs to the throne of her home country (the three orphaned grandchildren of an aging queen), but the game ended abruptly before I could begin that plotline in earnest. It seems that once the PCs believe they have saved the world from ultimate evil, the intrigues of elven politics don't really have as much appeal as early retirement :\

Robert "Gundarakite People's Liberation Army" Ranting

 

[Tonguez]

Orbril the gnome started life by stowing away in the luggage of the newly appointed Lady Thane of a major trade city, he was discovered in said Ladys underwear but luckily for him she was a merciful type and soon had him established in training as an alchemist. Following from this he had a variety of adventures including capturing a breeding pair of giant carniverous hamsters, being tortured by brigands, establishing the Grand Circus Maximus, rediscovering a lost Elven temple which provided the gateway to a Sidhe City occupying its own Subdimensional plane, uncovering a plot to assaisnate the Emperor and using fireworks to thwart an extradimensianal invasion. For this he briefly become Governor of an Imperial Province but soon retired to take up life as Day-Man of his travelling circus troupe

My latest campaign involved the PC exploring a newly discovered land and then establishing the first settlement, as such they were essentially the 'leaders; of said settlement.

I had a Paladin who established his own Order of Knights-Crusader
and a Half-giant Cleric who started his own heretical sect which gained a following in the world (and featured my PC as one of its founding 'matyrs')

Anyway LOTS of my chracters either start off or end up leading something...