wanted: king. must be patient, wise and able to speak directly to a god..

[Dirigible]

I like your system, Amal. Very reminisent of Birthright.

Some of my favourite 'pick-a-monarch' systems from my world:

* Empire ruled by 7000 year old preserved head-in-a-jar (well... ruled by a youthful pharoh from the royal dynasty, actually. But ably advised by a head-in-a-jar).
* Kingdom ruled by whichever knight has slain the most dragons this decade.
* Nation ruled by wealthiest merchants, with the remnants of the former noble houses kept imprisoned on their estates, left alive to give a sense of faux authenticity to the new rulers.
* Kingdom ruled by the body-stealing spirit of a 1500 year old warlock, who possesses his male blood heirs in sequence.
* Kingdom ruled by a vastly powerful great dragon for the past 1000 years.
* Matriarchal queendom where the queen's daughters are rigourously trained and tested, and the best of the best is elected to rule.

Of course, the most common types are the "my granddaddy was a heavy armed thug who conquered this land, so that means I'M KING!" monarchies.

 

[Agback]

G'day

Well, in the Blessed Isles each king (there are eight) is the eldest son of the local daimon and the eldest sister of the previous king.

In Auroronesia, each king chooses one of his sons-in-law to be his champion. When the king or queen dies the champion becomes king and his wife becomes queen. (There are rules for when the king has no married daughters, specifying which of the queen's relatives the king is allowed to choose among the husbands of.)

In Gehennum in the Archaic Period, some city-states are ruled by elected leaders, some by direct democracy, some by oligarchic or aristocratic councils, etc. There are two general classes of monarchs. The proper type of king is an anax (also pronounced 'wanax' or 'anaxos'), who is the successor of an ancient dynasty, usually claiming descent from a daimon or hero. But there are a lot of upstarts whose dynasty goes back only a few generations to someone who seized power in a coup of some sort (often populist). These use various titles such as 'lord', 'tyrant', 'basile' etc.

In Gehennum in the Classical Period there is some dispute over the succession to the Imperial throne. The 'Salts' generally hold that the Gerusia (a council of nobles descended from rulers of the city-states in the Archaic Period) and the Apella (an assembly of elected mayors of chartered boroughs) have some right of choice among the Imperial family. The 'Lubbers' hold by primogeniture and representative inheritance.

In Gehennum in the Decadent Period there is some doubt as to who is in charge. The Emperor is chosen by primogeniture but is a figurehead. The Polemarkh is appointed from the House of Suvein, nominally by the Emperor. The office passes from person to person within that dynasty, never directly from father to son, and retired polemarkhs often retain real power while their nephews and cousins occupy office. Meanwhile some episkopoi are effectually appointed by the Polemarkh, but in other provinces the polemarkh is practically constrained to appoint episkopos after episkopos from the same family, and there is de facto primogeniture.

On Methlin ships the captain is elected for annual terms, but incumbents are rarely defeated.

In Ramastaarn, the women's matriclans are ruled by queens who are succeeded by their eldest daughters. But the men's lodges are ruled by councils of senior members.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Volaran]

In my DM's previous campaign, there was an interesting power struggle following the death of a country's first emperor.

He was a priest of Luminous, the Sun god of the campaign. As a young lad, he was gifted with the god's own mace and eventually became a great mercenary leader, working for various foreigners using his home penninsula as their battlefield.

Eventually, he turned on both sides, using his mercenary army and great holy powers to drive them from the land. On the site of the final battle, he built his great city.

By the time of the campaign, he was nearing one hundred and fifty, with a full century on the throne. He'd never married, and his god had told him the ability to father an heir was taken from him in return for long life.

However, twenty some odd years before the campaign, he'd become infatuated with the spouse of one of his generals. Making a deal with a powerful wizard, he took on the general's form and seduced her one night. Little did he know, the wizard had found a way to suspend the god's price for that one night.

Nine months later, an infant was born. The emperor suspected, and the boy was exceptional, but he was never the confirmed heir.

When the emperor died, his chief advisor claimed the throne, and assumed their would be no opposition. However, he'd forgotten his master's role as the High Priest of Luminous, and the head of the church claimed that as the emperor had been appointed by his god, the throne should pass through the priesthood.

At this point, a certain wizard revealed to the emperor's bastard his lineage...and of course, he was a PC.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention because it was the only instance in a campaign I've played in where the characters were involved in deciding just how a relativly new empire's throne would be passed on from that point.

 

[francisca]

I have a variety of political insitutions governing various populations in my homebrew. I picked them by looking through the 1E DMG and being inspired by various works of fiction and non-fiction.

There are a handful of pseudo-democratic city states which use various ways of electing representatives who then appoint officials. In some cases, guild leaders act as reps, in other cases there are aldermen elected by the citizens.

There are two "divine right" kind of kingdoms, one which is ruled by a benevolent dictator whose crown is hereditery, the other where the petty underkings assemble and elect a an overking when the current king dies.

One kingdom is ruled by the head of the church of the sun god, and arcane spellcasting is outlawed.

Then their are two city-states which purport to be representative republics but are ruled by corrupt business men and organized crime. They are not evil in the Orcus or Dispater kind of way, but certainly corrupt and open to making pacts with the wrong crowd.

One kingdom ruled by an evil overlord who keeps everyone under his thumb. ('cause, you know, it's D&D!!!)

One hobgoblin, clan-based kingdom.

One elven, high-druid led elfdom, and several independant elven communities.

One pseudo-communist dwarven clan, and another feudal dwarven clan.

Now, don't think for a minute that I have all of this detailed out. I sat down and roughed out the political landscape for each distinct area. I listed the politcal and court structure, law enforcement, general disposition of the government and populace (because they can be different), military forces, general relations with neighbors, and major NPCs and their disposition.

I also have a macro timeline which lists things like: X will invade Y in the spring of xxxx, king so-and-so will die in year xxxx, when natural disasters will occur, and when supernatural intervention will occur.

Then as my players explore the world, I just detail stuff as I need, on the spot, and the world reacts to their actions. That way, I don't need to lead them by the nose.