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Message: <blockquote data-quote="francisca" data-source="post: 1230058" data-attributes="member: 9734">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.</blockquote>

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