What would you want to see from a politcal campaign?

[Gundark]

so your DM tells you that your next D&D campaign is going to have a heavy politcal/intrigue feel to it. He/She asks you for input of what you would want to see in the campaign.

What would you want to have happen?

 

[Harmon]

so your DM tells you that your next D&D campaign is going to have a heavy politcal/intrigue feel to it. He/She asks you for input of what you would want to see in the campaign.

What would you want to have happen?

Something that my fellow Players might find interesting and an understanding of how to do it.

And ya, that is a serious answer, I tried the political thing just a couple weeks back, my Cleric is maxed out on his Diplomacy (13th lvl at the time) and I screwed it up because I was getting bored and tired (it was putting me to sleep). The other Players were- "aid another on Brottor's conversation," and about as bored as they could get I think.

I really wanted to try it (the GM gave me the option of bailing out on the session and going for a narrative), because I suck at it so badly. I suppose I should not have even tried.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

so your DM tells you that your next D&D campaign is going to have a heavy politcal/intrigue feel to it. He/She asks you for input of what you would want to see in the campaign.

What would you want to have happen?

I'd want to see some action in with it. Whether that's fending off an assassination attempt, a tense chase scene through a crowded marketplace or carrying out a breaking and entering scheme, I think political/intrigue stories are better when they have action mixed in with the politicing.

I'd also like to see connections with out characters' histories. I'd find it much more interesting if the local sheriff had six fingers on his right hand than if he was just some generic guy.

And I would like to see equal camera time for all players. So it's not just one player doing all of the politicing and to give less vocal players more connection to the story.

 

[EricNoah]

I think in a game like this you would want to have some kind of reputation system, and have it be affected by things like how the PCs behave in public. PCs often do weird things like wear full armor to parties, throw gold around when favors would be better, attract attention to themselves while Info Gathering, etc. There should be consequences to antisocial behavior.

 

[Phlebas]

I have a lot of politics IMC, so here's some hard lessons learnt (its written mainly from a DM's perspective - sorry about that)

1 - don't expect huge interest from the players in the minutiae - be prepared to Fast forward meetings to the interesting bits

2 - prepare hand outs to speed things up - I have a weekly paper in my city so every now and then i print out a single sheet of A4 with a mix of plot clues, background info and flavour fluff. players then have handy reference material without the DM making clues too obvious

3 - xp reward the players who get involved either for solving plot clues or winning diplomatic challenges

4 - make every PC involved - either by church, guild or family. make sure that their stories start intertwining. Decide how influential churches are especially as you're bound to end up with at least one cleric

5 - Keep the number of NPC's to the minimum (I created a few famous families and can always bring out new relatives to fill out plot lines). long lists would limit my enthusiasm...

6 - remember that PC's get 'famous' as they rise in levels. that means they will be recognised and get a reputation. Personally i wouldn't bring in a reputation metric - mainly 'cos i'm lazy rather than it being a bad idea - but i would keep note of their last few actions and apply conditional modifiers to skill checks as appropriate

7 - it should be made clear at the start wether a half-orc barbarian will fit into this campaign - either it should have a mix of combat & intrigue or PC's should be pre-warned to pick swashbucklers rather than tanks. basically all PC options need to be spelt out from the start - eg will paladins fit?

8 - Try to have a mix of skill checks and RP clues. its annoying if you have a high diplomacy character but you get no benefit, its equally annoying if you come up with good ideas but are forced to roll for anything.

9 - try and rough out what the players know when they start (or what they can find out easily) and make a reference sheet - it keeps things simple if you don't have to remind everyone who does what on a regular basis. it also helps the DM keep track

10 - make laws and attitudes to magic clear - especially enchantments. IMC they count as assault and have stiff penalties. otherwise you could end up with a beguiler playing havoc. I'm not saying ban them, but make sure they're not a default option (Unless your playing a mage-ocracy in which case it might be a status symbol to have lots of charmed servants) unless you really want that type of game

11 - decide wether your playing PH2 organisations or not & decide what impact leadership will have. I've spent quite a bit of time on the thieves guilds but it could equally apply to wizards, clerics etc

12 - even the darkest plotline should have its moments of humour.....

above all, make sure its still a fun adventure and ensure you have the odd 'break' - such as find the monster in the sewer, or go out hunting orc bandits for a day otherwise even the most intriguing political system goes stale

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I think in a game like this you would want to have some kind of reputation system, and have it be affected by things like how the PCs behave in public. PCs often do weird things like wear full armor to parties, throw gold around when favors would be better, attract attention to themselves while Info Gathering, etc. There should be consequences to antisocial behavior.

I think that in some of these cases, the players need some guidance. I'd hae the PC's make charisma checks or diplomacy skill checks and then let them know the "expected" behavior, and consequences of acting outside of that behavior. Also make clear that their foes will be working within the same constraints; the players typically just want to know they won't be at a disadvantage. I'd allow some things to slide; mithril chain shirts, like Frodo's in LoTR, can be worn under courtier's outfits without drawing notice; rapiers and perhaps longswords are acceptable weapons to carry about, and daggers are expected.

To increase the action quotient, duels can be common, thugs can be bought off by nobles to attack their opponents, assassination attempts can be tried from time to time. Concentrate on trying to have the actual diplomatic moments be exciting in themselves; lots of skill checks and so on, to make it feel almost like combat.

 

[el-remmen]

A slow build.

A political campaign is about interactions with people that require you to know who they are, what their connections are and what their goals and motivations are - it is a lot of info to absorb. Best to slowly build to the political chaos, and let the PCs start low on the political totem-pole and build their way up, learning more as they go along.

I think in a game like this you would want to have some kind of reputation system, and have it be affected by things like how the PCs behave in public. PCs often do weird things like wear full armor to parties, throw gold around when favors would be better, attract attention to themselves while Info Gathering, etc. There should be consequences to antisocial behavior.

It is partly for this reason that I yoinked the Rep and Influence system from d20 AGoT for my "Second Son of a Second Son" campaign.

 

[Dan Bell]

Any political campaign I like to GM or play in is like GRRM wrote A Game of Thrones in that PCs are privy to some intrigue and violence hopefully with a mix of what the upper class is doing and seeing how the common folk suffer.

One of my all time fav. political campaigns it the Kaldoric Succession Crisis:
http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/cfg/zoom.cfg?product_id=5610

 

[Ed_Laprade]

What would I like to see in a political campaign? Lots of dead politicians, slaughtered by the PCs. That's all they're good for.

 

[Rechan]

1) Don't bring a lot of RL current American politics into it. Being an X in a Y colored state, that gets old fast.
1b) Whatever political issues you bring into the mix, make sure that the waters are muddy enough that it's not a clear "This is the right choice"/"This is the wrong choice". It's best when no one on the proverbial playing field is squeaky clean or obviously In The Right.

2) You better find some decent social skill rules. Just "Sense motive vs bluff" "Diplomacy and Intimidate vs Level check" is... very very limiting. Also be aware that there are no hard and fast rules for roleplaying encounter CRs. What's the CR of convincing a Baron to stop an execution? Convince a king to stop or start a war? By the rules, it's "His level or CR", but if the Baron is a Baron because his father was a Baron, rather than being a 10th level aristocrat, then stopping them from killing the innocent man may not be worth the XP.

3) As others have said, decide what classes are appropriate, and how much action is going to be in it. Also, make sure the PCs are into it. Lots of manipulation of NPCs and juggling favor is exciting for some, but others are just not apt at the social gymnastics and mental planning.

4) If you have a mixed group, try to throw elements of all of it into a pot and pray for the best.