How to Run a Politically Themed Campaign in Eberron?

[Renrik]

Heya, playground, it's me, back from a long, long absence,

Now, this is a discussion that could easily touch on some controversial politics, so I want to lay down the ground rule that the politics here are indeed driving the campaign I'm working on and contextualizing the action, but that the goal here is to discuss how to construct the campaign, NOT the validity of the political ideas. We're all trying to avoid discussions of politics here- it's forum rules, and it's a good rule to avoid the forum getting polarized and at each other's throats. We need a place to relax without hot button issues setting people off. So no political arguments, only the discussion of how to construct the campaign for the feel I'm trying to get here.

So, last time I visited the forums, I was running a game set in the Eldeen Reaches fighting an invasion of the Aundarian military, in a campaign that had a lot of political themes that ran the gamut from anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism (the Aundarians invading), to right-libertarianism and Jeffersonian republicanism (small farmers telling the King to leave them alone), to environmentalism of all sorts (druids, the Aundarian plans for the Reaches, and the farmer's objections to some of these plans), to racism and religious fundamentalism (hardline Silver Flamers committing genocide on shifters, hardline Ashbound killing Aundarian settlers) to ethical questions regarding terrorism (the players eventually resorted to attacking economic and military targets in Aundair), to some aspects of land reform and agrarian leftism, to a whole sort of criticism of the duplicitousness of foreign policy decisions by major powers towards resource-rich but militarily weak nations (because all of the five nations started meddling and supporting different factions). It was all interesting, and it was good because the group I'm playing with these days is pretty strongly political. It also didn't present much of a challenge, because it was pretty straightforward how we played it; the group was a guerilla band alternating between fighting large albeit not-always-conventional battles against the army, to doing covert actions.

I'm having new challenges, however, with the campaign we want to do next; we've already done a lot of rural struggle, but now we're trying to figure out how to do a game where they play radicals in an urban setting-namely, Sharn.

Again, before we continue, a reminder that we're not discussing the actual politics here, only how to get the feel I as the dungeon master am looking for in this campaign. We're about to get into some seriously Marxist stuff here, so if you don't feel you can talk about that without getting into a discussion on the politics themselves, turn back!

The basic premise is that it's after the Last War, and the inventing power of the Houses has been used to create new technologies that challenge their own economic power, and indeed the whole social order (in other words, an industrial revolution of sorts using magitech). Meanwhile, the returning veterans of the war and displaced Cyran refugees swell the ranks of the poor, artisan businesses are being driven under by the power of the machines, and the warforged are putting a squeeze on the working class by offering their services for almost nothing. Sharn is the epicenter of these new, sweeping changes. While the main political movement is the movement to replace the monarchy with a Republic (a movement that has gotten much more influential thanks to the support of non-noble businessmen getting in on the new economic power), a new, radical movement is forming within the bowels of Sharn and finding voice among University students; a movement for the abolition of the current system of property, and the installation of a socialist or syndicalist worker's society.

The reason I'm having trouble is because I don't want to do this in the way we did the last one- with the players being guerillas. I want to have this be an adventure, but still have it be somewhat true to how revolutions are played out- by creating popular support, building dual power, etc etc etc. I want the aesthetic to be more 'we are part of a huge movement, check out the squares filled with our angry friends', and less 'we are the elite vanguard of the revolution changing the world one assassination at a time'. There can and probably will be some 'propaganda of the deed' missions, but I'm looking to include some more big, sweeping crowd scenes, and get the sort of feel you get watching one of those big social epic films. I'm just having trouble trying to construct the adventures to get the feel I want while still having good D&D.

So, any suggestions? How would you run this sort of game?

[Black_Zawisza]

The Heroes of Battle splatbook would help a lot with the kind of thing you're putting together, I think. I've always wanted to play in that sort of game. I might be the next one to GM, and I'm not sure how my group would react to something like this. :smallfrown:

I would have suggested a wide variety of political factions, but it looks like you've got that covered. :smallbiggrin: Since you're running this kind of game, you and your group doubtless feel pretty strongly about your own political views. If your game isn't politically homogenous, I would be careful about making any ideological faction the obvious bad guy or Republic of Mary Sue (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlternateHistoryWank?from=Main.RepublicOfMarySue). To ensure this doesn't happen, I would make sure that I was very familiar with the rhetoric each group uses to make themselves look good and those who disagree with them bad. I would also think about how those with dissenting political views would react to the probable outcome of a campaign like this.

(Disclaimer: I'm completely unfamiliar with Eberron) In terms of how to run the game, I think I would most enjoy a Russian Civil War-type scenario, where the classical liberals and monarchists team up against the socialists and leftist anarchists, with governments of other nearby nations joining in on one side or the other based on a number of factors whose importance could vary between countries:
popular sympathy for a particular side, economic interests in the country Sharn's in, concern for a potential upset of the international balance of power in the region, or even perhaps (rarely, IMO) personal sympathy for a given side. The battle in and around Sharn could become just one theater in a conflict on the scale of the Seven Years' War. I think actually attaching the party to an army fighting in the front lines would be kind of difficult, so I would make the party a strike team (perhaps attached to a small force of soldiers, depending on the situation) with specific objectives to complete and then evaluate how the battle went as a whole based to some degree on how well they did. You could then promote them through the ranks so that they can determine the actions of progressively larger military units, until they sit in the war room with (or as!) the highest generals in the army.

[Renrik]

The Heroes of Battle splatbook would help a lot with the kind of thing you're putting together, I think.
I've got that; I applied it heavily in the Eldeen campaign, but I've never applied it in 'social war' before. It'd be interesting. Do various things to win popular support, I suppose? It applies more or less directly in full-on militant revolution, of course. I've started to hash out some adventure ideas, but like I feared, they necessarily changed the feel of the game towards secrecy and conspiracy, and away from the open 'comrades, rise up!' feel I was thinking of (though I've got some of that).


I would have suggested a wide variety of political factions, but it looks like you've got that covered.
Oh, yes!



Since you're running this kind of game, you and your group doubtless feel pretty strongly about your own political views. If your game isn't politically homogenous, I would be careful about making any ideological faction the obvious bad guy or Republic of Mary Sue (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlternateHistoryWank?from=Main.RepublicOfMarySue). To ensure this doesn't happen, I would make sure that I was very familiar with the rhetoric each group uses to make themselves look good and those who disagree with them bad.
I'm fortunate in that the gaming group is almost politically homogeneous. We run the gamut from heterodox radically democratic socialist, to social anarchist, to post-left 'lifestyle' anarchist. It's the same group I did Eldeen with. I tried doing a prototype adventure of this campaign for the other group I game with (consisting of three people who I rarely talk politics with but who I assume are liberal or centrist Democrats) and they couldn't find the motivation to fight the revolution- they found nothing objectionable with the way things were, and thought the correct course of action was to mobilize the workers to vote for a moderate pro-labor candidate. I had to demonize the monarchy to a ridiculous degree to get them to fight, and then they went crazy and played up what they thought an anarchist was- to be specific, they became nihilistic terrorists (not what an anarchist is). I think I can actually get more nuance in with these guys, because they don't need it to be black and white to support the revolution. I just have to be careful not to accidentally hit a hot button issue that I have a tiny disagreement with one of them on, because that turns into an argument that lasts for hours. It has happened. Many times. But I think I can avoid it; we got through Eldeen with only once ever coming near to it, and then we defused it by explaining to the post-leftist that the Ashbound weren't meant to literally represent radical environmentalism as it exists in our world, and we weren't metaphorically implying that Earth First was a violent organization or that the ELF/ALF was anti-human (I swear to God, this conversation happened. Five minutes later, he was back to passionately doodling his half-orc's mohawk and pondering whether his barbarian should be vegan like him, or a cannibal- I love this group).


I would also think about how those with dissenting political views would react to the probable outcome of a campaign like this.
It'll be interesting, because I'm sure that if I put infighting in the movement, the players will split the party along minor ideological lines. The main movement within the game is going to be pretty much a revolutionary democratic socialist thing, or maybe syndicalist, and that might put off the one player whose political ideal is 'the abolition of work', but for the rest, I think they'll dig it, and that'll probably drag the one along with the group into support. But, yes, this would be a much more challenging campaign if I invited, say, one of my more conservative, capitalist, religious friends to join the game.


In terms of how to run the game, I think I would most enjoy a Russian Civil War-type scenario, where the classical liberals and monarchists team up against the socialists and leftist anarchists, with governments of other nearby nations joining in on one side or the other based on a number of factors whose importance could vary between countries
That's.... actually really close to what I'm doing. I've worked out this huge convoluted behind-the-scenes network of plots tying this storyline, the Eldeen storyline they just got done playing, and some other stuff together. Basically, to cut to the action as far as it concerns them, after a long period of agitation, they get their opportunity when the unpopular (in part thanks to their agitation) war in the Eldeens comes to an end (this war having been caused by Aundarian imperialist ambitions) with no clear gains for Breland, and the parliament takes the opportunity to petition the King for his abdication. When he refuses, they simply veto everything he tries to do until he abdicates. This isn't meant to be a violent process, but some violence does occur. The revolutionaries take the opportunity to build a dual power situation and carry the momentum of the revolution through to be radicalized and turned into a second revolution. So, they're doing this, and meanwhile, New Cyre, backed by Karnnath and a restored Thrane monarchy (it's a long story that happens during the buildup to the Brelish crisis), declares ownership over the now-kingless eastern part of Breland. So, the new government has to fight off that invasion/rebellion while simultaneously attempting to suppress the growing influence of the revolutionaries. The revolutionaries take the opportunity to take the city of Sharn, and then wage a civil war on the Parliamentarian and Monarchist forces, who teamed up when the invasion happened. There's more beyond this, but that's the basic gist. I'm thinking that a militant, nationalist movement dissatisfied with the crown's handling of the famine and with the loss of land in the Thronehold treaty will rise in Karnnath as an allegory to the fascists.



I think actually attaching the party to an army fighting in the front lines would be kind of difficult, so I would make the party a strike team (perhaps attached to a small force of soldiers, depending on the situation) with specific objectives to complete and then evaluate how the battle went as a whole based to some degree on how well they did. You could then promote them through the ranks so that they can determine the actions of progressively larger military units, until they sit in the war room with (or as!) the highest generals in the army.

This is what I did in the Eldeen, and I think it would work alright for the 'militant struggle' part of the campaign, but I'm not so sure about what to do for the 'social war' beforehand- how to tie strikes, riots, community organizing, etc etc etc into the game.

[EccentricCircle]

the first thing i'd say is that this sounds like a really interesting campaign and I hope it goes well.
as far as I can see one of the main problems you will have is that D&D as written is very focused on violence and fighting. this might be apropriate at the end when everything comes to a head and the revolutionaries are fighting for their lives, but at the start I would cut out combat almost all together. make the conflict about negotiating with influential people, rallying support, leading luddite actions against house cannith workhouses. whatever fits.
if the players get used to fighting very rarely, and only when the need arises then the growing realisation that they are going to have to fight for their beliefs, not just smash a few windows and sabotage some machines might be an interesting twist.
it will be hard to run. but would be very interesting.