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View Full Version : D&D: When Players Become Kings, and Other Logistics



Enix18
2011-05-15, 11:39 PM
I've had this interesting campaign concept that I've been working with for quite some time now, gathering players, building homebrew rules systems, and truing to balance the whole thing out. I think I may finally be ready to run it, but I'd like some opinions/advice from the ever-knowledgeable Playground. The concept is as follows:

After many long years of infighting and unstoppable strife the once-great empire has collapsed. Much of the land has fallen into ruin, overrun by monsters and barbarian hordes—amidst this darkness, however, a few smaller states remain, staving of the grip of chaos to establish the first kingdoms of a new age. Each of the players takes on the role of reigning ruler, becoming not a minor adventurer but the leader of a whole nation. It is up to them to direct their nations on their future courses, helping them to grow and survive in this mediaeval world. The players will control everything, from resource management to military organization, from trade to diplomacy with other nations, and everything will play out organically—beyond the player-controlled nations, there will be no NPC powers to try and direct them. The wild world is the oyster, and it's up to their own wits to determine which player comes out on top.

If it wasn't already obvious, this is something I plan on running online via message board—the logistics, the secrecy, and the sheer scale would make it impossible, or at least very dull, to carry out any other way. With the help of a few obscure sourcebooks and my own DMing prowess I've devised several systems for kingdom management, mass combat, and all the necessities of such a large-scale undertaking. At least, I think I have...

That's why I'm coming to you, the Playground. Has anyone ever tried something like this before? If so, how did it go? Where there any lessons valuable learned?

Even if you haven't done something like this before (I'm sure it's not the most common campaign concepts out there), do you have any opinions or advice? Think of anything that I might want to consider, or that I may have overlooked?

Any input is very welcome, folks.

— Enix18

navar100
2011-05-15, 11:48 PM
I don't know the specifics, but I believe the Birthright campaign setting does exactly this.

http://www.birthright.net/

Gnorosch
2011-05-16, 12:05 AM
There are, beside Birthright, basically three rulesets for kingdom management that I am aware of:

1) Pre-D&D3: The Domain Management section from Rules Cyclopedia (out of print for a long time) or the Chapters Settling Down and War from Dark Dungeons (http://darkdungeonsblog.wordpress.com/).

2) D&D3: The kingdom rules from Pathfinder's KINGMAKER (http://paizo.com/pathfinder/adventurePath/kingmaker) adventure path.

3) Non-D&D: REIGN. A Game of Lords and Leaders. (http://www.gregstolze.com/reign/)