Lordship

[lorddrake]

(A while ago I tried posting this but something in the PC died while I tried and it did not go then)

I'm playing Neverwinter nights 2 for inspiration since I'm DMing a game that basically anything can happen (because the players are working for a chaos personification).

And in NWN2 there is this mission/sidequest/minigame that is the crossroad keep. I'll explain:

Some time after some events the player receive the ownership of lands and a keep, well, to keep. There are lands (to farm and make buildings and the keep as a base of operations to the PCs. They get a manager to help keeping the place as the players commanded while being able to go around the world adventuring.

It is pretty nice and entertaining. The main things that you can make in the keep are:


Recruiting sargeants and merchants to your keep
Rebuilding the ruined keep
Training soldiers to help defend your keep and to maintain the peace in your lands


What I'm asking here is: there is something else that would be nice to include suposing I wanted to make the players owners of lands and nobles? Where else can I get inspiration from (besides birthright setting and stronghold builder's guide)?

[Silva Stormrage]

What exactly are you looking for? Stronghold builder's guide HAS everything you mentioned.

I personally am playing a campaign where I am commanding a keep and stronghold builder's guide works quite well. The stuff not covered is mostly left open for player creativity.

[missmvicious]

Monster and barbarian raids come to mind; wars too.

You could have a diplomatic visit from the king or even a political intrigue campaign. Adventurers who are used to getting their own hands dirty may have a bit of trouble enjoying a political intrigue campaign, so you may have to make the intrigue a bit obtuse at first.

Another could be a threatening ruling sub-class, like a guild. The usual suspects are: Assassin's Guild, Thieves' Guild, Wizard's Guild, or a religious temple that has grown in popularity recently... could be legit, or could be a cult. They could be telling you "stay out of our way, and you can still be king" or they could just be trying to oust your PCs and take over. Either way could be fun.

But for clever political intrigue subplots in a magical world, read the books:
Daughter of the Empire and the rest of the "Empire Trilogy".

They're not property of D&D, but Fiest knew political intrigue. For a more smack-you-in-the-forehead-with-obviousness intrigue plot, take a look at the "Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind. The plots in there are more palatable to the adventure's mentality, because the decisions are more obviously good vs. evil, and usually direct-and-swift-violence" is a good solution to the problem. A good adventurer's (or really even a neutral adventurer's) new kingdom would have no problems aiding in a war against a character like Darken Rahl. The intrigue comes when enemies become friends, and friends become too weak or too distracted to help against an enemy your little kingdom would be too weak or small to defend against.

FYI: I'm using the term "kingdom" loosely here. I'm assuming you're going Sims with this, and eventually your keep will grow into a village, then city, then metropolis, then kingdom, empire, so on if allowed. But kingdom can apply to your adventurer's territories regardless of size, power, or wealth.

[lorddrake]

What exactly are you looking for? Stronghold builder's guide HAS everything you mentioned.

I personally am playing a campaign where I am commanding a keep and stronghold builder's guide works quite well. The stuff not covered is mostly left open for player creativity.

I was not exactly clear, I'd guess.

I wanted suggestions on what else can I get in this scenario I was going for. Anything else that could be added to that setting.

For instance: I could create a corruption game mechanic: the vassals would be more prone to corruption if the tax are high, the security is low, etc...

I'd like suggestions on what I could add there.

EDIT:
Monster and barbarian raids come to mind; wars too.

Nice idea. i've thought about war sequences, but raids are nice touches.


You could have a diplomatic visit from the king or even a political intrigue campaign. Adventurers who are used to getting their own hands dirty may have a bit of trouble enjoying a political intrigue campaign, so you may have to make the intrigue a bit obtuse at first.

Another could be a threatening ruling sub-class, like a guild. The usual suspects are: Assassin's Guild, Thieves' Guild, Wizard's Guild, or a religious temple that has grown in popularity recently... could be legit, or could be a cult. They could be telling you "stay out of our way, and you can still be king" or they could just be trying to oust your PCs and take over. Either way could be fun.

Loved the idea of the guilds. And the diplomatic thing is what I'm going for. (Actually this group is not fond of rampaging through enemies, so a diplomatic break will be their thing. It is actually a trial thing.)


I'm using the term "kingdom" loosely here. I'm assuming you're going Sims with this, and eventually your keep will grow into a village, then city, then metropolis, then kingdom, empire, so on if allowed. But kingdom can apply to your adventurer's territories regardless of size, power, or wealth.

Yes. It's exactly like that. In the beggining it'll be a small keep and it'll grow.

[illyrus]

Setting up entertainment can be fun as well (example: an arena with player designed games).

The party might want to found a temple to the cleric's god, bard college, wizard's tower or what not.

Perhaps there are times when the new rulers (the PCs) send out younger adventurers to deal with problems (that are either covered behind the scenes or the players are given control of the lower level adventuring party). Actually learning to delegate some responsibility is very useful here.

Looking further, the PCs might take on apprentices, have arranged political marriages, start families, etc.

[Fyermind]

I am seeing mini-adventures with separate characters as being commonplace.

With military campaigns in particular, it is no fun playing a high level PrCed wizard against hordes of weak soldiers. Until you run out of fireballs you just kill everything. Then you alter self and fly away.

BUT
Getting to play as the soldiers on the ground (small elite task forces) in important scenes is fun from time to time. Complete Warrior and Heroes of Battle have scenarios in varying degrees of completion.

I would feel that rather than mega powering the kings and queens, I'd enjoy playing the little guys more. Sure you still control the bosses and can play them from a politics point and even have them join the fray from time to time (you need some counter to that Aspect of Tiamat and her spawn storming your kingdom) but the first encounter with her spawn would be something you might well loose without any real risk. This allows much more intense combat scenes.
When TPKs don't force a new campaign or some act of god, you can do so much more as DM.

This is all dependent on your players detaching themselves from their knowledge (as a small unit on the fringe that is entirely slaughtered by dragonspawn can't alert anyone that the kingdom is under attack), and being willing to fool around with other characters.