How to "properly" rule a town

[Kato]

So, my gaming group (six people plus DM) while we switch between campaigns once in a while right now spend most of our time ruling a small town in a medieval fantasy setting called Zweimühlen/ Two Mills. Our backstory is being old war buddies from a few years ago even though we haven't seen each other in the mean time we ended up killing an evil necromancer who ruled the city and now since they have no one better to turn to we are the rulers of said town with about 500 inhabitants and about ten times that in the corresponding area.

Since we are righteous idiots (to a certain degree) we created a kind of senat including six citizens and made up a bunch of laws, a proper guard system, established some diplomatic connections to our neighbours, one of us even got married so we are pretty much settled down.

But while our DM at first tried to throw a bunch of stuff at us, like goverment soldiers who try to tax our whole treasury, (multiple) demons trying to destroy our town or lately a band of lawless mercenaries who robbed our farms and are now bundled up in a fortress we kind of lay siege to at the moment, what takes up most of our time is us arguing and secretly trying to backstab each other.


As mentioned before, we were all veterans from a pretty gruesome war a few years ago and apparently my character is the only one who kind of suffered consequences from it since she turned into a overly-righteous guard with an alcohol problem and by now is the commander of the guard and trying to turn the Two Mills into the most law-abiding place in the world. After she recently (from her point of view) did not only suffer an attempted poison attack by another player (who got away with hardly any repercussions) but another player also tortured a prisoner to death on his own, she has decided not even her closest friends can be trusted anymore and is now setting up a little security system to keep an eye on everything going on in the city.


So, as commander of the watch she does have a few men at her disposal and already is letting them keep track of everything suspicious. Also, she tried to talk people close to the other players into telling her anything which might be of interest (which worked for most of them). And finally now she's employing a few homeless to keep an eye out on the street for anything suspicious.
All of this is just between me and the DM and as far as I know nobody else knows about it. Though I'm only vaguely aware others do conduct pivate correspondence with him as well.


I'm quite sure all of this is pointless because (apart from maybe one or two players but even that is unlikely) nobody is seriously trying to damage the others . But, nevertheless, it's very much in character for her and it can possibly make for some interesting events.


Ugh, this got longer than expected... So, any ideas about how to make the town "safer" or other hints which I may consider? (There's a bunch of information I left out not to make the text even longer but I can offer additional details if anyone cares)


edit: Sorry, I think I need to clarify one particular aspect. Yeah, she is a fighter like character, no fancy spells or anything. This isn't a D&D setting. (It's The Dark Eye) There are no real levels, mostly improving skills you already have by spending experience and once in a while obtaining new skills, but obtaining magic skills or even magic items would be terribly hard. (Even if she wasn't arcane-ophobe(?))
I'm really more looking towards role playing advice, things that aren't rule dependent but be merely role playing decisions. Sorry about the confusion!

[Segev]

I'm assuming you're a Fighter from the background description. There's not a whole lot you can do, mechanically and directly, with just that. Leadership would help, because it would give you loyal cohorts and followers, but can they really be trusted? (Up to you whether your character thinks so or not.) An alternative that would guarantee loyalty would be to take a level of Psion (telepath) and Practiced Manifester, make sure you pick up the Inquisitor feat (reasonable to have given your paranoia), and enter Thrallherd. Get a Psicrystal that gives you +3 to Sense Motive, and, since you're fifth level, let it pick up Mindsight based on its telepathy out to 30 ft. This lets it spot thinking creatures that might be hiding.

Depending how dark you're willing to go, you could hunt down some puppeteers (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/puppeteer.htm) and using Psionic Charm on them. You'll need ML 7 (Telepath 1, Practiced Manifester 4, Thrallherd 3) to make it a day/level on the magical beasts, though.

Keep them controlled and loyal, and you can use them on your least-trusted operatives to turn them into most-trusted AND give them some nifty extra powers. Keeping a Charmed one on you, with instructions to only use its Enthrall power to protect you from others' mind-control, can also give you a tiny ally with Blindsense and Telepathy, as well as an excuse should your deeds be discovered. "It wasn't me; it was the puppeteer!"

If you can swing it, Cranium Rat Swarms controlled by you (I suggest capturing them one-by-one and Dominating or Charming them individually so that the gestalt entity is wholly controlled by the control of the sum of its parts) can be magnificent spies.

Depending on your level, you could resort to simply buying a magic item. A Rod of Rulership can be disguised as an ordinary mace, and if you're judicious with it, you can get a lot of mileage out of being rooms full of people's absolute sovereign for a minute at a time.

Sticking with mundane means, however, your best bet is to pump Listen and Sense Motive as high as you can and get some means of comprehending languages. Teach your followers to do the same. Get followers out of key positions in town, so you have an ear in every neighborhood and major business.

A constantly active Zone of Truth item on your person may not have all that high a Will DC, but it will at the least trip people up every now and again.

If you can get followers who are 1st level wizards or sorcerers, get them to learn the Alarm spell. It can be set in key places to observe when somebody goes through them and allow rapid deployment of watch forces.

[Scow2]

I'd advise AGAINST turning people into Mindslaves, unless the character is straight-up Lawful Evil. :smalleek:

He doesn't need NPC Loyalty as a class/character feature... though Leadership is a good idea to pick up next level... maybe. But that would probably only give you a cohort... which still enables a bit more security because you SHOULD be able to trust him.

[The Fury]

Your character reminds me of a female Sam Vimes. A cynical but basically good person forced to work within a corrupt system. That said, from a strictly IC point of view you're being smart about keeping an eye on the other players and doing so quietly. OoC... well, have you tried talking with the other players? Or at the very least is the PvP here something that y'all mutually agreed upon? Also, it's up to the DM on how well this works but developing a pleasant public image will probably help. After all from the citizen's perspective anyone who tries to hurt their beloved watch commander must be a bad guy.
As it happens, my group has been faced with a similar situation. After breaking up a cult to an evil god the party is now in charge of a town that they built, (this is also the same party that decided that my character should be the leader for some reason.) Basically, we're now trying to make the town autonomous and generally less awful while trying to track down the escaped cult leader. Meanwhile the captain of the guard is planning a coup against us and there's a party of NPCs that want to slaughter everyone in the town. We've gotten as far as coming up with new laws and getting letters of introduction together for establishing trade relations and challenging the captain to a duel but that's about it.
We're planning on doing some of the things your group did as well, like establishing a ruling body of citizens from the town and setting up diplomatic relations as well.

[Kato]

While I made another character who was much more modeled after Vimes, I guess she has some strokes of him as well, yeah :smallbiggrin:
In that matter, any mind control would go completely against her. Not withstanding it would be pretty much impossible to do, she would neither affiliate herself with magic if it can be at all avoided, it would also be far too evil for her. I have to ignore most of the plans I can think of because they go against her strict moral codex. (Which is kind of annoying more often than not)

I'm kind of going for the "good publicity" road, but a strict commander is while not hated also not that beloved. I guess it's up to the DM how the populace will react in the long run. I guess nobody hates her yet but she's not a crowd pleaser either.


Interesting you would be in a similar situation, Fury. Well, maybe you can convince the Captain to be more obedient after teh duel. I have no idea what he is like so I don't know whether a different approach would be better. Let's hope you don't need to watch out for your other players doing more evil than necessary.

[Arkhosia]

It would make sense if you recruited some of the game's equivalent of a rogue to be your personal spies.

[The Fury]

I'm kind of going for the "good publicity" road, but a strict commander is while not hated also not that beloved. I guess it's up to the DM how the populace will react in the long run. I guess nobody hates her yet but she's not a crowd pleaser either.

I'm inferring a lot here, but this character strikes me as being a more good-natured kind of strict. She's strict because she cares if that makes sense. I'm only able to guess as to what happened to her during the war but I'll go out on a limb and say that her over-righteousness probably comes from her never wanting to see suffering like that ever again. Maybe. Armchair psychology aside, I think if you allow her better nature to shine through there will be at least some people in Zweimülen that like her. Maybe have tenements built for the town's homeless or something.



Interesting you would be in a similar situation, Fury. Well, maybe you can convince the Captain to be more obedient after teh duel. I have no idea what he is like so I don't know whether a different approach would be better. Let's hope you don't need to watch out for your other players doing more evil than necessary.

Maybe? Honestly I don't know much about the captain either, having only met him once in character. We do know that he is bigger, older and probably more experienced than my character.
I'm pretty sure that none of the players are out to get me exactly, at least not yet...


It would make sense if you recruited some of the game's equivalent of a rogue to be your personal spies.

Oh, definitely. If you can manage it.

[Kato]

I'm inferring a lot here, but this character strikes me as being a more good-natured kind of strict. She's strict because she cares if that makes sense. I'm only able to guess as to what happened to her during the war but I'll go out on a limb and say that her over-righteousness probably comes from her never wanting to see suffering like that ever again. Maybe.
Kind of, yeah. But it's still very much a "no nonsense" character. (The "poison attack" resulted in her suffering horrible pain for days (which according to my GM felt like months or so) and that kind of took what little humour she had out of her)

I guess being more pro-active in doing good in the city would be a smart move, as far as she is able to. I guess it would suit her but she's been a bit distracted by her paranoia.


Maybe? Honestly I don't know much about the captain either, having only met him once in character. We do know that he is bigger, older and probably more experienced than my character.
I'm pretty sure that none of the players are out to get me exactly, at least not yet...
Ah, I guess it's hard to pin down then. I hope you'll manage and won't get too many backstabbers too soon.


Oh, definitely. If you can manage it.
Hm... seems a bit fishy from a moral standpoint. But I guess not much more than using amateurs as spies. I'll think about it. :smallsmile:

[Crazyfailure13]

Seems like your hands are tied by your own goals, It would be a good idea to take control of all organized crime, basically making it so there is only one thieves guild and lower the crime rates drastically, it'd be near impossible to stop all crime, plus you'd get a group of allies that are trained to be spies and information gatherers.

But that doesn't seem like something a really lawful character would do.

Instead to keep a close eye on allies, use your authority as guard captain to make a false threat to the other players, and assign them each personal guards to protect them, having the guards feed you any information that might be suspicious.

[Arkhosia]

Seems like your hands are tied by your own goals, It would be a good idea to take control of all organized crime, basically making it so there is only one thieves guild and lower the crime rates drastically, it'd be near impossible to stop all crime, plus you'd get a group of allies that are trained to be spies and information gatherers.

But that doesn't seem like something a really lawful character would do.

Instead to keep a close eye on allies, use your authority as guard captain to make a false threat to the other players, and assign them each personal guards to protect them, having the guards feed you any information that might be suspicious.

I agree with this idea. Also, try and set up a way to tell if the guards are killed: might require a bit of magic, but shouldn't be to hard. That way, you know who is up to no good if you chose loyal guards who insist on never leaving their charge's side.
I don't think it would be smart to issue false threats: how obvious was the fact a PC made the poison attack? You could bluff and pretend to not know a PC was the source behind the attack, and merely clams that you believe the elite of the city are being targeted.

[Kato]

Instead to keep a close eye on allies, use your authority as guard captain to make a false threat to the other players, and assign them each personal guards to protect them, having the guards feed you any information that might be suspicious.
That seems like a good plan. I'll have to see if I can find a good reason to do so (or maybe take care to create a reason, I'll see)


how obvious was the fact a PC made the poison attack? You could bluff and pretend to not know a PC was the source behind the attack, and merely clams that you believe the elite of the city are being targeted.

No, no, that was obvious. He was even trialed for it but as his intentions were... not to kill her, at least, he got off the hook. (And/or because the others didn't want to kill him off over a stupid joke.)

[falloutimperial]

I recommend feeding the other players' paranoia. Send out letters in a meaningless cypher or with answerless riddles and make sure they are intercepted. If they're not doing anything wrong, they have nothing to worry about. If you think it would be appropriate, some out-of-character shenanigans could also contribute.

You: "Hey, that Two Mills game is getting pretty intense, right?"
Fellow: "Sure is."
You: "What are you planning for Thirdplayer's thing?"
Fellow: "what thing?"
You: "Oh. Never mind. Forget it."

[Arkhosia]

I would also try to ally yourself with powerful factions in or near the city and be on very good terms with them. They'll think twice on killing someone if doing so would make you enemies with a very powerful warlord in the nearby city.

[The Fury]

I would also try to ally yourself with powerful factions in or near the city and be on very good terms with them. They'll think twice on killing someone if doing so would make you enemies with a very powerful warlord in the nearby city.

This is the reasoning behind the "good publicity" angle I suggested. The other players would probably think twice about killing someone when it might make them enemies of a sizable part of the town's population. They'd definitely think twice if it meant that they'd have to explain themselves to an angry mob and a warlord.

If you think you can manage it, training and recruiting additional guards might be a good idea, (remember, good publicity though!)

I'm not sure how strong your characters paranoia is at this point. For all I know maybe she just won't eat or drink something until she's seen someone else do it. Hopefully she's not so paranoid as to be self-destructive yet and can actually form lasting alliances.

[Kato]

short update:

The guard is constantly growing. While she is commander she still obviously needs approval of the council to hire new guards but things on this end are going pretty smooth.

The paranoia isn't that bad... she's not expecting betrayal behind every corner but is someone acts suspicious or lies to her she is likely to react stronger than might be necessary.



So, nothing big on the front happened in the last session. We decided to blow off a siege on our latest enemy. Upon return into the city our GM threw some whacky stuff at us (time travelling characters from other campaigns) which only matter slightly because it is obviously magical and as such suspicious.

Short term plan I have confided with the GM to have people set up a few arson attacks which should do no damage but make people think (likely) the enemy is trying to hurt us. I am rather confident this will work out. Then I might be able to assign body guards to the people I'm interested in. I guess this should work out but I'm not entirely sure about it. Anyway, putting people on edge will in one way or another be useful, I think.
(I would have liked to create a different kind of feigned attack but it would probably require more skilled personal A little arson shouldn't be too hard, though)

I'll have to see about the publicity... for the most part we are all rather nice to our people and doing something on her own would probably require a lot of work and might be too obvious(?) Especially if she tries to get extra credit for it, since it's kind of out of character so far.

Problem is I won't be around for the next session and probably the one after so it's up to the GM what he does in my absence and what the others will do.

[The Fury]

Nice to see your plan's starting up. Some of the other stuff is probably going to require patience but it looks like it'll pan out if you stick with it.