elliott20
2013-08-29, 11:56 AM
One of the threads (reclaiming a kingdom, I think) got into the topic of how you manage political intrigue and what not. I gave my two cents on how I manage it, but I wondered what other ways are there to managing these things.
To give you a rough idea, this is what I posted.
Your job is not to give the players the exact things he needs to do get his kingdom back, your job is to simply set up the situation and just let the player figure out how he wants to get there. But you can't do that without laying out the situation.
You need to really consider the different players in the whole equation and how does tradition / law / might factors into all of this. You get that, you will already have 90% of your seeds in place.
When I do this sort of thing, I try to split it all up into factions. Keep in mind, you don't need to fill out every one of these with a unique faction of it's own. A single faction can occupy multiple slots here, which changes the trajectory of how the players will tackle taking them down. On that same token, there could be MULTIPLE parties in a single slot, trying to become the dominant one. (i.e. religious influence could be a tug of war between followers of different patron gods / religion) And of course, don't feel constrained by what I put down here. If you can think of a creative faction roles that you can stick in there to make things interesting, that's all well and good too!
Factions that you need to think about
The current ruling power: The Wizard, in this case, as per your post
The old ruling elite: nobles from the older generation, surely they would have something to say about all of this
The ambitious old ruling elite: They might have their own Kubota who is vying for the throne
The commoners: they don't necessarily have power per se, but they do augment the way the different factions act. Best way to handle this one is to have an NPC who might not actually have power over the commoners, but simply express their sentiment through proxy.
The slaves: as commoners
The military
The religious: again, multiple parties can be involved here, as different religions / patron gods might use this as a chance to strong arm their way into power
The arcane
The merchants
The criminal elements
Foreign interests: I actually would try to keep this to a minimum if you want to focus on the internal political factioning, as having too many foreign powers butt in can greatly diminish the role of not just the factions, but the players as well.
Once you have it all down, try to think about how the different factions interact with each other. I recommend using a relationship chart to keep it all straight. I spoilered an example I found.
http://nielsg.com/art/core/900x865xniels-relationship-chart.jpg.pagespeed.ic.tpvvrG5Mt7.jpg
I recommend that you try to make sure each entity / faction here has at least 2 connections with another faction, so you can really have a bit of interesting interplay here. i.e. maybe one of the religious factions support the new ruling power, and is at odds with another religious faction. A military faction could nominal support two opposing factions, and find itself wedged in between the two. It's also helpful to really understand the agenda of each faction as you create them. In fact, I recommend using a cheat sheet to give yourself a quick idea on the faction itself.
Faction cheat sheet
Name
Faction role (as in, military, arcane, etc)
Agenda / Goal
Strength: what does this faction bring to the table? use the faction role to guide this
Relationships
Interaction Point: who would the PCs be interacting with? You don't necessarily have to have a single person, but this is the person that forms the initial relationship with the PCs and frames their perception of the faction
Again, don't sweat about filling all of it in. The most important things are really the name, agenda, and role. The rest you can fill in as it comes up in play.
If you REALLY want to get the PCs hooked into this, introduce THEIR factions into this as well, and solicit PC input!
However, this is only the framework for managing it. How would you actually handle it from game to game? What are some tips/tools that you would use when running a political game?
To give you a rough idea, this is what I posted.
Your job is not to give the players the exact things he needs to do get his kingdom back, your job is to simply set up the situation and just let the player figure out how he wants to get there. But you can't do that without laying out the situation.
You need to really consider the different players in the whole equation and how does tradition / law / might factors into all of this. You get that, you will already have 90% of your seeds in place.
When I do this sort of thing, I try to split it all up into factions. Keep in mind, you don't need to fill out every one of these with a unique faction of it's own. A single faction can occupy multiple slots here, which changes the trajectory of how the players will tackle taking them down. On that same token, there could be MULTIPLE parties in a single slot, trying to become the dominant one. (i.e. religious influence could be a tug of war between followers of different patron gods / religion) And of course, don't feel constrained by what I put down here. If you can think of a creative faction roles that you can stick in there to make things interesting, that's all well and good too!
Factions that you need to think about
The current ruling power: The Wizard, in this case, as per your post
The old ruling elite: nobles from the older generation, surely they would have something to say about all of this
The ambitious old ruling elite: They might have their own Kubota who is vying for the throne
The commoners: they don't necessarily have power per se, but they do augment the way the different factions act. Best way to handle this one is to have an NPC who might not actually have power over the commoners, but simply express their sentiment through proxy.
The slaves: as commoners
The military
The religious: again, multiple parties can be involved here, as different religions / patron gods might use this as a chance to strong arm their way into power
The arcane
The merchants
The criminal elements
Foreign interests: I actually would try to keep this to a minimum if you want to focus on the internal political factioning, as having too many foreign powers butt in can greatly diminish the role of not just the factions, but the players as well.
Once you have it all down, try to think about how the different factions interact with each other. I recommend using a relationship chart to keep it all straight. I spoilered an example I found.
http://nielsg.com/art/core/900x865xniels-relationship-chart.jpg.pagespeed.ic.tpvvrG5Mt7.jpg
I recommend that you try to make sure each entity / faction here has at least 2 connections with another faction, so you can really have a bit of interesting interplay here. i.e. maybe one of the religious factions support the new ruling power, and is at odds with another religious faction. A military faction could nominal support two opposing factions, and find itself wedged in between the two. It's also helpful to really understand the agenda of each faction as you create them. In fact, I recommend using a cheat sheet to give yourself a quick idea on the faction itself.
Faction cheat sheet
Name
Faction role (as in, military, arcane, etc)
Agenda / Goal
Strength: what does this faction bring to the table? use the faction role to guide this
Relationships
Interaction Point: who would the PCs be interacting with? You don't necessarily have to have a single person, but this is the person that forms the initial relationship with the PCs and frames their perception of the faction
Again, don't sweat about filling all of it in. The most important things are really the name, agenda, and role. The rest you can fill in as it comes up in play.
If you REALLY want to get the PCs hooked into this, introduce THEIR factions into this as well, and solicit PC input!
However, this is only the framework for managing it. How would you actually handle it from game to game? What are some tips/tools that you would use when running a political game?