PCs as Rulers

[Mjr Lee Fat]

Hey Playground,

My family is currently doing a 3.5 campaign and I've had this dream (for the past seven years or so) of running my own town or county or country or something. I just want to act as a noble ruler and still be an adventurer, because the concept of figuring out how to manage resources and people in a fantasy setting have always intrigued me. My sister, as our DM, has been hesitant to allow anything like this or write it into our campaign because she doesn't want it to bog down the game. I'm wondering who of you out there have successfully done something like this and made it work fairly smoothly with adventuring. Any and all help is appreciated.

Note: I don't want to sound rude, but I don't care for any comments along the lines of "D&D just gets messy/slow/confusing/clunky/uninteresting when the PCs become rulers". I know it can become something like that, but that's why I'm here - to prevent that.

Note 2: Please ask for any sort of clarification that you might need in order to help me better!

[Red Fel]

I think the best thing you can do is delegate.

Look, I know you hate to hear it, but D&D is an adventure-focused game, and adventuring is frequently antithetical to staying in one place and creating a stable nation. It's why becoming a ruler is frequently reserved for a game epilogue.

That said, it's possible. There are books on the subject, such as the Stronghold Builder's Guide. There are feats, such as Landlord. It can be done.

But not from the field. You can't be Conan sitting grimly on his throne and pondering the adventurous days gone by, and simultaneously Conan living through the heyday of his adventures. The two are opposed concepts - stay and rule, or travel and adventure.

Fortunately, delegation is an option. Bruce Wayne delegates pretty much his entire company to Lucius Fox so that he can focus on wearing tights and punching people in alleys. You just need your Lucius Fox. In my mind, the best way to be a ruler is to help unite and build a nation, and then leave the day-to-day management in capable hands. Trust me, balancing a budget is boring, particularly for someone whose idea of a fun afternoon romp involves slaying Dragons. You can maintain control of the big decisions, like leading the army into war or choosing a national pheasant, but the day-to-day stuff can be handled, in your absence, by a trusted designee. And whenever you return, you return to literal royal treatment, fanfares and celebrations.

You can have it all, if you're willing to hand off the tedious stuff.

[nedz]

What do the rest of your group feel about doing this ?

Would they be happy sitting around doing nothing whilst you handle the paper-work, or would you do this in a one-to-one with the DM ?
The former is unlikely, and the second is a lot of work for the DM.

The few times I have done this I have always hand-waved the management of the kingdom/whatever.

Possibly you should look at the Birthright campaign setting which is a D&D setting with a similar concept in mind ?

Or play some Civilisation ?

[Florian]

Take a look at PF Ultimate Campaign. Rules for downtime activity up to ruling your own kingdom.