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Trask
2016-07-01, 07:32 PM
Hello Forums goers

I'm running a campaign with some friends where the essential plot is that theyre in a Kingdom that was usurped about 60 years ago by a Tyrant and he has big evil plans for uncovering a lost ruin beneath the Kingdom and doing a bunch of evil things with it, not really important. What I want to ask is some advice on running a game themed around this entity. I wrote this for the campaign just in a stream of consciousness but the players have been a little unsatisfied with simply adventuring around and they actual seem to want to pursue this "main story" as it were. I've never run a political campaign before and I wanted to just get some advice and some info on some cool adventures and areas I could create for them that involve directly influencing this situation. Right now I have a large-ish town called Redmeyer where I have an ambitious leader looking to advance herself in the area and a vast gap between the haves and have nots. I have a swamp of formerly peaceful, now mysteriously hostile tribe of Lizardfolk that one of my players is from.

So does anyone whose run a political campaign involving the foiling of leader's plans, possible revolutions and such have an idea for some good adventures in that genre? Thanks

Trask
2016-07-01, 07:50 PM
I guess just to start, whats a good hook into a campaign for foiling evil political schemes that you guys have used?

P.S. My party just hit level 2

Re4XN
2016-07-01, 09:42 PM
You could have someone working for the Tyrant employ the party actually. I am guessing that he wants to get his hands on some very important items before even attempting to do anything in these ruins he's trying to venture into. Unfortunately, he is too busy scheming malefic plans in his *insert evil castle name here* and sent some of his lackeys to handle the fetching. The lackeys, too lazy to do the fetching themselves, decide to employ a party of mercenaries/adventurers who would be willing to fetch said items for them, while not asking a whole lot of questions (if the party does start asking questions, reply with something along the lines "I am paying you to retrieve the item, not to inquire me about it's nature. You want the job or not?", since it is highly unlikely they'll refuse).

One of these items could be with the tribe of Lizardmen you mentioned. "Formely peaceful, now incredibly hostile" is the perfect excuse to place a magical item in their village. Perhaps it is twisting their minds and whatnot and they started venerating it as a God. Coincidentally, it is one of the items the Tyrant needs. So, the party, employed by his lackey(s) goes to this village, thinking they will be doing something good (which in part, they are) by retrieving this magical artifact, while simultaneously helping the villain.

This goes so on so forth, the lackey(s) might become great "friends" of the party by sending them on dangerous errands to retrieve dangerous artifacts that should be "locked away for the good of the people", while in reality, the items will be sent to the Tyrant to aid him with entering the ruins beneath his Kingdom.

When only one item is left, you can introduce another NPC (most likely a wizard, or some expert on Ancient History), who has been keeping an eye on the party after they have dealt with the Lizardmen problem. This character will reveal the true nature of the items and what they could potentially be used for. This should make the party suspicious of the lackey(s) and this is the point where you confront them with the Tyrant himself. He will deliver a carefully planned monologue and laugh at how the party fell for his ruse. He will then walk away as his minions surround the party. This should be a difficult (but feasible) encounter. You can have the above mentioned Wizard NPC help them.

After that, same old story, villain did not expect party to survive and now it is a race against time before he recovers the last item. In case he does recover it, he will attempt to enter the ruins and the party will have to figure a way to stop him or whatever comes out if he does manage to get inside.

A lot of stuff is left open and it is up to you to add the details. This is just an example "skeleton" for an adventure. Just my 2 cents. Have fun with your campaign :)

Trask
2016-07-02, 11:38 AM
Thanks, I really like the idea of having the party unwittingly serve him. I have built up this Baroness figure in the town who has rather evil intentions but keeps up a facade and is beloved by the town so she would be the perfect proxy to have them go collecting magical artifacts and she just goes and hands them to the Sovereign.

Traab
2016-07-02, 04:48 PM
There is always the opposing factions routine. Groups of repressed merchants, lesser nobles who have found themselves marginalized (or have seen several of their fellows wiped out on a whim) And of course the unwashed masses themselves. Each of these sets of factions could hand out a few quests that would have an effect on the big bad and his control of the city. As an example, help out the merchants by establishing some smuggling routes for them. Not only will the party have routes into and out of the city, they will also get better deals on buying and selling loot. The nobles need help taking out garrisons that are in place blocking them from calling in their own troops. By taking them out the nobles will be able to openly revolt, which will tie up enemy resources, lowering patrols through the capitol city, and even the dig site perhaps. Which will make sneaking about a lot easier. Helping the quavering masses means you will have plenty of safe places to hide about the country side. In exchange they want you to help take out the "town guards" that keep them in line. Going this route lets your party have mostly free reign outside the city, because the locals are sending in faked reports that all is well.

Doing these quests in between being hired on as mercs for the tyrant would allow for plenty of quests, plenty of experience and level gaining, and a fun storyline. You could have the heroes be allowed to help all the factions or be forced to choose for some odd reason. "Yeah the tyrant sucks, but the regular nobs werent much better. If you help them, you can forget about our deal." That sort of thing. And in between helping the various sides your party has to balance excuses between them. "Whats that lord tyranopants? You heard people looking like us wiped out the garrison around lord stuffybottoms? That cant have been us, we were off getting you the lost orb of nasal discharging, see?" "Yes I know we were seen helping the dark lord, its the only way we were allowed into the city to start establishing that smuggling route you needed." Etc etc etc

Mr Blobby
2016-07-03, 01:07 AM
My ideas...

1/ Party is employed by an underling of the tyrant. Successful revolutions frequently happen when the tyrant's own sergeants defect - or at least don't wade in on the tyrants side at the pivotal moment. Make this underling ambiguous; while they rule with an iron fist, said iron fist is actually beneficial in the long run [the worst corrupt/evil officials are murdered, banditry is suppressed, public works to improve life are started etc]. For bonus points, make the former subordinate ruler [who wants the place back] lazy, self-serving but likeable. That can lead to a moral 'the current underling might be a vengeful bastard, but they actually give a **** about the place' discussion.

2/ The tyrant is behind their own revolution. They see it as 'housecleaning'; raise a revolt against themselves, see who joins it and crush them. Unfortunately, the PC party ends up possessing just enough of the facts to realise in the nick of time it's the tyrant behind it.

Interesting variant of this; the tyrant has realised they're unpopular, so created a new persona to lead the 'liberation' of the land. They'll continue with their own evil plans afterwards.

3/ The revolution is in fact guided from outside by something/one even worse than the tyrant. The PC party has to decide their move: support the tyrant against the 'much worse option', try to save the revolution from the corruption etc.

One thing I'd say is this: go and read Machiavelli's The Prince. The basic primer for running any political chronicle - regardless of era, species or power level.

Trask
2016-07-03, 05:42 PM
Thanks for the responses, I'll take them all into account

I really do like the idea of the revolution not wanting to simply replace the Sovereign (thats what the Tyrant calls himself) with the old King and his Archdukes. They were well loved and some people would definitely want them back but the main revolutionary force probably would not. This also ties in to a theme of revolution and democracy and its corruption which I am really digging because my Dwarves are currently a democratic republic but are coming more and more a plutocracy supported by a healthy slave trade to the Sovereign, and the biggest city in the Northern Kingdom is the city of Marinth which I made a very wealthy city with extreme ends of have and have nots where the plutocrats have subjugated the nearby town that the PCs are in economically ect ect.

veti
2016-07-03, 08:35 PM
Just wondering: why has it taken the tyrant 60 years to get around to - whatever he's just getting around to now? That's an awfully long time to be sitting on one's hands.

If there's a resistance movement against the tyrant, why hasn't it either (a) made its move already, or (b) been wiped out, or (c) simply forgotten what it was doing, because by this time nobody can even remember what it was like Before Tyranny, by this time? And if there isn't a resistance: what, precisely, makes the ruler a tyrant?

I mention this just because "nothing happens for decades, then a bunch of 2nd level characters arrive and suddenly the world turns upside down" is one of the most common immersion-destroying tropes in gaming. (It did horrible things to Skyrim, for instance.)

Traab
2016-07-03, 09:25 PM
Just wondering: why has it taken the tyrant 60 years to get around to - whatever he's just getting around to now? That's an awfully long time to be sitting on one's hands.

If there's a resistance movement against the tyrant, why hasn't it either (a) made its move already, or (b) been wiped out, or (c) simply forgotten what it was doing, because by this time nobody can even remember what it was like Before Tyranny, by this time? And if there isn't a resistance: what, precisely, makes the ruler a tyrant?

I mention this just because "nothing happens for decades, then a bunch of 2nd level characters arrive and suddenly the world turns upside down" is one of the most common immersion-destroying tropes in gaming. (It did horrible things to Skyrim, for instance.)

That would be easy enough to explain. The tyrant has been happily oppressing the masses when one of his flunkies comes before him to report of some ancient ruins beneath the city (or wherever) they have just uncovered. Legends state blah blah blah. So he orders his men to go get it for him. To do this he has weakened his stranglehold on his land. Not alot, but enough to give various groups ideas. Things are balanced right now, and he is in control, but all it will take is a little nudge in the right spot to swing things in the direction of the rebels.

There could easily be plenty of people and groups that WANT to rebel, but they are too firmly under the heel of the tyrant, so they dont dare. Maybe the price would be too high. I read a wonderfully grim tale about this. Basically, the evil empire had one punishment for rebellion. Your family for three generations removed would die with you. That means your parents, grand parents, and even great grandparents would be killed. So would your siblings, your children, up to your great grandchildren. (I should explain that while not immortal elves, these people lived a pretty long lifespan naturally) Its one thing to risk your own life, but to basically risk extinguishing your entire family line? Very few would risk that. However, if the danger is lessened in some way, like say a portion of the unbeatable army is moved to another location to go dig for treasure, then you might be willing to try and make something happen.

Trask
2016-07-04, 01:28 AM
Just wondering: why has it taken the tyrant 60 years to get around to - whatever he's just getting around to now? That's an awfully long time to be sitting on one's hands.

If there's a resistance movement against the tyrant, why hasn't it either (a) made its move already, or (b) been wiped out, or (c) simply forgotten what it was doing, because by this time nobody can even remember what it was like Before Tyranny, by this time? And if there isn't a resistance: what, precisely, makes the ruler a tyrant?

I mention this just because "nothing happens for decades, then a bunch of 2nd level characters arrive and suddenly the world turns upside down" is one of the most common immersion-destroying tropes in gaming. (It did horrible things to Skyrim, for instance.)

The Sovereign is actually a Tiefling whose father is a powerful Pit Lord seeking to expand his dominion into the prime material plane. He distinguished himself as a warrior and general and eventually drew his father's eye and he revealed to him in a dream that in the far off Kingdom of Endrim (which he now rules) there is an ancient ruined city and tower in which there is a dormant gate to the realms of hell. Long story short the Sovereign managed to schmooze his way into the King's court, have his daughter fall in love with him and betray the King and killing all his Dukes with his army of barbarians from another land that he gathered during his time as a warlord. He uses this time to pacify all rebellion and to subjugate the nearby Dwarves as well as the Elves to solidify his control on the region. This is important because they are also a part of his plan.

See the reason its taken so long is because he doesn't know where this ruin is. He just knows that it lays under the Kingdom, probably in the underdark. So he is slowly shifting the landscape of power by diminishing the role and power of nobility and elevating the power of merchant capital to produce a more efficient machine for ripping up the Earth, similar to the Enlightenment shift away from Feudalism with the rise of Bourgeois capitalism. He also made deals with both the Elves and the Dwarves to ensure their survival and part of that deal involves the Dwarves providing him with slaves from the borderland and the tribes that live there, and the elves providing him with yearly tributes of magical artifacts. The Sovereign is using these slaves to dig ceaselessly into the earth looking for the ruins and the artifacts because opening the gate will require a tremendous amount of magical power. I know that it probably seemed really trite and simple that he just coincidentally hasnt found it yet but thats just because I didnt want to bore you guys with my campaign (but i do love sharing it). Also im not planning on my PCs to fight the Sovereign for a long time, hes more of like a 12 or 15th level bad guy. THE bbeg of my campaign (if the PCs let him summon his father theyre pretty ****ed). Thats part of the reason why I made this thread, ideas for adventures and stuff i can have them do that doesnt involve just charging into battle with the Sovereign.

Trask
2016-07-04, 01:33 AM
I'm running the campaign pretty sandbox style so I don't really know how the PCs are going to defeat the Sovereign. I just want to lay out a cool area full of quests, factions and adventures that I can use to sort of string together a story as they go along. I've never run anything close to a political campaign before so thats why I wanted some pointers which have been great so far.

Knaight
2016-07-04, 03:11 AM
I really do like the idea of the revolution not wanting to simply replace the Sovereign (thats what the Tyrant calls himself) with the old King and his Archdukes. They were well loved and some people would definitely want them back but the main revolutionary force probably would not. This also ties in to a theme of revolution and democracy and its corruption which I am really digging because my Dwarves are currently a democratic republic but are coming more and more a plutocracy supported by a healthy slave trade to the Sovereign, and the biggest city in the Northern Kingdom is the city of Marinth which I made a very wealthy city with extreme ends of have and have nots where the plutocrats have subjugated the nearby town that the PCs are in economically ect ect.
The thing about revolutions is that they have a tendency to be coalitions with varied goals. Everyone in the revolution is going to want the Sovereign out - if they didn't mind the guy, they wouldn't be in the revolution. That doesn't mean that all of them have the same idea of who to put in power after the fact, or of what tactics are acceptable, or really of much of anything else. If the revolution is going to be front and center, I'd recommend splitting it into multiple distinct groups with different goals, tactics, etc.

As for adventures, I'd recommend taking a look at REIGN. It has a fairly sophisticated method of handling organizational conflicts where PC actions can tilt the effect, and it also has some explicit ways the organizations can target each other that can be used to inspire adventures. At a really high level, the organizations are defined by five stats - Might, Influence, Treasure, Sovereignty, and Territory. Even if you don't use the rules, it is worth thinking of these as five separate categories that can all be attacked, and five separate categories that can be improved for the rebellion. So, here's ten quick example tasks for the PCs, each of which is about either improving one of these for the rebellion or attacking one of these for the tyrant.

Strengthening the Rebellion

Might - Find and convince a major military figure (general, significant battle mage) to join the rebellion. Bonus points if it involves getting them to defect from the empire.
Influence - Establish a magical communications network that allows the rebellion to communicate with other organizations/states.
Treasure - Get ahold of major cash for rebellion coffers. Maybe this means taking over a gold mine, maybe it means intercepting tax caravans, maybe it means negotiating with another enemy of the tyrant for funds sent to the rebellion.
Sovereignty - Within the areas that the rebellion has some influence, take a note from robin hood. Help the rebel sympathizers when they are in trouble. Most of this is organizational level stuff, but something like smuggling people out of the tyrant's grasp when their subversive activities are discovered could be suitable for the PCs.
Territory - Just taking new territory or improving existing territory through infrastructure is often organizational. With that said, negotiating with independant groups, causing regional governors to defect to the rebellion, or doing things like breaking dams intended to drain the water from rebel territory that are in imperial territory can all be better on the adventure side.


Weakening the Tyrant

Might - Assassinate a notable general or champion, steal the plans for a weapon system, intercept and replace messages going to a garrison to keep them out of a conflict, etc.
Influence - Spill state secrets abroad (the adventure is more about getting ahold of them), blackmail ambassadors and diplomats (the adventure is likely more about getting the information to do so), disrupt court functions by intimidating important people.
Treasure - Damage expensive things that have to be repaired, such as fleets, bring capable negotiators to third parties to milk the empire for all they're worth on trade deals, damage areas that generate lots of wealth for the empire such as silk farms, etc.
Sovereignty - Leak state secrets internally, disrupt displays of internal power (e.g. parades), prop up internal religious leaders that want more power for their church and less for the Sovereign.
Territory - Damage key infrastructure, kill regional governors prior to invasions, incite peasant revolts.


Not all of these are particularly good for a heroic game, but all of them could serve as the core of a short adventure, and there's enough there to get a medium sized campaign even without adding anything beyond the short adventure list. As for the game being sandbox style, that's part of the reason that taking REIGNs organizational conflict mechanics would be ideal. The players could come up with any of these, and the changing situation could suggest them. Is the rebellion fairly weak militarily but doing okay on other aspects? Time to convince a barbarian tribe to come and work for them as muscle. Has the empire been getting a great deal of money because of their holdings? Time to start intercepting tax caravans, shutting down mines, or other aspects. The Sovereign is likely doing the same thing, and that also provides targets. They're bringing in a famous general to lead a campaign against the rebellion? They're getting a capable demagogue to spread propoganda among their own people and increase their support? Oh look, targets. The general can be killed, and while killing the demagogue is just going to give them a martyr, they might have something in their background that could thoroughly discredit them...