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View Full Version : DM Help Plunging a City-State into Anarchy



Kadzar
2016-08-25, 12:08 PM
Not that I think they'll read it, but just in case: if you are in a group with Andy, Joel, Chris, Kevin, Derek, Mike, and Luis (and also me, James), don't read this.

So here's how it goes: the PC's killed the council which collectively ruled the Free City of Riverport and prevented the renewal of a ritual that would make them effectively invincible and able to perform a form of mind-control on most of the populace. The PC's were then arrested by guards as people began rioting, and the guards dropped them into a dungeon beneath the city. When we return to the game, the gnome artificer npc they rescued will have completed a device that will teleport them back to the city.

Other factors to note are that the council members were each the head of a guild, and elected by the top members of those guilds (probably it would be more like groups of several guilds, but we narrowed it down to 12 for gameplay reasons). The city guard are mercenaries under control of the sword guild, for example, and every aspect of the city except for religion and magic fell under the purview of one guild or another (the various religions keep to themselves and their followers for the most part, and the mages mostly stick to their island enclave unless someone is hiring them to do something).

I also plan for there to be some sort of mafia that has been kept in check for the most part until now, one that recently formed, and a powerful mad wizard who escaped from prison during the riot. The city guard will probably go corrupt and might join any of these three. Also, I'd like someone who might possibly help bring things back into order be someone one of my PC's wants to kill. And there will probably be a trickster god in there somewhere.

So I'm wondering what I need to do collapse the state in such a way that it won't recover on its own, but there's something the PC's can do to help fix it. And I'd also like an idea of how long it would take for things to reach the point of collapse after the PC's killed the council.

NNescio
2016-08-25, 12:27 PM
Not that I think they'll read it, but just in case: if you are in a group with Andy, Joel, Chris, Kevin, Derek, Mike, and Luis (and also me, James), don't read this.

So here's how it goes: the PC's killed the council which collectively ruled the Free City of Riverport and prevented the renewal of a ritual that would make them effectively invincible and able to perform a form of mind-control on most of the populace. The PC's were then arrested by guards as people began rioting, and the guards dropped them into a dungeon beneath the city. When we return to the game, the gnome artificer npc they rescued will have completed a device that will teleport them back to the city.

Other factors to note are that the council members were each the head of a guild, and elected by the top members of those guilds (probably it would be more like groups of several guilds, but we narrowed it down to 12 for gameplay reasons). The city guard are mercenaries under control of the sword guild, for example, and every aspect of the city except for religion and magic fell under the purview of one guild or another (the various religions keep to themselves and their followers for the most part, and the mages mostly stick to their island enclave unless someone is hiring them to do something).

I also plan for there to be some sort of mafia that has been kept in check for the most part until now, one that recently formed, and a powerful mad wizard who escaped from prison during the riot. The city guard will probably go corrupt and might join any of these three. Also, I'd like someone who might possibly help bring things back into order be someone one of my PC's wants to kill. And there will probably be a trickster god in there somewhere.

So I'm wondering what I need to do collapse the state in such a way that it won't recover on its own, but there's something the PC's can do to help fix it. And I'd also like an idea of how long it would take for things to reach the point of collapse after the PC's killed the council.

Back up the sewers.

TheYell
2016-08-25, 12:43 PM
So I'm wondering what I need to do collapse the state in such a way that it won't recover on its own, but there's something the PC's can do to help fix it. And I'd also like an idea of how long it would take for things to reach the point of collapse after the PC's killed the council.

Last point first - Figure out how many days of food Riverport has. Riots that disrupt that will starve the city.

I would have the guilds split on creating a new council. 6 for the Red Faction and 6 for the Blue Faction. Neither can win. And the Mafia comes out of the shadows and starts extorting support for food. All these factions are roughly equal and control some territory.

You could have the citizens come up with Block Councils that start a limited self-government by block committees. The PCs could align with them and fight off the other factions while trying to swing the guilds behind the Free State movement. If they can unite the guilds they can put down the mafia. The wizard should be a PC concern.

Kadzar
2016-08-25, 03:00 PM
Last point first - Figure out how many days of food Riverport has. Riots that disrupt that will starve the city.This is a good point, since Riverport is modeled after Venice and Tenochtitlan, so it's a group of connected islands close to the shoreline. The farms are on the mainland, and the island probably also gets a lot of food from trade, as it is in the center of the continent and a major trade hub.

Also, this reminded me that the shoreside has a halfling ghetto called Hibbleton, and by law halflings weren't allowed on the island after dark without identification, so that should probably play a part in something.



I would have the guilds split on creating a new council. 6 for the Red Faction and 6 for the Blue Faction. Neither can win. And the Mafia comes out of the shadows and starts extorting support for food. All these factions are roughly equal and control some territory.That or maybe some are trying to gain more power within the council. Or it could be both. And I'm thinking the people are going to be trying to establish a more democratic government. Probably still a council, but the lower-level members would get to vote for their guild representative.



You could have the citizens come up with Block Councils that start a limited self-government by block committees. The PCs could align with them and fight off the other factions while trying to swing the guilds behind the Free State movement. If they can unite the guilds they can put down the mafia. The wizard should be a PC concern.
I'm not sure what you mean by Free State movement, as Riverport is already a free state (as in, not the subject of a larger state), but they could get behind the common people's movement for a democratic system. Or they could help the upper guildmembers reestablish the former system (minus the evil ritual). Or they could help the mafia establish a kleptocracy. Or maybe they'll somehow make themselves the rulers. Who knows.

Telonius
2016-08-25, 03:10 PM
"what I need to do collapse the state in such a way that it won't recover on its own" - depending on the group, nothing. The players will do this on their own. Leading to the obvious "something the PC's can do to help fix it," finding the next adventure hook.

Tvtyrant
2016-08-25, 03:21 PM
Back up the sewers.

This was my immediate thought as well :D

Or a kingdom/city-state up the river dams it off entirely and demands an impossible sum to get it restored. The lack of water cripples the city, and the party needs to either deliver the money or go break the dam.

MintyNinja
2016-08-25, 03:33 PM
Take your Mad Wizard and give him command over an unknown amount of guards and suddenly you have The Joker.
Give your New Mafia family ties to Hibbleton. Have them import food from the mainland and suddenly you have a very good analogue for The Mob.
Heighten some ambitions throughout the Guilds. Maybe word of a Republic gets around and some people start suggesting new government. This gives you Political Chaos.
Then start sorting out who and what are the Resources here. Soldiers, guilds, sources of food, important buildings, etc.

Finally, give your players a map and let them go free. If they don't crash this city, someone else will.

Kadzar
2016-08-25, 08:44 PM
Take your Mad Wizard and give him command over an unknown amount of guards and suddenly you have The Joker.
Give your New Mafia family ties to Hibbleton. Have them import food from the mainland and suddenly you have a very good analogue for The Mob.
Heighten some ambitions throughout the Guilds. Maybe word of a Republic gets around and some people start suggesting new government. This gives you Political Chaos.
Then start sorting out who and what are the Resources here. Soldiers, guilds, sources of food, important buildings, etc.

Finally, give your players a map and let them go free. If they don't crash this city, someone else will.

If I recall correctly, one of the players has the 1st Halfling Uprising of Riverport as part of their backstory, so this could work very well.

I'm still not sure how long it should take for all of this to get established. Does a month seem too short?

fusilier
2016-08-25, 09:16 PM
Does the city-state control its hinterland? If so, then the more major problem would be the towns and communities of the countryside declaring independence and threatening the city's food supply. (This sort of thing happened all the time in Italy, meaning revolutions in government usually then involved a military campaign to reassert control over the countryside).

I can't imagine a Medieval/Renaissance city lasting very long in a complete state of anarchy -- I imagine people would start to flee to the countryside/hinterland and the city itself would basically collapse. However, as the "block councils" were already mentioned, that concept could be extrapolated pretty easily to the guilds and islands. Usually guild members lived/worked in the same area, and they had certain government-like functions. So different islands/guilds could be more or less autonomous, and run their sections of the city independently. Nevertheless, I would expect some sort of compromise to be worked out eventually, even if a proper government couldn't be created. In which case the biggest problem becomes not so much the running of the "city" but the running of the "state" -- relationships with other city-states and principalities would become difficult, if not impossible.

That could lead to the threat of foreign invasion -- which might just be the impetus for the city to get its act together, or they end up conquered.

Temperjoke
2016-08-25, 09:44 PM
Where does the power lie, now that the ruling council is dead? That's basically where you need to look. What I mean is, who stopped the rioting, or is it still going on? Who is leading the guards/mercenaries, or who has the money to pay them? If there is a strong criminal element, they're going to get stronger in the areas that the official guards aren't watching, they're also probably going to be smuggling and controlling the food supply in unguarded areas. If there is an oppressed group, they'll probably seize the chance to break free of their control. You mentioned a mad wizard, depending on the form of his madness, he might not do anything immediately, in fact, he could be a problem for another day as it'll take time for him to regain his powers.

The point is, NPCs will begin establishing control, but not unified control; everyone will carve out territories within the city. So instead of anarchy, you'll have turf wars between groups. Some of these new leaders might offer sanctuary to the PCs as thanks for their new rise to power, or they could attempt to capture and execute them, to strengthen the people to support their position and allow them to rise further.

Kadzar
2016-08-25, 10:51 PM
Where does the power lie, now that the ruling council is dead? That's basically where you need to look. What I mean is, who stopped the rioting, or is it still going on? Who is leading the guards/mercenaries, or who has the money to pay them? If there is a strong criminal element, they're going to get stronger in the areas that the official guards aren't watching, they're also probably going to be smuggling and controlling the food supply in unguarded areas. If there is an oppressed group, they'll probably seize the chance to break free of their control. You mentioned a mad wizard, depending on the form of his madness, he might not do anything immediately, in fact, he could be a problem for another day as it'll take time for him to regain his powers.

The point is, NPCs will begin establishing control, but not unified control; everyone will carve out territories within the city. So instead of anarchy, you'll have turf wars between groups. Some of these new leaders might offer sanctuary to the PCs as thanks for their new rise to power, or they could attempt to capture and execute them, to strengthen the people to support their position and allow them to rise further.I was thinking that the upper guild members voted for new guild members, but, actually, looking through my notes, it seems that the council members voted in new members when replacements were needed (with advisement from the guilds). By the laws in place now, there is no contingency for replacing the council should they all be wiped out at once (which makes sense, since they were effectively invincible from trapping and draining power from the major gods).

Though the upper guild members would have some quasi-legitimate authority to appoint some sort of leadership, which the common people might oppose. And I could see some guilds, such as the scroll guild (in charge of laws and records, among other things) being opposed to the guilds acting in this way. And the council building itself might have been destroyed in the riots.

And the guard's pay budget might have been up for review, and, while the coin guild technically has access to their money, it's part of the city-state treasury, so they can't really pay them unless they're willing to do some shady dealings.

Temperjoke
2016-08-25, 11:32 PM
I was thinking that the upper guild members voted for new guild members, but, actually, looking through my notes, it seems that the council members voted in new members when replacements were needed (with advisement from the guilds). By the laws in place now, there is no contingency for replacing the council should they all be wiped out at once (which makes sense, since they were effectively invincible from trapping and draining power from the major gods).

Though the upper guild members would have some quasi-legitimate authority to appoint some sort of leadership, which the common people might oppose. And I could see some guilds, such as the scroll guild (in charge of laws and records, among other things) being opposed to the guilds acting in this way. And the council building itself might have been destroyed in the riots.

And the guard's pay budget might have been up for review, and, while the coin guild technically has access to their money, it's part of the city-state treasury, so they can't really pay them unless they're willing to do some shady dealings.

The guard have weapons, if there was a lack of payment being forthcoming, they would have the power to carve out their own territory, or if a rich noble offered them money in exchange for power?

Minescratcher
2016-08-27, 10:11 AM
So I'm wondering what I need to do collapse the state in such a way that it won't recover on its own, but there's something the PC's can do to help fix it. And I'd also like an idea of how long it would take for things to reach the point of collapse after the PC's killed the council.

Burn down part of the city. All of the survivors will flee to the not-burned part, causing chaos and food shortages.

Edit: Other disasters work too, such as earthquakes or flooding.

Steckie
2016-08-27, 04:22 PM
So I'm wondering what I need to do collapse the state in such a way that it won't recover on its own, but there's something the PC's can do to help fix it. And I'd also like an idea of how long it would take for things to reach the point of collapse after the PC's killed the council.

Maybe some people in the city revolt to support the 'succesfull coup' that has just been done by the PC's?
The Halflings of Hibbleton especially since they want to support the 'brave leader of the coup', a veteran of the first Uprising that has returned to lead them to victory.
The PC's are in a dungeon, so they don't know anything about the full revolt that has broken out because of them, the man or woman that is leading this revolt might in fact not be happy to see them resurface at all since he or she used this spontaneous revolt to get in a position of power.

Also you mentioned that this city is based on Venice. Perhaps you could get somebody to sink a ship in the middle of the harbor, blocking any trade going in and out of the city and disrupting the economy.

Kadzar
2016-08-28, 04:01 PM
The guard have weapons, if there was a lack of payment being forthcoming, they would have the power to carve out their own territory, or if a rich noble offered them money in exchange for power?Well, Riverport has no nobility, as it was formed just several hundred years ago by tradespeople trying to escape oppression during a vast war on the continent, settling on the site of an extinct lizardfolk civilization (that was wiped out by an epic-level spell created by an eldritch being that was controlling them as a means to experiment and learn about this world).

So there wouldn't be a lot of nobles in Riverport (unless they're foreigners), but I suppose rich merchants would work just as well. And they could either seek just to buy some protection or outright control with force.

@Minescratcher @Steckie: Those are fantastic ideas, and I will most likely use them.

Dalinale
2016-08-29, 06:53 AM
A low-level necromancer could take advantage of the sudden lack of peace and is now raising the dead that usually just end up washed out in the ocean for a bad attempt at a power grab. The necromancer doesn't even have to be especially good as long as he's well hidden and that the populace is frightened of him. Because of the nature of the city's waterways, there could now be zombies or insert-party-appropriate-undead here prowling the rivers themselves, which could make for a bad logistical problem for any would-be zombie hunter. In addition, the presence of undead things in the water could make the city's water to be less trustworthy, which could cause additional supplies issues.