Campaign idea: Hall of the Zero King

[BerzerkerUnit]

This was originally posted on RPG.net. So I've had some feedback. Here's the original post:

(On my lunch at work, so this is very undercooked)

recently ran a He-Man inspired game where each PC was the -blank- Lord of something and there was the royal NPCs known as the Rage Queen, the Fate King, the Fang King etc. Among the PCs there was a Flood Lord, a Dragon Lord, a Silent Lord. Etc.

Currently watching Ranking of Kings (one of the best anime ever).

Saw a YouTube vid from Dungeon Masterpiece about high level games.

Got me thinking, what if you had a game where each of the players was a King and were brought together for a tournament Arc to determine the Ranking for the next year (decade, wtvr). Amid the tournament they discover a plot to seek out the Hall of the Zero King.

the Zero King is some kind of superboss, maybe a true dragon, maybe the tarrasque Or a Solar or something with nigh unlimited wealth

man NPC competitor called the Kingdomless King, someone that was just so ultrabadass they had no choice but to let them compete.

There could be assassination attempts (from sinister PVP efforts to comically unprepared npcs). Someone using the Dream spell to randomly prevent long rests.

I was thinking of some 2 deck card draw for determining match ups with a luck stat for extra draws.

any other ideas for subplots are welcome, maybe something about a marriage to some mystic consort reserved for the No. 1 King.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

_____________________________

Since I don't want to repost someone else's response without permission, I've added my response to their feedback below, hopefully you can make any inferences necessary to understand what they've already said.
Thank you so much for your feedback.
As stated this was a hastily scribbled out post from my phone during a lunch break, so it was undercooked.

the actual write up I started to work on after work made it the Royal Ranking. Ranking of Kings is the name of the show and wasn’t intended to exclude anyone.

I started to incorporate some concepts other than wins, involving playing to crowds earning you points. Crits getting bonus points (to shore up Martial performance). And good sportsmanship bonus points. There’s no way to lose points, but playing nice gets you more. So attacking while a foe is down is fine, but you get bonus points for helping them up instead.

Here’s some of the rest:
There are a few additional stats:
Retainers/Equipment/Crowd.
You assign a d4, D8, or D12 to each.
You can add the retainers die as a bonus when dealing with problems extra manpower can help with, or summon an NPC of CR=1/2 Roll of die to stand in for you in a fight/quest outside the competition.

example: You set retainer as a d8. A dragon is attacking a town a few days ride away from the competition, you don’t want to burn resources riding out and fighting it so you roll your retainer die and get a 6. You can summon a CR 3 NPC, outfit them with any equipment you have left over or choose to sacrifice. Alternatively, let’s say a massive fire, you can roll Athletics or something and add your retainer die to a check to put it out. Successful feats like that between competitions might temporarily inflate your Crowd die or earn a reward from a competitor whose people you saved.

Every monarch brings a supply of gear and potions/scrolls/etc. before each competition the Equipment die can be rolled for bonus items from a chart with Healing Potion at the bottom and better magic stuff as you go up. You can lower the die step to roll for extra stuff.

Crowd die is rolled during competitions. Every Monarch has their own fans.
As a bonus action you can play to your crowd, by default this gets you points. As an Action you can play to your crowd and the opposition’s crowd too. You roll performance against your foe’s passive performance and get to roll both dice. An exceptional roll deals psychic damage to your opponent equal to the result of crowd rolls, so a Monk might stunlock their target and spend round after round asking if everyone can smell what the rock is cooking instead of beating on an incapacitated foe, earning bonus points for sportsmanship and crowd work.

meanwhile, the Monarch of Assassins can absolutely have an illusion of themself walk-in to the ring while they slip in invisibly and shank their foe in a surprise round. That’s going to net minimal points and they may leave Rank 40 overall, but also, everyone else will know not to mess with them unless they want the Assassin to stop playing nice.

the Points based system for Ranking also means everyone plays to the end, so there is no knock out. The expectation of participating in every event, even after a hopeless lead is taken by one or more opponents, would exemplify the difference between a ruler that put their faith in personal tools and power vs one that relied on good followers and the will of their people.

nevertheless, some players like playing with toys more than winning so there’s little doubt a suitably appealing Equipment table will have someone putting their d12 there.

As for the “mystic bride” concept, if you’ve ever watched Shoujo Kakumei Utena or El-Hazard and know the story behind Anthy or Ifurita, then you might get why the very same reason you say “absolutely not” is also a compelling narrative reason for them to exist.

the being in question, gender identity aside, introduces all those questions about free will, humanity, the soul, etc that those “prizes” represent in those stories. “The Queen” if you’ll forgive the chess pun, is exactly that, a piece that allows the top ruler to dominate the board.

the Uncrowned King, be they make or female, can present an opposing view to the PCs standpoint. If they play morally grey or wicked rulers that want the Queen for the power they represent, then the Uncrowned King is an Isekai Protagonist trying to free the first person they met from the bondage of their role in the current system, even though it could lead to another age of wars.

if the players are heroes that recognize the sanctity of self determination and think the Queen should be freed, then the Uncrowned King is a relic of an age past, recently awakened and seeking the tool his people crafted to end all wars through total domination.

[Rilmani]

1. What are the rules for a fight? I’d imagine that a simple “fight until someone yields, falls unconscious, or dies” setup would be imperfect for determining lower rankings. It would just determine number on. If you have a setup like BattleBots, with a clock, points, judges (mundane or magical) then some contestants could have terrific fights with poor point earnings. Which adds some depth, and will help certain kings earn a particular reputations and respect over the following years. “You lost to the guy who ended up winning the whole tournament” is worth something.

2. Are the kings fighting with their normal bodies, or are is this a lot like He-Man? Are they empowered by the weight of their country’s health, their popularity with their countrymen, and their bloodline? Could someone 80+ years old fight in their prime (or better) due to this? Such a thing causing cockiness seems perfect.

3. Are you going to go all in with the Cards theme? Suits, Jack/Queen/King, a Solitaire test to ensure only true kings are participating rather than impostors, a system of betting for resources…?

4. What else is happening during this tournament which could be a side arc for the rest of the cast? Tournament refreshments, a magical college which is providing healing to peasants/rival countries on this neutral ground, MOBA (dota, LoL) style minions popping up from dormancy in the surrounding countryside due to the concentration of energy, the afterlife returning for a Day of the Dead tradition (see Coco; they could provide plot info about the Hall or attempt to damage a King’s form before their fight)…?


If you keep any of this, just remember that I do NOT recommend doing the traditional “fight until someone is down” setup as the be-all end-all of rankings, victory, and progress. One reason? You could give a bonus to specific kings on day one based on their previous performance to give them an edge over competitors. It’d make victory even sweeter.



In terms of mechanics… You need to decide now whether wounds will be a thing which last into subsequent fights. I’d shy away from connecting them to critical hits, unless you make everyone a champion fighter like this https://old.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/tken56/the_champion_fighter_reworked_basic_doesnt_need/ .

[BerzerkerUnit]

1. What are the rules for a fight? I’d imagine that a simple “fight until someone yields, falls unconscious, or dies” setup would be imperfect for determining lower rankings. It would just determine number on. If you have a setup like BattleBots, with a clock, points, judges (mundane or magical) then some contestants could have terrific fights with poor point earnings. Which adds some depth, and will help certain kings earn a particular reputations and respect over the following years. “You lost to the guy who ended up winning the whole tournament” is worth something.

2. Are the kings fighting with their normal bodies, or are is this a lot like He-Man? Are they empowered by the weight of their country’s health, their popularity with their countrymen, and their bloodline? Could someone 80+ years old fight in their prime (or better) due to this? Such a thing causing cockiness seems perfect.

3. Are you going to go all in with the Cards theme? Suits, Jack/Queen/King, a Solitaire test to ensure only true kings are participating rather than impostors, a system of betting for resources…?

4. What else is happening during this tournament which could be a side arc for the rest of the cast? Tournament refreshments, a magical college which is providing healing to peasants/rival countries on this neutral ground, MOBA (dota, LoL) style minions popping up from dormancy in the surrounding countryside due to the concentration of energy, the afterlife returning for a Day of the Dead tradition (see Coco; they could provide plot info about the Hall or attempt to damage a King’s form before their fight)…?


If you keep any of this, just remember that I do NOT recommend doing the traditional “fight until someone is down” setup as the be-all end-all of rankings, victory, and progress. One reason? You could give a bonus to specific kings on day one based on their previous performance to give them an edge over competitors. It’d make victory even sweeter.



In terms of mechanics… You need to decide now whether wounds will be a thing which last into subsequent fights. I’d shy away from connecting them to critical hits, unless you make everyone a champion fighter like this https://old.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/tken56/the_champion_fighter_reworked_basic_doesnt_need/ .
Thank you so much for your feedback! I ended up jumping into this a little sooner than anticipated but it went rather smoothly.

Okay, so here are some norms:

- Monarchs are ranked on a points system. Technically you don't have to win a single battle to improve your rank or even take #1. The "uncrowned king" NPC went from being a superbadass to just being a Bard that spends every encounter celebrating how amazing his opponents are, doing just enough to keep them using their actions to fight him while using his own action playing to the crowds. He ran up nearly 60 points during the 9 round opening event and cast 1 spell. He spent the rest of the time thanking the others that aided him (the PCs were focused on trying to Kill steal bc they thought more kills = more points so they helped him a lot).

- Every Monarch is issued 3 challenge cards. 1 is undeniable, however higher ranks have priority and a Monarch can only be targeted by 1 undeniable challenge per Contest (one per decade). So you can't dogpile the number 1 to wear him down or have friends help you weaken a specific rival before challenging them.

- Monarchs killing Monarchs is banned. It is assumed all combatants are fighting to incapacitate unless explicitly stating otherwise.

- There are seven sacred judges. Their names and histories are secret lore but they are known to have different alignments and seem to value different kinds of performance, but they're all faceless sarcophagi and are just a mask for the obfuscated points system I created.

1. Points

Wins and Losses determined by yielding or inability to continue earn a number of points based on the difference in your current rank, basically the absolute value of the difference. You can get a lot of points for punching way above your rank proving your worth, or you can get a lot of points for punching way below and maintaining the status quo. As the leader boards are made public, this creates some real impetus to think hard about who you challenge. Challenging way up the Ranks can get a lot of points but if you lose you risk putting a high ranking rival that much farther ahead.
No points are lost. Not even for dishonorable behavior. Poisoning, kicking while they're down, etc. Strong strategies yield wins and that's fine.
Honorable behavior nets points. Helping another Monarch: attacking a foe they are attacking, helping them up while they're down or in a hazard, or healing them if 5 points. Exceptional displays: yielding at the start of a match if you discover your opponent was weakened by another, or crippling yourself with a similar injury to fight fair, 20-50 points. These aren't endlessly repeatable. In the Grand Melee a PC raced to the other end of the field making a few attacks against foes targeting other Monarchs so they had the chance to rally themselves. He got 5 per opponent. But you couldn't shield bash your opponent every round then help them up to try and loop points infinitely. Many of the Monarchs in the midrange put on "Prowrestling" style performances designed to run up points. But bc they aren't taking risks, they just sort of hover between Ranks 60 and 30.
Crowd Work. Each PC has 3 "Stats": Retainers, Treasures, Crowd. They had 3 dice to assign, d4, d8, d12. Bonus action to work your own crowd (DC10 perform), action to work your crowd and that of your opponent (DC 15 Perform). A successful perform check lets you Roll your crowd die and get that many points. If you use an action and work both crowds, you can roll both dice. If you beat DC 25 as an action, you deal psychic damage equal to the total to your opponent.
Critical Hits. Every Crit is worth 5 points.


This is not comprehensive and performance outside the contest: successes on Governance checks, other actions taken and choices made in game, also factor in to the final scores.

2. Monarchs compete in their real bodies. The Ranking is a reason to choose a successor sooner rather than later since they're a decade apart, shorter lived races may only see 2-4 such contests before their bodies betray them. That said, there's no shortage of ways to extend a life span and some of the higher ranked Monarchs have definitely been dipping into those wells.

3. I love creating subsystems a lot. I love houserules to bring the themes of a game to the forefront too and all of that sounds great. But my players can really only handle so many deviations from PHB/DMG so I decided to stick with the Governance checks and the 3 Dice system for Treasures, Retainers, and Crowds. Players can bet or earn rolls on their treasure tables.

4. There are a handful of subplots I have in mind. One PC is an Aasimar descended from a Demigod. The Rose Queen (the current #2 Elf Archdruid) was alive during the Gods War and absolutely loathes anything having to do with the gods. There will be an assassination attempt during the feast to celebrate the opening day. The existence of the "Uncrowned King" changes the seating resulting in someone else getting the deadly meal.
A Dragon will attack a kingdom while the Monarch and many of his most competent retinue are away. PCs will need to decide if they want to miss chances to earn points in 1v1s to go home and deal or send their Retainers.
The eruption of rare fauna and flora on the holy land is a prefab sidequest if I need an extra week to prepare for the events or NPC threads (I'd just run a Heliana's adventure).

[Rilmani]

I’d like to hear a bit more about how the stats, “3 dice: retainers, treasures, and crowd” work. The crowd section seems clear… are Treasures related to profits from bets and such, or are they the ability of one’s magical and mundane arsenal to help in combat? The ability to use a “treasure stat” die of unchanging size instead of Inspiration feels *really* neat. But I want to hear what you’ve done with it.

What about retainers? The Tales from the Monkey King blog has a page on ally mechanics here https://talesofthemonkeyking.blogspot.com/2017/09/catamaran-ally-mechanics.html?m=1 , but I don’t think that is what you are talking about.


You’ve made some significant changes to the tournament setup. I approve of the “points are never lost” and seven judges setup. Nice work. The rest I need to consider for a time. I wonder if this story is module-worthy.

Have you considered a “diminishing returns” mechanic? I’m not asking you to make such a thing for the bard character, but you could hint at your PCs that minmaxing with one strategy could cause problems with the judges AND foes will have an easier time countering it after learning their tells.

[BerzerkerUnit]

I’d like to hear a bit more about how the stats, “3 dice: retainers, treasures, and crowd” work. The crowd section seems clear… are Treasures related to profits from bets and such, or are they the ability of one’s magical and mundane arsenal to help in combat? The ability to use a “treasure stat” die of unchanging size instead of Inspiration feels *really* neat. But I want to hear what you’ve done with it.

What about retainers? The Tales from the Monkey King blog has a page on ally mechanics here https://talesofthemonkeyking.blogspot.com/2017/09/catamaran-ally-mechanics.html?m=1 , but I don’t think that is what you are talking about.


You’ve made some significant changes to the tournament setup. I approve of the “points are never lost” and seven judges setup. Nice work. The rest I need to consider for a time. I wonder if this story is module-worthy.

Have you considered a “diminishing returns” mechanic? I’m not asking you to make such a thing for the bard character, but you could hint at your PCs that minmaxing with one strategy could cause problems with the judges AND foes will have an easier time countering it after learning their tells.

Aloha, and thank you for your interest!

[spoiler=House Rules]There are 3 additional "Stats": Treasures, Retainers, Crowds.
Treasures: These are the magical treasures available to you. They aren't always all available. They are sometimes employed by retainers or held in reserve to balance power. What you have access to whenever you deploy is determined by a roll of the die.
I created a list of 12 items for each player with 1-4 generally being consumables of escalating value with Greater Healing Potion at 1 and Potion of Speed at 3. The ones 5-11 were more or less tailored to each player but also generic enough that any Retainer they handed it off to could use it. The item at 12 was a real treasure of some kind (The Paladin has a Holy Avenger there).

Bribes can be accomplished by shrinking your die, essentially selling or leasing out your most potent treasures for cash. In general they can outfit themselves with any nonmagical gear they want, but if they wanted to buy a fancy yacht, they might be able to roll a number above 7 on their Treasures or just shrink the die. Increasing the die step again later is harder, but not impossible.


Retainers: A collection of skilled individuals or powerful beings that aid in governance or enact your will. When you can't (or don't want to do something) you can send a retainer. They aren't all available all the time (they're busy helping you run a country), rolling the Retainer die determines which one is available on any given day.

We're only 1 session in so I'll be creating Retainer Lists with them over the coming weeks.


Crowds: The people that chose (or were forced) to follow you to the competition. When you fight you can play to your own crowd as a bonus action, doing so scores you points equal to a roll of the crowd die. As an Action you can make a performance check to play to your crowd and your opponents. A successful check allows you to roll both and an exceptional check (25+) will also do psychic damage to your opponent.

You rank these 3 in the order of importance to you.
Rank 1- Most important. Rated as 1d12
Rank 2- 2nd most important. Rated as 1d8
Rank 3- least important. Rated as 1d4

The size of these dice can change due to actions in game. Forging a strong alliance may cause your new allies Crowd to cheer for you. Rescuing a rival may earn a reward from their treasury. You can also bolster or nerf the NPC Monarchs dice as well through governance.
Governance checks are made during downtime. It's a History check you can add your Retainer die to. An exceptional Governance check (25+) can be used to temporarily bolster your own Treasures, Retainers, or Crowd dice bumping a d4 to a d6, etc. Terrible governance can shrink your dice (as your crowds have to go home a bury family members that starve or you have to sell off treasures to keep people fed).
You can shrink your dice for another roll. Say you want the #6 and #8 Treasures on your list. If your treasure die is d12 you could shrink it to d10, and then d8 and so on to keep rolling to try and get what you want. Same for Retainers (maybe the problem is big and you want 2 NPCs to go take care of it),

I have spent a generation as a DM creating plots with clearly designed "solutions" based on how I expect players to interpret clues (as plainly presented as possible).
The best lesson it only took me 30 years to learn is, create a problem and let them solve it. If they want to break down the math on the leader board I post, they can puzzle out where the majority of points comes from.