Policy & Institution-Driven Gameplay

[Irk]

I see a lot of discussion about games that are politics and intrigue-heavy, which generally maps to subterfuge, assassination, and conspiracies. That style of gameplay is really interesting to me, but I'd like to see what kinds of options or ideas there are to make that sort of setting more technical. What I mean by this is a game that relies heavily on PCs manipulating a state or states by influencing economic policy, introducing technologies, and sculpting institutions. In a low-tech, low-magic, fantasy world, the magic that exists could be exploited to acquire and apply data that might have been more difficult to analyze and interpret in the 1100s-1600s without access to spellcasting.

More specifically, players would operate as a sort of mercenary consulting group or a cross between a PMC and a think tank. After having accumulated some influence (maybe through more traditional adventuring), they become policymakers exploiting their skills to develop ideas that apply to the unique economic and social circumstances of a low magic, fantastical world. Things like monetary policy, agricultural policy, the economic relations between church and state, regulation of alchemy, addressing immigration from nomadic eleven nations, and arcane educational policy would be examples of pertinent issues.

These challenges wouldn't just be resolved by domestic data collection and analysis. Perhaps the currency needs to be backed by a specific metal, and the PCs have to hijack an especially large shipment that is being sent to a rival kingdom. Maybe the educational policy of choice for a prominent magical university is eliminating the headmaster who is threatening the city-state's non-magical institutions. You get the idea.

In addition to the policy-driven storylines, I'd be interested to see how this could be blended with things like rediscovering lost technologies. Perhaps a recipe for a low-cost golem, some powerful, industrial spell, or just a means of smelting a useful alloy.

By its nature, this sort of game would be long-form, affording the PCs the opportunity to uplift different factions in a state, catalyze conflicts, reap the rewards of early industrialization, and oversee shifts in foreign policy as different countries emerge as economic powers.

I'm convinced that this can be done in an rpg format, and successfully blended with more standard intrigue, dungeon-delving, and traditional villain arcs. However, I don't know what systems, rules, hooks, or settings would be appropriate, and while I have plenty of ideas, I'm interested in what other people can come up with. Homebrew rulesets, hooks, historical examples to draw on for inspiration and so on are all things I'd love to hear about.