Election day!

[Killer Angel]

(Disclaimer: Yes, I’m italian and yes, yesterday in Italy there was the election day, but this has nothing to do with the thread, except for the fact that it merely inspired the idea)

Have you ever played an adventure during or before / after an election? I know that in fantasy it’s difficult (you know, all those kings… but who knows?), but in modern time it’s certainly more possible.
For example, a Call of Chtulhu with a mysterious candidate…
Once I was planning an adventure of Cyberpunk 2020 with a hidden war between corporations to favor their puppet candidate as president of the Senate, with killer ninjas, terrorist acts, and so on, but in the end we never played it.
Share your stories.

[LrdoftheRngs]

I actually had one arc of my first campaign (D&D 3.5) revolve around the election of the Mayor in their home-base town.

Spoiler

Show

I introduced an NPC named Balthor that I assumed they would back, tried to make him good and relatable (In hindsight, I probably just made him with an unbearable sob-story background, seeing it was my second game DMing). He was an orphan from the slums who had clawed his way up the social ladder and wanted to run the city for the greater good. He also promised the players substantial monetary rewards and high places of honor in the city, to sway those of a more Neutral persuasion. Well, for whatever reason, the players ended up hating him. Absolute, unrestrained, unadulterated loathing. Nevertheless, we were all newbies and they thought that they had no choice but to support him. So, they are trying to dig up dirt on the only serious opposition (A shady character named Roisil, seems disreputable, but he's stepping his game up for this), and campaign for Balthor. They spend a day or two making posters, getting Giant Celestial Eagles to fly banners across the sky, standard PC tactics. Then, they start trying to uncover Roisil's identity and past. That night, three assassins sneak into their room to try and kill them, but the players end up killing them and finding a note on their bodies that says "room 205 of the Blue Dragon Inn. See that they do not see another morning", signed by "R". They decide that they are going to track down the assassins, assuming they will be lead to Roisil. They end up journeying through an assassin's stronghold in a repurposed sactum for a cabal of liches, going through a whole bunch of wacky adventures, and eventually meet Roisil, revealed to be the leader of the assassin's guild. The only catch is, he's good. Well, at least now he is. Since they absolutely hated Balthor, I decided to switch the roles of villain and patron on them. So, they find out that Balthor is an orphan because he sacrificed his parents to a Demon at an early age to gain Warlock powers, and that Roisil has been tracking him to try and stop him for a long time. He assumed the players were evil from the fact that they were working for Balthor. Long story short, they ended up killing their former patron in a climactic showdown, get Roisil publicity for saving the town, and have him be elected mayor.

Probably wasn't as serious as what you were hoping, but we had a blast with it!

[Minitroll]

Kind of... start of an adventure, birthday of the King and the election of new representatitives of the towns, and the King was so annoyed with a certain village and everything being based around his birthday that he sent goblins to crush the village.

I was in 8th grade, don't judge my stories.

[Killer Angel]

Probably wasn't as serious as what you were hoping, but we had a blast with it!

I wasn't looking for "seriousness", but for ideas.
An adventure during an election is something unusual, so it can be a fresh perspective for a group tired of the same old "save the world /country / whatever".

[Chilingsworth]

Well, you could easily have an adventure like this in Sharn (Eberron.)

Check out Sharn, City of Towers. Apparently, the city is very democratic (by RPG-world standards, at least.) That book gives lots of info about the current city councilors, the system of government, and varrious factions and plots.

[Surfnerd]

Sort of. My current campaign has a political figure, albeit a noble born Lord, reaching the end of his years. The whole region is being filled with unrest as everyone begins to make moves for the seat of power. I purposely put his death a ways out so that the players have time to gain traction and power with other nobles.

Its more of a free form style of game and I do alot of winging it based off the characters I've made, but I enjoy the tension of the power struggle. I like throwing the players into the web and then let the various nobles ally and work against the players, hoping eventually they will step up to the plate.

This campaign is in its infancy and the "election day" is still a ways out, but I want my players to have personal investment in the outcome.

[Killer Angel]

Well, you could easily have an adventure like this in Sharn (Eberron.)

Ah, yes, that's a good place.

Sort of. My current campaign has a political figure, albeit a noble born Lord, reaching the end of his years. The whole region is being filled with unrest as everyone begins to make moves for the seat of power. I purposely put his death a ways out so that the players have time to gain traction and power with other nobles.

Now that I’m thinking on it, there was a short novel of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, where the Ruler died and his two sons started a war for succession, with the heroes (as mercenaries) on both sides.
The ruler wasn’t dead, it was only a complicated scheme.