Overview
I'm back today with part two of this series, where I'm taking a look at the types of governments that the D&D 5e Dungeon Master's Guide provides to DMs, looking to create some homebrew kingdoms of their own. I'm providing explanations, plot ideas, and also some thoughts on how to structure these governments for your games, where political avenues may be the party's best bet.
Today, we're going over a bureaucracy, which page 18 of the DMG describes as:
"Various departments [that] compose the government, each responsible for an aspect of rule. The department heads, ministers, or secretaries answer to a figurehead autocrat or council."
With that description at our disposal, let's dive into creation!
Who Are the Important People?
My Tri-Panthonic War campaign actually has two bureaucratic kingdoms: one in Biharte, which the players have not visited, and one in Degoa, which they have. I'd like to talk about the latter in this context.
The first question you have to ask yourself is what departments exist in my bureaucracy? This is really important, because each department is supposed to act as a facet of the government. What pieces of rule require their own departments? In Degoa, I had the following departments with a secretary for each one:
- State: oversaw diplomatic matters, as well as all other departments on behalf of the queen.
- Treasury: responsible for taxation, trade, and incoming revenue.
- Defense: oversaw the general defense of the kingdom - basically everything from local guards to the national army and navy.
- Justice: responsible for the court system, upholding laws in court, and anything to do with prison or incarceration.
- Agriculture: oversaw the production of food, including both produce and livestock.
- Communications: oversaw and supervised courtier services and any public means of communication, including arcane communication. They were also responsible for the quality of the roads in the kingdom.
- Arcana: oversaw the use of magic and was also responsible for educating mages within the kingdom.
- Papers: oversaw licensing for anything from magic use to businesses, and also responsible for the creation / checking of travel papers or passports for the kingdom.
These are just suggestions of course. More or less departments could be used, depending on the kind of society you want to create. If the kingdom has public education, consider making an education department. My inspiration for this came from looking up the different departments within the executive branch of the United States. The US president has several secretaries that serve on his Cabinet, and that is kind of how I intended for this to be.
The capital city housed the main departments with the secretaries. However, all cities had offices for each of these departments in them, with undersecretaries and agents that worked within those offices. As you can see, there are a lot of people who could be important here, depending on what your players do and what kind of plots you have in mind.
The last thing to think about is the fact that this bureaucracy typically has a ruler at the top. The description in the book says that this leader is a figurehead, and I think that's an important detail to remember. That could be a really good detail to explore in a political plot. In Degoa, there is a queen who serves as this figurehead. Her responsibilities are few and far between, and almost everything is left to the secretaries. As a result, they're the ones with the power. The party may try to avoid the red tape of the bureaucracy and go straight to the queen... only to find that there's not much the queen can do for them.
Another important question: what exactly is the relationship between a monarch and their bureaucracy? That will lead us into our next section.
Function / Motivations
As I stated in my last part, the overall objective of any of these institutions is to rule. They are the systems of law that allow a society to function.
However, overall motivations of particular groups may vary, and that's where the party comes in to interact with these types of NPCs and forward the plot.
- Does the monarch enjoy being the figurehead? Do they mind the fact that they're really just a show piece or a symbol? The party could be hired by the monarch to help them become important, to dismantle the bureaucracy.
- Do one of the departments need a little extra funding? Could the party go on a quest to get them something like a dragon's hoard? And of course, the party would get a cut too.
- Two departments can't agree on whether or not a certain issue belongs to their department or the other. The State Department calls the party in as impartial judges.
- A bureaucracy is often a very strict form of government with a lot of paperwork and "red tape" to jump through. Do they interfere with the party's goals? A task that might seem simple in other kingdoms just got a lot more difficult when the party is forced to deal with the bureaucracy. Can they find a way to accomplish their goal quietly? Can they make allies within the departments so they don't have to deal with that red tape?
A bureaucracy, much more than some other types of governments, is strict. Everything has to be in its proper place. The more departments that are involved, the messier and harder things get. In my opinion, a bureaucracy is more likely to be an obstacle for your PCs rather than an opportunity for allies. Individuals in a certain department may be willing to help your party... but the department itself might not care unless a huge favor was done for them. Even then, once they've held up their end of the bargain, they're not likely to help again unless another favor was done.
Speaking of favors, some bureaucracies may also be highly corrupt. The Treasury could be hiking up taxes, Agriculture might be lowering its standards for acceptable food for some reason, Arcana might be cracking down on certain types of magic or who can practice it, etc. In this case, your party may act as "Robin Hoods" almost, and help out the common folk.
Why Should I Include This?
In its own way, the bureaucracy is an interesting addition that makes your players think. It's hard to dismantle a government, especially one like this where there are so many different officials to worry about.
In a bureaucratic kingdom, your lawful characters will really get the chance to thrive. The best way to combat a bureaucracy is to accomplish a quest by sticking to the letter of the law, and making the process as easy as possible by including as few departments as possible. More chaotic players with chaotic characters might find this type of storyline frustrating or difficult, but not impossible. It presents an unfamiliar challenge, which is never a bad thing in D&D and storytelling. In fact, I think it encourages creativity. The "Robin Hood" type questline could also be a really good option if you have a party that leans more towards chaos.
What's Coming Next?
So, that's all I've got for the bureaucracy! My next post in this series will come in about 2 weeks, and in that case, we'll be discussing confederacies. I'll see you all then!
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