What Are We Making?
I'm back! I'm out of university (with a bachelor's degree, huzzah!) and I figured it was time to get back into blogging a little bit more. So, what are we making this time around? Well, I have a lot of new-found time, but I'm trying to "adult" a little bit now that I'm out of school. The creative wheels in my brain are turning though, and I've been coming up with campaign and character ideas... but nothing I can act on at this time, simply due to commitment. So, what else to do but write about them?
Here I've brought to you one of my specialties: a political game, filled with intrigue and drama. However, I think that this one has a bit more potential for combat than my other political games, and you'll see why. Additionally, this game allows for a ton of player input for worldbuilding, which means less work for a tired Game Master.
The question at the center of this concept is: how do you get several very different countries who all hate each other to collaborate effectively? The answer really depends on how the players go about it.
The Setting & Background Info
To start, a GM needs to ask their players to make characters that fit a role in a royal diplomatic party. Any role works, though I would advise against allowing them to be an actual member of a royal family (if there is one.) Some suggestions include, but are not limited to:
- A court jester (bard)
- A court mage (wizard, warlock, sorcerer)
- A priest or royal physician (cleric, paladin)
- A knight or general (barbarian, fighter, paladin)
- A royal gamekeeper (druid, ranger)
- A royal inventor or toymaker (artificer, wizard)
- A diplomat (literally anyone with high charisma)
- The child of one of these other positions who helps their parent out during these difficult times
- A noble who is friends or lovers with one of the royals
Each player must be from a different country. These countries are all part of the same continent, and they are the only countries on that continent. For whatever reason, none of their countries get along. This could be from a history of war, bad trade agreements, misunderstandings, etc. Game Masters should work with their players in session zero to determine exactly what the starting dynamic is.
Something happens. Whatever that is doesn't really matter, but it should have the following qualities:
- It should be unfamiliar and strange.
- It should happen in every single nation at the same time.
- It should, in some way, foreshadow events to come.
- It should be something that has to be addressed as soon as possible (because of its unfamiliar-ness), but not something immediately violent.
- The reason why it can't be violent right away is because these nations need time to realize they can trust each other before everything bad happens. The idea is that this threat is something that can only be beaten if everyone works together. You don't want to decimate your players' kingdoms immediately. Unless you do, but I don't operate like that. I like it when the NPCs don't get along right away, because then it's the PCs' social problem before the combative problem even rears its ugly head.
- Bonus points if it's something that could ultimately be considered a continental threat.
The great thing about this "event" is that it's amorphous. The GM has a lot of creative freedom in terms of what exactly this event brings and what the larger threat is to the nation.
There should also be a "home base" of sorts, which can be the first thing that the players are tasked with doing. The nations all need somewhere to meet, preferably on some sort of neutral ground. The diplomatic parties that the players are part of will settle there during this time. This place should be far away from the threat, as well; it should be a perceived "safety zone." Whether or not it's actually safe is up to GM's discretion. The political plot will happen entirely within the walls of this place.
The Plot
The overarching plot is very simple: solve whatever strange and unfamiliar threat has arrived on the continent. I have a few ideas for such a threat, and all of them would probably involve some combat or dungeon crawling.
- The nations receive a prophecy about an incoming threat (could be an evil god, demon, old one - whatever you're feeling) and need to prepare themselves in some way. The first step is getting the kingdoms to stop fighting. The second step is to figure out how this thing is coming in, and hopefully stop it.
- Towers suddenly sprout out of the ground in each of the nations. Nobody can get inside them on first glance. What's in the towers? That's for the GM to know, and the players to figure out.
- Aliens. Literally aliens. They come down from the sky in a ship, and are preparing an attack. Time to figure out how to stop them.
- A criminal empire has gotten so large and scary that they're threatening to invade the continent from all sides.
- This could also be done with something more magical, like a coven of hags or vampires, or even an evil cult.
- Could also be pirates. We all know I have an unhealthy pirate obsession.
- Think of something like "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" or "The Seven Deadly Sins." The problem could be creatures that are embodiments of / have domain over something evil. Now they're messing everything up on the continent for some reason.
While the players travel to settle that, there are things going on at that home base I mentioned earlier. After some kind of milestone in their quest, the players should be forced to return to their home base, for whatever reason. This is where the political intrigue plot is happening, and there can be a number of things going on:
- A forbidden romance between royals of two kingdoms
- An "overthrow the government from within" plot, some traitorous behavior
- A secret hostile takeover of one nation by one of the other nations
- This one in particular is interesting, because depending on how much a character likes their home nation or not, a kingdom could feasibly be absorbed by another kingdom and completely wiped out during the course of this campaign.
- An assassination of an important figure
- This is especially effective if it's someone very important. For example: a nation's "prophet-figure" who speaks to their god, the person who's been advocating most for peace and cooperation, or the sweet and innocent princess that the players love.
- If the players have family in the diplomatic party, that's also a good option. If you don't want to have them killed outright, it can also just be a solid attempt on their life.
Both of those major plots combined, in my opinion, make for a good balance of content. What you have is a compelling reason for travel and a potential for fun boss battles to save a kingdom on one hand. On the other, you have intense social-political battles to navigate as well, and a chance for some espionage. Additionally, the players also had a hand in literally making the nation they're from. They'll have strong feelings about their home and their people, one way or the other, and people are some of the most valuable resources a GM has when it comes to storytelling.
