Comments on: The Pain of Campaigning IV: Put a Little Politics in it

By: Pain of Campaigning VII: The Finale (Part I: What You Want the Adventure to be) | Critical Hits

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:51:47 +0000

[...] The Pain of Campaigning II: Starting the Game The Pain of Campaigning III: The Plot Thickens The Pain of Campaigning IV: Put a Little Politics In It The Pain of Campaigning V: Suitable Villains The Pain of Campaigning VI: Give Your Villains Some [...]

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:08:41 +0000

I was thinking of a homebrew that reflects the modern financial crisis… Where the loans and investments in a particular nation have gotten out of hand and the financial system has deteriorated to the point of riots and anarchy. At this point powerful merchant cartels are vying for control for cities and provinces in the country. To further complicate matters leaders in specific provinces of the country have appealed to neighboring demi-human nations for help. In one area the local authorities have given an elven kingdom carte blanche with the elves ruling and controlling the economy in all but name.

By: Bartoneus

Bartoneus — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:17:08 +0000

I’m glad we re-posted this because I’d forgotten a lot of the specifics from the post, and I hadn’t gotten to going back and reading it yet. It’s fun because when the Main Event wrote this we were discussing my preparations for my game, and now my game has been running for a couple of months and we’re just getting to the parts that more directly involve some politics.

Vreeg: I really like the list of considerations you have there, thanks for sharing! I’ll have to add most of those to my notes and see if I can answer / outline them.

By: LordVreeg

LordVreeg — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:46:19 +0000

ok. I’ll be that guy who comments on an old post and in the context of other posters who won’t even notice. Fine.

I want to mention a slightly different perspective.
That is from the ‘why do PC’s adventure?’ Games that are normally deep enough to get into politics normally have PC’s that are not just adventuring for the sake of adventuring, they are collecting prestige and wealth…and in most societies, that normally starts equating into power.

This also means figuring out not just the top layer of the politcal cake, but the underpinnings as well. What guilds have power? What power does the military really have? The priesthood? Who is out of power and wants to get in?
And at the base of this, who uses money to get where? Who does the thieve’s guild pay off? Who runs the docks, who smuggles drugs, who needs weapons, what laws are their to break, who hires assassins, who needs protecting…

It’s only when you can answer these questions in some way that your PC’s can really fall into the political side of the game.

By: Gnome Rodeo: More Links than a Sausage Golem

Gnome Rodeo: More Links than a Sausage Golem — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:13:12 +0000

[...] Critical Hits: The Pain of Campaigning IV: Put a Little Politics in it gets its peanut butter/politics in my [...]

By: Bob Younce at D&D Reviews

Bob Younce at D&D Reviews — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:46:21 +0000

This is some of my favorite stuff, to the point where I’ve had players complain about it!

Power of Faerun is a great resource for this sort of thing, by the way, even if you’re not playing Realms.

By: ScottM

ScottM — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:46:06 +0000

You really have to pitch it right. In our last game, there were two players who were somewhat interested in the “pick a faction to back” political maneuvering and two players who checked out. J mentioned that she gets plenty of political maneuvering at work, and B often fights to stay awake after a long and draining week.

Part of the new campaign pitch was that politics would be explicitly skippable… it still moves in the backgrounds, but if the PCs want to skip ahead and get to the next confrontation, that works.

By: Tommi

Tommi — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:31:15 +0000

I am yet to run a game where the players play nobility, but see no reason to start a really political game in any other way.

By: Rauthik

Rauthik — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:35:17 +0000

This was a great article. Nice job! I’m now reading the other parts that I somehow missed (instead of doing my work.. you might get a call from my boss, by the way). I’ve only attempted a political campaign once (back in 2nd edition) and it worked out great. Now I’m planning 4e campaigns and you’ve kind of re-opened doors that I had forgotten about. Thanks again and keep this kind of stuff coming!

By: TheMainEvent

TheMainEvent — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:02:05 +0000

WWI / WW2: I kinda combined them both. The big war in game 2.5 (where the ‘Original Characters’ were around, but spread out doing their own thing… like running kindgoms) was sparked by Bobo the Bullywug King (a 2nd Tier PC w/ a Trident of Fish Command) uniting the Bullywug tribes with a rogue noble and declaring independence after an assassination…. that was WWI.

The war though was against a monolithic evil undead kingdom and involved uniting the other people’s against their might. WW2ish.

By: OriginalSultan

OriginalSultan — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:38:50 +0000

The New World Age of Discovery game was one of the more memorable ones that you ran. The players definitely had a big role to play in the political landscape of that game.

Which of your games were based on WW1 and WW2?

By: Reverend Mike

Reverend Mike — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:15:02 +0000

Did this very thing in my first campaign with an ambitious new king taking over for a puppet figurehead…toss in a little suspicion of assassination, a sprinkle of unusually large standing army, blend thoroughly (oh yes, standing armies will blend), and I had me quite the political smoothie…

Good times…