Playtest Campaign Suggestions

[Steve Long]

To help people get started (once they have the rules, natch!), I thought I’d post a list of possible games or campaigns you could run using the Kingdom rules. For playtesting purposes it’s preferable that many different types of games are run to “redline the engine,” so to speak. To put it another way, I don’t want everyone to run games with Fantasy kingdoms! So, here’s a list of just a few of the ideas I’ve had, some of which I hope to try out with my own group:

Low Fantasy kingdoms, or fiefdoms/regions within a large kingdom

High Fantasy kingdoms, with lots of different magical military types (skeleton infantry, sorcerer elite units, dragon air cav...)

Any historical war (Napoleonics, Vietnam, WWII, War of Jenkins’ Ear, Hundred Years War, etc.)

Renaissance-level kingdoms with no magic, just technology

Victorian or Pulp secret societies fighting a “shadow war” across the globe

Cold War-era espionage organizations playing the “great game”

Modern-day nations in geopolitical conflict/maneuvering

Modern-day conspiratorial organizations fighting a “shadow war”

Modern-day US interest groups struggling for power and influence on the American sociopolitical scene

Champions organizations (UNTIL vs. VIPER vs. DEMON vs. ARGENT vs. PRIMUS and on and on...)

Cyber Hero-style “megacorporations” struggling for profit, power, and influence on the world sociopolitical scene

Low Science Fiction colonized planets in the Sol System engaged in a system war

Low Science Fiction “great houses” struggling for power and influence on the galactic sociopolitical scene (think: like the Federated Houses of the Landsraad in Dune)

High Science Fiction interstellar empires (Federation vs. Klingons vs. Romulans vs. Cardassians, Minbari vs. Centauri vs. Narn vs. Humans, etc.)

Try to “re-create” a board game such as Diplomacy, Risk, Supremacy, or Twilight Imperium


If you have any ideas, feel free to post ’em here to inspire others.

[Super Squirrel]

What I don't see a clear fit for is the current campaign I'm working on. It is a cross between Any Historical War and Low-Fantasy Kingdom. The campaign is a Robin Hood style resistance outlaw campaign.

[Steve Long]

There may not be a fit for your campaign, or any other type of campaign. Not all campaigns need/require Kingdom-level play.

But for that matter, the list isn't intended to be exhaustive. I could easily see a "Robin Hood" game that switches between one session of Kingdom-level play featuring the various nobles of the land, and one of personal-level play where our Righteous Outlaw Heroes deal with the consequences of the most recent political maneuvering. If the ROHs are sufficiently popular and powerful, they might even be written up as a Kingdom themselves for Kingdom-level play.

[mayapuppies]

I am so in the 'Hating You' mode right now.

Such a tease! I have to finish my damn book and you throw this in my face? Have you no sympathy?

[Steve Long]

Have you no sympathy?

:: points at self::
Has no soul, hates people... remember?

[Captain Obvious]

The "no soul, hates people" thing is why this is coming out now. I'm moving so soon it ain't funny...my wife's already plotting to pack up the whole house and live out of boxes, and I might be able to make it to two more game sessions with the local group before I go, and I have no way in hell of doing any kind of playtest any time soon.

I'd be so all over this if I had the time and the people to do it, though. The list of possibilities just makes it worse.

[mayapuppies]

:: points at self::
Has no soul, hates people... remember?

This is a lawyer thing, isn't it?

[Steve Long]

No, it's just me.

[GreyGuardian]

One category that is probably included in the ones listed, but not explicitly stated is present day or near future (cyberpunk) mega corporations battling for resources (personnel, patents, information etc.) and / or their interactions with national governments.

A related idea I've been pondering - how to include geographically distant friends in an ongoing rpg without having a huge time burden on the game master or distance disadvantage friend?

The solution which I haven't thought through all the way might benefit from or fit right into the concept of the ultimate base. The rough idea is - Give players that can't be present factional groups which have their own agendas that are likely to interact with or be relevant to the player characters. In theory this would provide events to report to the local folk that would enhance the setting by making it feel more real since there would be on going events that are not driven specifically to affect or avoid the player characters. Second, it should provide some variation in overall strategy for these external player organizations - compared to having one game master running all factions. These factional groups should ideally be competing for resources, power, etc. amongst themselves and vs. game mastered factions and periodically against the group of player characters.

Examples for a star hero game would be interstellar corporations, subgroups of the military, law enforcement, and bureaucracies, both alien and within the empire (for Terran empires), mercenaries, and conspiratorial "secret" organizations (both for good and ill to overall society). Actions might include business acquisitions, dispatching exploratory or trade missions, intelligence gathering, public opinion manipulation, political influence spending for or against items up for vote or decision, etc. In order to manage that these factional groups would need resources that are somewhat defined and a rate at which those resources refresh or means to refresh them.

For example a trading company might have 10 large freighters and 2 small trading ships intended to scout new markets and make new opportunities for the company. They might have 4 espionage missions available per year and 5 "units" of security personnel that can be reassigned and used for various tasks (that would not include the routine security provided for the freighters or other business resources like warehouses.) 2 propaganda / communication "resources" with options for acquiring more from advertising or government sources. There would be a sphere of influence and their relationship with other factions. Etc.

[SCUBA Hero]

Such a tease! I have to finish my damn book and you throw this in my face? Have you no sympathy?

Hey, at least you *have* a damn book to finish!!!

No, I'm not jealous. At. All.

[Steve]

Champions organizations (UNTIL vs. VIPER vs. DEMON vs. ARGENT vs. PRIMUS and on and on...)

Will the rules you are creating allow "zooming in" on more local conflicts? For example, VIPER vs. UNTIL can be run as worldwide in scope, but it is also composed of smaller conflicts at a regional level. Will the rules allow for shifting focus down to a single region (Europe) or a single city (Millenium City) and causing changes to the overall world picture?

I could see running the local PRIMUS/UNTIL base versus the local VIPER nests as a smaller focus point for specific campaign actions, but I can also see the worldwide struggle being the main campaign.

It would be cool to see some examples of play with such entities as UNTIL/VIPER.

I also have a campaign suggestion to add to the playtest list:

Hudson City PD vs. The Mafia Families (or Yakuza, etc).

[Steve Long]

Will the rules you are creating allow "zooming in" on more local conflicts? For example, VIPER vs. UNTIL can be run as worldwide in scope, but it is also composed of smaller conflicts at a regional level. Will the rules allow for shifting focus down to a single region (Europe) or a single city (Millenium City) and causing changes to the overall world picture?

Well, yeah -- otherwise it would be hard to include "Low Fantasy" and "Interstellar Empires" on the same list of potential campaigns. Regardless of what type of Kingdom you have, it's just a matter of scaling up or down.

[Marcus Impudite]

How about unearthly kingdoms, such as Heaven and Hell (or Elysium and Netherworld as they're called in The Mystic World book)?

[Steve Long]

Sure, you could do that, though I suppose you might need to add a few homebrewed rules, or redefine what constitutes an "economy" in Heaven.

[Captain Obvious]

...or redefine what constitutes an "economy" in Heaven.

Worshippers.