I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

[Funksaw]

I had a few ideas for a fantasy campaign, but wanted to know if you guys had any suggestions that could add to it.

 

Here's my idea.

 

Pymuscon is on the eve of civil war. The country is a kingdom and transitioning democracy. The head of state is the king, the nobles in the house of lords form the upper house, the commoners form the house of commons through representative democracy. The majority of power rests in the House of Lords, however, and the King remains executive. Kron, the largest province of Pymuscon, with about 1/3rd of the population, has fended off a major invasion that threatened the entirety of the country. Yet, there has been no help from the House of Lords in rebuilding the country - and in fact has passed onerous taxes upon the Kronians.

 

The Kronians have petitioned for grievances, and even has the support of the House of Commons, but the majority of the House of Lords, for selfish reasons - has decided not to help. (Part of this is that through the impoverishment of Kron, the other districts' landholders are relatively more wealthy.)

 

As things stand, the Kronian lords have not attended caucus, has returned home and have started raising their armies. In response, the other lords have started raising Pymuscon's armies as well, and the entire thing seems like there will be an inevitable rebellion of Kron from Pymuscon.

 

The PCs are agents of the King, whose motives are a bit more complicated. The king wants to avoid civil war, and is devoting nearly all of his resources to that aim. However, believing civil war is very likely, he knows that it will be far less bloody the shorter it is. For that reason, he's hoping to present an overwhelming amount of force to the war, to make sure that the war is as short as possible. He tasks the PCs with several tasks, including:

 

• Ask if they can secure the alliance with the Elves. They agreed to Pymuscon's defense, but the fact that this is a civil war makes the whole thing questionable, and the long-lived elves see no need to have their sons and daughters killed when the civil war will last a short time (to an elf).
  
• Seek out the designs of weapons of war from the Dwarves - and obtain them through any means, whether trade, subterfuge, or coercion.
  
• Seek out treasure to fill the coffers of the country's treasury, to pay for the war effort.
  

 

Complicating matters is that, obviously, the lords of Krom do not want the PCs to strengthen their enemies, and will interfere. Yet, Krom is not *yet* at war with Pymuscom, and will not yet attack directly. And the third player in all this, the House of Commons, wants to make a power grab of their own, and will try to convince - or trick - the PCs into handing over their finds to *them* so that they can wrest power from the House of Lords.

 

I'm planning on calling the campaign: "Some would call it treason."

 

Your thoughts?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

 

Possible fifth-columnists for the nation which attempted the recent invasion of Kron. It could have agents or sympathizers among the House of Lords, the House of Commons, or both, trying to foment civil war and the opportunity to seize territory by guile that it could not through force.

 

The Elves or Dwarves may look more favorably on active alliance with the king of Pymuscon if his agents were to help them discretely solve a problem, internal or external, which their rulers don't want to be seen meddling in.

 

Wars are very expensive. The king of Pymuscon could try to bolster his treasury by sending the PCs after some rumored treasure: an abandoned city, haunted mine, or dragon's trove. Or perhaps some of Pymuscon's wealthier lords have been reticent to pay their feudal dues, so the king has his agents stealthily "liberate" the funds he's owed.

 

The king may have an ambitious relative with an interest in sabotaging his efforts, hoping to make the king look weak and ineffectual enough that his kinsman will gain the support needed to seize the throne.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

 

Who were the invaders that Kron fended off? They might be interested in fomenting a civil war so they can try again once the country has been weakened by war. Their involvement is important on two fronts. First, their agents might be harassing the PCs which may add another layer of complexity.

 

Second, and maybe more importantly for the story arc, the involvement of a foriegn nation gives the various parties either a common enemy to unite against or at least a scapegoat to blame their problems for which may allow tensions to be calmed down without anyone losing face.

[Cancer]

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

 

If anyone (including the King, though it's better if it's not obvious that he's doing it) can extirpate one of more of the noble houses, their lands and treasuries devolve back to the Crown "peaceably". Of course, forfeiture of lands and treasuries is among the penalties for treason, but treasonous lords tend to spend all they have in an overthrow attempt.

 

So, wiping out the houses of the Kronian lords is something the civil war could well do, and they'll be spending everything on war anyway.

 

But those non-Kron lords who want Kron taken down ... they are hoarding their stuff, will resist making "contributions" to the cause of suppressing the rebellious province, etc. Having them get wiped out (and their titles disappear and everything go back to the Crown) would serve two purposes: it enriches the Crown directly; it also removes greedy b*stiches from the House of Lords and may make the voting remnant of that House more likely to lighten up on Kron; it may intimidate other like-minded Lords into less of a "persecute Kron" policy.

 

So having assassination-minded PCs go in to take out a particularly intransigent lord, and in the process casting just enough clues to implicate a (fictitious) conspiracy of Kronese so as to keep the King's hands clean, is another possibility that doesn't require involvement by other forces.

[bluesguy]

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

 

I could also see the Kronian lords decide that maybe the people who tried to invade might be better allies than enemies....

[Lord Liaden]

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

 

And that leads me to ask, what do the rest of Pymuscon's neighbors think of these doings? Any potential allies for either side to court?

[Funksaw]

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

 

And that leads me to ask' date=' what do the rest of Pymuscon's neighbors think of these doings? Any potential allies for either side to court?[/quote']

 

I think I can spill the beans now - this entire scenario is a thinly veiled "file the serial numbers off" reference to the American Revolution. The King of Pymuscom is King George III, who I'm giving *FAR* more credit than the real King George deserves. The "invaders" that invaded "Krom" (the British American Colonies) are the French (along with American Indian allies) and indeed they *do* end up siding with the Americans in the real history.

 

The whole scenario is a "what if" history. The PCs are in the *only* position possible in order to change history, to work towards reconciliation with England - or to eventually side with American independence.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

 

Then to carry this analogy further, there may be a confederation of tribes of "barbarians" on the border of Kron, perhaps between it and the invading nation. If either Kron or Pymuscon succeed in gaining their assistance in a war, its position will be greatly strengthened. OTOH if PCs were to achieve a permanent peace treaty with the barbarians for all of Pymuscon, securing the border and creating a buffer against the analogue to France, that could go a long way toward easing tensions within Pymuscon.

 

I get the impression that this campaign has a "Game of Thrones" tone to it, emphasizing political maneuvering and subterfuge at least as much as combat. Would that be an accurate assessment?

[Funksaw]

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

 

Then to carry this analogy further, there may be a confederation of tribes of "barbarians" on the border of Kron, perhaps between it and the invading nation. If either Kron or Pymuscon succeed in gaining their assistance in a war, its position will be greatly strengthened. OTOH if PCs were to achieve a permanent peace treaty with the barbarians for all of Pymuscon, securing the border and creating a buffer against the analogue to France, that could go a long way toward easing tensions within Pymuscon.

 

I get the impression that this campaign has a "Game of Thrones" tone to it, emphasizing political maneuvering and subterfuge at least as much as combat. Would that be an accurate assessment?

 

Pretty much, although I hated "Game of Thrones"

[Lord Liaden]

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign.

 

Then this might be of some use to you. A while back I posted a thread outlining a concept I had for such a campaign, with plenty of specific plot seeds. I put it up because, although it's based in Hero Games's own Turakian Age setting, it's general enough to easily apply to others, and I included suggestions on how to adapt it: Besruhan Intrigues. The campaign has several similar features to your own proposal, so hopefully there are a few things you could steal.