Reversing Kingdom rules for an insurrection campaign?

[PlatinumShadow]

So was looking for advice on any warnings, problems or suggestions on using the updated Kingdom rules from Ultimate Campaign in reverse for a group of PCs who are using guerrilla attacks as part of their conspiracy to abolish the kingdom they are in and strip it of its power to rule over the people.

The normal rules are:

"Unrest increases by 1 for each kingdom attribute (Economy, Loyalty, or Stability) that is a negative number. If the kingdom's Unrest is 11 or higher, it loses 1 hex (the leaders choose which hex).

If you lose control of a hex because of Unrest, you lose all the benefits of any terrain improvements in that hex. All settlements in that hex become free cities with no loyalty to you or any other kingdom.

If your kingdom's Unrest ever reaches 20, the kingdom falls into anarchy. While in anarchy, your kingdom can take no action and treats all Economy, Loyalty, and Stability check results as 0."

So, given that the bonuses to Economy, Loyalty and Stability are generated by institutions and structures in the City Squares and Hexes in the countryside, if the PCs started successfully carrying out attacks against them which resulted in their destruction and/or the deaths of their officers, theoretically, couldn't they slowly drain the kingdom of its access to resources and cause Unrest to rise little by little till it reaches a tipping point and is thrown into anarchy?

Example: A Bureau grants +1 to Economy and +1 to Stability. If the PCs hatch out a good plan to magically bomb the place and get away with it to read the papers, not only should they have caused 10 BP worth of damages to the state (approx. 40,000GP!) but then when the Upkeep Phase rolls around for the Kingdom, it would no longer have those benefits to its Economy and Stability, unless the Kingdom invested the BP necessary to build another one in time.

So, provided the PCs use clever planning, relentless attacks and determination, they could, perhaps with some NPC allies gathered along the way, slowly overthrow the Kingdom 1 Unrest point at a time, right?

My questions are: Is this TOO easy and does the Unrest threshold to put a Kingdom into anarchy need to be higher with these considerations? Since, if you cause enough damage and kill enough people it doesn't seem like it would take too long to reach Unrest 20. One idea I had as DM was simply to rule that every time they increase Unrest by another 11 points the Kingdom loses control of one hex but does not go into full blown anarchy until they have caused it to lose control of ALL hexes under its control (so if the Kingdom controls 20 hexes the PCs have to cause 220 Unrest over all).

This sounds to me like a very fun campaign concept which lets the PCs sandbox it for a bit as freedom fighters while using the mechanics to fairly track their actual progress overall rather than just fluffing it.

Thoughts? Problems? Ideas for refinement?

[Chemlak]

I like the idea. You'll need to ensure that you have some solid rules in place for damaging buildings, and I would strongly recommend that you have a solid kingdom in place, with rulers and so forth, before the campaign begins. Run the kingdom for a year or so before the PCs start tearing it to pieces, to make sure it's viable and won't just collapse on its own.

Also pay very close attention to the available city guard and city watch, since those will be the people the PCs will have opposing them a lot of the time.

I doubt it would take too long for the rulers to start implementing harsher rule, once they realise that the PCs (even if they have no clue who they are) mean business. Be ready to increase taxation, reduce holidays, and build armies. And don't be afraid to throw them at the PCs if they start getting too obvious.

You might want to consider making the PCs the rulers of their own "kingdom", with its own stats, so that they can "steal" hexes, and use diplomacy to incite rebellion. Legendary Games' Ultimate Rulership also introduces Espionage Edicts which could do interesting things.

Also, don't forget to make the kingdom's rulers have some pretty beefy protection: one kidnapped Treasurer can cause a lot of short-term damage.

Frankly, I love the idea, but it will require a bit of work to balance and create rules to cover the bits missing from the basic kingdom rules.

[PlatinumShadow]

Chemlak wrote:

I like the idea. You'll need to ensure that you have some solid rules in place for damaging buildings, and I would strongly recommend that you have a solid kingdom in place, with rulers and so forth, before the campaign begins. Run the kingdom for a year or so before the PCs start tearing it to pieces, to make sure it's viable and won't just collapse on its own.

Also pay very close attention to the available city guard and city watch, since those will be the people the PCs will have opposing them a lot of the time.

Yeah that makes me think of the rules for Catastrophes! included in the Council of Thieves AP that dealt with things like collapsing buildings and the spread of fire within them.

I was actually thinking of using a kingdom from Golarion's map, such as Taldor, Cheliax or one of the River Kingdoms. Ive found several hex maps of Avistan that might work to that end. The trouble is I wish those nations had their kingdoms already "statted" out so to speak, as it will require counting the hexes to determine Control DC, looking at individual cities by population and determining percentages of city guard and garrison and a lot of guessing at which improvements the City Squares possess, except for obvious ones on any available city maps.

[Chemlak]

You're not the only one wishing for "statted out kingdoms"! I'm having similar issues.

Fortunately, population is an easy one to get right, but you do have to guess more than a little about buildings.

Perhaps some helpful soul with too much time on their hands could write up a Community Use PDF with some conversions in it.

[PlatinumShadow]

Ha! Well I guess if I do some decent work on it, I will share whatever stats I work out. At least it'd be something.

But yeah Armies of Golarion and Kingdoms of Golarion would be *very* much (as in $$) appreciated, Paizo, if you are reading (and I know your all-seeing eye is :P).