Political Machinations - Brevoy vs Restov

[Curghann]

I've managed to at least tenuously link a couple of my PC's to the Surtova side of things in Brevoy, while linking another somewhat strongly to the Orlovsky/Medvyed/Garess faction. Another was strongly linked with the Aldori Swordlords, so would have leaned anti-Surtova, but he died fighting the Stag Lord.

The other 2 PC's are fairly neutral in their views.

The first PC linked with the current Regency is an ex-noble (Rich Parents trait) who renounced his claim/inheritance to go an spread the word of Iomedae. He's a Knight/Paladin (homebrewed feat like Daring Outlaw and the like allowing for easy multiclassing and some class ability level stacking) that was approached by an emmissary of the Regent at the party's "going away party" in Restov and asked to send messages with the group's progress via bird back to New Stetven. He somewhat grudgingly agreed, and sent a few messages back to the throne during their adventures in the Greenbelt. He's not too fond of nobility, but really has no reason not to take orders from the rightful ruler of his homeland.

The second PC kind of linked to the Dragonscale Throne is the replacement for the one that was connected to the Swordlords. He is a cleric of Sarenrae and his backstory is that the Dawnmother does not have a very strong presence in Brevoy, and that the church petitioned for permission to expand it's presence. The Regent gave them a mission to investigate "The Vanishing" and decreed a decision would be made depending on the success of this assignment. (I have decided to link Nyrissa's doings with The Vanishing for the time being so that the new character's goals would somewhat line up with the existing party's motivations.) He was found as a prisoner in the Stag Lord's fort and provided some very useful (to the DM and the players) background information on the SL and a small foreshadowing of Nyrissa's involvement and plans. He was included in the kingdom charter by the crown on the hopes that he would be an ally for them on their ruling council (He is a Rostlander by trait, so he is not terribly inclined that way, but I'm hoping pressure from the church to do right by the thronw will add some interesting politicking).

The character staunchly in the non-Surtova camp is a gnome from House Medvyed who was taken on as a Ward when a minor noble took a liking to him (Noble Born - Medvyed trait, but being a gnome not actually a "blood" noble). He's a worshiper of Erastil and I've determined the Medvyed's still hold to the "old ways" of Erastil, which I've established is less refined than most other "modern" religions. His patron has given him some insights into the Brevic political issues, explaining that the original plan for the exploration charter was for Brevoy to settle the lands, but that neighboring factions communicated this would be an act of war. He has also communicated that Garess is listening to what Orlovsky/Medvyed have to say about the Surtova's, but is not willing to make any public declarations of support.

Rather than deal with a a vacancy penalty for a Magister, they decided to hire out the job and received qualified offers from both Restov and Brevoy proper to fill the gap. They chose the representative from Restov via vote.

What I'd like to do is present some opportunities that are beneficial to their new kingdom as well as Brevoy and Restov, but with some personal motivations for the new nation's leaders, that perhaps might carry some small, difficult to see negatives for the other political body if accepted. I'd like for these decisions to have lasting impacts on their nation, both for the good and for the bad depending on what they choose.

We've just started RRR, only 3 turns into their initial year of kingdom building at this point. I've been reading through the next few modules trying to get more details on the growing issues between Issia and Rostland, but I havent really seen much yet. Does anyone have any ideas on some small things that I can present to the new kingdom along these lines?

Not sure if it matters/helps, but I'm going to be using Hargulka's Monster Kingdom in RRR as I really like the changes introduced there.

Thanks for the time.

[redcelt32]

Couple of suggestions:

First, figure out what the long term agenda of Surtova, the Med-Orl-Gar alliance, and the swordlords. That will give you some guidelines of who is the most desperate for connections to the new players kingdoms, etc.

For instance, the swordlords have no really noble standing to speak of, so giving them a connection to a kingdom that gets them some real clout would be pretty important. They would probably be willing to give up more to get less over any of the others.

Also, even if the players accept the offers of one side, keep the counter offers coming from the other sides, even if it gets really amazing. Think of the players kingdom as a new market and the opposing factions like two competing companies trying to win that market. They just keep outdoing the other until they get what they came for. Of course, if the bidders are forced farther than they want to go, they might just decided that physically owning that market is cheaper than incentives :)

The biggest thing to remember is that nothing is free. Everyone wants something in return, and IMO most of the tradeoffs should be something that some member of the council doesn't want. This creates discussion and politics in your PCs kingdom as well :) For instance, in my game, the NPC priestess did not want the churches of Abadar and Gorum in the new kingdom. At a dinner party in Brevoy for the ruling council of our kingdom, one of the church leaders of Gorum offered in private to build the general a barracks in every settlement of their kingdom for free. THe only catch was he got to put a small chapel inside each one and assign a priest to the soldiers staying there. When the High Priestess found out she was obviously unhappy, so the players had to build a cathedral for Sarenrae in return to placate her.

You can also have the opposing factions that are presenting good things to the PCs kingdom start going after each other through the players. For instance, medvyed might sell lumber from the Grozni to the PCs for normal price and increae the price they sell it to Surtova. The catch would be that the PCs cannot resell it to Surtova. When med-orl-gar alliance suddenly has a shortage of lumber next, that puts your PCs in the middle, and sneakily creates discord between them and Surtova, which helps the alliance. This is a good way to get complicated politics in your game. However, this is admittedly a bit cutthroat, so only do this sort of sneakiness if you like a political campaign.

Dunno if this is what you were looking for or not, so hopefully it gives you a few ideas.

[redcelt32]

Oh and don't forget spies :)

[Aestereal]

I would look into the "Venture Capital: A Deal with the Devil" thread. Though it's targeted a bit earlier in the game than you're at, it's still got ideas for motivations for the different houses. I would also consider offering the PCs politically-useful marriages to some of the houses in order to pull them in more deeply.

As for the war, there's not much in the books, unfortunately. Fortunately, however, there are a lot of wars in history to look at. I'm planning to model my Brevic Civil War (vaguely) off of the Hundred Years War in that it'll start with a bang and then kind of grind pointlessly for a long time (unless the PCs do something about it).

[Keydan]

In my game, year 3, I and players rolled d100 to determine who bad the politics and changes go. Essentially during year 1 i rolled that Garess are in deep trouble, economically, due to the "dwaren incident" and rolled several d6 to serve as the monthly countdown to their real bankruptcy. And the time came up during last downtime period between book 2 and 3.

Essentially with no trade money to pay the standing armies and uphold some services, Garess had a few uprisings that enede with them having to accept aid from Lebeda, on the grounds they won't vote against Surtova.

Soon after a great meeting of nobles was held, and Surtova asked for a vote, which he won, since the stalemate was broken. Now he declared himself Tzar proper of all lands and peoples which are Brevic, and Orlovsky along side Medved are in talks, since they heavily oppose this, in 2d4 months a civil war may start. Restov is playing cool for now.

Colonies are cut off, to fend for themselves. De facto independent, de jure Brevoy still has claims to their land.

I mostly model Brevoy on early medieval Rus' and Surtova on a mix of Ivan III and Ivan IV. But of course it's all much deeper than this.

Each house has a bit more personality on their own. Lebeda are rich and closely associate with Abadar. Surtova is a sly player. Medvied is traditionalist and reactionary. Orlovski is isolationist. Garess is, well, broke and in deep trouble. Lodovka are traders-pirates. Everyone has agendas that they could somehow further in Brevoy and outside.