1001 Political Issues [Archive] - Wizards Community

1001 Political Issues [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Lord_Varos
11-23-06, 01:34 PM I've never been good at inventing reasons for two noble houses, kingdoms, courtiers, advisors, or agents to disagree with one another over how the government should be run other than for their own personal gain. What I need are issues that would split the court or populace politically, besides taxes. This would take place in a sector of the world in which the PCs have not been, and so anything goes as far as specifics. If necessary, assumptions can be made about the local social or economic landscape (i.e. it could be a farming county, or everyone could belong to the same church).

1. The local count believes that landowners could become too powerful, and so ownership of farmland should be restricted to a square mile.
Goon_for_Hire
11-23-06, 05:01 PM Wow, this won't be an easy one to pour a lot of stuff into. A good political snarl requires a few paragraphs to explain.

Some from my own campaigns, based on little tidbits of European history:

2. Relatively poor aristocrats have become the puppets of wealthy guilds through moneylending. (Just like in England and Germany in the 14th through 17th centuries.)

Two guilds (.i.e. The Weaver's Guild and the Faithul Order of Habadashers,) have a dispute on who has the right to set standards on a costly process (weave weight and dye.) Rather than take it to court, they take it to the courtiers: forcing their puppets into vendettas, duels, and feuds so that they can put their best cronies at the top of the politcal structure, and make covert raids against each other's infrastructure using knights who are on the take.

3. The rich pay cheap to stay rich: being fashionable, throwing big gallas and tournaments, etc. Makes your rivals think you can afford troops. (It was a common saying in the Tudor era that "The court is just formality; all the politics happen at the dinner table")

Desperate to collect power, some nobles choose to manipulate the fashions of aristocrats in their favour. They set up smear campaigns against certain artists, tailors, guilds, or designers that sell mostly outside their territory. They even go so far as to secretly fund a cult that would appeal to certain artisitc groups, then publicly deny it and start a politcal witch hunt.

At the same time they hire bards to recite the work of specific poets, and even pay folk heros in sumptuaries that resemble their own.

4. Courly love was really a form of covert moneylending. A man praises the virtue of (often married) courtly ladies through song and poem, or dedicates performaces in tournaments to them. In exchange she gives him "tokens of affection" like silk gloves that are very expensive, and can be pawned once he has the reputation to move onto another lady. All the while, the husband/father becomes far more repuatable, because he has apparently married/sired a great beauty.

It is all governed by a set of complex, and mostly unspoken rules of decorum.

Of course, the whole thing goes south when an impressionable young lady buys into the tripe they feed the peasants and actually falls in love with a suitor. He takes advantage of her moonstruck behaviour to start sucking vast amounts from her father's treasury, and gain access to his offices under the guise of lover's trysts. He plans on using stolen information, and the girl's enfatuation to take over the father's lands, or barring that disgrace him with an illegitimate child and sell his secrets. It's up to the PCs who can act outside the court to put this right without hurting the daughter in the process.

5. In medieval Europe, the divine right of kings was about the only thing that really worked to keep peasants from revolting given the massive taxes and vast disparities in standards of living. Few aristocrats could function well without the support of the Church, so the aristocrats had to meet some pretty high demands to maintain power.

5a. In a world with many religions this has all sorts of possible efects. A would-be king needs more forces and support if he is to take the land he wants, so he offers to make laws that favour a specific god's faith, possibly even forcibly convert some of the population, if the temple will force some of its political puppets from other nations to send knights and soldiers in support. Surely the clergy of Heironeous might lend a few paladins to helping a lawful knight establish rule in a Barbarian kingdom...

5b. It also means that certain religions that embrace a different view of the aristoracy can become a threat. If they do not acknowledge the Right of kings, in favour of say, the rule of independant wise men, or democracy, then they becoem a politcal threat. To keep it down to a minimum, the nation may make laws banning certian paractices or even just promote certain fashions to exclude an unwanted group. In a world using Greyhawk deities, making rubies a sumptuary the peasants cannot legally own wold prevent lay clergy from making proper temples to Wee-jas.

(Fun fact In Ancient Greece, the Greeks made a rule that any citizen of a conquered land could participate in the Olymics if they were uncircumsized; thus excluding Jewish athletes who wouldn't leave their faith and have a reversal surgery done.)

5c. When a religion splits or a new religion comes in, they can gain enough power to stay in by promoting the right doctrine or offering the right power to faithful aristocrats. A new cult of a little known god could gain a lot of power by offering renewal pacts to aristocrats.

5d. Or better yet, A strange cult of a goddess few people have ever heard of, Illsensene, has a high level psion implant useful psionic powers into people who convert using psychic reformation or psychic chirurgery. Of course, they also offer food to beggars. Nobody notices when the beggars are sent off 'to a monestary' (food for mind flayers,) or when certain aristocrats become reclusive and wear elaborate headgear (hiding thier grafts or the plugs made when they became voidminds.)
edit13
11-23-06, 07:19 PM I doubt I'll come up with anything as elaborate as the poster above, but, I'll throw in a few, perhaps less fantasy-themed, [that's by no means a criticism, I'm merely stating that this first post will concern itself with more mundane aspects of D&D politics. ^^] ideas for your consideration:

6. After the recent, perhaps party induced emancipation of a nation from a tyrant's rule, the newly liberated populous is caught up in great political strife as they best decide how to govern their province, perhaps even holding the PCs responsible for orchestrating the current situation. [This would doubtless be encouraged by the various cronies of the deposed tyrant now hoping to re-instate themselves at the head of a similar regime.]

7. Monopolies on various products [which were often awarded by princes to their favoured nobles] will provide nigh infinite political strife as those who are awarded them manage the trade poorly and those who were not seek vengeance for the perceived slight, and perhaps even seek to sabotage the market itself.

8. Eligible young princesses or princes are often the source of a nice, understated political tension between various parties as various groups attempt to advance their own causes and influence by having the bride/groom to be marry their own candidate, launching smear campaigns and muttering in ears and all the while attempting to maintain their candidate's facade of dashing gallantry/modest elegance.

9. Heirs are veritable fonts of intrigue; as the various court factions attempt to win the princeling over to their cause, while polluting his perception of their rivals.

10. Concerning marriage again; an heir who intended to marry outside of the perceived 'acceptable candidates' might also cause fairly significant ripples at court, as would a monarch or heir who refused to marry at all.

I hope that helped you. I'll likely post again later with a few more fantasy influenced ideas.
aristotle91
11-24-06, 12:43 AM 11. The king dies with no obvious heir, sparking a succession war
12. A neighboring country has infiltrated the court and set intrigue and scandal to bring disorder and chaos
13. A powerful wizard or cleric has secretly enchanted the ruler and is pulling the strings to his benefit.
14. The king has grown angry at the strong influence of the church and began trying to take away their power. or vice versa
15. A growing resentment against a minority - elves, gnomes, whatever - is polarizing the populace. Someone in the court is stoking these flames to settle a grudge against the race.
16. The crown prince and heir to the throne has been wrongly accused of a heinous crime and is exiled, tearing a rift in the kingdom.
17. The ruler has committed a blasphemy, sparking outrage.
18. The empire is growing decadent and the conquered territories are taking up arms to win back their freedom.
19. The dying king announces a series of trials to determine who should be his heir.
20. The emperor died and his leading generals are now fighting for the crown
21. The monarch has always been marked by a sign of god's approval, and has been for centuries. Suddenly, the current king is no longer marked; the mark has appeared instead on a commoner. Civil war ensues as the king tries to hold on to power while many in the kingdom demand that the reluctant milk maid be crowned queen.
22. The queen gives birth to the king's first child, but to everyone's shocked surprise, the child is ------ (half drow, yuan-ti, etc)
23. A spy/assassin is afoot; various parties and powers blame each other in escalating violence.
24. The powerful king is slowly going insane.
25. The small kingdom of the PCs is trapped between two powerful empires; the agents of the outside powers are constantly fighting a bitter cold war in the country.
26. The yuan-ti have slowly infiltrated the government and are preparing to seize control through their puppets
27. The powerful church has been compromised by a demonic cult and is taking steps to establish itself as a theocracy.
28. The queen is kidnapped by a rival nation. Or was she? (a la The Princess Bride)
29. The monarch is a good and honest ruler, but his/her spouse is a decadent, evil fiend. But the good person is too blinded by love to see that the other is destroying the kingdom.
30. Terrible fighting in a neighboring land is driving thousands of refugees into the kingdom, causing bitter feuds in the government about whether to offer them protection, send the packing, or intervene in the war.
31. The princeses are off leading a Crusade against the heathens; the greedy courtesans are using their absence to consolidate their hold on power
nastynate
11-24-06, 01:10 AM 32. Young aristocrats duel in the streets, fight over turf, form local gangs, and cause general mayhem. The local law enforcement is all but powerless to do anything about it, because the families to which these young turks belong own the courts of law.

Meanwhile powerful and wealthy merchant guilds are beginning to become quite upset. The noble-born ruffians are terribly bad for business and disruptive to their operations and profits. There is significant tension brewing between the merchant class and the aristocracy, but the patriarchs of the aristocrat families are all but oblivious to how tenuous the situation has truly become.

33. In response to growing power of the Arcane University (or your own alternative wizardly institution), the king has passed restrictive laws on the use of magic, requiring expensive arcane licenses, registration for all arcane casters, and exorbitant fines and excessive jail sentences for any spells cast within the confines of the major cities.

The Arcane University has been cooperative thus far, but they are beginning to chaffe under the new restrictions, and are considering relocating to a rival foreign nation, which has promised them much greater freedom in exchange for certain intelligence-related favors.

34. A relatively small guild of money changers has begun shaving weight from the coins which pass through their hands, and making a bundle off of freshly minted gold and silver bars. Though they have been selling the bars almost exclusively to foreign merchants, rumors of their shady operations have begun to circulate through the streets of their home nation, and the authorities are beginning to investigate.

Luckily the money changers have numerous contacts in the mining industry, and have been able to misdirect investigations, claiming their precious metals have been obtained legally. Without concrete evidence to use against the money changers, the local government has turned to the thieves' guild to look into things for them...of course if word about the government working in cahoots with the thieves' got out...

I'll try to come up with a few more later...
jasonbrisbane
11-24-06, 02:23 AM OK, I'll offer my own Games Politics:

35. An Lord of a Castle on the outskirts of Civilization wants to regain his wife who was captured/killed by a rival Lord. In turn he hunts her down only to be turned into a Vampire. He infiltrates the Church of Death, helping establish it into the Primary Church in the Kingdom, where the populace is kept in check through fear and intimidation(Go to church or GOD will burn down your barn - oops my hand holding the lit candle slipped). The pressure the Church exerts on Political events gives the Lord his chance to start a war with the Neighbournig Ingomd, and thus throw pressure on the Rival Kingodom Lord to give back/free the body (for True Ressurection) to the (Now Vampire) Lord.
MichaelSomething
11-24-06, 10:13 PM 36. Cookies has been outlawed! A health concerned ruler outlaws the wonderful treat in an attempt to improve the health of the kingdom. However people won't give up such a tasty wonder so easily.

36a. The party can become the "Cookie Patrol" scourging the city of the underground locations where this yummy item is produced and served.

36b. The party becomes the "Cookie Mafia" setting up and running a speakeasy of sweetness! Smuggle, produce and sell the yumminess while dodging the long arm of the law!
Kobold_Avenger
11-24-06, 10:24 PM 36. Cookies has been outlawed! A health concerned ruler outlaws the wonderful treat in an attempt to improve the health of the kingdom. However people won't give up such a tasty wonder so easily.

36a. The party can become the "Cookie Patrol" scourging the city of the underground locations where this yummy item is produced and served.

36b. The party becomes the "Cookie Mafia" setting up and running a speakeasy of sweetness! Smuggle, produce and sell the yumminess while dodging the long arm of the law! Lol Pure gold!!
theotherdraxen
11-24-06, 10:32 PM 37. One kingdom says, "I'm taking your land, 'cause I can kick your ass!" The other says, "Bring it!"

Oh, you'll need a cover-up for #37: just use one of the above.
JulesCARV
11-24-06, 11:08 PM 38. Enclosure. Aristocrats fence off formerly common farmlands to graze sheep. This causes lots of rural unrest.
Mitchell
11-24-06, 11:21 PM Lol Pure gold!!

And sadly becoming more and more common in he US today. :(

39) One group feels that the other groups interests are not in the best interest of the kingdom. There are as many different sides, and combinations of sides, are there are issues the kingdom has to deal with; Road building and repair, frontier exploration, military, merchant ships and expanding their trade routes, slavery, who are our allies, who are our enemies, the power of the church (or lack thereof), you name it.
BlackMyridon
11-24-06, 11:30 PM 40:) the pcs made THE MOST POPULATED area in the world dissapear over night and FISSURES and earth quakes and landslides ranacking a country no one knows the pc's did it
so they blame it on the opposing countrys across the world
THIS HAPPEND ABOUT 5 MINUTES AGO!!! before posting this!! my pcs managed to SPLIT a tectonic plate DROPING the ocean levels a few Kilometers wiping out everything!
RedTopHat
11-25-06, 12:56 AM 41.Two princes have split the land of their father who has recently passed. one prince hires a third party from where ever( I used from the Outlands, an area populated of eviler creatures) to attack the other prince constantly raiding villages. Eventully, another kingdom finds out about the raids and plans an attack on the one princes land resulting in a war.

42. The king of a country is overthrown, and i now replaced by a democracy. He was in a state of ceasefire with a neighbouring country. I turns out that, in actuallity the new democratic country is shadow controlled by the king.
Wuggadad
11-25-06, 01:02 AM Check out some of the historical feuds:
Like Salic law. That law said that succession could only proceed through the male line. It was originally a tribal law and got applied to France. Which governed some areas that did not go along with that idea of inheritance.

In my campaign, one of the major feuds is over a certain piece of inherited land with the border defined by a particular river. A river which changes course every other decade or so if the valley floods.

I define a number of classical political conflicts:
pro-Necromantic labor, tolerant of it, or on a crusade to put them to rest
pro-Imperium, or pro-sovereignity. A classic, how much power should the king have over the barons, or how much rights do they have. One faction wants a unified legal system and trade protected the length of the kingdom, other factions don't want their people screwed by unscrupulous merchants and bankers who put their own people out of business etc...

Different parts of the kingdom will have different attitudes towards the neighbors and therefore whether to have favorable trading relations, war, or something in between. One border baronny might want peace with the dwarves because they have a port city that dwarven goods can flow through. But the neighboring baronny is jealous of the revenue or claims that the dwarves encroached on their own lands and/or mines.

In my campaign, several of the major kingdom have been ruled by very weak figureheads for centuries. The baronies occasionally get together and elect a war-leader or Duke (as in Dux Bellorum) to rule them. One baronny wants the Duke selected on the basis of personal heroism. Their candidate can beat virtually anyone in hand to hand. Another wants a canny strategizer, but their candidate is untrusted by a third faction who wants their eloquent Bardic fair haired knight on horseback.

The matters that concern the noble families could seem trivial or of great moral consequence to their subjects. Perhaps the aristocratic tradition is to sneer on the "newly ennobled" who can't trace ancestry back over five centuries. Or perhaps a particular ruler has been promoting people to command his Guard, Army and occupied territories on the basis of mere competance and ability instead of noble blood and familial loyalty to the throne. Or worse, allowing their blood to become polluted with the blood of peasant/wizards/mercenaries/foreigners/people not like us.
mlund
11-27-06, 06:33 PM You could always have the Charlemagne Problems - a ruler cares to leave his kingdom in various portions to multiple descendants.

One derivative complication is that the various vassals / landowners are now formed into several distinct pyramidal groups (Heir A's vassal chain, Heir B's chain, Heir C's chain, etc.). Yet, trade largely ignores such boundaries that stymie political influence and it provides much of the taxes that the nobles rely upon. The nobles feel their grip on the purse strings coming loose, and react in a varied ways across the land.

- Marty Lund
Eled_the_Worm_Tamer
11-27-06, 07:53 PM 43: a bad year reduces Farners incomes, but the rulers refuse (perhaps cannot aford) to lower Taxes.

44: A gifted ruler amoung the nobility has his claim to power, even his legitamacy chalenged, by iether a trator, or a henious incompetant.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lord_Varos 11-23-06, 01:34 PM	I've never been good at inventing reasons for two noble houses, kingdoms, courtiers, advisors, or agents to disagree with one another over how the government should be run other than for their own personal gain. What I need are issues that would split the court or populace politically, besides taxes. This would take place in a sector of the world in which the PCs have not been, and so anything goes as far as specifics. If necessary, assumptions can be made about the local social or economic landscape (i.e. it could be a farming county, or everyone could belong to the same church). 1. The local count believes that landowners could become too powerful, and so ownership of farmland should be restricted to a square mile.
Goon_for_Hire 11-23-06, 05:01 PM	Wow, this won't be an easy one to pour a lot of stuff into. A good political snarl requires a few paragraphs to explain. Some from my own campaigns, based on little tidbits of European history: 2. Relatively poor aristocrats have become the puppets of wealthy guilds through moneylending. (Just like in England and Germany in the 14th through 17th centuries.) Two guilds (.i.e. The Weaver's Guild and the Faithul Order of Habadashers,) have a dispute on who has the right to set standards on a costly process (weave weight and dye.) Rather than take it to court, they take it to the courtiers: forcing their puppets into vendettas, duels, and feuds so that they can put their best cronies at the top of the politcal structure, and make covert raids against each other's infrastructure using knights who are on the take. 3. The rich pay cheap to stay rich: being fashionable, throwing big gallas and tournaments, etc. Makes your rivals think you can afford troops. (It was a common saying in the Tudor era that "The court is just formality; all the politics happen at the dinner table") Desperate to collect power, some nobles choose to manipulate the fashions of aristocrats in their favour. They set up smear campaigns against certain artists, tailors, guilds, or designers that sell mostly outside their territory. They even go so far as to secretly fund a cult that would appeal to certain artisitc groups, then publicly deny it and start a politcal witch hunt. At the same time they hire bards to recite the work of specific poets, and even pay folk heros in sumptuaries that resemble their own. 4. Courly love was really a form of covert moneylending. A man praises the virtue of (often married) courtly ladies through song and poem, or dedicates performaces in tournaments to them. In exchange she gives him "tokens of affection" like silk gloves that are very expensive, and can be pawned once he has the reputation to move onto another lady. All the while, the husband/father becomes far more repuatable, because he has apparently married/sired a great beauty. It is all governed by a set of complex, and mostly unspoken rules of decorum. Of course, the whole thing goes south when an impressionable young lady buys into the tripe they feed the peasants and actually falls in love with a suitor. He takes advantage of her moonstruck behaviour to start sucking vast amounts from her father's treasury, and gain access to his offices under the guise of lover's trysts. He plans on using stolen information, and the girl's enfatuation to take over the father's lands, or barring that disgrace him with an illegitimate child and sell his secrets. It's up to the PCs who can act outside the court to put this right without hurting the daughter in the process. 5. In medieval Europe, the divine right of kings was about the only thing that really worked to keep peasants from revolting given the massive taxes and vast disparities in standards of living. Few aristocrats could function well without the support of the Church, so the aristocrats had to meet some pretty high demands to maintain power. 5a. In a world with many religions this has all sorts of possible efects. A would-be king needs more forces and support if he is to take the land he wants, so he offers to make laws that favour a specific god's faith, possibly even forcibly convert some of the population, if the temple will force some of its political puppets from other nations to send knights and soldiers in support. Surely the clergy of Heironeous might lend a few paladins to helping a lawful knight establish rule in a Barbarian kingdom... 5b. It also means that certain religions that embrace a different view of the aristoracy can become a threat. If they do not acknowledge the Right of kings, in favour of say, the rule of independant wise men, or democracy, then they becoem a politcal threat. To keep it down to a minimum, the nation may make laws banning certian paractices or even just promote certain fashions to exclude an unwanted group. In a world using Greyhawk deities, making rubies a sumptuary the peasants cannot legally own wold prevent lay clergy from making proper temples to Wee-jas. (Fun fact In Ancient Greece, the Greeks made a rule that any citizen of a conquered land could participate in the Olymics if they were uncircumsized; thus excluding Jewish athletes who wouldn't leave their faith and have a reversal surgery done.) 5c. When a religion splits or a new religion comes in, they can gain enough power to stay in by promoting the right doctrine or offering the right power to faithful aristocrats. A new cult of a little known god could gain a lot of power by offering renewal pacts to aristocrats. 5d. Or better yet, A strange cult of a goddess few people have ever heard of, Illsensene, has a high level psion implant useful psionic powers into people who convert using psychic reformation or psychic chirurgery. Of course, they also offer food to beggars. Nobody notices when the beggars are sent off 'to a monestary' (food for mind flayers,) or when certain aristocrats become reclusive and wear elaborate headgear (hiding thier grafts or the plugs made when they became voidminds.)
edit13 11-23-06, 07:19 PM	I doubt I'll come up with anything as elaborate as the poster above, but, I'll throw in a few, perhaps less fantasy-themed, [that's by no means a criticism, I'm merely stating that this first post will concern itself with more mundane aspects of D&D politics. ^^] ideas for your consideration: 6. After the recent, perhaps party induced emancipation of a nation from a tyrant's rule, the newly liberated populous is caught up in great political strife as they best decide how to govern their province, perhaps even holding the PCs responsible for orchestrating the current situation. [This would doubtless be encouraged by the various cronies of the deposed tyrant now hoping to re-instate themselves at the head of a similar regime.] 7. Monopolies on various products [which were often awarded by princes to their favoured nobles] will provide nigh infinite political strife as those who are awarded them manage the trade poorly and those who were not seek vengeance for the perceived slight, and perhaps even seek to sabotage the market itself. 8. Eligible young princesses or princes are often the source of a nice, understated political tension between various parties as various groups attempt to advance their own causes and influence by having the bride/groom to be marry their own candidate, launching smear campaigns and muttering in ears and all the while attempting to maintain their candidate's facade of dashing gallantry/modest elegance. 9. Heirs are veritable fonts of intrigue; as the various court factions attempt to win the princeling over to their cause, while polluting his perception of their rivals. 10. Concerning marriage again; an heir who intended to marry outside of the perceived 'acceptable candidates' might also cause fairly significant ripples at court, as would a monarch or heir who refused to marry at all. I hope that helped you. I'll likely post again later with a few more fantasy influenced ideas.
aristotle91 11-24-06, 12:43 AM	11. The king dies with no obvious heir, sparking a succession war 12. A neighboring country has infiltrated the court and set intrigue and scandal to bring disorder and chaos 13. A powerful wizard or cleric has secretly enchanted the ruler and is pulling the strings to his benefit. 14. The king has grown angry at the strong influence of the church and began trying to take away their power. or vice versa 15. A growing resentment against a minority - elves, gnomes, whatever - is polarizing the populace. Someone in the court is stoking these flames to settle a grudge against the race. 16. The crown prince and heir to the throne has been wrongly accused of a heinous crime and is exiled, tearing a rift in the kingdom. 17. The ruler has committed a blasphemy, sparking outrage. 18. The empire is growing decadent and the conquered territories are taking up arms to win back their freedom. 19. The dying king announces a series of trials to determine who should be his heir. 20. The emperor died and his leading generals are now fighting for the crown 21. The monarch has always been marked by a sign of god's approval, and has been for centuries. Suddenly, the current king is no longer marked; the mark has appeared instead on a commoner. Civil war ensues as the king tries to hold on to power while many in the kingdom demand that the reluctant milk maid be crowned queen. 22. The queen gives birth to the king's first child, but to everyone's shocked surprise, the child is ------ (half drow, yuan-ti, etc) 23. A spy/assassin is afoot; various parties and powers blame each other in escalating violence. 24. The powerful king is slowly going insane. 25. The small kingdom of the PCs is trapped between two powerful empires; the agents of the outside powers are constantly fighting a bitter cold war in the country. 26. The yuan-ti have slowly infiltrated the government and are preparing to seize control through their puppets 27. The powerful church has been compromised by a demonic cult and is taking steps to establish itself as a theocracy. 28. The queen is kidnapped by a rival nation. Or was she? (a la The Princess Bride) 29. The monarch is a good and honest ruler, but his/her spouse is a decadent, evil fiend. But the good person is too blinded by love to see that the other is destroying the kingdom. 30. Terrible fighting in a neighboring land is driving thousands of refugees into the kingdom, causing bitter feuds in the government about whether to offer them protection, send the packing, or intervene in the war. 31. The princeses are off leading a Crusade against the heathens; the greedy courtesans are using their absence to consolidate their hold on power
nastynate 11-24-06, 01:10 AM	32. Young aristocrats duel in the streets, fight over turf, form local gangs, and cause general mayhem. The local law enforcement is all but powerless to do anything about it, because the families to which these young turks belong own the courts of law. Meanwhile powerful and wealthy merchant guilds are beginning to become quite upset. The noble-born ruffians are terribly bad for business and disruptive to their operations and profits. There is significant tension brewing between the merchant class and the aristocracy, but the patriarchs of the aristocrat families are all but oblivious to how tenuous the situation has truly become. 33. In response to growing power of the Arcane University (or your own alternative wizardly institution), the king has passed restrictive laws on the use of magic, requiring expensive arcane licenses, registration for all arcane casters, and exorbitant fines and excessive jail sentences for any spells cast within the confines of the major cities. The Arcane University has been cooperative thus far, but they are beginning to chaffe under the new restrictions, and are considering relocating to a rival foreign nation, which has promised them much greater freedom in exchange for certain intelligence-related favors. 34. A relatively small guild of money changers has begun shaving weight from the coins which pass through their hands, and making a bundle off of freshly minted gold and silver bars. Though they have been selling the bars almost exclusively to foreign merchants, rumors of their shady operations have begun to circulate through the streets of their home nation, and the authorities are beginning to investigate. Luckily the money changers have numerous contacts in the mining industry, and have been able to misdirect investigations, claiming their precious metals have been obtained legally. Without concrete evidence to use against the money changers, the local government has turned to the thieves' guild to look into things for them...of course if word about the government working in cahoots with the thieves' got out... I'll try to come up with a few more later...
jasonbrisbane 11-24-06, 02:23 AM	OK, I'll offer my own Games Politics: 35. An Lord of a Castle on the outskirts of Civilization wants to regain his wife who was captured/killed by a rival Lord. In turn he hunts her down only to be turned into a Vampire. He infiltrates the Church of Death, helping establish it into the Primary Church in the Kingdom, where the populace is kept in check through fear and intimidation(Go to church or GOD will burn down your barn - oops my hand holding the lit candle slipped). The pressure the Church exerts on Political events gives the Lord his chance to start a war with the Neighbournig Ingomd, and thus throw pressure on the Rival Kingodom Lord to give back/free the body (for True Ressurection) to the (Now Vampire) Lord.
MichaelSomething 11-24-06, 10:13 PM	36. Cookies has been outlawed! A health concerned ruler outlaws the wonderful treat in an attempt to improve the health of the kingdom. However people won't give up such a tasty wonder so easily. 36a. The party can become the "Cookie Patrol" scourging the city of the underground locations where this yummy item is produced and served. 36b. The party becomes the "Cookie Mafia" setting up and running a speakeasy of sweetness! Smuggle, produce and sell the yumminess while dodging the long arm of the law!
Kobold_Avenger 11-24-06, 10:24 PM	36. Cookies has been outlawed! A health concerned ruler outlaws the wonderful treat in an attempt to improve the health of the kingdom. However people won't give up such a tasty wonder so easily. 36a. The party can become the "Cookie Patrol" scourging the city of the underground locations where this yummy item is produced and served. 36b. The party becomes the "Cookie Mafia" setting up and running a speakeasy of sweetness! Smuggle, produce and sell the yumminess while dodging the long arm of the law! Lol Pure gold!!
theotherdraxen 11-24-06, 10:32 PM	37. One kingdom says, "I'm taking your land, 'cause I can kick your ass!" The other says, "Bring it!" Oh, you'll need a cover-up for #37: just use one of the above.
JulesCARV 11-24-06, 11:08 PM	38. Enclosure. Aristocrats fence off formerly common farmlands to graze sheep. This causes lots of rural unrest.
Mitchell 11-24-06, 11:21 PM	Lol Pure gold!! And sadly becoming more and more common in he US today. :( 39) One group feels that the other groups interests are not in the best interest of the kingdom. There are as many different sides, and combinations of sides, are there are issues the kingdom has to deal with; Road building and repair, frontier exploration, military, merchant ships and expanding their trade routes, slavery, who are our allies, who are our enemies, the power of the church (or lack thereof), you name it.
BlackMyridon 11-24-06, 11:30 PM	40:) the pcs made THE MOST POPULATED area in the world dissapear over night and FISSURES and earth quakes and landslides ranacking a country no one knows the pc's did it so they blame it on the opposing countrys across the world THIS HAPPEND ABOUT 5 MINUTES AGO!!! before posting this!! my pcs managed to SPLIT a tectonic plate DROPING the ocean levels a few Kilometers wiping out everything!
RedTopHat 11-25-06, 12:56 AM	41.Two princes have split the land of their father who has recently passed. one prince hires a third party from where ever( I used from the Outlands, an area populated of eviler creatures) to attack the other prince constantly raiding villages. Eventully, another kingdom finds out about the raids and plans an attack on the one princes land resulting in a war. 42. The king of a country is overthrown, and i now replaced by a democracy. He was in a state of ceasefire with a neighbouring country. I turns out that, in actuallity the new democratic country is shadow controlled by the king.
Wuggadad 11-25-06, 01:02 AM	Check out some of the historical feuds: Like Salic law. That law said that succession could only proceed through the male line. It was originally a tribal law and got applied to France. Which governed some areas that did not go along with that idea of inheritance. In my campaign, one of the major feuds is over a certain piece of inherited land with the border defined by a particular river. A river which changes course every other decade or so if the valley floods. I define a number of classical political conflicts: pro-Necromantic labor, tolerant of it, or on a crusade to put them to rest pro-Imperium, or pro-sovereignity. A classic, how much power should the king have over the barons, or how much rights do they have. One faction wants a unified legal system and trade protected the length of the kingdom, other factions don't want their people screwed by unscrupulous merchants and bankers who put their own people out of business etc... Different parts of the kingdom will have different attitudes towards the neighbors and therefore whether to have favorable trading relations, war, or something in between. One border baronny might want peace with the dwarves because they have a port city that dwarven goods can flow through. But the neighboring baronny is jealous of the revenue or claims that the dwarves encroached on their own lands and/or mines. In my campaign, several of the major kingdom have been ruled by very weak figureheads for centuries. The baronies occasionally get together and elect a war-leader or Duke (as in Dux Bellorum) to rule them. One baronny wants the Duke selected on the basis of personal heroism. Their candidate can beat virtually anyone in hand to hand. Another wants a canny strategizer, but their candidate is untrusted by a third faction who wants their eloquent Bardic fair haired knight on horseback. The matters that concern the noble families could seem trivial or of great moral consequence to their subjects. Perhaps the aristocratic tradition is to sneer on the "newly ennobled" who can't trace ancestry back over five centuries. Or perhaps a particular ruler has been promoting people to command his Guard, Army and occupied territories on the basis of mere competance and ability instead of noble blood and familial loyalty to the throne. Or worse, allowing their blood to become polluted with the blood of peasant/wizards/mercenaries/foreigners/people not like us.
mlund 11-27-06, 06:33 PM	You could always have the Charlemagne Problems - a ruler cares to leave his kingdom in various portions to multiple descendants. One derivative complication is that the various vassals / landowners are now formed into several distinct pyramidal groups (Heir A's vassal chain, Heir B's chain, Heir C's chain, etc.). Yet, trade largely ignores such boundaries that stymie political influence and it provides much of the taxes that the nobles rely upon. The nobles feel their grip on the purse strings coming loose, and react in a varied ways across the land. - Marty Lund
Eled_the_Worm_Tamer 11-27-06, 07:53 PM	43: a bad year reduces Farners incomes, but the rulers refuse (perhaps cannot aford) to lower Taxes. 44: A gifted ruler amoung the nobility has his claim to power, even his legitamacy chalenged, by iether a trator, or a henious incompetant.