I’m interested in table top games that have a strong focus on power and politics, or possibly social change or intrigue that intersects with power and politics.
Not hung up on format or system, open to anything.
Any suggestions?
I’m interested in table top games that have a strong focus on power and politics, or possibly social change or intrigue that intersects with power and politics.
Not hung up on format or system, open to anything.
Any suggestions?
Legitimate grievances? Mostly it just means the sides have reasons for acting the way they do. Ancient feuds or acts of aggression that were never reconciled. People doing the things they have to do but it impacts another group of people negatively and the affected people don’t look at or care about the reasons, just that they are being hurt.
For point 4, pit characters’ morals against results and see what happens. Are they willing to sacrifice some for the good of many? Will they tolerate lesser evils to ward off greater ones? Things like that.
Like… say there is a fascist-type ruler who is the first line of defense against an army of orcs or undead or whatever. Do you let him get steamrolled to weaken the enemy and dispatch an evil, militant kingdom? What about the people living there?
I mean there’s no end to possibilities, it just depends on the world and story you want to tell. The only thing is, make sure it’s not completely cynical. Everyone is flawed, but that doesn’t mean everyone is bad or there aren’t good guys and bad guys. Game of Thrones is good inspiration here.
One of my favourite things that happens with some NPCs is when there is just someone who is straightforwardly good or bad (relative to the setting) and it makes the players doubtful.
I first had this happen during a Curse of Strahd game, which is obviously quite a bleak setting. I found it important to include moments and characters of levity to emphasise the darkness of the campaign. My players spent a long time being suspicious of an NPC who they reasoned surely must have some nefarious, ulterior motive, despite just being someone who found that helping people out was a small but powerful act of resistance in a bleak world. Eventually the players realised “oh no, what if this NPC is actually a good as he seems, and in fact, our suspicion is yet another way in which we are being corrupted by the darkness of this world?”.
Yeah, cool, thanks. I can see how throwing in catch-22s, wicked problems, moral dilemmas, etc. would lead to some interesting games/narratives.