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Waldmarschallin
2015-04-04, 03:59 PM
I know many of us struggle with how best to represent the machinations and affairs of state in our D/D worlds. As part of the world I've been using for the past 6 years, I've created rules to determine each party's share of the electorate in elections every 5 years Lots of my storylines have required statting out government officials,, and options realistically available to the PCs, esp at high level where they're more likely to be sent on missions by the government, not just the local townsfolk, are greatly affected by who is in power.

The times this plot element has worked its best was a two and a half quests long plot over a proposal to give goblinoids citizenship. with this forming a major part of last year's campaign (and the year before being largely dedicated to exposing the relationship between then-Prime Minister Lindcross of the Nationalist Party and the disappearance (later revealed to be genocide) of the Halfling separatist movement. (That latter plot culminated in a street battle between Nationalist henchmen and the police while the adventurers raced through the streets of the capital and smashed into the PM's office, riding the Chief Justice all the way- the Chief Justice of the High Court is constitutionally required to be a dragon) and this required snap elections afterward.

As you can see, this requires some odd skills, and uses some 3.0 material (the innuendo skill). PCs can easily take significant ranks in these requisite skills and end up in positions of importance. In the most frequently used country in my world (the Realm of Wisland) the overwhelming majority of adventurers are political paramilitaries, who are employed and supplied by the political parties, of which 4 are presently in the Parliament. My goal for this was to make who was in office an accountable system like any other skill, while giving PCs a chance to engage with something that's very important to me personally. It has worked wonderfully, esp. as we use our own expansions to the affiliation rolls to handle government level decisions. I hope you find it interesting.

PCs and Elections.

Election-each party makes a knowledge, government and elections (nobility and royalty) roll multiplied by the default share of the electorate. A variety of modifiers may be applied to this roll. (after multiplication by the decimal, not before). The percentages thus received ought to be as closely followed in apportioning the membership of the Parliament as possible (add all scores and determine percentages). Alternately, add the total percentages rolled, and re calculate the revised score.

Stumping – each party may make a total of six attempts, or one per week of the election. This can be handled by the party leader, reflecting her prowess at speaking and inspiring others to speak. Perform Oratory: DC 10 -1, DC 15, +0, DC 20 +2, DC 25 +4, DC 30 +6

Debates- one per election unless negotiations for more are successful. Make opposed initiative and perform Oratory checks (totalling the sum for each candidate) , with the winner receiving a boost of +2. All who fall short by 5 or more take a -2 penalty, all who fall short by 10 or more take a -6 penalty.

Campaign strategy. Make a knowledge: campaigns and government (nobility and royalty) upon the commencement of the election. DC 15 for adequate planning. Anything below that results in a -2 penalty. A roll of 20 or higher lends a bonus of +2, a roll of 30 gives + 4. Candidates may shift strategy in mid – campaign, but this is difficult to execute gracefully. One “reboot” attempt is allowed every 2 weeks, or 3 per campaign, and each attempt adjusts the DCs up by 5.

campaign management- appraise dc 20 or suffer -2 penalty, 35 for +2- national campaigns only- this is managing underlings

Advertisements – innuendo check DC 20 to add +1, DC 30 to add +2.

Zaydos
2015-04-04, 08:59 PM
First: Why is this labeled as a D&D 3.x Class? It should be other.

Moving on. I think it's rather neat, but...


Innuendo: Still exists, it is now a function of Bluff (sending) and Sense Motive (receiving). Instead of using the 3.0 skill which is obsoleted you'd probably do best just to use Bluff.
For the debate I'd say instead of adding Initiative and Perform (Oracle) I'd use the better of the two.
I'd also suggest having some means of using Knowledge (Local) in there as it seems just as relevant as Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty), if not more so for pandering to the common masses (now of course if you were trying to get elected to a role by a senate or house of nobles this wouldn't remain true).

Waldmarschallin
2015-04-05, 01:18 PM
First: Why is this labeled as a D&D 3.x Class? It should be other.

Moving on. I think it's rather neat, but...


Innuendo: Still exists, it is now a function of Bluff (sending) and Sense Motive (receiving). Instead of using the 3.0 skill which is obsoleted you'd probably do best just to use Bluff.
For the debate I'd say instead of adding Initiative and Perform (Oracle) I'd use the better of the two.
I'd also suggest having some means of using Knowledge (Local) in there as it seems just as relevant as Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty), if not more so for pandering to the common masses (now of course if you were trying to get elected to a role by a senate or house of nobles this wouldn't remain true).




I agree knowledge local should have a place, perhaps a synergy bonus? (and its oratory, not oracle) We use Knowledge Local for economic planning in another part of our system, and it's at least somewhat designed to make running successful campaigns (ha) require at least a small team rather than one super-candidate- and who wants to build for just that? Of course the reason for these diverse skill requirements becomes less if it's primarily the pursuit of NPCs, and if that's the case then a DM should probably spend less time on it- the point of this system was to let PCs influence the political process in quantifiable ways. I liked using the innuendo skill because it seemed so specific- saying more than you seem to be, which can cover so many political advertising tropes- dog whistling and such. I know bluff can cover them, it's mostly a flavor thing but that would be the correct 3.5 thing. (Of course that can be a big difference to those who take 3.0 prestige classes...)

Yeah- on the topic of getting elected by a small community of nobles, we actually have a case where that should happen- in our country, each species that has citizenship rights gets to elect its own Justice to the Supreme Court, regardless of their share of the population at large, one of the few antimajoritarian parts of the constitution we wrote. Dragons have citizenship, and the post of Chief Justice is reserved for them, but obviously there are comparatively few. We had that election a few weeks ago (Jonatyebar, the Copper representing the true chaotic Provincial Party won fyi) but in hindsight it might be more representative to make that election a bit more about small scale:) schmoozing

Waldmarschallin
2015-04-05, 01:21 PM
First: Why is this labeled as a D&D 3.x Class? It should be other.

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Ok, sorry that was a mistake on my part- can I refile it somehow? Can I petition a mod to correct it?

edit- I was able to change it to "no prefix" "Other" was only for Pathfinder. I hope that's more proper