Kingmakers
Contents
Premise
This is a game about dynastic power, politics, and bloodlines. The players would be retainers of a young noble of distantly royal blood, charged with protecting him and maneuvering him through the treacherous political waters of the land. It's about the real power behind the throne. Intrigue, assassination, scheming, broken promises, rulership. Think Richelieu or Colbert.
The noble character, while central to the game, will be for the most part an NPC open to most or all the advice of the group. In extending his influence the group would extend their own.
The scheming would mostly be group vs world; I'd prefer it be a cooperative game than a competitive one.
Campaign Intro
Karl Franz, the reigning Emperor, and his son and presumptive successor have been assasinated. Rumors and speculation are buzzing as to the motivations: some suspect treachery, some suspect sorcery, some claim it was Sigmar himself, dissatisfied with the impiety of his people.
Regardless of the motives behind the assassination, the succession crisis promises to be severe. Boris Todbringer, Elector Count of Middenheim, is known to have desires upon the throne himself, but his enemies amongst the remaining Elector Counts are sure to put up a stiff fight. Furthermore, foreign states are sure to take an interest in the proceedings, and the everpresent threat of Chaos looms to the north.
Enter, into this milieu, a young noble and his loyal friends and retainers, whose course remains to be charted and is assured of being dangerous and rocky.
Franz Stadler-Lowengeist
The Noble the players are protecting is Franz Stadler-Lowengeist, part of the venerable Reiklander Lowengeist family, specifically the Stadtler-Lowengeists, who spend the bulk of their time in Altdorf. Just as a succession crisis is brewing in the Empire with the death of Karl-Franz, there is a power struggle at hand between the more rural Landner-Lowengeists and the Stadler-Lowengeists. The country side of the family wishes greater influence and a higher profile, which could lead to Electorship. The city side of the family relies on the estates for income and soldiers, and seeks control over them.
The Noble is the youngest out of three sons by Gerhard, the patriarch of the Stadtler-Lowengeists. He is not viewed as a particularly good candidate for successorship - his older brothers, Karl and Wilhelm, have more favor and are more actively involved in family politics.
The Leonberg Summit
In light of the chaos certain to come with the death of Karl Franz, the disparate branches of House Lowengeist have decided to settle their differences. Leonberg, a mountain town in southeast Reikland, is considered the ancestral home of the Lowengeist family, and often plays host to such gatherings. This time is no different, and the Stadler-Lowengeists are making preparations to depart Altdorf.
As the pretense for the meeting is the baptism of baby Brunhilde, daughter of Johann Landner-Lowengeist, the whole family is coming along. This includes The Noble!
Of note: Nearby Castle Leonberg, at the summit of the mountain, lies an orrey often used by Celestial wizards in their studies. The Lowengeists - both branches - have long held good relations with the Blue Mages. Currently, Master Magnus Hochser runs the small school there, supported by Hans Teufel, a mysterious wizard who spends the bulk of his time patrolling the mountains.
System
We're using Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Armor uses the simplified model.
Everything will run by the book, basically. Your characters will be competent; I will spare no expense in trying to kill them.
Auxiliary Systems
As needed, I'll define auxiliary systems to make the more abstract parts of politicking more concrete. The actions here will require skill rolls, and clever ideas and associated skill rolls can change the math.
For instance, a good round of propaganda could make 1 Military Rating be worth 1,000, 1,500, or even 2,000 Green troops, or a ritual of fortune blessing a unit could increase its quality. These are just examples; pitch ideas at me during play and we'll come up with something interesting!
Wealth
Wealth represents holdings: land, trade routes and agreements, merchanting operations. 1 Wealth Rating is equivalent to 10,000 crowns worth of assets. However, the amount of money actually available is closer to zero: money goes to maintenance, bureaucracy, and the like.
Once per play session, a character may make an appropriate skill roll (i.e, A.K. Finance or the like) to obtain cash: 100 crowns per wealth rating. The difficulty of the roll is modified by how long has passed in game terms since the last extraction roll.
Wealth can be converted to Military: 1 Wealth Rating becomes 1 Military Rating, or 500 Regular Quality troops.
Military
Military represents armies available for campaign. 1 Military Rating is equivalent to 500 troops of Regular Quality.
Troop Quality is a scale:
- Green are troops that are fresh to the soldiering life. In game terms, they have 0 experience, and likely have bad gear. 1 Military Rating is equivalent to 750 Green troops.
- Regular troops have about 1000xp - enough to be nearly out of their first career. Their gear unless otherwise noted is regular quality. 500 troops/Military Rating.
- Experienced soldiers have 2000xp, and regular quality gear. 250 Experienced troops/Military Rating.
- Veteran soldiers have seen it all. They have 3000xp, and regular quality (though well looked-after) gear. 125 Veteran troops/Military Rating.
- Hardened warriors are indomitably tough, individually fearsome, and together frightening as hell. Will rarely fight as regular line troops. Cavalry fall under this designation. 4000xp each. 50 Hardened warriors per Military Rating.
Troops can improve over the course of a campaign, but also suffer losses. I'll sort those rules out later.
Troops can also be decomissioned, with an appropriate skill roll to mitigate their joblessness and prevent a move to banditry. 2 Military Rating becomes 1 Wealth Rating, or 10,000 crowns worth of assets freed up from funding the army.
Mass Combats
We'll handle mass combats by treating "stands" (like from Epic 40k or Warhammer Battles) of soldiers as regular characters, with each wound representing a person, or for really huge battles, several people. For now, let's say one "stand" must be at least 1 Military Rating worth of troops, though it can be more. So, if you've recruited a huge mob of conscripts, you have to move them around as a mob.
Combat proceeds normally, as in WFRP, except you take actions and attacks with whole stands of troops.
After every round, count up the wounds dealt by either side in a given combat (a combat is a single engagement between two or more units; basically any fight where we'd be looking at outnumbering rules). Whoever took more damage must make a Morale Check, which starts as an Easy Willpower test and gets tougher the more wounds taken. Failure on a Morale Check makes a unit Shaken; put a marker next to the unit. A Shaken unit can only move at half speed and takes a 10% penalty to all rolls. If a Shaken unit fails a Morale Check, it becomes Broken, and flees as quickly as it can from the scene of the battle. A Broken unit that's successfully engaged by an enemy is considered slaughtered to the last man.
Shaken units can attempt to rally; this is a Command test against the Fellowship of the unit. A Broken unit can be rallied as a Command test at -20% difficulty.
Player Characters can join a unit to lead it. Leading a unit gives it several benefits: First, the character may roll their Command to rally in addition to the unit's. Second, the unit can test against the character's Willpower for Morale Checks. Third, the character likely has additional awesome abilities that can help in battle, for example:
- A Strategy/Tactics roll (along with an appropriate tactic mentioned) could give your unit bonuses for the next round
- A spell successfully cast could grant bonuses to the unit, or do damage to an opposing unit
- Alternatively, a character could devote themselves to combat, inflicting additional damage as per their stats
Character Generation
Make characters using the WFRP rules, but if you'd rather not roll for stats, you can divvy up 85 points amongst your stats, added to your race's base. All races allowed, though if you make a halfling be prepared to pay the consequences. Just kidding! All races allowed! If you do the point-buy system, I'd appreciate it if you avoided egregious min-maxing, and you'd probably benefit anyways, as play will move between social, intellectual, and physical arenas pretty often and I'd like to keep everyone engaged regardless of whether their character's specialty is in focus.
You can choose your career as well. Roll for random talents, if any.
Progression through your first few careers will be brisk; after two sessions characters will have between 3500 and 4000 exp; I haven't settled on an exact number yet.
Please have an idea of your character's sphere of influence; if you're making a bad-ass fighter, is he a general? Does he inspire his troops through loyalty or fear? Does your wizard bind daemons to his service, ferret out his enemies' secrets through sorcery, or just blast people he doesn't agree with? Most importantly, what does your character bring to the table of your noble? This is a game about politics. That doesn't mean you can't play certain characters, but if you make a character with no interest in the political game, then your character is out of place and you should change it or make a new one.
Online Resources for WHFRP
Skill Swapping
This came up in the talk page: Yes, if you want skills outside of your chosen career, you can petition me for them. That means I need to approve all deviations from your career. I'll approve stuff like base-level dodge blow for most careers easily. Stuff like Strike Mighty Blow for a scholar is gonna require a good sales job.
Given that you can choose a career, I'm hoping people can create characters with strengths in their preferred styles of play, and that we don't need to change this stuff around too much.
Characters
Jupiter Midsky (pronounced Juniper Midskee)
Links
Reiklander families:
Lowengeist:
Stadler-Lowengeists
- Gerhard (aka Daddy Hans) - Deceased
- Karl (aka Conan Hans) - Deceased
- Wilhelm (aka Gay Hans) - Deceased
- Franz (aka our Hans)
- Helena (aka Mommy Hans)
Landner-Lowengeists
- Johann (aka Hans who murdered your family)
- Charlotte
- Sigismund (aka Retarded Hans)
- Sophia
- Marie
- Brunhilde
Other:
Kingmakers - Holswig-Schliestein
Kingmakers - Hardenburg
Kingmakers - von Mackensesn
Kingmakers - Leutze
Kingmaerks - von Kuch
Kingmakers - von Bulow
Kingmakers - Otterheim
Kingmakers - von Uhland
Kingmakers - Francke
Kingmakers - von Wittgenstein
Kingmakers - von Wallenstein
Kingmakers - von Saponatheim
