I'm currently running my second campaign, first one in a homebrewed world. I'm currently working adventures around the PC's backstories, to make them fell more like a part of the world I'm building. So far I'm getting positive feedback. The thing is, I'm building my world as we go along, and now I'm in a bit of a pickle. On the continent the campaign is set there are three kingdoms, north, centre and south. The PC's are currently adventuring in the central kingdom.
One of the PC's backstories includes him obtaining a certain book, written in languages and codes he doesn't understand. Just after he obtained this book he witnessed the assassination of a close friend (the one who gave him the book). The assassin is part of an organization whose goal is to start a war between all three kingdoms, ultimately resulting in the destruction of the monarchs and the creation of a new empire, led by this organization. The book is supposed to contain secret plans and ideas to make this happen.
So, first things first: Why would said organization want to create this empire?
Second: What kind of plans would this book contain? I'm thinking there are definitely plans for assassinating certain individuals, but what kind of events could result in a war on such a scale?
If the assassins want to start a war the first thing they need is information on all powerful persons in the three realms. Dirty little secrets, wishes, family, children, priorities, ideals, faith, wealth, investments etc.
That alone would be enough to make this book extremely valuable, since it would give you ways to blackmail or persuade every important person in the three kingdoms.
For the actual war, the classic trope would be to kill the king of kingdom A and somehow blame the king of kingdom B (e.g. by having the asssassin who did it being captured and he tells them the fairy tale during interrogation. Assassins are fanatics, so if one of them has to die to start the war it's probably worth it).
A more realistic approach would be to manipulate the leaders. How this can be done depends on the leaders, their personalities, preferences, etc., which is why the information from the book is so valuable.
Another really long going project could have the assassins slowly undermine the courts by replacing certain servants. Most importantly the teachers of the princes / princesses. Once the royal children trust their teachers, the assassins can kill the old king and the teachers can easily manipulate the young and inexperienced children.
And the assassins probably want to found their new empire because they like having more power. :D
If the assassins want to start a war the first thing they need is information on all powerful persons in the three realms. Dirty little secrets, wishes, family, children, priorities, ideals, faith, wealth, investments etc.
That alone would be enough to make this book extremely valuable, since it would give you ways to blackmail or persuade every important person in the three kingdoms.
For the actual war, the classic trope would be to kill the king of kingdom A and somehow blame the king of kingdom B (e.g. by having the asssassin who did it being captured and he tells them the fairy tale during interrogation. Assassins are fanatics, so if one of them has to die to start the war it's probably worth it).
A more realistic approach would be to manipulate the leaders. How this can be done depends on the leaders, their personalities, preferences, etc., which is why the information from the book is so valuable.
Another really long going project could have the assassins slowly undermine the courts by replacing certain servants. Most importantly the teachers of the princes / princesses. Once the royal children trust their teachers, the assassins can kill the old king and the teachers can easily manipulate the young and inexperienced children.
And the assassins probably want to found their new empire because they like having more power. :D
Yeah, as far as why do they want to create a new empire? Because they're not the ones in charge currently. Power is its own reward.
As to how to start a war? Politics and religion. Is the central kingdom neutral and well-liked by the other two? If not, is the central kingdom vastly more powerful than the others (keeping them from being overrun) but also leading the north and south kingdoms to have a tenuous alliance to keep the central kingdom in check?
If it's option 1, then you do the Archduke Ferdinand. Assassinate a relatively minor noble in the central kingdom and frame one of the other two kingdoms. Central kingdom gets in a fight with kingdom A, and kingdom B joins in the fight in outrage over the unprovoked attack.
If it's Option 2, then you do the Cuban Magic Missile Crisis. Rumors in the north and south kingdoms of armies massing and superweapons being secretly developed in the central kingdom. Everyone's on edge. Then a beloved leader in one of the outer kingdoms is killed, everyone blames the central kingdom, and hostilities break out.
Either way, the conflict is just a distraction from whatever your shadow organization is actually up to.
As Maestrino pointed out power is usually its own goal, not a means to an end. Sad, but historically supported truth ( and, I believe, a direct thesis in George Orwell's' 1984 ).
However, if you wanted to create more flavor, perhaps they are religiously motivated, wanting to create a "proper" religious state. You saw some of this in the Middle East in the latter part of the 20th century. It's also ( partially ) the motivation behind the fictional oligarchical coup in Margret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
The philosophical motivation doesn't need to be religious in order to work however. Any ideology where they feel the world should be a particular way that it is not is a good basis for a coup to "fix" things.
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Maybe the organization is from a continent outside the 3 kingdoms and they want to take over all 3, but at least 1. The 3 have stable relations, but not good. The central one (or whichever they want to get a foot in the door with) could take either of the other two in a war, but not both together. To survive that, they’d need to call in their helpful friends across the ocean, [The Organization’s] Kingdom. And they would help, but not put themselves out too terribly much. Until the 3 kingdom’s are utterly spent, then they walk in and take over.
I really like the Blackmail list idea, by the way. It could be a great plot device, or source of info for the party to use themselves. “Oh, look. This key statesman has been giving lucrative contracts to this company because the owner knows about his secret worship of this forbidden god and will tell the King if the contracts end, no matter how much better other merchants’ bids are. If we took out the business owner, it could save the kingdom thousands every year, and remove someone the Organization can blackmail.“ Kinda like the Arrow’s “You have Failed This City“ list. Each name could be an episodic quest.
But aside from that, it could be a list of counterfeiters to devalue kingdom currency. A codebook for spy communication. Plans for “natural” disasters to divert manpower from the war effort. Plans to incite/enflame border territorial conflict. A list of sympathizers who will serve as safehouses for operatives.
And the back 3 pages are spell scrolls of Modify Memory in case anyone finds an operative with the book. :)
This doesn’t quite answer your question, but I’d really suggest not making the kingdoms monolithic. Like a duke who’s holdings at at the northern edge of the southern kingdom might have stronger ties to the central kingdom (marriage, culture, religion, etc.). Or a baron in a coastal area might have dreams of declaring his independence and becoming a new, fourth kingdom.
The book could have this kind of information about the noble houses with plans to exploit internal divisions and cause chaos.
As for why, how about a plot twist. The group knows that there’s another previously unknown continent that’s united and plans to invade (or this being D&D, creatures from another plane). The only way the three kingdoms could win is if they stand together, so the group is trying to unite them to preserve the lives of everyone.
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Hello, everyone!
I'm currently running my second campaign, first one in a homebrewed world. I'm currently working adventures around the PC's backstories, to make them fell more like a part of the world I'm building. So far I'm getting positive feedback. The thing is, I'm building my world as we go along, and now I'm in a bit of a pickle. On the continent the campaign is set there are three kingdoms, north, centre and south. The PC's are currently adventuring in the central kingdom.
One of the PC's backstories includes him obtaining a certain book, written in languages and codes he doesn't understand. Just after he obtained this book he witnessed the assassination of a close friend (the one who gave him the book). The assassin is part of an organization whose goal is to start a war between all three kingdoms, ultimately resulting in the destruction of the monarchs and the creation of a new empire, led by this organization. The book is supposed to contain secret plans and ideas to make this happen.
So, first things first: Why would said organization want to create this empire?
Second: What kind of plans would this book contain? I'm thinking there are definitely plans for assassinating certain individuals, but what kind of events could result in a war on such a scale?
If the assassins want to start a war the first thing they need is information on all powerful persons in the three realms. Dirty little secrets, wishes, family, children, priorities, ideals, faith, wealth, investments etc.
That alone would be enough to make this book extremely valuable, since it would give you ways to blackmail or persuade every important person in the three kingdoms.
For the actual war, the classic trope would be to kill the king of kingdom A and somehow blame the king of kingdom B (e.g. by having the asssassin who did it being captured and he tells them the fairy tale during interrogation. Assassins are fanatics, so if one of them has to die to start the war it's probably worth it).
A more realistic approach would be to manipulate the leaders. How this can be done depends on the leaders, their personalities, preferences, etc., which is why the information from the book is so valuable.
Another really long going project could have the assassins slowly undermine the courts by replacing certain servants. Most importantly the teachers of the princes / princesses. Once the royal children trust their teachers, the assassins can kill the old king and the teachers can easily manipulate the young and inexperienced children.
And the assassins probably want to found their new empire because they like having more power. :D
This is very helpful! Thank you very much! :-)
Yeah, as far as why do they want to create a new empire? Because they're not the ones in charge currently. Power is its own reward.
As to how to start a war? Politics and religion. Is the central kingdom neutral and well-liked by the other two? If not, is the central kingdom vastly more powerful than the others (keeping them from being overrun) but also leading the north and south kingdoms to have a tenuous alliance to keep the central kingdom in check?
If it's option 1, then you do the Archduke Ferdinand. Assassinate a relatively minor noble in the central kingdom and frame one of the other two kingdoms. Central kingdom gets in a fight with kingdom A, and kingdom B joins in the fight in outrage over the unprovoked attack.
If it's Option 2, then you do the Cuban Magic Missile Crisis. Rumors in the north and south kingdoms of armies massing and superweapons being secretly developed in the central kingdom. Everyone's on edge. Then a beloved leader in one of the outer kingdoms is killed, everyone blames the central kingdom, and hostilities break out.
Either way, the conflict is just a distraction from whatever your shadow organization is actually up to.
As Maestrino pointed out power is usually its own goal, not a means to an end. Sad, but historically supported truth ( and, I believe, a direct thesis in George Orwell's' 1984 ).
However, if you wanted to create more flavor, perhaps they are religiously motivated, wanting to create a "proper" religious state. You saw some of this in the Middle East in the latter part of the 20th century. It's also ( partially ) the motivation behind the fictional oligarchical coup in Margret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
The philosophical motivation doesn't need to be religious in order to work however. Any ideology where they feel the world should be a particular way that it is not is a good basis for a coup to "fix" things.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Maybe the organization is from a continent outside the 3 kingdoms and they want to take over all 3, but at least 1. The 3 have stable relations, but not good. The central one (or whichever they want to get a foot in the door with) could take either of the other two in a war, but not both together. To survive that, they’d need to call in their helpful friends across the ocean, [The Organization’s] Kingdom. And they would help, but not put themselves out too terribly much. Until the 3 kingdom’s are utterly spent, then they walk in and take over.
I really like the Blackmail list idea, by the way. It could be a great plot device, or source of info for the party to use themselves. “Oh, look. This key statesman has been giving lucrative contracts to this company because the owner knows about his secret worship of this forbidden god and will tell the King if the contracts end, no matter how much better other merchants’ bids are. If we took out the business owner, it could save the kingdom thousands every year, and remove someone the Organization can blackmail.“ Kinda like the Arrow’s “You have Failed This City“ list. Each name could be an episodic quest.
But aside from that, it could be a list of counterfeiters to devalue kingdom currency. A codebook for spy communication. Plans for “natural” disasters to divert manpower from the war effort. Plans to incite/enflame border territorial conflict. A list of sympathizers who will serve as safehouses for operatives.
And the back 3 pages are spell scrolls of Modify Memory in case anyone finds an operative with the book. :)
This doesn’t quite answer your question, but I’d really suggest not making the kingdoms monolithic. Like a duke who’s holdings at at the northern edge of the southern kingdom might have stronger ties to the central kingdom (marriage, culture, religion, etc.). Or a baron in a coastal area might have dreams of declaring his independence and becoming a new, fourth kingdom.
The book could have this kind of information about the noble houses with plans to exploit internal divisions and cause chaos.
As for why, how about a plot twist. The group knows that there’s another previously unknown continent that’s united and plans to invade (or this being D&D, creatures from another plane). The only way the three kingdoms could win is if they stand together, so the group is trying to unite them to preserve the lives of everyone.