Non-adventuring regents

[poilbrun]

How to deal with regents who do not want to go on adventures? My players are now knee-deep in realm management, and seem very happy with it. Unfortunately, that is to the point where they do not want to go adventuring anymore, having better things to do. Since they are leading the baronny, Roesone has become a nest for good adventurers, since the players usually prefer to set the matters in adventurers' hands rather than dealing with it themselves. thought about an assassination attempt on a single character, to prove the others that they are quite weak individually and that the resources they have available are the only things that make them secure usually. However, I really do feel bad about forcing them to do something they do not want to do. The problem is that we play a lot of D&D (we usually play 3 or 4 campaigns at the same time) and adventures are the stuff we do usually, so Realm management is what makes Birthright really different than the usual campaigns. If realm management is what they like, I do not want to force them to play adventures, but I believe they miss a lot of Birthright's potential by not adventuring. Would you have any advice to actually make them go adventuring? I tried giving them good reasons to do so : threat to the realm, personal threat, diplomacy reasons, money, magic (I'm sure that if I let things go out of hand, they'd go adventuring, but I sure as hell won't give level characters powerful magic items in a Birtright campaign! :P ), but to no avail.

I'm desperate for any trick, please help!! ;)

[ConjurerDragon]

poilbrun wrote:

>This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
> You can view the entire thread at: http://www.birthright.net/read.php?TID=1407
>
> poilbrun wrote:
>
>...
>
[Regents not adventuring snipped]

>
>I`m desperate for any trick, please help!! ;)
>
In the Book of Regency some tricks are already mentioned.
If they let adventurers do the adventuring sometimes -good. A king needs
to know what to delegate and how to run the big business. If they let
adventurers do the adventurers all the time - then perhaps the
adventurers get a reputation as the saviours of the country and the
regents will be seen as sitting in their ivory towers remote from the
people. Make it a GREAT CAPTAIN event if you like - people follow heros...

Use bait: Even the rumour of a powerful artifact should get your regents
up and adventuring. It does not need to be true, a red herring with some
minor magical item suffices - just make sure to mention what the enemys
of the regents could do IF the artifact is real and IF the enemys get it
in their hads (e.g. the Staff of Transport - they will transport the
army of your regent into the midst of the Spiderfell to be eaten by the
Spiders minions...).
bye
Michael Romes

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[ryancaveney]

On Wed, 5 Mar 2003, poilbrun wrote:

> How to deal with regents who do not want to go on adventures?

Thank them for making your job easier, in that you no longer have to
design adventures? =) I far prefer domain-only campaigns as a DM, in
terms of the arena in which I feel more comfortable generating plots.
I suspect your cry for help may indicate you have the opposite comfort,
and are trying to figure out what to do on the realm scale -- do you
agree?

> My players are now knee-deep in realm management, and seem very happy
> with it.

Good for them! IMO, that`s what BR is really about.

> Unfortunately, that is to the point where they do not want to
> go adventuring anymore, having better things to do.

Then abide by their wishes, and let them do the things they find more
interesting.

> since the players usually prefer to set the matters in adventurers`
> hands rather than dealing with it themselves.

Ah, delegation. It shows they have some understanding of the power and
responsibility they ought to have as regents.

> However, I really do feel bad about forcing them to do something they
> do not want to do.

Good! Hold on to that thought.

> The problem is that we play a lot of D&D (we usually play 3 or 4
> campaigns at the same time) and adventures are the stuff we do
> usually, so Realm management is what makes Birthright really different
> than the usual campaigns.

Well -- yes, exactly. They get plenty of adventure in non-BR settings, so
of course they are most attracted to the part of BR which is most
different from their usual activities. I think it`s very healthy.

> If realm management is what they like, I do not want to force them to
> play adventures, but I believe they miss a lot of Birthright`s
> potential by not adventuring.

Given that they play lots of adventures anyway, I think trying to get away
from the realm-management core of BR to make Cerilia just another place to
have adventures (which they can get in any of your campaigns) is actually
depriving them of a lot more of their potential fun.

> Would you have any advice to actually make them go adventuring?

My advice is: do not make them go adventuring. They are correct to note
that regents have many better things to do. Please let them. From what
you`ve said, it seems clear that you`d like to abide by their wishes. Why
are you second-guessing that plan?

If you desperately want to run traditional D&D adventures in Cerilia, I
think the best approach for you, given that you already run multiple
campaigns in parallel, is simply to add another. That is, have *two* BR
campaigns -- but in one, the characters are regents and never go on
adventures themselves, while in the other the characters are not regents
but adventurers who never really interact with the domain system (except
possibly as a source of adventure ideas).

Another way to do this, since they clearly like domain management, is to
let them become regents in one (or more!) of your other campaigns, so they
can keep getting their rulership fix, which might free up Cerilia for
other things than being king. If BR is the only place to rule, then any
rulership you don`t do there you can`t make up elsewhere. If they can
choose completely freely, maybe you`d discover they`d be even happier as
regents in Greyhawk and common adventurers in Cerilia, rather than the
other way around. Or maybe you discover they never want to adventure
again. :} Even if they do decide this, maybe it`s only for a while, and
if you let them be just regents for a while, they`ll go back to a more
balanced mixture after the initial glut.


Ryan Caveney

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[geeman]

If your players are delegating adventures to adventurers... have them play
the adventurers. Instead of allowing them to merely hand off those events
make the people they are being handed off to (the supporting staff) cohorts
or LTs of the PC regents and have the players take over those roles.

Gary

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[Birthright-L]

If they won`t let their regent characters go adventuring, and hire
adventurers to do their dirty work for them, why don`t you have themplaying
those very adventurers themselves? See how fun it is to do their lords`
dirty work. Or you could get another group of player to play that part out.

And, when the adventurers are high level and the regents still in their
diapers, the regents can blame themselves if they get a coup-de-état on
their hands from their much-more-competent hirelings!

/Carl


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[Eosin the Red]

> poilbrun wrote:
> Would you have any advice to actually make them go adventuring? I tried
giving them good reasons to do so : threat to the realm, personal threat,
diplomacy reasons, money, magic (I`m sure that if I let things go out of
hand, they`d go adventuring, but I sure as hell won`t give level
characters powerful magic items in a Birtright campaign! :P ), but to no
avail.


Give them the best reason of all - nothing gets done unless they do it
themselves. Make 15-45% of all the adventurers fail at their appointed task.
Have one of the groups be working for GT or the Gorgon. If they cannot rely
on adventurers with certainty, they will likely pick up a few of the more
critical adventures themselves rather than trust it to someone who might
bungle the job. This also lets them pick and choose when they want to strap
on the armor.

My thoughts anyway.

Eosin

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[poilbrun]

I will follow some of your advice next time I play.

As for the reason I do not want to do only realm-management, it is because I do not DM to work on an accounting diploma! :P Seriously, I by far prefer to prepare adventures than to prepare two turns of Birthright realm management. And when I DM BR, I do not DM anything else, the other campaigns are DMed by the players of my BR campaign...

[Ariadne]

IMO domain-only campaigns are truely boring (we make this domain stuff at the side).

Encourage your players going on adventure or let them simply no choice (such as a minor awnie tries to assassinate the regent, go and stop him). Then they might like adventuring again...

[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "poilbrun" <brnetboard@TUARHIEVEL.ORG>
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 4:24 AM


> As for the reason I do not want to do only realm-management,
> it is because I do not DM to work on an accounting diploma! :P

Maybe you`d prefer computer science. Get (or make) a template for excel or
some other spreadsheet to handle all of your accoundting (including dice if
you like). It leaves you to spend all of your time planing intrigues,
crises, and the reactions of other (NPC) powers.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[ryancaveney]

On Thu, 6 Mar 2003, poilbrun wrote:

> Seriously, I by far prefer to prepare adventures than to prepare two
> turns of Birthright realm management. And when I DM BR, I do not DM
> anything else, the other campaigns are DMed by the players of my BR
> campaign...

Perhaps you could swap with one of them, who would be less irritated by
running the realm management part of the game? You shouldn`t be forced
into doing something you don`t like any more than they should, but since
they do seem to like ruling domains, it should be possible to work
something out...


Ryan Caveney

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[irdeggman]

A pure domain level game can mostly be played via e-mail. So if that is what they want then run it that way. There is no cardinal rule that says characters gain experieince from performing domain actions - that would be the pay off. If they don't adventure then they don't gain experience and can't get any better at being a regent, even a paper pushing desk person needs to spread his influence by meeting the people and performing heroic deeds (also using the Leadership feat/score is a good way of tying in concrete actions, i.e., adventures).

Bottom line - don't force anything, just present attractive alternatives or say that you don't want to run that type of game. If the latter is true then you need to be clear to your players what type of campaign you want to run otherwise it will not be enjoyable.

[Shade]

Where can you get a spreadsheet like this?

At 12:33 PM 3/6/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "poilbrun" <brnetboard@TUARHIEVEL.ORG>
>Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 4:24 AM
>
>
>> As for the reason I do not want to do only realm-management,
>> it is because I do not DM to work on an accounting diploma! :P
>
>Maybe you`d prefer computer science. Get (or make) a template for excel or
>some other spreadsheet to handle all of your accoundting (including dice if
>you like). It leaves you to spend all of your time planing intrigues,
>crises, and the reactions of other (NPC) powers.
>
>Kenneth Gauck
>kgauck@mchsi.com
>
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