The first step in successfully running political campaigns is to set an appropriate stage for the campaign. While this is mostly work for the narrator it is always a good idea to involve the player as much as possible in a duet. Remember with a duet the story is about a PC so involving the player of that PC in the creation process is important. Duets are far more cooperative endeavors than most typical group campaigns. In regards to guidelines for creating governments for political campaigns I refer you to here, which I wrote a few years ago. I think this is a pretty good framework and don't be limited by its focus on the term "government" as you can apply that framework to churches, guilds, and even military units. However, there are a few things I want to address today.

The Detail Factor

One of the most challenging aspects for the narrator is deciding how much detail to put into a political campaign. There are two differing standards: what the narrator needs to run the campaign and what needs to be communicated to the player.

As for narrators, well, we're extremists. Some of us pride ourselves on doing things on the fly and some of us are obsessive at creating mounds of background information for a campaign. Now duets, and especially duet political campaigns, don't necessarily require lots of background information, but they do require lots of thought. If you don't put much thought in a political campaign and just make it up as you go ñ it won't work, but the other extreme is equally true. If you write up lots of background information but don't spend as much time simply thinking about the PC's story then you're in trouble. Think.

If you give the player too little detail then the campaign will feel shallow and linear. If you shovel out too much detail you are likely to overwhelm and frustrate the player. The trick to running a political campaign, and really most duets, is you need to be able to slide back and forth on this continuum based upon the mood of the player. Every player has a different tolerance level for detail. Most prefer things on the shallow side; this is one of the great disappointments of narrators everywhere, but it is an established truth. However, when things click with a player they will want more detail. So my advice is to start the campaign with just enough information to set up the setting, the PC's life, and the basic nature of challenges in the campaign. You should be able to do this in a few minutes of discussion or maybe a page or two of handouts. That's it. If you need a lot more than this to get things started then you need to simplify. You can always add detail later but at the beginning the player is trying to figure out her PC and that's where there mental energy should be. When it comes to detail the best technique is to show, don't tell.

I, like many narrators, have been guilty of one of the greatest sins of narrating and that is to favor setting design over adventure execution. I have a shocking revelation: your first job as a narrator is to execute adventures and create entertaining campaigns. Yes, a detailed world helps this, but you must not lose sight of the first job. The moment you can embrace this fundamental truth is the moment you go from a good narrator to a great narrator. Furthermore, the only way to communicate your world isn't through handouts or reading flavor text but in the adventure.

Consider a campaign where the PC is going to be a noble of a powerful family in a fantasy kingdom on the verge of civil war. Many narrators would focus on writing up information to highlight the various factions and key players, detailed histories, and all that ñ good stuff, but wasted effort for most players. The reason is that players will not invest the time to learn a setting until they feel it is worth it and that means they need to make a connection to it. As narrator, you should focus on a scenario to introduce the campaign to the PC. You could begin with the PC hearing of a plot by a member of her family against another noble. Right there is a moral dilemma waiting to be sorted out, especially if the PC is asked to provide some aid in this plot to maybe discredit or even kill the other noble. Maybe the PC has been sent to negotiate a marriage or resolve a dispute between the PC's noble family and disgruntled peasants. The complexity of the first adventure shouldn't be too much as you're settling the PC into the story, but through the PC into the campaign and its depth.

Using news handouts and the like are good, but if you really want to introduce some concept like a villainous secret society, the far better way is to have a NPC whisper about it to the PC without a mention anywhere else. Handouts and flavor text lacks impact and you need impact to make things stick.

Empowering the PC

Repeat after me: a duet campaign is a story about a PC. It's not your chance to explore the socioeconomic factors that lead to a collapse of a feudal regime for a constitutional monarchy. Sure you might weave that in, but the campaign is about a PC and you need to make that story meaningful. Give the PC real power at the START of the campaign. Not a lot of power, but she needs some power or else the campaign becomes slightly meaningless. Politics is based in large measure on power and an absence of power is an absence of influence, and that's not fun for a duet political campaign. So give the PC real responsibility, real authority, and this in turn will shape the PC's goals and story.

Also, and this is a big point, NEVER put story ahead of the PC. I know that sounds weird, but hear me out. A sin of many narrators is to force their story upon the PC regardless of the PC's actions, yes, this is called railroading, but the truth is with group campaigns you have to railroad to some degree. Getting a group campaign to accomplish anything is like herding cats, but with a duet you have to remember that it's the PC's story. If the PC comes up with a good plan that might work then, well, let it work with some minor complications the PC has to resolve. Yes, this plan may ruin your big villain, diabolical plot, or simply change the nature of the campaign. So what? Here is a secret ñ if you can come up with one cool villain you can come up with another one. No idea of a narrator is so unique and brilliant to trump the importance of the PC in a duet campaign. Honestly, most of the fun for a narrator in duets is to keep adjusting things for the actions of the PC. Fluidity is the goal.

A maxim I'm always repeating is that narrators create problems and it's up to players to find the solutions. Embrace this and your duets will be more successful. It's incredibly empowering to players to know that their PCs have freedom and autonomy.

We'll keep delving into political campaigns next time, probably a concrete example of how to set up such a campaign and what the player should do.