 Goto [ Index ] |
Wait now! Don't back away, thinking that the book is yet another d20 book of more of the same.
Dynasties and Demagogues is, in my opinion, an important supplement for d20. I realize that may sound pretentious, but I can't help but believe it. This book contains far more than the ordinary mechanical content, and really broadens the scope of supported actions and possible adventures within the d20 system.
Also, I should make it clear that I received a review copy of the book from Atlas Games, and that this is a capsule review (not playtested).
I'm going to start by talking about the chapters of the book that are primarily text, and the information they provide. I'll then go on to discuss the new mechanics and "crunchy bits" the book provides, and finish off by describing the book's physical qualities - editing, layout, and art.
Text
"Should you lack for suspect affections or affiliations, or even bedmates, why, my dear sir, consider Guelemara. The capital. My father, my kith and kin, another pack of wolves, but with better and courtly graces. The capital is vastly more civilized than here. They only poison fine vintages."
(Fortress in the Eye of Time, C. J. Cherryh)
Dynasties and Demagogues opens with a chapter describing what political adventures are, which illustrates this with a sample adventure. In the adventure, the PCs are put in charge of a vineyard belonging to a noblewoman that was being mismanaged; the players are supposed to turn it around. Of course, things aren't that simple - a neighbouring noble wants to add the vineyard to his own lands, and has agents sabotaging the vineyard from within and without. There's plenty of action for the players to participate in, from dealing with the noble's agents and the traitor in their midst, to dealing with a royal inspector, to sabotaging the neighbour's estate.
Having established a frame of reference, the book moves on to discuss different political systems. A good amount of attention is paid to traditional feudalism, focussing on the tensions between a king and his nobles, and providing a couple of interesting ideas for adventures. Aylott stresses that the form of a government should act as scenery for the action, rather than being the focus of attention itself. The chapter also discusses anarchy, democracy (both ancient and modern), dictatorships, theocracy, and ends with sections on empires and bureaucracy. The coverage of each system includes a summary of its strengths and weaknesses, how to get power within that system, and a few campaign ideas.
I found this a really exciting chapter because of the variety of situations and adventures inherent in these political systems. Some of the sections have great sidebars, the jousting rules for feudal society, and the very funny chart-driven Maze of Bureaucracy.
As ancient history is a pet subject of mine, I have to note that I think the author made a minor error about the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus[1]. Also, the book does not discuss how countries with different political systems might react to each other. Perhaps this is beyond the book's intended scope, but I would have found it interesting.
From here we proceed to a chapter about the standard fantasy races and their governmental tendencies. While there are no great surprises here, the examples when put together form an interesting campaign world: an elven empire rules over human villages "for their own good", distrustful of the nearby dwarves (who provide an example of how it's possible to live without elven guidance), drow agents and sympathizers trying to turn the dwarves away from the surface races, and a few gnomes trying to avoid elven attention.
Skipping over the chapters focussing on mechanics for now, the last two chapters in the book are devoted to creating adventures and running campaigns.
The adventure chapter is very good, guiding the reader through the process of turning a premise into a full-blown adventure. It discusses adding plot complications, bringing things to a satisfying conclusion, and hooking the players into the adventure. Examples are provided and developed along the way. Also covered are the use of comedy, personal connections, and narrative techniques like the false ending. However, some of these narrative techniques (such as scrambled scenes) are interesting, but may not be to everyone's taste, and I'm unsure of their relevance in a book about political intrigue, rather than gamemastering techniques.
The campaign chapter talks about creating great villains, with motivation, goals, and advantages, rather than simply being evil. It then presents two types of campaigns: the Power Campaign, in which the players are attempting to achieve positions of power (such as succeeding to a dukedom, or being elected to high office), and the Action Campaign, in which the players attempt to do great things, using politics as a backdrop or setting. Again, there's really good advice here, from starting these types of campaign, the initial rising action, setbacks and rival plots, and the big climax.
The chapter closes with some advanced campaign styles, such as troupe play and ruling a state. Here we find one of the "nifties" in the book, a Political Problem Map which uses the analogy of a dungeon to convey how solving political problems in an ongoing campaign could lead to other troubles. Cracking down on corruption might stretch the forces of the government too far, leading to a breakdown in law and order.
Sprinkled through the first chapters of the book are a few dozen sidebars, many of which present characters the sample adventure and as other examples. There are also small blocks describing communities, and special mechanical details for different political systems.
The book ends with a couple of useful appendices. One provides dozens of names for different nations, rulers, and titles of officials (caliphates, warlords, and ministers, oh my!), and the other is a bibliography of inspirational works, ranging from the film Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, to George R. R. Martin's novel A Game of Thrones.
[1] The tyrant Peisistratus overthrew the government of Athens about 50 years after the reforms of Solon. However, the later Greek democracy ascribed more to Solon than is likely; the government Peisistratus overthrew was certainly not the classical democracy of the following century.
New Mechanics
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."
(Julius Caesar, Shakespeare)
Dynasties and Demagogues provides rules in the Political Maneuvers chapter to resolve debates, votes, and elections. These can be key moments in the history of a world - even kings consult their advisors, and an important debate could decide the fate of nations.
Debates can be resolved at several levels of detail. If you want to resolve one quickly, it's very simple - let each player pick a skill, roll, and see who gets the highest result. The appropriate skills here are Bluff, Perform (Oratory), Diplomacy, and Intimidate. Each supports a different style of delivery - a speech based on Bluff would be full of verbal tricks, glossing over a lack of evidence, while a character using Intimidate would hammer away at her opponent with accusations, and cut them down verbally. I was glad to see that the debating systems in the book rely on existing skills rather than creating new ones; all of these will become more popular choices in a political campaign.
A step up in complexity from just using contested rolls is the Simple Debate, in which each character may (but is not forced to) make a speech. During a speech, other characters are each allowed to make one interjection. If the speaker can respond effectively to the interjection, they get a small bonus to their roll; if they handle it poorly, a penalty. If the speech matched the character's style of debate, the player gets an additional bonus to their roll. The system is still simple, but it's easy to see that it could be a lot of fun, with characters on opposing sides attacking each other, and perhaps allied speakers asking leading questions to support their friends.
Even better, though, is the Complex Debate system, which is actually based on the d20 combat system. Characters have Political Points, which represent their staying power, a Political Defense value, and even Initiative, which determines their order of action. In each round, players can perform one or two debating actions; their skill bonus is used for the attack roll, and each skill gives access to a list of different maneuvers. Perform (Oratory) allows a character to use Dazzling Rhetoric and the Humorous Jab, amongst others. Those without any of the debating skills still have the choice of some basic debating tactics. When a character performs an attack maneuver, they roll against their opponent's Political Defense. If they are successful, the target of the attack must make a Will save or lose Political Points. If they run out of points, they have been defeated in the debate and must bow out!
Again, players are encouraged to make their own speeches, and rewarded with a small bonus if they do, but it's stressed that this is not mandatory. I think is the right approach to take; making long speeches may not be to everyone's taste or energy level in a particular session. Another element in the system is that your choice of maneuver can have a bonus or penalty, depending on your opponent's last action. Using Threats gets a bonus if your opponent just Hinted at unpleasant Consequences, but a penalty if they were using Gentle Persuasion.
The book also includes rules for handling different types of votes - ones in which a small number of individuals vote, ones in which factions control blocks of vote, and actual elections with large numbers of individual voters. While a little less exciting than the debate system, this is still very good material. Individuals whom the PCs must bring around to their point of view can be easier or more difficult to convince, and they may have a "leverage point" (such as ambition or a desire for wealth) which can provide an edge. Faction votes are similar, but the weight carried by each faction varies. Trying to win a vote could spawn any number of interesting intrigue-filled adventures, as players try to ferret out the secrets of their political opponents and make back-room deals.
In elections, the GM determines how much time there is until the vote, and each day characters can make public appearances to sway the general populace, or set up private meetings with influential members of society to sway them to their cause. Very handy if you include a democracy in your world.
Crunch
"Blunt words, sharp, prosaic, unadorned. Cold and stern, they slashed into the Hall like a wind, blowing away the mists of Kaen's eloquent imagery. Hands on his hips, his legs spread wide, seemingly anchored in the stone, Matt did not even try to lure or seduce his listeners. He challenged them. And they listened."
(The Darkest Road, G. G. Kay)
Now we come to the traditional "crunch" in the book - yes, it's in here, in the form of magic, prestige classes, skills, and feats.
The magic chapter is extremely good. After discussing mageocracy (rule by wizards) and how existing magic can be used in a political context, the book provides a number of exciting new spells and magic items. For instance, Confession's Hand can be used to force the truth out of anyone, Scryjack lets a spellcaster to manipulate what is seen by another magic user spying on them, and the extremely nasty Programmed Instruction spell allows for the creation of sleeper agents. The chapter also includes some excellent magic items, including the magically protected Courier's Pouch, the assassin's favourite Invisible Blade, and the very useful Seeking Arrow (which delivers a message to the named recipient, to a maximum range of 6000 miles).
The Character and Politics chapter provokes players to think about their character's political views. It then goes on to introduce a very stylish system of personality feats. These are taken just like any other feat, though a character can only have one of them. Each provides a way of obtaining Action Points. Action Points can be used to add 1d6 to a roll (increasing to 2d6 or 3d6 at higher character levels), and can be saved between sessions. One point each session can be cashed in for experience points for the whole group. The rationale for this is to that political adventures can often have a smaller number of long challenges rather than a series of short ones, leading to occasional dry spells in experience awards.
As a general mechanic I think these feats should work very well, and could be adapted to games which doesn't involve politics. For instance, someone with the Competitor personality gains a point from outdoing another character who acknowledges their defeat, something that the book notes works best when more than one PC is a Competitor. The ongoing rivalry between the two characters sounds like a lot of fun. I'm a little concerned that a Team Player can gain a point by performing an "aid another" action; the opportunities for this are much greater than some of the other feats. The book notes that the GM should only award points that deserve to be earned, and I think it may take some monitoring to ensure that some feats are balanced.
After a brief discussion of skills - new uses for Appraise and Gather Information, and definitions for Knowledge (Law) and Perform (Oratory) - the chapter continues with more general feats. Many of these provide bonuses to the skills used in political conflict, such as Dangerous Insinuations, which provides +2 to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Perform "when inciting distrust and paranoia". Compared with the infamous feats that provide +2 to two skills under all circumstances, these seem a little restrictive. But, considering the power that these skills can grant in the political arena, they're probably reasonable, and they definitely add flavour to a character. Some of the other feats give you access to a group of contacts (aiding in Gather Information), let you mess around with other people's reputations, or aid in commanding troops.
Lastly we come to the book's prestige classes. These are nine in number - the Bodyguard, Chieftain, Conspiracy Leader, Demagogue, Diplomat, Discreet Companion, Information Mage, Politician, and Religious Leader. As you might guess, the power of many of these is based on political situations - the Demagogue gains the ability at 2nd level to keep an audience spellbound, and at fifth level, given a certain length of time in private conversation, can charm an opponent through sheer force of personality.
In general, I would say that these classes are highly specialized - the Bodyguard's special abilities all revolve around protecting his principal, but then again, that's what Bodyguards do. Depending on player preference and the style of a campaign, these may be more useful for NPCs than player characters. As the book notes, "politicians do very little dungeon-crawling". However, the classes do allow for a wider variety of political leaders. The leader of a church doesn't have to be a high-level cleric; instead, she could be a Religious Leader more concerned with the church's prestige and power.
On the other hand, a 10th level Chieftain has the ability to raise a horde of warriors of a size only limited to half his total number of followers. Genghis Khan, anyone?
Editing
The editing in the book is very good - I don't remember seeing any typos, but there are a few places where words are repeated. An error in the Political Maneuver Chart threw me for a loop until I examined the text closely; it lists a maneuver called Eloquent Argument, which was apparently replaced with Reality Check.
Art and Layout
Dynasties and Demagogues is a handsomely decorated hardcover, mainly in purple and beige, with a black and white interior. The old king on the front cover, and surrounding details match the choice of interior art well.That artwork is a mixture in more ways than one. Some of the pieces are new, while the rest are medieval scenes and characters in the public domain - from the Victorian period, by the looks of them. Some of these old pieces are wonderfully detailed, like the haunting image of a dour king looking out the window at approaching Viking warships.
The new artwork is done by artists that seem familiar to me from previous Penumbra books. However, I can't say that I was enthralled by them. Their quality is good, but I don't care for one artist's liberal use of flat black for shadows in the midst of a line drawing, and I don't think they fit very well with the Victorian images. I'm probably in a minority, but I would have preferred to see more of latter. Then again, elves and gnomes don't appear in most 19th century drawings, so some new artwork was required.
The side borders of each page are textured in shades of grey with portions of another piece of public domain imagery, helping to maintain the book's tone. The inside edge of these borders gives the illusion of holding a medieval book with rough-edged pages - a very nice touch.
Sidebars and tables are presented with a grey-textured background, making it easy to distinguish them from the main text. OGC materials are denoted with a small dragon icon, which makes things very clear in that regard.
Among the sidebars, however, are NPC writeups which are sprinkled throughout the book as examples. Considering the fact that I find creating NPCs a bit of a chore, I suppose I should be happy to have these. They are well laid out, but perhaps overly verbose. Characters with feats introduced in the book have almost the entire description of the feat included in their stat block. While this makes these characters more self-explanatory, the writeup of Pericles of Athens takes up an entire page!
