This will be my last installment for Lawful GM. I am ending the column with some final tips for incorporating law and politics into your campaigns.

It's All About People

NPCs drive all political issues, whether it's unionized robots striking on a moon colony or an evil cultist trying to topple the kingdom's trade guilds. If you understand the motivations of your NPCs then you understand the politics at play.

Here are some questions to consider:

1. What does it appear like the NPC wants? What does the NPC really want? These are rarely the same thing, it may look like the Quantum Banker is all about amassing wealth, but the reality is that he is seeking the respect of other. Motivations aren't usually logical, people are often driven by dichotomies. Don't overcomplicate motivations, but do try to come up with compelling reasons for the motivations, compelling in terms of making sense not necessary being justified.

2. How far is the NPC willing to go? What might push the NPC beyond this limit? Everyone has a line, and potentially something that could push them over that line. Limits are good. Giving your NPCs limits and boundaries will force you to be more creative. If the diabolical Minister of Commerce won't kill anyone then you have to come up with a cleverer plot for how he will try to become Prime Minister. Of course, if the PCs push him into a corner where his political career and reputation are at stake, well, now he might just decide murdering the PCs is justified in his mind.

3. What is precious to the NPC and what is unimportant? You need to know the NPC's priorities, and that begins with the things the NPC values. Maybe the Cyber-Baron loves his wife and his family's VR Palace that has been passed down and expanded over five generations, yet on the other hand is indifferent about his kids and his official duties. Would the Cyber-Baron sacrifice his kids to save the VR Palace program that is irreplaceable? What would the Cyber-Baron do if he learned his wife was trying to sabotage the VR Palace, perhaps to help the Cyber-Baron reconnect with reality?

4. What is the NPC's relations with other NPCs? Does the NPC inspire loyalty or distrust in others? Does the NPC keep his word? How does the NPC react to good news and bad news? Obviously, NPCs might react differently to different people, but generally people are fairly consistent. The Minister of Commerce is charming to the media and other politicians, but is a tyrant to his staff and family. The reality is the Minister of Commerce is not nice and is manipulating the media and other politicians just with different techniques than he uses with his staff and family.

5. How creative is the NPC? How talented is the NPC? If the NPC has limited ability does the NPC rely on others for machinations? Sometimes NPCs should make mistakes. GMs like their NPCs who drive the plot to be pretty clever and infallible, yet when a NPC stumbles that creates opportunities for the PCs to exploit. Much of politics is exploiting the mistakes of the opposition. The Quantum Banker in his greed acquires a small moon that the PCs know is about to have a revolution, a fact hidden from the Quantum Banker by the corrupt oligarchs who sold him the moon.

It's All About Conflicts

Conflicts define politics, which is a battle over priorities and means. If you present a scenario where there is only one right answer, you are not presenting an effective scenario. My strategy is to focus on setting the stage, give the players a tough scenario with compelling competing priorities and means. It's not your job to provide the solution, just to set up the problem and see what the PCs do. Most political conflicts are about resources and the balance between restrictions and freedom, which often vary between the respective parties involved.

The Cyber-Baron needs more handwavium to expand his VR Palace and yet the Robot Miners want better working conditions when mining handwavium. Okay but digging deeper what is really driving this conflict. The Cyber-Baron's VR Palace, one of the great virtual worlds of the galaxy, is collapsing and he's desperately trying to prevent this with handwavium, while the Robot Miners want more freedom, in a galaxy that's not friendly to artificial life. Are the Robot Miners secretly behind the problems with the VR Palace? What does the Cyber-Baron who spends most of his time interacting with AI programs in the VR Palace really think about the Robots? Is there a third party exploiting the situation?

Ask questions and develop richer conflicts and motivations.

Holding Court

At some point you will have PCs holding court, where they will be making decisions. They may be presiding over a court of law or exercising political authority. From my experience in these situations the best approach is to toss at the PCs various small, hopefully compelling, matters. The more elaborate and detailed your scenario the more likely it will miss it's mark or at the least represent a waste of your time.

The PCs are on a mission for their Queen and have arrived in a border village where the locals demand the PCs as the Queen's envoys resolve some pressing legal disputes because they haven't been visited by a magistrate in over a year. Your first instinct will be to conjure up some complex and challenging legal dispute, yet it's better to present three to five disputes in quick succession. It's more likely one or two of these will be truly compelling, plus it gives you an opportunity to better portray the setting.

Avoid Commentary

Now if you want to make some political point, well, don't. Certainly you can set up situations that tap real world political debates, but try to disguise it and don't force a position on the PCs, let them reach their own conclusion. Roleplaying is great for exploring ideas, yet when you rig things to produce a specific conclusion it will feel forced and fake. Despite saying that it is the GM's responsibility to articulate the consequences, especially the unintended ones, of a political decision by the PCs. There shouldn't be right or wrong decisions, just ones that are more effective or less effective than accomplishing the intended goals. Give your players the benefit of the doubt and if you really believed they messed up, then demonstrate it don't narrate it. Remember it's all about NPCs - show who was hurt by a decision and how. If you really want to be masterful, let a decision percolate for a time before consequences, both good and bad occur. This is an important point that I want to end on - rarely is a political decision perfectly right, politics is about making the best imperfect decision possible and trying to improve that decision over time. To do law and politics properly requires a campaign that covers a real period of time, because politics is all about incrementally advancing an agenda. If this is communicated to the players then they will be more engaged in the process, because mistakes are assumed to be part of the process.

That wraps up Lawful GM and I hope it provided some ideas and thoughts about this subject.

Thanks!