welcome to DMing. no matter what you are good at/learning about you can use it for dnd. some people make great artwork. so people do great voices. i'm a programmer and made a program to keep track of how long it would take before the dragon returned to their lair and fuck up the pcs that were stealing from it. no matter the skill/knowledge, you can use it.
Hey Matt I am a political science professor ( I have a masters degree in Political Science/ International Relations and I'm getting my Ph.D.). I am also a veteran DM, I've been dming since I was 14 (I'm now 30) and my campaign setting is also very politically charged. But very much like you I never force the political drama on to the pcs, they will get involved in the politics if they wish to, but the consequences of the unstable political system can be felt all over the place. I've been developing the campaign world for over 9 years now, and because I love doing it, I've created the internal political structure of all my nations (human or otherwise). So I have details on how each nation governs itself, and the international relations of all the nations that are interconnected in my campaign setting. And I must say your videos on Politics and D&D are excellent! You bring fantastic points to how we can look at our history and be inspired to introduce political problems into the our fantasy worlds, and by doing so we create worlds that are far more complex and believable, that truly come out as living breathing worlds! So I would like to congratulate you and say thank for making these videos and that they are fantastic!
Have you solved how big staged battles are played?, cause of the way Im DMing the campaign is very likly it will end in a massive war were almost all DnD races are involved. any advice ? Must be super cool to understand politics in such a specific way and the moving those abilities to DnD. (GameDesigner here btw)
@@maxcruzolivares5439 You do the Helm's Deep method. You don't focus on the entire battle, you focus on different points within the battle. You give your player's goals which outcome effects the entire battle. I won't go through the entire Battle of Helm's Deep, but you can re-watch it and just see how the "players" (Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli ins specific) interact with the battlefield, how they move from place to place are given a clear goal so you can root for these minor moments that lead to the end. I will highlight one part to illustrate my point. There is a scene where the enemies are loading up gunpowder underneath the wall, and a warrior starts running towards the gunpowder with a torch. The goal is for the players to stop the torch-runner before he gets to the wall. In the movie, this goal was failed and the torch-runner successfully blew up the wall and we moved into the next part of the battle. A clear goal was placed in front of us, and we tried to succeed. The goals can be anything, though, try to get some civilians into a safe-house, the enemy brought a troll onto the field now we can't let it get to the castle, the drawbridge is starting to lower we need to get it to stop, etc. Come up with a list of challenges that the players can accomplish during the battle, give them 3 or 4 options so they can choose whichever one they want. Everytime they succeed a minor goal mark it off, if they fail a minor goal mark it down, if they fail too many goals the battle is lost, if they succeed a certain amount of times the battle is won.
Ulrican414 I am in the beginning stages of building my own world (Pathfinder based) and will begin play later this year or beginning of next. I find this series very helpful. It’s nice to see approval of the political videos from an expert in the field with experience in gaming. Thanks for the post.
I am a college student of International Relations and a "neonate" DM, and I think the political system of my setting in alike manner, details of nations inner structure and the international relations between them.
"Are the nations in your Dungeons and Dragons campaign at war? if not why not?" As of the standard start of my campaign, no. But they're about to be, and everybody knows it.
I am so excited that you mentioned Donald Keegan! The first time I picked up one of his books, I was in 8th grade. It was the very first time I had ditched school, and I went across the street to the public library and hung out in the historical nonfiction section. I ended up getting a hold of his book 'The Peloponnesian War'. It was my first real encounter with nonfiction outside of the text books we read in school. I fell in love. I don't know if it's still true, but for a very long time his lectures were freely available here on UA-cam. This is a super non-sequitur, but I just couldn't contain myself when you mentioned him
"Why is there peace here? The world is busy dealing with another war." This tends to be the basic answer to most of my worlds' political status. Example: If the Mongols are invading, you fight the Mongols, prepare to fight the Mongols, send mercenaries, sit and do nothing or maybe even try to profit from the conflit and perhaps strike a deal with the Mongols, but a Major Threat to the important political entities will always be the pivot for most things war-related in a setting that has one.
In a deleted scene, Luke speaks with his friend Biggs, an Imperial cadet on leave in town, and asks him a bunch of eager questions about the academy only to discover that he's disillusioned with the empire and wants to defect to the rebellion. So in the uncut script, Luke would have had Biggs's skepticism, Leia's distress message, Obi-Wan's encouragement and the murder of his aunt and uncle forcing him out of his childhood home to motivate him to join the rebellion.
@@Bluehawk2008 While having a look at the creative process is always interesting, I dont think it's really a relevant point here. While that may have been intended originally it didnt make it's way into the actual work, so it's not actually how the character developed.
So, I intuitively did everything right so far in my campaign. There is Peace between the dwarves and orcs right now. And my players are on their best way to upset the delicate balance of power within the dwarven kingdom that made this peace possible in the first place as well as plotting a commando mission into orc territory. War is inevitable, but they will realise the consequences too late AND they will think it is all their fault. It will be a glorious reveal.
I did the same thing, my pcs still get squirmy going near anyone from the cities involved in the war they think they started, "that civil war we started" is now a running joke. (In reality both cities wanted war because the last election was rigged and the city of Mirabar needs access to the sea through Luskan)
I just showed the Donald Kagen part of this to my 10th grade 20th century Canadian history class last week. I thought it was something really good for the sharper tacks in the board.
You keep saying nobody taught you this stuff, firstly you taught yourself which deserves credit, secondly reading books regarding said subjects is indirectly being taught on that particular subject (Kagan's book in this case). Hence, your references to books and other literary sources were and are your teachers. We don't all get to have a personal sensei, self-efficacy seems to be part of your point, if you ask me. Thanks Matt! Watching you do this, makes me want to undertake more effort for my D&D group, but perhaps also apply that in other goals in life!
For reasons, I heard the opening questions a ton and would pause the video so I could watch this video "later"-I left this tab open for months. Finally, finally, I understand that you were not challenging me with that "if not, why not?". It wasn't that a setting at war was *more interesting* and that I was leaving juicy narrative on the table by keeping my two current campaigns in a postbellum pax terra and a city-state confederation butting up against the untamed fey forests respectively... it was that I should know what key figures or elements *maintained* this peace... and what could thereby destabilize everything when neutralized. God, I love this channel.
Sort of. He wanted to become a pilot and the only normal way to do that was the Imperial Academy. He does tell Obi-Wan though that, "It's not that I like the Empire, I hate it but there's nothing I can do about it right now." He's not trying to join the Imperial Academy because he's a fan of the Empire, but because of his interest in piloting. Joining the rebellion has never occurred to him as a possible or sane thing to do, especially in regard to becoming a pilot at this point, and he might actually approve of the rebellion - even if he lacks the personal motivation or courage to join it at this point.
"Listened to a 26 hours Podcast" I now have to imagine how Matthew did that in one sitting, just powering through it and remembering everything that was said in that Podcast...
I read Kagan's book in ROTC when I was in college. Cool to see it get shout out here, it changed the way I looked at historical wars. My world has three or four wars going on depending how you count and at least one that is soon to break out.
Good stuff, looking forward to part 3! Makes me stop and think "where can I add fragility to things that seem stable?" Maybe a drought will ruin the harvest? Maybe there's already a drought, but the druid circle has been using its resources to create rain? Maybe they're also out of resources and have been resorting to foul rituals? Maybe the king has been giving them prisoners to sacrifice as fuel for the rituals? What happens if the king falls ill? It just keeps going! One thing I'm wondering about is the balance between moral ambiguity vs letting players feel good about fighting for the "right" side. I think the typical D&D game wants some of both to be engaging... Oh also, there was a CGP Grey video recently called Rules for Rulers, might interest you regarding this topic!
That CGP Grey video certainly comes into it heavily, it's fantastic! From what you said about thinking about "where can I add fragility to things that seem stable?", I'd like to propose a counterpoint or concurrent line of thought - "where can I add stability to something that is inherently fragile?". That question to me captures the point Matt was trying to get across in the video. Not that I suppose you didn't get his point, but our intuitions have a way of substituting easier or more familiar questions in place of harder ones without us noticing. And certainly this idea of having "add" fragility is more familiar to our predominant worldview, so it makes sense that your intuition would have you stop and think and feel excited about answering that question. Just thought I'd throw that out there anyway :)
I had an interesting experience where I ran a game with the central political conflict being a slave rebellion. The players almost immediately sided with the rebellion, freeing slaves, fighting imperial troops. Then I slowly revealed to them that while the empire wasn't exactly good, the rebels were cruel and spiteful people. It gave them a moral dilemma of who do we side with now, the empire who stand for order or the rebels who are by no means good but are fighting for freedom. Their solution genuinely surprised me. They decided to get the rebels to change the way they acted toward the enemy. I was baffled, but now that they have spent the effort to accomplish that, the rebels are like seal-of-approval good guys, which means the empire is an easily understood bad guy again.
In the RPG Godbound, when you create a 'court' -- a group of people who run some enterprise or other -- you also create the internal politics of the court and a consequence for what would happen if the court is trampled by the vast powers of the PCs. Following that setup politics just happens: the characters either engage with the politics of the various groups they interact with, or they have to deal with the consequences of what happens when they cut loose. I mean, Godbound doesn't really *enmesh* the characters in politics because with their power the PCs can always just go 'oops, made a total mess here, better skip town!' and start up on another world-fragment altogether... but it's a neat system and easily portable to other games. Godbound is also D&D-based, so I recommend people give it a look.
Gonna bounce an idea off the comments section. Let's see how that turns out haha. My world, Orvos, maintains peace via the Monarch's Guild. The Guild functions as a combination piggy bank/social club/UN for Orvos. Most nations belong to it, and its central "seat" is in a democratic city-state, Essenveld. Balgrum Rustbeard set up the Guild to ensure that his city was safe from the Monarchs that surround it. It is largely successful as an institution, though there are a couple of minor civil wars, and a religious war between a theocratic state and the wilderness above it. Aside from that, most rulers would fear going to war, since starting a war can lead to expulsion from the Guild, which means they lose access to the emergency funds, as well as risking the rest of the Guild nations all Ying against them (which they are obligated to do). The Guild by laws, minutes, and the letters written by Guild officials from Essenveld are all written in a special code, so it is nearly impossible for kings and queens to really understand the nature of the Guild, most of them having been born into it (membership is hereditary). Of course, my players are convinced that there is some sinister secret at the heart of this and want to try to destroy it, but honestly, it's just a terrified city state surrounded by nations whose histories are basically a thousand year long stretch of total war.
So the main thing keeping your nation's at peace is essentially a insurance policy? Sounds cool but what if there is some kind of great depression? Wouldn't it all just crumble?
hi Matt! thanks for the videos. I'm into running my second session for a group as a new DM and I found a lot of these videos made way more sense after you've actually gotten into the thick of it. it was funny, I watched all your videos and felt so so prepared for my first game. I got so much ready for my game, but once you're behind the screen it becomes a whole different world. I'd get asked questions that I didn't really know how to answer, get flustered and then get worried i wasn't doing well. everyone said they had a good time, but I was always fumbling over books and just only mildly freaking out. buuut after that stress I realized I was focusing on the wrong stuff. I was DMing to run the "best game possible" and not the "best game possible, for my players and I" and it totally changed how I approached the game. and it all kinda comes together, your videos. they make sense more now than ever, and I'm probably going to watch them all again. anyway I'm going off on a tangent. basically your videos are boss and they help people feel better about playing a sweet game so cheers.
The world of Edona is currently in a time of peace, namely thanks to one Lord Tavon Bismarque, the current lord of Amon, the capitol city of Edona. The two off-island empires, Elysia and Galeo are also in a time of peace, though that steady truce is becoming rather rocky with their intermediary, Duke Quentinmire, being arrested for illegal activities and an oncoming threat of dragons and demonic cultists slowly taking over parts of Edona. A peace summit is being held between the nations of Elysia and Galeo, and should anything go awry... it could spell war. This is a story that's ongoing in my campaign that the players are not completely aware of. They know Elysia and Galeo have past tensions and the players are actually personal friends of Tavon Bismarque, but the whole of the story is slowly becoming clear to them. I love encompassing war tensions even in a campaign not focused on war. This is something for background NPCs to be busy with, as well as for me to hint at every now and again as the players progress further and further into the story.
Perfectly helpful, thank you! My campaign involves the players taking an artifact they have recovered, and using it to bring peace to the land. I have no idea what that means for future gameplay! Ha ha!This video series gives me some points to run with.
Thank You for this video, it definitely helped me organize things in my head for my campaign. This is my first campaign, but my brother and I have decided to create a world together for our different campaigns, he is a player in mine and I'm a player in his, separated by 1000 years. In my campaign the "steady state" was peace, caused by the country of Ebren conquering the main part of the continent in the 1000 years since my brother's campaign. The inciting incident is the reemergence of a cult that worships an arch-demon called Tyranus. However the only interaction between my players and this cult has been in one place, they haven't sought out this cult at all, however they have gone off and interacted politically with the elven country to the North where my brother's character is from. So, they are on the same stage as this major conflict, but they are keeping their distance for now.
I love this series on politics AND I learned something about history! Can we expect a video on how to integrate mass combat into our games in the future, though? I would love to see that
These are super useful! Thank you! I started small in my world but I'm slowly building it up into something epic and these videos help me work on things I otherwise wouldn't know how to attempt.
hey Matt, that's a nice second episode of a three part series you got there. it would be ashamed if someone... complained about how long it's taking for episode three to come out
The content of this video is excellent and I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next one. Plus I really enjoy all the comment and creative ideas. I love being the DM. Peace-
One of the best campaigns I ever ran was Arthurian legend where the players were just other knights of Camelot (or an apprentice of Merlin's in the case of the magic-user) who were dealing with their own things (typically fighting Romans and dark elves). They'd go to Merlin for advice on occasion (or have him identify magic items), and allies with Lancelot once, and even participated in the battle of Camlainn.
I would love to see the specifics of that study, if it's available for you to share, re like, what exactly incites players into different character ideals
I've run Rolemaster games where the overall world events were based on a strategy game I was playing Middle Earth Play by Mail. A failed navigation check let the party right in the path of the Witch King's armies which led to 4-5 sessions of trying to avoid being captured.
I am so glad I found your channel! Your insights have made me a better DM, with more complex storylines despite less time prepping. It would be amazing to be in one of your games, I think.
I especially love how relevant this video is for the current campaign (campaign 2) of Critical Role. They really do have a remarkable group keeping peace. Thanks for this video Matt. I refer to this video regularly to keep my campaign setting on the right course
This series actually came out just in time for my campaign. My players have just gotten to the point where they're really engaging in the politics of my world, and this has really helped me flesh it out beyond the immediate scope of what the PCs are doing.
I love that I discovered this channel so I could learn how DM but then ended up also learning a lot about life, philosophy, and politics along the way. It's seriously amazing.
I guess a lot of people already told you that but you actually really help me with building my own campain setting. I had a kind of empty area on my map and I was like "Hm what could I put there, maybe some political stuff, I don´t have to much of that so far" and having no idea how to do that your videos actually gave me a lot of inspiration on how and what to do there. By now I´m really exited for my players to stumble into this area and make cool stuff happen. Thanks a lot for all the advice and inspiration for my world that would be a lot poorer without you.
I am stoked because I've watched these videos multiple times, but I'm finally going to be able to use the advice in these videos from the politics series
Hearing Matt say WWI is the most significant event of the last 100 years when WWI was over 100 years ago now. The cool thing about learning History is you will never have to wait for the next season.
These videos are going to be really useful to me in the future... My campaign setting does not have war nor peace between nations yet, because there are no nations. Dwarves, gnomes and elves live mainly in a few citys their kind has created; humans, the new race, are beginning to colonise the lands, bend nature to their will. For now however, people outside of the few citys based on strategic positions such as a big bay or around an old elven city which in turn was build around the remnants of a much older civilisation live in few small villages which are far appart and rarely have contact to outsiders. The setting is intended to evolve over time; there will be games set at the time the first nations formed, and many afterwards.
Hey Mat, I wanted you to know that I really appreciate this video. I just started a new campaign as the DM where the players are dealing with a villain who is working to stage a military coup. I have been struggling in the last few sessions to create an environment that feels as tumultuous as the atmosphere of a city where political and social unrest are happening and you videos really helped put that into perspective. Keep up the great work. This is one of my favorite series on game design and world building.
I love coming back to these politics videos. Amazing how some of the most informed, in-depth looks at history come from bloody dnd videos, not history class
Being a historian who personally subscribes to the "Great men and great events" theory of history, and also a huge German History and WWI fan your example got me all warm inside.
Surprisingly, in 5 years no one has mentioned this yet: The show *Extra History* has an _excellent_ series on World War 1, which echoes much of what Matt says here.
The survey got me thinking of Dragonlance. Huge world, well defined, long history, but it seems like most people just want to follow the Heroes of the Lance again (players, not designers). When I picked up the 3rd edition setting, I was going to run a parallel group- the Gods had secreted another holy item in the north, by which people could rediscover them. And while I'm talking about campaign settings- Dark Sun definitely expected war, with fighters and gladiators gaining many more followers than in other settings. The second published adventure was centered on a war. Eberron is another favorite setting. The nations are at peace, but they're at peace because they just concluded a long, destructive war and everyone is too scared to fight anymore after one nation ceased to be. But it's set up so that soon, someone, somewhere, is going to break that peace.
In the campaign setting I'm working on, the nations and/or kingdoms are not a war with each other, but the campaign is taking place 10 years after a war ended that lasted for over 100 years between all of the nations. The end of the war led to a lot of changes in the world, such as half-orcs are equal to humans (after proving themselves in the wars), and that dwarves and elves are close allies and friends. However, it also led to Tieflings becoming a more isolated nation (ala America pre ww2). I like this because the peace is uneasy between most nations, but it also allows for interesting one-off campaigns (like an all human party in the war). Just my thoughts, love the vids.
Interregna = entertainment. I enjoy that you focus on the build up and the why. Usually players and DMs always are excited to jump into the immediate state with the description of, '...and something bad happened, causing the government/king/etc to fall, but that isn't important right now-' and it so often is, especially to make the risks and challenges have meaning.
A lot of this is reminding me of the GM section for Nights Black Agents. Particularly his description of creating an interesting and dynamic city for the party to do what PCs do in. Worth a read for anyone who wants to really focus in on politics but in a smaller and less formal arena. The book itself is about being Jason Bourne-esque super spies taking on a vampire conspiracy, but since reading it every major city I've made has taken advice from NBA.
These videos are a great help to the campaign i'm currently running in regards to fleshing out the political motivations of the different factions. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to make them.
I started a game set in Harn where the players were agents of the tiny kingdom of Chybisa playing off the two larger kingdoms that had some tenuous claims on it (Kandor and Melderyn) against one another. It was short lived, and it fell apart due to scheduling difficulties if I remember correctly. This video reminded me of that. I'll have to try that again sometime.
Matt, thank you so much for your videos! I have gotten so much use and enjoyment out of them since discovering your channel several weeks ago. I love the historical background you provide in this one.
On the WW1 list of important individuals keeping the peace, you left off one really important one. Franz Ferdinand. He was the major counterbalance to the generals in Austria-Hungary, that wanted war with who-ever. He was the one bolstering buffer states like Serbia. And, when he was assassinated by people for whom he was their greatest champion, everything he worked for was destroyed in his name, by people that actually didn't like him much at all.
Hello Matt, these videos are great, I'm getting a lot out of them (since you asked), and I'm a grey-whiskered veteran of running D&D, myself. This short series on political play has been especially useful, as it's what I've been wanting to do for a while: a politically complex open-world campaign setting. My heartfelt thanks! May your sword-swings always be mighty.
Hey Matt, I've been binge watching your videos for the past week (Including the entire Running the Game playlist, as well as up to the merging of the parties in Campaign Diary), and I'm loving all of it. I was wondering if you had any advice for us first timers on basically how to get over ourselves so we can make a better game. I've played Pathfinder once, and as I didn't have the best time with it, I decided I would try to do better with what I could, and I've noticed that once I make a map, I have a good idea of where it's going, but I don't know how to expand it without both character input and simply forcing myself into the villain's mindset. I figure I'm just being self conscious, but I don't want that to stop me. Thanks for all the work you've put into the channel, and I look forward to what comes next.
As a student of history, I would advise against completely writing off Great Man history as many events in history are ultimately the result of an incredibly skilled or incredibly useless leader/person even if they had many conditions surrounding them. In most campaigns the best balance would be to focus on a few Great Men/Women, but have them be aware of any underlying problems or issues as most leaders are. This not only allows the use of an easy political group of characters, but also allows you to include elements of underlying problems and the economics or geography of the situation for players to tap into as well.This enables players to have more layers to tap into on a roleplaying basis. This video is very good however, I love this series and I'm particularly enjoying this 3 parter so far, I'm very glad you make these videos!
Very helpful, Matt! I had always intended the oriental continent to the south to send a fleet to invade the Triple Kingdom (purely so I can use the phrase "The Ko-Dan Armada"), but I hadn't thought about why they hadn't invaded yet. The answer, which seems obvious now, is that the Triple Kingdom is too powerful to defeat. The past (real-time) year has been an espionage game leading up to the civil war that's about to start. Once the Triple Kingdom is weakened, the Ko-Dan will invade. "Greetings, fighters! You have been recruited to defend the frontier against the Ko-Dan armada." (I have been looking forward to saying that phrase for almost a year. These things shouldn't make me as happy as they do...)
Thank you so much for introducing me to Dan Carlin. I've been listening to his WWI Blueprint for Armageddon the past couple weeks. It's fascinating. Love your videos and your 2001 analysis.
As a new DM who doesn't necessarily want my game to be a war game, but still likes a setting consisting of nations (as opposed to city states of the Forgotten Realms) that are at conflict, I absolutely _love_ this video. I don't necessarily want my players to engage in a war game (hence why I don't currently have every nation at war), but I do enjoy having my players going through grounded adventures in a world nonetheless thriving with political interests.
MAN! Huge fan of your videos and they have helped me become a better DM. I have seen almost every single video you have made except of the politics videoes and as soon as you mentioned Dan Carlin and his podcast my face dropped. I have used his podcast very much the same way I use your youtube channel to become a better at stuff. So cool you mentioned him back in 2016. Good luck with the MCDM company! Cheers from a DM (... and a hopefully a future history teacher!)
Using Matt's advice, I created a two level political atmosphere in my game. There are two major players, an old military power which dominates the major continent in my campaign, and a smaller island nation which has become a trade hub and major economic power. The first level of my political atmosphere is that both of these countries want to go to war with each other. The second level is that neither can do so. The old military power wants to expand and bring new wealth and power to the nation, but the king's dukes are reticent to allow the war because the last time they attacked the island nation, two decades ago, they lost. The island nation is a plutocracy and is ruled by a council of the most wealthy, but 20 years ago when they were threatened by war, they appointed a Julius Caesar to protect them. He did so and this gave him much power in the nation. But now with all of his enemies defeated, the council fails to see his use, and has begun clawing back his power and funds for his navy. Desperate to remain in power, he NEEDS a war, but the council will not allow it. So the world knows peace, but for how long?
Reminds me a lot of what happened in (the former) Yugoslavia during the 1990s. As long as Marshal Tito was around, none of the various ethnic groups were able to attack each other, but once the Cold War was over it was open season.
I love your whole series, but this one particularly inspired me. I've long grappled with adding more political depth to my campaign. When I reviewed my campaign concept in terms of "central tension, steady state, and inciting incident" I was able to provide a clearer and more defined framework for the game. I was at a bit of a loss on how to approach the plot and adventures of the upcoming adventures and now that's basically planning itself. This has really inspired me! And I'm even looking through my old adventure notes, the players' decisions, and the consequences of their actions and the new framework is giving me a better way to tie past sessions together towards a single 'Grand Unified Campaign Theory.' THANKS, MATT!
40YEAR D&D CAMPAIGN?! Robert Wardhaugh has been D.M'ing the same campaign sense 1982! That's very 🧙. How cool is that? Wow... 🤯 I just found that article, and had to share.
My Grandpa is a history teacher and I have been taught from the age of I don't know exactly what Matt presents here :) My first reaction was "Why should they be at peace for gods sake?"^^
In my homebrew game I have a large continent with two nations who have been at war for as long as anyone can remember. The fighting has been focused on one particular region with both fighting to control it. Nation 1 currently controls the region having bitterly defeated Nation 2 with a surprise tactic. A few skirmishes followed over the years then suddenly Nation 1 proposed a peace treaty and Nation 2 accepted, surprising most. The game started with the capital city of Nation 1 preparing a celebration in anticipation of an envoy (including a noble intended for marriage) from Nation 2. Nation 1 was motivated to propose peace due to increasing tension between factions within their nation, which could be a prelude to civil war. What is not known is why Nation 2 accepted peace. This is the back drop of my game and players can get involved politically if they wish but regardless events will occur in the background and impact the players/story in different ways.
Matt, thank you so much for these videos. This one is particularly fascinating to me as a fiction writer and new D&D player. This is what makes story and campaigns so fascinating and fun, the fact that there’s so much complexity going on behind the scenes and within the characters and it just makes for great storytelling and great play. I don’t know if you read non-fantasy fiction, but you might want to check out just about anything by Robert Olen Butler who is an evangelist for desire within characters as being the driving force behind plot. This is exactly what causes conflicts great and small whether between nations or spouses. We want stuff, we fight to get it, if we don’t get it we go to war and somebody gets hurt in the process. The reality is ugly, but the fiction part of it is beautiful.
Why aren't the nations/kingdoms of my game world at war? There are two reasons. 1) I hate politics. 2) Its a semi-points-of-light setting. The borders are too wide, with little population and resources within them, to make it worth the effort. And its that way because of #1.
In my points of light setting, invading and conquering cities isn't really practical. But everyone has lots of ships travelling between the same cities through the same waters. I think I have to research the British privateers raiding Spanish gold ships.
This was very useful. So much in fact that I have come back to watch the Political Series again after seeing #5 on Black Panther. Always good to find a new nugget of info from a second listen.
This video has been incredibly useful to me as I run the "Murder in Baldur's Gate" module. I easily identified the central conflict and the warring parties but this is helping me run the NPCs with more realism.
pretty wild to be trying to learn how to run DnD and realize I'm studying for my global politics class at the same time
welcome to DMing. no matter what you are good at/learning about you can use it for dnd.
some people make great artwork. so people do great voices. i'm a programmer and made a program to keep track of how long it would take before the dragon returned to their lair and fuck up the pcs that were stealing from it. no matter the skill/knowledge, you can use it.
It's Saturday, so it's time to roll dice, kill dragons and shake up nation borders.
It's awesome
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room! "
Lol nice
I'm rather curious as to where that profile picture is from. Lol
Is that from a movie?
It’s a good line.
@@infidelheretic923 Dr Strangelove.
Wait, was it WarGames?
Sir, this is a Wendy's
Hey Matt I am a political science professor ( I have a masters degree in Political Science/ International Relations and I'm getting my Ph.D.). I am also a veteran DM, I've been dming since I was 14 (I'm now 30) and my campaign setting is also very politically charged. But very much like you I never force the political drama on to the pcs, they will get involved in the politics if they wish to, but the consequences of the unstable political system can be felt all over the place. I've been developing the campaign world for over 9 years now, and because I love doing it, I've created the internal political structure of all my nations (human or otherwise). So I have details on how each nation governs itself, and the international relations of all the nations that are interconnected in my campaign setting. And I must say your videos on Politics and D&D are excellent! You bring fantastic points to how we can look at our history and be inspired to introduce political problems into the our fantasy worlds, and by doing so we create worlds that are far more complex and believable, that truly come out as living breathing worlds! So I would like to congratulate you and say thank for making these videos and that they are fantastic!
Have you solved how big staged battles are played?, cause of the way Im DMing the campaign is very likly it will end in a massive war were almost all DnD races are involved. any advice ? Must be super cool to understand politics in such a specific way and the moving those abilities to DnD. (GameDesigner here btw)
@@maxcruzolivares5439 You do the Helm's Deep method. You don't focus on the entire battle, you focus on different points within the battle. You give your player's goals which outcome effects the entire battle.
I won't go through the entire Battle of Helm's Deep, but you can re-watch it and just see how the "players" (Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli ins specific) interact with the battlefield, how they move from place to place are given a clear goal so you can root for these minor moments that lead to the end.
I will highlight one part to illustrate my point. There is a scene where the enemies are loading up gunpowder underneath the wall, and a warrior starts running towards the gunpowder with a torch. The goal is for the players to stop the torch-runner before he gets to the wall. In the movie, this goal was failed and the torch-runner successfully blew up the wall and we moved into the next part of the battle. A clear goal was placed in front of us, and we tried to succeed.
The goals can be anything, though, try to get some civilians into a safe-house, the enemy brought a troll onto the field now we can't let it get to the castle, the drawbridge is starting to lower we need to get it to stop, etc.
Come up with a list of challenges that the players can accomplish during the battle, give them 3 or 4 options so they can choose whichever one they want. Everytime they succeed a minor goal mark it off, if they fail a minor goal mark it down, if they fail too many goals the battle is lost, if they succeed a certain amount of times the battle is won.
Jonathan Chute Yeah, had to figure that one out, the hard way 😅😅...
Ulrican414 I am in the beginning stages of building my own world (Pathfinder based) and will begin play later this year or beginning of next. I find this series very helpful.
It’s nice to see approval of the political videos from an expert in the field with experience in gaming.
Thanks for the post.
I am a college student of International Relations and a "neonate" DM, and I think the political system of my setting in alike manner, details of nations inner structure and the international relations between them.
"Entente cordiale" pronounced almost perfectly, you've got the French seal of approval
I took two years of French in high school! :D Somewhere a beleaguered teacher is smiling.
@@mcolville Hi Matt, do we know when the campaign will pick back up again?
"In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, there is only war."
For the emperor!
For Gork and Mork Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, this comment made it 5 years without a DCMA, congratulations!
For the greater good.
"Are the nations in your Dungeons and Dragons campaign at war? if not why not?"
As of the standard start of my campaign, no. But they're about to be, and everybody knows it.
this
Finally someone who realizes Otto von Bismarck wasn't just some warmonger
Bismarck had a plan. He always had a plan.
Just like Walpole ;)
Finding it tricky to find the first video.. Very interesting..
W😮 aż aa
War! Ugh! What is it good for? Lots of things, as it turns out.
Technologies :p
True that, as a person using a computer posting stuff on Internet, both things invented for military manners.
@@conradwerner2615 wat
Hey, here we are 2 years later, and we're getting the Kingdoms & Warfare book on Kickstarter... I hope it's as fantastic as Strongholds & Followers!
@@Kumimono The internet was actually invented for colleges to communicate...
I am so excited that you mentioned Donald Keegan!
The first time I picked up one of his books, I was in 8th grade. It was the very first time I had ditched school, and I went across the street to the public library and hung out in the historical nonfiction section.
I ended up getting a hold of his book 'The Peloponnesian War'. It was my first real encounter with nonfiction outside of the text books we read in school. I fell in love.
I don't know if it's still true, but for a very long time his lectures were freely available here on UA-cam.
This is a super non-sequitur, but I just couldn't contain myself when you mentioned him
You might enjoy The Coming Anarchy by Robert Kaplan, published 2000.
I'm pretty sure that having fantasy novels take longer and longer each time is just a sign that you're officially a fantasy author.
But the third one still isn't there, after 4+ years
@@theramendutchman takes a while to write a book sometimes
@@BallstinkBaron That true...
Especially with writer's blocks, or other hiatuses going around
"Why is there peace here?
The world is busy dealing with another war."
This tends to be the basic answer to most of my worlds' political status.
Example: If the Mongols are invading, you fight the Mongols, prepare to fight the Mongols, send mercenaries, sit and do nothing or maybe even try to profit from the conflit and perhaps strike a deal with the Mongols, but a Major Threat to the important political entities will always be the pivot for most things war-related in a setting that has one.
Just a quick note. Luke wanted to join the Imperial Accademy.
He didn't know the Empire was evil yet, and simply sought adventure.
I think he just wanted to join to leave Tatooine.
@@alalalala57 Adventure, leave Tatooine. ¿Porque no los dos?
In a deleted scene, Luke speaks with his friend Biggs, an Imperial cadet on leave in town, and asks him a bunch of eager questions about the academy only to discover that he's disillusioned with the empire and wants to defect to the rebellion. So in the uncut script, Luke would have had Biggs's skepticism, Leia's distress message, Obi-Wan's encouragement and the murder of his aunt and uncle forcing him out of his childhood home to motivate him to join the rebellion.
@@Bluehawk2008 While having a look at the creative process is always interesting, I dont think it's really a relevant point here. While that may have been intended originally it didnt make it's way into the actual work, so it's not actually how the character developed.
So, I intuitively did everything right so far in my campaign. There is Peace between the dwarves and orcs right now. And my players are on their best way to upset the delicate balance of power within the dwarven kingdom that made this peace possible in the first place as well as plotting a commando mission into orc territory. War is inevitable, but they will realise the consequences too late AND they will think it is all their fault. It will be a glorious reveal.
Ha I like the idea of trusting the PCS to fuck up the delicate peace.
I did the same thing, my pcs still get squirmy going near anyone from the cities involved in the war they think they started, "that civil war we started" is now a running joke. (In reality both cities wanted war because the last election was rigged and the city of Mirabar needs access to the sea through Luskan)
I kind of want to hear how this turned out...
@@brendanmurray4538 it's a style of DMing: set up conflict in unstable stability. the direction it'll fall will be by the players.
Sweet, streamlined mass combat rules? Would love a video on that!
Pathfinder's "Ultimate Campaign" has an entire chapter for that actually. Granted it is 3.5 esque rules but they could easily be converted.
This video is so good it hurts! It literally changes the perspective on peace and war in general and how you can use it. Just mind blown.
"I think that video is relatively short"
*7 minutes later*
"I think this video was relatively short"
Love ya Matt, keep up the good work!
I just showed the Donald Kagen part of this to my 10th grade 20th century Canadian history class last week. I thought it was something really good for the sharper tacks in the board.
Wow! I hope they dug it!
Matthew Colville I think they did. Made them think, alright.
"I'm hoping to do them one week after another."
Ah yes, four of those special extra long Colville weeks.
You keep saying nobody taught you this stuff, firstly you taught yourself which deserves credit, secondly reading books regarding said subjects is indirectly being taught on that particular subject (Kagan's book in this case). Hence, your references to books and other literary sources were and are your teachers. We don't all get to have a personal sensei, self-efficacy seems to be part of your point, if you ask me.
Thanks Matt! Watching you do this, makes me want to undertake more effort for my D&D group, but perhaps also apply that in other goals in life!
For reasons, I heard the opening questions a ton and would pause the video so I could watch this video "later"-I left this tab open for months. Finally, finally, I understand that you were not challenging me with that "if not, why not?". It wasn't that a setting at war was *more interesting* and that I was leaving juicy narrative on the table by keeping my two current campaigns in a postbellum pax terra and a city-state confederation butting up against the untamed fey forests respectively... it was that I should know what key figures or elements *maintained* this peace... and what could thereby destabilize everything when neutralized. God, I love this channel.
I really need to start writing again and running D&D. These videos are brilliant.
Did you? If not, no better time than now.
Luke did not want to join the rebellion. He wanted to join the Imperial Academy.
_Thank you_
There's plenty enough to criticize about what's ACTUALLY in Star Wars
Sort of. He wanted to become a pilot and the only normal way to do that was the Imperial Academy. He does tell Obi-Wan though that, "It's not that I like the Empire, I hate it but there's nothing I can do about it right now." He's not trying to join the Imperial Academy because he's a fan of the Empire, but because of his interest in piloting. Joining the rebellion has never occurred to him as a possible or sane thing to do, especially in regard to becoming a pilot at this point, and he might actually approve of the rebellion - even if he lacks the personal motivation or courage to join it at this point.
"Listened to a 26 hours Podcast" I now have to imagine how Matthew did that in one sitting, just powering through it and remembering everything that was said in that Podcast...
I'm surprised no one in the comments made "No fighting in the War room" joke
I was just about to!
Because the King is a Ancient Dragon that is literally over a thousand years old.
"War is the health of the State" - Randolph Bourne
I read Kagan's book in ROTC when I was in college. Cool to see it get shout out here, it changed the way I looked at historical wars. My world has three or four wars going on depending how you count and at least one that is soon to break out.
Your politics and depth it effects your campaign blows my mind. Great content, thank you!
I could listen to Matt discuss history and politics allllll day.
Good stuff, looking forward to part 3! Makes me stop and think "where can I add fragility to things that seem stable?" Maybe a drought will ruin the harvest? Maybe there's already a drought, but the druid circle has been using its resources to create rain? Maybe they're also out of resources and have been resorting to foul rituals? Maybe the king has been giving them prisoners to sacrifice as fuel for the rituals? What happens if the king falls ill? It just keeps going!
One thing I'm wondering about is the balance between moral ambiguity vs letting players feel good about fighting for the "right" side. I think the typical D&D game wants some of both to be engaging...
Oh also, there was a CGP Grey video recently called Rules for Rulers, might interest you regarding this topic!
That CGP Grey video certainly comes into it heavily, it's fantastic!
From what you said about thinking about "where can I add fragility to things that seem stable?", I'd like to propose a counterpoint or concurrent line of thought - "where can I add stability to something that is inherently fragile?".
That question to me captures the point Matt was trying to get across in the video. Not that I suppose you didn't get his point, but our intuitions have a way of substituting easier or more familiar questions in place of harder ones without us noticing. And certainly this idea of having "add" fragility is more familiar to our predominant worldview, so it makes sense that your intuition would have you stop and think and feel excited about answering that question.
Just thought I'd throw that out there anyway :)
I had an interesting experience where I ran a game with the central political conflict being a slave rebellion. The players almost immediately sided with the rebellion, freeing slaves, fighting imperial troops. Then I slowly revealed to them that while the empire wasn't exactly good, the rebels were cruel and spiteful people. It gave them a moral dilemma of who do we side with now, the empire who stand for order or the rebels who are by no means good but are fighting for freedom.
Their solution genuinely surprised me.
They decided to get the rebels to change the way they acted toward the enemy. I was baffled, but now that they have spent the effort to accomplish that, the rebels are like seal-of-approval good guys, which means the empire is an easily understood bad guy again.
instead of answering the difficult question they did the difficult task of changing the question. good DMing by working with it.
In the RPG Godbound, when you create a 'court' -- a group of people who run some enterprise or other -- you also create the internal politics of the court and a consequence for what would happen if the court is trampled by the vast powers of the PCs. Following that setup politics just happens: the characters either engage with the politics of the various groups they interact with, or they have to deal with the consequences of what happens when they cut loose.
I mean, Godbound doesn't really *enmesh* the characters in politics because with their power the PCs can always just go 'oops, made a total mess here, better skip town!' and start up on another world-fragment altogether... but it's a neat system and easily portable to other games.
Godbound is also D&D-based, so I recommend people give it a look.
Dammit, a 23 minute video right as I'm about to go to sleep. Ah well, hopefully this will inspire me for my game on Tuesday.
Gonna bounce an idea off the comments section. Let's see how that turns out haha.
My world, Orvos, maintains peace via the Monarch's Guild. The Guild functions as a combination piggy bank/social club/UN for Orvos. Most nations belong to it, and its central "seat" is in a democratic city-state, Essenveld. Balgrum Rustbeard set up the Guild to ensure that his city was safe from the Monarchs that surround it. It is largely successful as an institution, though there are a couple of minor civil wars, and a religious war between a theocratic state and the wilderness above it. Aside from that, most rulers would fear going to war, since starting a war can lead to expulsion from the Guild, which means they lose access to the emergency funds, as well as risking the rest of the Guild nations all Ying against them (which they are obligated to do). The Guild by laws, minutes, and the letters written by Guild officials from Essenveld are all written in a special code, so it is nearly impossible for kings and queens to really understand the nature of the Guild, most of them having been born into it (membership is hereditary). Of course, my players are convinced that there is some sinister secret at the heart of this and want to try to destroy it, but honestly, it's just a terrified city state surrounded by nations whose histories are basically a thousand year long stretch of total war.
So the main thing keeping your nation's at peace is essentially a insurance policy? Sounds cool but what if there is some kind of great depression? Wouldn't it all just crumble?
@@pptemplar5840 both an insurance fund and a total war with everyone else
I'm gonna miss the campaign diaries. They made me interested in actually playing the game for the first time.
Check out Critical Role. Truly fantastic series.
Jim Novak I agree with Stormchaser Knight, start with episode 1. It's a slog, but worth it!
hi Matt! thanks for the videos. I'm into running my second session for a group as a new DM and I found a lot of these videos made way more sense after you've actually gotten into the thick of it. it was funny, I watched all your videos and felt so so prepared for my first game. I got so much ready for my game, but once you're behind the screen it becomes a whole different world. I'd get asked questions that I didn't really know how to answer, get flustered and then get worried i wasn't doing well. everyone said they had a good time, but I was always fumbling over books and just only mildly freaking out.
buuut after that stress I realized I was focusing on the wrong stuff. I was DMing to run the "best game possible" and not the "best game possible, for my players and I" and it totally changed how I approached the game.
and it all kinda comes together, your videos. they make sense more now than ever, and I'm probably going to watch them all again.
anyway I'm going off on a tangent. basically your videos are boss and they help people feel better about playing a sweet game so cheers.
Did we ever get the third video about power?
Or was the third video hijacked by the diplomacy video?
I haven't seen it yet, but it seems Politics #5 is "On the origins of Executive Power"!
Wow, Matt Colville shouting out Dan Carlin. I am in heaven.
"I don't spend much time on twitch." *Talisman has entered the chat*
The world of Edona is currently in a time of peace, namely thanks to one Lord Tavon Bismarque, the current lord of Amon, the capitol city of Edona. The two off-island empires, Elysia and Galeo are also in a time of peace, though that steady truce is becoming rather rocky with their intermediary, Duke Quentinmire, being arrested for illegal activities and an oncoming threat of dragons and demonic cultists slowly taking over parts of Edona. A peace summit is being held between the nations of Elysia and Galeo, and should anything go awry... it could spell war.
This is a story that's ongoing in my campaign that the players are not completely aware of. They know Elysia and Galeo have past tensions and the players are actually personal friends of Tavon Bismarque, but the whole of the story is slowly becoming clear to them. I love encompassing war tensions even in a campaign not focused on war. This is something for background NPCs to be busy with, as well as for me to hint at every now and again as the players progress further and further into the story.
Perfectly helpful, thank you! My campaign involves the players taking an artifact they have recovered, and using it to bring peace to the land. I have no idea what that means for future gameplay! Ha ha!This video series gives me some points to run with.
Thank You for this video, it definitely helped me organize things in my head for my campaign. This is my first campaign, but my brother and I have decided to create a world together for our different campaigns, he is a player in mine and I'm a player in his, separated by 1000 years. In my campaign the "steady state" was peace, caused by the country of Ebren conquering the main part of the continent in the 1000 years since my brother's campaign. The inciting incident is the reemergence of a cult that worships an arch-demon called Tyranus. However the only interaction between my players and this cult has been in one place, they haven't sought out this cult at all, however they have gone off and interacted politically with the elven country to the North where my brother's character is from. So, they are on the same stage as this major conflict, but they are keeping their distance for now.
I love this series on politics AND I learned something about history! Can we expect a video on how to integrate mass combat into our games in the future, though? I would love to see that
These are super useful! Thank you! I started small in my world but I'm slowly building it up into something epic and these videos help me work on things I otherwise wouldn't know how to attempt.
hey Matt, that's a nice second episode of a three part series you got there. it would be ashamed if someone... complained about how long it's taking for episode three to come out
I personally would like a video about post-war events and how to translate that into a game.
"Ok the War ended... now what?"
Hey Matt, that was extremely useful information. I'm setting up a Classic Traveller campaign and I was stuck. This video "unstuck" me. Thanks!
The content of this video is excellent and I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next one. Plus I really enjoy all the comment and creative ideas. I love being the DM. Peace-
One of the best campaigns I ever ran was Arthurian legend where the players were just other knights of Camelot (or an apprentice of Merlin's in the case of the magic-user) who were dealing with their own things (typically fighting Romans and dark elves). They'd go to Merlin for advice on occasion (or have him identify magic items), and allies with Lancelot once, and even participated in the battle of Camlainn.
I would love to see the specifics of that study, if it's available for you to share, re like, what exactly incites players into different character ideals
I've run Rolemaster games where the overall world events were based on a strategy game I was playing Middle Earth Play by Mail. A failed navigation check let the party right in the path of the Witch King's armies which led to 4-5 sessions of trying to avoid being captured.
I am so glad I found your channel! Your insights have made me a better DM, with more complex storylines despite less time prepping. It would be amazing to be in one of your games, I think.
I especially love how relevant this video is for the current campaign (campaign 2) of Critical Role. They really do have a remarkable group keeping peace. Thanks for this video Matt. I refer to this video regularly to keep my campaign setting on the right course
This series actually came out just in time for my campaign. My players have just gotten to the point where they're really engaging in the politics of my world, and this has really helped me flesh it out beyond the immediate scope of what the PCs are doing.
Wrath of the khans by Dan Carlin is one of the greatest things ever recorded
War and Peace. Ironically not anywhere near the longest video in the series.
I love that I discovered this channel so I could learn how DM but then ended up also learning a lot about life, philosophy, and politics along the way. It's seriously amazing.
I guess a lot of people already told you that but you actually really help me with building my own campain setting. I had a kind of empty area on my map and I was like "Hm what could I put there, maybe some political stuff, I don´t have to much of that so far" and having no idea how to do that your videos actually gave me a lot of inspiration on how and what to do there. By now I´m really exited for my players to stumble into this area and make cool stuff happen.
Thanks a lot for all the advice and inspiration for my world that would be a lot poorer without you.
If there's an empty space on your map, write down "here there be monsters and treasure" and dangle that carrot in front of the PCs.
I am stoked because I've watched these videos multiple times, but I'm finally going to be able to use the advice in these videos from the politics series
Hearing Matt say WWI is the most significant event of the last 100 years when WWI was over 100 years ago now. The cool thing about learning History is you will never have to wait for the next season.
18:03 - 18:07, a perfect demonstration of quantum entanglement
Fantastic yet again! Thanks! Eagerly looking forward to the next one. This miniseries is really helping me with my world building!
These videos are going to be really useful to me in the future... My campaign setting does not have war nor peace between nations yet, because there are no nations. Dwarves, gnomes and elves live mainly in a few citys their kind has created; humans, the new race, are beginning to colonise the lands, bend nature to their will. For now however, people outside of the few citys based on strategic positions such as a big bay or around an old elven city which in turn was build around the remnants of a much older civilisation live in few small villages which are far appart and rarely have contact to outsiders.
The setting is intended to evolve over time; there will be games set at the time the first nations formed, and many afterwards.
Hey, Matt! Just wanted to say thank you for all your videos. I'm a new DM and your videos have helped immensely. Keep up the great work.
Hey Mat, I wanted you to know that I really appreciate this video. I just started a new campaign as the DM where the players are dealing with a villain who is working to stage a military coup. I have been struggling in the last few sessions to create an environment that feels as tumultuous as the atmosphere of a city where political and social unrest are happening and you videos really helped put that into perspective. Keep up the great work. This is one of my favorite series on game design and world building.
I love coming back to these politics videos. Amazing how some of the most informed, in-depth looks at history come from bloody dnd videos, not history class
Being a historian who personally subscribes to the "Great men and great events" theory of history, and also a huge German History and WWI fan your example got me all warm inside.
Surprisingly, in 5 years no one has mentioned this yet:
The show *Extra History* has an _excellent_ series on World War 1, which echoes much of what Matt says here.
The survey got me thinking of Dragonlance. Huge world, well defined, long history, but it seems like most people just want to follow the Heroes of the Lance again (players, not designers). When I picked up the 3rd edition setting, I was going to run a parallel group- the Gods had secreted another holy item in the north, by which people could rediscover them.
And while I'm talking about campaign settings- Dark Sun definitely expected war, with fighters and gladiators gaining many more followers than in other settings. The second published adventure was centered on a war.
Eberron is another favorite setting. The nations are at peace, but they're at peace because they just concluded a long, destructive war and everyone is too scared to fight anymore after one nation ceased to be. But it's set up so that soon, someone, somewhere, is going to break that peace.
This may be the most useful video I've come across for informing the Guilds of Ravnica campaign I run. Thank you, Matt Colville.
In the campaign setting I'm working on, the nations and/or kingdoms are not a war with each other, but the campaign is taking place 10 years after a war ended that lasted for over 100 years between all of the nations. The end of the war led to a lot of changes in the world, such as half-orcs are equal to humans (after proving themselves in the wars), and that dwarves and elves are close allies and friends. However, it also led to Tieflings becoming a more isolated nation (ala America pre ww2). I like this because the peace is uneasy between most nations, but it also allows for interesting one-off campaigns (like an all human party in the war). Just my thoughts, love the vids.
Interregna = entertainment.
I enjoy that you focus on the build up and the why. Usually players and DMs always are excited to jump into the immediate state with the description of, '...and something bad happened, causing the government/king/etc to fall, but that isn't important right now-'
and it so often is, especially to make the risks and challenges have meaning.
More great information. Looking forward to part 3. Thanks again, Matt.
As a person who plays Ark I can confirm this is true and I have at one time been the man busting his butt to keep the peace
A lot of this is reminding me of the GM section for Nights Black Agents. Particularly his description of creating an interesting and dynamic city for the party to do what PCs do in. Worth a read for anyone who wants to really focus in on politics but in a smaller and less formal arena. The book itself is about being Jason Bourne-esque super spies taking on a vampire conspiracy, but since reading it every major city I've made has taken advice from NBA.
These videos are a great help to the campaign i'm currently running in regards to fleshing out the political motivations of the different factions. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to make them.
I started a game set in Harn where the players were agents of the tiny kingdom of Chybisa playing off the two larger kingdoms that had some tenuous claims on it (Kandor and Melderyn) against one another. It was short lived, and it fell apart due to scheduling difficulties if I remember correctly. This video reminded me of that. I'll have to try that again sometime.
Matt, thank you so much for your videos! I have gotten so much use and enjoyment out of them since discovering your channel several weeks ago. I love the historical background you provide in this one.
On the WW1 list of important individuals keeping the peace, you left off one really important one. Franz Ferdinand. He was the major counterbalance to the generals in Austria-Hungary, that wanted war with who-ever. He was the one bolstering buffer states like Serbia. And, when he was assassinated by people for whom he was their greatest champion, everything he worked for was destroyed in his name, by people that actually didn't like him much at all.
Hello Matt, these videos are great, I'm getting a lot out of them (since you asked), and I'm a grey-whiskered veteran of running D&D, myself. This short series on political play has been especially useful, as it's what I've been wanting to do for a while: a politically complex open-world campaign setting. My heartfelt thanks! May your sword-swings always be mighty.
Hey Matt, I've been binge watching your videos for the past week (Including the entire Running the Game playlist, as well as up to the merging of the parties in Campaign Diary), and I'm loving all of it. I was wondering if you had any advice for us first timers on basically how to get over ourselves so we can make a better game. I've played Pathfinder once, and as I didn't have the best time with it, I decided I would try to do better with what I could, and I've noticed that once I make a map, I have a good idea of where it's going, but I don't know how to expand it without both character input and simply forcing myself into the villain's mindset. I figure I'm just being self conscious, but I don't want that to stop me. Thanks for all the work you've put into the channel, and I look forward to what comes next.
As a student of history, I would advise against completely writing off Great Man history as many events in history are ultimately the result of an incredibly skilled or incredibly useless leader/person even if they had many conditions surrounding them.
In most campaigns the best balance would be to focus on a few Great Men/Women, but have them be aware of any underlying problems or issues as most leaders are. This not only allows the use of an easy political group of characters, but also allows you to include elements of underlying problems and the economics or geography of the situation for players to tap into as well.This enables players to have more layers to tap into on a roleplaying basis.
This video is very good however, I love this series and I'm particularly enjoying this 3 parter so far, I'm very glad you make these videos!
Very helpful, Matt! I had always intended the oriental continent to the south to send a fleet to invade the Triple Kingdom (purely so I can use the phrase "The Ko-Dan Armada"), but I hadn't thought about why they hadn't invaded yet. The answer, which seems obvious now, is that the Triple Kingdom is too powerful to defeat. The past (real-time) year has been an espionage game leading up to the civil war that's about to start. Once the Triple Kingdom is weakened, the Ko-Dan will invade.
"Greetings, fighters! You have been recruited to defend the frontier against the Ko-Dan armada."
(I have been looking forward to saying that phrase for almost a year. These things shouldn't make me as happy as they do...)
Thank you so much for introducing me to Dan Carlin. I've been listening to his WWI Blueprint for Armageddon the past couple weeks. It's fascinating.
Love your videos and your 2001 analysis.
"There was a lot going on under the surface." Given his campaign involved machinations in the underdark, this was true in more ways than one.
As a new DM who doesn't necessarily want my game to be a war game, but still likes a setting consisting of nations (as opposed to city states of the Forgotten Realms) that are at conflict, I absolutely _love_ this video. I don't necessarily want my players to engage in a war game (hence why I don't currently have every nation at war), but I do enjoy having my players going through grounded adventures in a world nonetheless thriving with political interests.
MAN! Huge fan of your videos and they have helped me become a better DM. I have seen almost every single video you have made except of the politics videoes and as soon as you mentioned Dan Carlin and his podcast my face dropped. I have used his podcast very much the same way I use your youtube channel to become a better at stuff. So cool you mentioned him back in 2016. Good luck with the MCDM company! Cheers from a DM (... and a hopefully a future history teacher!)
I read Kagan's book on the Peloponnesian war... twice. Great historian and author.
Using Matt's advice, I created a two level political atmosphere in my game. There are two major players, an old military power which dominates the major continent in my campaign, and a smaller island nation which has become a trade hub and major economic power. The first level of my political atmosphere is that both of these countries want to go to war with each other. The second level is that neither can do so. The old military power wants to expand and bring new wealth and power to the nation, but the king's dukes are reticent to allow the war because the last time they attacked the island nation, two decades ago, they lost. The island nation is a plutocracy and is ruled by a council of the most wealthy, but 20 years ago when they were threatened by war, they appointed a Julius Caesar to protect them. He did so and this gave him much power in the nation. But now with all of his enemies defeated, the council fails to see his use, and has begun clawing back his power and funds for his navy. Desperate to remain in power, he NEEDS a war, but the council will not allow it. So the world knows peace, but for how long?
Reminds me a lot of what happened in (the former) Yugoslavia during the 1990s. As long as Marshal Tito was around, none of the various ethnic groups were able to attack each other, but once the Cold War was over it was open season.
I love your whole series, but this one particularly inspired me. I've long grappled with adding more political depth to my campaign. When I reviewed my campaign concept in terms of "central tension, steady state, and inciting incident" I was able to provide a clearer and more defined framework for the game. I was at a bit of a loss on how to approach the plot and adventures of the upcoming adventures and now that's basically planning itself. This has really inspired me! And I'm even looking through my old adventure notes, the players' decisions, and the consequences of their actions and the new framework is giving me a better way to tie past sessions together towards a single 'Grand Unified Campaign Theory.' THANKS, MATT!
Thanks for another great video, it has answered a lot of my questions.
40YEAR D&D CAMPAIGN?! Robert Wardhaugh has been D.M'ing the same campaign sense 1982! That's very 🧙. How cool is that? Wow... 🤯
I just found that article, and had to share.
My Grandpa is a history teacher and I have been taught from the age of I don't know exactly what Matt presents here :) My first reaction was "Why should they be at peace for gods sake?"^^
In my homebrew game I have a large continent with two nations who have been at war for as long as anyone can remember. The fighting has been focused on one particular region with both fighting to control it. Nation 1 currently controls the region having bitterly defeated Nation 2 with a surprise tactic. A few skirmishes followed over the years then suddenly Nation 1 proposed a peace treaty and Nation 2 accepted, surprising most. The game started with the capital city of Nation 1 preparing a celebration in anticipation of an envoy (including a noble intended for marriage) from Nation 2.
Nation 1 was motivated to propose peace due to increasing tension between factions within their nation, which could be a prelude to civil war. What is not known is why Nation 2 accepted peace. This is the back drop of my game and players can get involved politically if they wish but regardless events will occur in the background and impact the players/story in different ways.
Matt, thank you so much for these videos. This one is particularly fascinating to me as a fiction writer and new D&D player. This is what makes story and campaigns so fascinating and fun, the fact that there’s so much complexity going on behind the scenes and within the characters and it just makes for great storytelling and great play. I don’t know if you read non-fantasy fiction, but you might want to check out just about anything by Robert Olen Butler who is an evangelist for desire within characters as being the driving force behind plot. This is exactly what causes conflicts great and small whether between nations or spouses. We want stuff, we fight to get it, if we don’t get it we go to war and somebody gets hurt in the process. The reality is ugly, but the fiction part of it is beautiful.
Thank you so much for these videos. Extremely happy with my world now after your advice and it wouldn't have been possible without your videos
Why aren't the nations/kingdoms of my game world at war? There are two reasons. 1) I hate politics. 2) Its a semi-points-of-light setting. The borders are too wide, with little population and resources within them, to make it worth the effort. And its that way because of #1.
Well I'm glad we got that sorted out!
Mine aren't because they just finished one and the other nation (not the one my setting is in) hasn't recovered yet!
Joseph Mort sounds like a perfect opertunity to finish the kingdom off
Qrow Branwen Which is exactly why one of the king's personal guard was planning a coup.
In my points of light setting, invading and conquering cities isn't really practical. But everyone has lots of ships travelling between the same cities through the same waters.
I think I have to research the British privateers raiding Spanish gold ships.
This was very useful. So much in fact that I have come back to watch the Political Series again after seeing #5 on Black Panther. Always good to find a new nugget of info from a second listen.
This video has been incredibly useful to me as I run the "Murder in Baldur's Gate" module. I easily identified the central conflict and the warring parties but this is helping me run the NPCs with more realism.