Help needed with campaign idea

[robert_pat]

You could have one PC be chief, while the others have control over distinct operations within the village. The others could have a form of voting rights, essentially making a council of elders, but you'd still have one head honcho who takes control in certain situations.

I think one thing you'd need is some adventures to drum up support for the new settlement. Dozens of people aren't going to just up and leave their homes because some PCs want to play lords. There'd need to be a strong motivation to leave. Viglund would be a good motivator, as would a famine or increased Orc/Wolf raids as part of DoM.

I'd also suggest Tables. Lots and lots of Tables. Looots. There's bound to be a ton of goings on in a village, with certain events happening to new villages in particular. I think unexpected events, not all of them adventure worthy, would really bring a village to life. If you want some ideas on how to trigger these events and decide how well the settlement's doing, I made a House Rules thread about Expanded Holdings. I'd love to see some house rules for followers and mass combat, although I suppose you could just adapt the rules governing the large battles in certain published adventures.

[Glorelendil]

What I'm thinking is that I'll invent a sub-system that tracks status among the non-player settlers, such that at the annual Thing one of the heroes is elected Chief for the year, heavily influenced by, but not completely determined by, those status ratings. Maybe one of the crises that they face (there's a Hari Seldon-esque thing going on here, huh?) is that one of the LMC's arises as a credible but undesirable leader...sort of a Donald Trump with a Great Spear...who has a shot at winning the vote at the Thing.

[robert_pat]

That'd be nice because there's a chance for everyone to be Chief for the year. I'd just have two concerns. The first is that one player may monopolize the status ratings, making them very hard to beat and defeating the system. Second is that keeping track of what each settler thinks of each PC is quite an unenviable task IMHO.

And yeah, if there are elections, it'd make sense that NPCs might be popular. PCs mess up and let Orcs raze the fields? Huh, Gregor the Butcher sure looks like a good Chief. . .

[TheMonarchGamer]

Another thread gave me an idea for a set of connected adventures, in the spirit of Darkening of Mirkwood: a mission to create a new settlement in some dangerous corner of Middle Earth, like Vales of Gundabad or the North Downs. Adventure ideas include:
- Receive task from White Council
- Scout out a new location
- Fight off current monstrous inhabitants
- Make peace with neighbors
- Explore nearby creepy ruins and chase out denizen
- Win patronage of local supernatural Power
- Deal with overture(s) from the Shadow
- Find needed resources
- Survive brutal winter
- Go on trading journey for supplies and establish route
- Answer war levy from nearest lord
Etc. I'm imagining that there will be several mini-games/subsystems (e.g., the Long Winter), and new rules for followers and mass combat. So sort of "Middle Earth meets Civilization."

The thing I can't figure out is: I just don't find it realistic, either from a real-world or a Tolkien-esque point of view, that a committee would be in charge. There would be one person with ultimate authority in the settlement. How to do this with multiple players?
- It could be that formally one of them is "chief" and the others are his/her closest advisors, but I really feel the others are then missing out on part of the fun of this concept
- The chief could be an LMC, but then all of them are missing out on the core concept
- It could be designed as a solo campaign, with LMC's for the top advisors. But designing to exclude the vast majority of gaming groups seems...unwise.

Any good ideas for how to solve this conundrum?

I'm really late to the party, so sorry about that, but I thought this was an interesting idea. What about doing something where the chief is a LMC, but a really old one. He would be senile or something. Basically, he's completely incapable of making rational decisions, but he's technically the king/leader. So the players play the top advisers, who really have all the power. Everyone sort of treats them like they're the rulers.
-TMG

[Dunheved]

Hi. I saw this thread earlier and hadn't come up with anything until I had a re-read today. So here goes and I hope it is helpful. (It's a great idea and very ambitious: LM Trait = Bold)

I think that the OP is "what would be the premise for starting the community? "
I wondered about a historical reason for a new community: and then I thought about the gold rush era of California and the film Pale Rider. Using this as a vague starter I'd like to suggest that a community that is based on the discovery and cultivation of a unusual or limited resource (like a mineral mine; or perhaps a particularly blessed type of soil allowing a rare crop to be grown in sheltered conditions; or a unique niche for a type of fish; or a hot water spring with medicinal benefits) would have a collection of people who might need protecting. Importantly, there would be an economic reason for the community.

Such communities do grow and then need an infrastructure to support them. Enter the PCs as the community itself would have to grow its own administration and defence to survive.

Does this seem flexible enough to be adapted by LM and PCs?