Templates for Nobility
Also, the Prelude to a Grand Campaign
This last month or so, I have been putting together a highly asymmetric King-tier patron wargame as a way to introduce some relatively new players to the multitude of options that exist in high level ACKS. Armies, hijinks, magic research, abstract adventuring are all on the table, and indeed, their initial plans as I get ready to kick it off seem ready to touch on many aspects of it.
For those curious:
The major factions here assembled:
The Caliph of Thar, Sorcerer-King of the South, Self-Proclaimed Immortal God-King - Darkness lingers on the palace of Thar, and the heart of its ruler is darker yet. The foundations of the city tremble at the hosts of beastmen that gather to worship him as he prepares for his ascension.
The Sultan of Agrahvar, War-Wizard, Prince of the City of Swords - Ambitious vassal to the Caliph and commander of the brutal and disciplined Dust Legions of hobgoblin mamluks. Fights for eternal glory and the honor of his dark gods.
The Sultan of Najran, Piercer of Veils, Mystagogue Magnificient - The reclusive sorcerer who reigns in Najran is little seen but widely feared, a distant vassal of the Caliph. His demons spy out secrets, steal for him treasures, and slay his foes. Though his lands are small, the mines worked there are rich, and the desert gnolls who guard them ever vigilant.
The Thrassian God-King, the Blood of Dragons, the Gut-Guzzler - Reawakened in his awesome might is a thrassian tyrant from the ancient past, who overthrew the Sultan of the Sorrowthorn and took his jeweled throne in the jungle deeps. Lizardmen swarm to his banner as the Caliph of Thar rages, and he laughs as he foresees a resurgent lizardman civilization.
The Oracle of Theris, Warrior-Sage, Prophet of Winds - He foresaw a terrible future, and so made pilgrimage to the holy city of Calarah. From that impregnable mountain fastness, he calls a holy crusade, to summon the worthy and the righteous and drive evil from the Silver Crescent.
The High Priestess of Ali-Ara, Tempestuous Muse, Queen of the Seas - Presiding over the grand port of Ali-Aram, jewel of the south, the High Priestess sees the world cast into chaos and struggles to combat it. An ancient and mighty city she rules, but one hollowed out by corruption and the infighting of its elites, who must be unified before the darkness of the south falls over all that is and will be.
For my part, I think it will be good practice running through reconnaissance rolls and the ACKS II mass combat system, and I hope it will prove an effective means of recruiting players to future campaigns. They certainly seem excited about it, and I plan to post updates here as the action unfolds.
One consequence of setting that up is that I have been generating a whole lot of rulers, and that in turn means picking numerous proficiencies and rolling many magic items. I have yet to update my automated treasure roller for II, so while the latter has been labor intensive, the Judges Journal and Treasure Tome have served me very well and generated numerous interesting results. In the case of the former, I’m afraid that my instincts have been more straightforward, and many of the rulers were built along similar lines. As I review that, the idea struck me to build a set of templates on which to roll that would randomly generate sets of proficiencies for members of the nobility based on their level. Light playtesting supports it as a useful tool; I’ll report back on how it holds up to more extensive use later, and would welcome feedback from anyone else who tries it!
This was intended for a Classical era culture, where rulers are officers more than warlords, and as often orators as either. Depending on culture, a Huntsman (with Precise Shooting and Tracking, and the Dilettante changed to Combat Trickery) and/or Merchant Prince (Bribery and Bargaining, and the Courtier changed to Loremastery perhaps) could be appropriate to swap in, and certainly different cultures would shuffle the component templates around to make different archetypes predominate. If anyone ends up making such a variant, I’d be quite interested to hear about it!
Addendum: wargame reports from the Intro, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, and Week 7 are all available.