So, I want to make a sort of morally gray plot for my PCs to solve and I have hard time comping up with actual turn of events.
We have a king who killed his brother and took the throne. All nice and well, since king's brother did some horrendous shit(_________), but because of a good reason (__________). In fact, many deem the old king to be a hero.
What did the old king do? How did things take place?
Can you please help me flesh this out more exactly, /tg/?
thanks
>>43703147
He massacred a whole shitload of immigrants who tried to flee into his country.
The reason?
Because they had no capacity to accept them all, and to do so would consign his people to a slow death by starvation and disease, leaving them ripe for invasion by an aggressive neighbor.
A king's first duty is to serve his nation.
>>43703189
Was the old king named Trump? Go back to /pol/ with your topical agenda.
>>43703147
>morally gray
>>43703147
D&D?
>>43703147
Look up some political leaders that did the sort of things you're looking for.
For instance, the german democrat republic was an oppressive police state where people were killed for attempting to leave and the state police kept tabs on what literally everyone was doing, and arrested and tortured people for pretty much no reason. They would reportedly give the judges the verdicts for people ahead of time.
On the other hand, literally every state industry was state run, so everyone had jobs and housing (unless the government didn't want certain people to have them)
Nowadays, east germany is the poorest area of Germany, as a lot of their industry was really unsustainable and homeless people reportedly reminisce about when they had jobs and livelihoods.
The history of the german democratic republic is pretty interesting, actually. I'd recommend pic related if you want to learn about it, Funder provides a lot of views on it.
>>43703218
Why the rage?
>>43703227
Yes.
>>43703189
and they had to kill them, because if they had just not taken them in, it would have just been Rome 2.0
>>43703147
The horrible thing the King did was brutally crack down on a rebellion... that started in response to his decree of universal Manumission for all slaves within the realm, as well as any who might escape to their in the future. His brother had him killed (at the theatre), and took his place, launching initiatives to rebuild relationships with the formerly rebellious provinces and pacify their leadership. Slavery remains illegal within the Kingdom, and the Old King remains a divisive figure: some see him as a hero and a great liberator forced to go to extremes in the name of freedom for all sapient beings, while others see him as a hypocrite who violated the basic rights of his citizens and caused massive social and economic upheaval by ending a centuries-old institution.
No one knows for sure that the New King had the Old King killed for sure, but it's widely speculated. New King goes to great pains to show himself as a conciliator, trying to forge ties with both the newly risen class of Freemen and the old Slave Masters, but if it was ever publicly proven that he committed fratricide it could re-ignite the civil war that tore the kingdom apart.
Bonus points: The Old King's ghost has been seen at the theatre where he died, and his lunatic son, recently returned from studying abroad, may become the political pawn of the New King's enemies.
>>43703147
Why do you want to do this? Who do you think this will be fun for?
>>43703394
There's enough divergences in there that I think you think you're being original, or you're a great troll.
Really if none of the players are Shakespeare nerds I doubt they'd notice.
>>43703147
Gotta keep in mind in medieval politics the ends DID justify the means. Hell that's true in modern politics, the only reason to not use whatever means necessary is you'll get voted (or coup'd) out of power if you piss too many people off.
Anyway, bad stuff to do for good reasons:
> start a horrible meat-grinder war
> prevented civil war among nobles by taking command of their levies, and getting them all killed leaving them with no manpower to enact the civil war
> old king respected for publicly keeping the peace, in reality was siding with one side and was going to use civil war to consolidate own power at the expense of the people (bring back serfdom, kill emerging middleclass guilds who are taking power from nobles, replace populist nobles with royalist ones)
So old king was an asshole behind the scenes, good guy in public. New king is vice versa.
>>43703147
The old king was never a hero. He had a silver tongue that masked his incredible ego. He took credit for the deeds of his commanders and advisors, all who would oppose or speak truth meet death by hammer or subterfuge. The peasants don't care because the realm is stable, if stagnant. The nobles are kept fat and happy. Everything is financed on borrowed gold from a racial enemy. The old king used his tongue to twist fact and convince the populace that his detractors are fanatics controlled by greed, and it is his too generous nature that lets them to positions to abuse the (non existent) economy.
The old king was known to personally go to war (rich vacations) whenever there was a challenge to the state. His queen ruled in his stead, a priestess of great power, but not of the local pantheon. Detractors call her a witch who sullies the old ways. They are publicly destroyed in powerful displays of "holy fire". Who else but the most righteous and pious could command such power?
The old king does not return from one such vacation for many years, even after conflict is over. The queen reigns as both monarch and high priestess. The brother makes claim for the throne by pepper rights of succession with the support of the remaining templar of the old ways. They know the truth. They know the debts and the laziness of the nobility. They know their civilisation is in a gilded age, leaden gold painted over rust, rot, and sand.
The queen denies him. Provide proof of the old king's demise, she demands. He cannot. Then either the old king is alive or the brother and templar must have slain him to know, she decrees. The rumor leaks past the borders, the racial enemy calls to collect on a dead king's debts.
Support the queen: status quo returns, the true old ways are lost.
Support the brother: there WILL be civil war.She killed the old king ages ago.
She animated the body but it has decayed.
The enemy state knows and is playing the long con.
>>43704402
Pepper = proper
Thanks mobile
>>43703147
Old king ordered a purge of plague ridden districts, which largely prevented the spread, but turned entire towns, and a minor city, into rotting charnel houses. He raised levees to do uphold the seiges as well as well, which gave most of the nobility very bad opinions of his rule.
The old king was privately wracked with guilt, but still angerly defended his actions to his death. Have the new king let the plague seep in.
OP Here.
I baked this:
>Old king declared release of all slaves (mostly wood elves) in the kingdom
>Many regions rebeled, civil war just about to start
>New king killed old one and brought back stability
>PCs face the undead that sudenly attack the city and the king
>PCs save the king, realize what current king did
>Undead are lead by a necromancer, ex-slave wood elf and a man who wants slavery abolished
pic related.
>>43704619
Considering all of our PCs bar one are extremely gullible, trusting, and easily bribed we do whatever the side with the best cha tells us to do.
>>43703147
Transexuals and Transvestites need to use the bathroom.
>WHICH ONE DO THEY GO INTO?
>>43706200
Sounds like the average adventuring party.
>>43704619
>slavery is worse than binding souls to their bodies and using hordes of the dead who can't differentiate between combatant and non-combatant when they're used on a violent campaign
>even if they can, any disease they carry can't
Ya, that wood elf has got to go.
>>43703147
>morally grey
>solve
>>43706292
I don't know what those words mean, but if they're anything like Transhumans they've probably upgraded themselves to the point where they no longer need to use the bathroom. HA! Trick question! I'm on to you!
>>43706200
Your GM rolls dice to determine whether your own characters are convinced / What they will do / whether they accept a bribe ?
>>43703189
He massacred a bunch of edgelord internet racists who tried to post on other boards.
The reason?
Because nobody actually finds this shit funny or tolerable, and to do so would make you a massive douchebag, leaving them ripe for never getting laid without paying for it.
A janitor's first duty is to keep you in your fucking containment board.
>>>/pol/
