in GURPS fantasy, there’s this concept of a king who is spiritually attached to his land.
“The King’s Two Bodies: You are aware of the condition of the land you rule, regardless of distance and without an IQ roll. Anything that injures the land injures you, and vice versa. This works by analogy and metaphor: if the king is crippled, the army can’t fight; if the queen is barren, the crops will fail.
Magic or holy ritual that heals you can heal the land. You are not specifically
aware of any individuals within the land.”
Is there a playbook somewhere that allows a character to have that sort of rapport with his realm?
Would it need to be a playbook? Just make it a magical item/effect. “Married to the Land”
Just do it
Sounds like a Fisher-King Compendium Class. You probably get it by dedicating yourself and a land that you are sovereign over to your deity with an irreplaceable relic belonging to that deity. I dig it.
For flavour, I also like the idea that the kingdom reflects your character. If you have high charisma, diplomatic relations go well. But with low strength, the army is poorly equipped and trained.
I second the idea of making this a compendium class move or just an optional advance. I mean, you don’t normally start as an adventuring king, do you?
Mike Pureka Other than the fact that I don’t have a class for it, I can’t see why not :D. Although it would be better as something you’d expect to find in the Adventurer’s section of Class Warfare. Be nice to pick up along with Householder and Landed Gentry.
Sounds like shades of Birthright, and in there any class could have regency in his or her blood.
Dwayne Summerfield I’m unfamiliar
So I wrote the class, but I’m not seeing the post where I shared it.
Sorry for the late response. A better summary can probably be found through google, but here goes a summary.
Birthright was a campaign setting for D&D back when TSR was a thing. The gods brought their conflict into the lands of mortals. Much devastation and death later, the very essence of the destroyed gods absorbed into the land and the people’s that survived. This essence is carried on, transferred, weakened, changed, and strengthened through procreation like genes are. The essence gives the possessor a connection to the land and it’s people’s.
This carried into the game mechanics through a layer of play on the character level, giving the character some few special abilities associated with the God the original essence came from. As well as layer of abilities specifically connected to the land if the character chose to rule. Some possibilities were that ability to cast realm wide spells and rituals for control, prosperity, and destruction. These was intertwined with aspects of resource management like the raising and movement of military forces and supplies,the acquisition and creation of magical sources, and the establishment and governance of guilds.
TARs first attempt at including a meta or higher level of play. The interesting thing was a character could be first level and find themself in charge of or deeply involved in, the politics and bureaucracy of a realm. As a character gained levels, his or her control and abilities became more varied and stronger.
I loved the setting, though I never got my group to play in it. I would be interested in seeing what you come up with for a playbook or compendium classes.
Dwayne Summerfield That sounds super cool, and very much like the new Kevin Crawford game Godbound. I’m sure he got some inspiration from Birthright. Thanks for the info sharing!
Dwayne Summerfield Think I linked to my blogspot post where I put it in my dropbox. I’m steelsmiter over on blogspot (and almost anywhere really).