Second Post, I guess

Second Posts, I wager, require a bit less awkwardness and more content.

Eventually I'll figure out how to embed pictures and all that junk.

Now, the content.

I, like many others, have an ongoing campaign. Two campaigns in fact, since I'm a lunatic. Both, presently are Pathfinder and both are in my homebrew campaign setting, but I'm intending to spin off and start running one in ACKS (Adventurer Conqueror King) one of the new OSR games.

However, this new 'campaign' is designed around three loves of mine. Laziness, World Building and Crusader Kings.

Now see, Second Edition D&D had this campaign setting called Birthright. Birthright was mostly about kingdom management, but tacked on adventuring nonsense to it as well because well, D&D is a game you play collaboratively with your friends. Birthright, being a kingdom simulator (everybody gets a kingdom) kind of, well..

Let's just say that I don't think that the King of Medieval France, The Pope and the King of Medieval England were in a huge hurry to go and fight goblins together, in between making edicts and dodging assassination attempts.

Now, there's a play test for the Birthright Campaign out there. Its a lovely mixture of insanity, Player-Character associated goofiness and friends getting together to deal with one another like they were nations who had a barely function detente with one another. That is to say, the playtest looked like a lot of fun, but didn't really waste much time with 'I attack the darkness' boots on the ground adventuring.

That's why I decided I would run my ACKS campaign by selecting four of my players, having them think up kingdoms and then running them through the ringer. With the intention that later on down the line, those same players, or others, will have to deal with the stuff in my campaign setting. At one point I even intend to try to give them some McGuffins, treasures or dangerous beasties they have to deal with and see how they seal things up, defend them and so on. I never intend for the players in this game to swing a sword, its all about the high level management. Which works for me fine since they're all already in my Friday game.

So, it has the fun of world building as I let the players be responsible, and I get to explore new locales.

It has the fun of crusader kings because they get to be somewhat cut throat to one another and run their kingdoms how they like.

And it has the benefit of laziness since the world building will kind of mostly be accomplished by them as they play. Which will also help to make things feel more organic and further one of my aims of letting players have a 'buy in' to my campaign world. 

I figure this might make for a good ongoing topic as well. So, I'll probably drop some more posts as time go on, on this subject.