Possible Settings For Adventuring Based Politics

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

[Inspired by the setting suggested in this post by Will Wildman.]

[The basic idea is a setting where political campaigns are also epic quests and campaign staff doubles as adventuring parties.]

It's worth pointing out that there clearly two distinct worlds* that fit Will's original description.

One where things are relatively straightforward and lacking in systemic corruption. Yes, chaotic Evil is very corrupt, and Lawful Evil games the system, and chaotic anything plays fast and loose with the rules at best, and one could go on, but that's what they do. And of course there are going to be people pretending to be something they're not or stealing credit for the work of others, and whatnot, but for the most part things will work how a political system built on mixing adventure campaign and political campaign ought to ideally work.

And the other one is the one with shadowy corporate overlords and lots of seedy underbelly. Defenestration and lobbyists abound. Look at posts by Dav and myself above for some thoughts on that.

Both seem like they'd be very interesting settings.

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* Ok, there are in fact lots of distinct worlds, possibly infinite in fact, but let's stick with the dichotomy for simplicity.

[Later addendum:]

It occurs to me that maybe they are the same world but different countries. Maybe, for example, Canada has a functioning hero based political system while the US is mired in corruption.

[Addendum originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

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[Original Work Index]

High Powered Lobbyists, with magic

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

[Inspired by the setting suggested in this post by Will Wildman.]

[The basic idea is a setting where political campaigns are also epic quests and campaign staff doubles as adventuring parties.]

A question that naturally arises from the premise is how campaign contributions and lobbyists fit into all of this?

To a certain extent we can see some of the same things happening, it doesn't matter how good you are on foreign policy or how many monsters you've slain if you can't afford some air time, so there would still be some of the same expenditures. At the same time, it might be really helpful if your shady corporate overlords could loan you Excalibur for a while.

And what is a lobbyist? Is it just an ordinary representative of moneyed interests, or is it something more? Lobbyist are oh so willing to assist with the business of legislating, perhaps they'll do the same when that business includes quests. Perhaps the best lobbyists are level 99 whatevers who are ready to give you some help, outside of the public eye of course, when you need it most.

A lobbyist is being talked down to by a freshman lawmaker and has to explain, ever so menacingly, that he's slain more dragons than anyone currently holding elected office so perhaps it would be best not to underestimate him.

If he gets pissed off he'll deliver politician's opponent a Cthulhu head on a silver platter and let opponent take full credit.

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Or, conversely, maybe manipulating elections is a crime punishable by death and there are not-evil beings who none the less find humans very tasty waiting by who would be quite happy to enforce that rule if you just give them the opportunity.

Or possibly somewhere in between. Though assuming a high level of corruption involving high powered lobbyists would probably make for more interesting stories.

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[Original Work Index]

What if there is no quest to be had?

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

[In response to this post by Will Wildman. Go and read it. It's worth it.]

[The basic idea is a setting where political campaigns are also epic quests and campaign staff doubles as adventuring parties.]

What happens if, come election year, there are no major quests to be done?

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I'm suddenly imagining political campaigns trying to fake epic quests because it turned out that everything in the country was going well leaving no major wrongs for the candidates to right. Now they have no idea what to do. Before it was as simple as standing up to evil from beyond time stopping along the way to attend debates, give interviews and hold the occasional rally. Now all of the evils from beyond time are gone so ... what now? The entire campaign playbook assumes that this will all be structured around the larger quest.

Someone will no doubt suggest releasing evil in a can so it can be defeated again, but hopefully that person will be smacked and then ignored.

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[Original Work Index]

Press Conference in Adventure-Politics World

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

[At a press conference]
Candidate: Marissa Orcslayer of The Parchment Post.
Marissa: Thank you. Is true that you originally recruited most of your senior campaign staff from a local tavern?
Candidate: Of course, that's how these things are done.
Marissa: Do you really think that the best way to lead this country into the future is to put it into the hands of a bunch of drunks?

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[Original Work Index]