Where would you begin?? If you wanted to conquer the world??

[UR Leader Hobbes]

Ok so my weekly gaming group (Which has gotten larger and may get bigger!) was discussing the beginning of the campaign. For those who may have missed some of the chronicles I was posting on line a while back here is a brief idea behind teh beginning of the game..

Goal: To establish an empire that will be able to conquer the entire Palladium world.

Limitations: All of the players must begin as members of the same clan/race. This can mean they are all family members or all belong to the same tribe. (This was done to prevent interparty fighting.)

Available Races: All races with the exception of those found in the Land of the Damned books.

Location: Players can pick any location in the world with the exception of the LOTD.

OCCS: All have to be book legal. Rifter materials may be allowed but thats on a case by case basis.

Equipment to start: Whatever it says in the OCC/RCC

So what would everyone pick? Where would you start? What race and how would you procede? Who knows if there is enough intrest maybe we can run an online game to see what the results would be.

Keep in mind players were not only allowed but encouraged to pour over all of the books to get an idea on what would grant them the best advantage. So lets hear some ideas..

[drewkitty ~..~]

Geee...you take the funn out of it with those limitations.

I was going to sujest that they make up a (phony) religion like L. Ron Hubbard did to get ppl to follow him.

[NMI]

Start off in Trokker (See Baalgor wastelands!!) IF you can take it and hold it, you could quite easily form your own corner of the world.

[Library Ogre]

Humans, from Timiro. Men at Arms should be Upper Class (Knights and Palladins), Priests should worship either Dragonwright or the Church of Light and Dark.

You're part of an extended noble family with tenuous claim to the royal throne (not "in line" for the throne, but "if everything goes to Hell, you can make a legitimate claim). Thus, when things do go Hell with the ogre invasion, you'll be in a good position to step up. Gaining significant power in Timiro will allow you to influence events in Land of the South Winds and the Eastern Territories. From there, you'll be able to expand outward.

[filo_clarke]

Changelings! Exiled from the Island at the Edge of the World for being too belligerent. The group makes various Assassins or Spies, possibly using the supplemental Rifter material for a bit of a power boost.

Slowly begin to assassinate and replace key foreign policy makers in the various empires/kingdoms. Then start signing peace treaties between the Changeling agent in the Wolven Empire and his counterpart in the Eastern Territory. Do the same with Timiro, Western Empire, Byzantium etc.

Ensure that the tenuous peace becomes solidified by de-escalating troop deployments along conflict regions, your new Changeling War Ministers will be only too happy to comply.

Soon the security tension brought about by the conflicts will begin subside, and personal security around the Emperors/Kings will lessen. It will then be time to make the assassination plays for the actual rulers of the Kingdoms. Your Foreign Policy makers each take "extended holidays" and swap places with the Kings/Emperors, thus making your rule over the planet absolute.

Of course, you may have to play the "Foreign Terror" Card to solidify the alliance. All of the various nations could band together to destroy the newly discovered "Changeling Menace" an an isolated island in the south sea. That way there is little chance that Noah and his peace-nicks could get in the way of your world domination plan.

I give the whole thing, form start to finish, a two year execution timetable.

[Library Ogre]

Why did I pick humans? Because they don't have any major enemies or weaknesses.

Changelings are a good option, but they're not hard to detect... salt and ale will get them. Elves will have to deal with problems from dwarves, dwarves with problems from elves, giants from everyone civilized... humans can work with anyone.

Why Timiro instead of the Western Empire? Because everyone's ready for the Western Empire to try to take over the world. They've been wanting to do it since their inception. Timiro has a nicely unstable political and social situation, coupled with a good economy and a favorable location. Seize control of that, and you're in good shape to start.

[J. Lionheart]

I would start, not as what most would consider an empire or kingdom, but as a small private interest group or guild. I would seek to have my tendrils reach into all of the established kingdoms of the world, and manipulate them. The Guild of Kleintro perhaps would be a good model.

First, I would attempt to incite massive slave uprising in Timiro. "Arrange" for an uprising and escape at a smaller level, assisted by the ogres of the Ogre Pass adventure. With those Ogres and a few of the escaped slaves as "proof of concept," I would encourage the giants of the Nimiro kingdom to try and import weapons for the slaves.

Next, I would seek to provoke all-out combat between the Wolfen Empire and the Domain of Man. The selling back-and-forth of strategic information, accompanied by a bit of psionic trickery upon a few military commanders, could handle this one.

While doing this, I would feed rumors to the Byzantine court, via their sailors and traders, that the Western Empire had gained a copy of their maps across the Sea of Dread, and was planning an attack to establish dominance of the northern seas. This would help isolate the Island Kingdom as it gathers its forces and tries to avoid getting entangled in anything that could pull its resources away.

Thirdly, when the Western Empire moves to take advantage of the situation in either Timiro or the North and East, I would launch an all out campaign to get the Middle Kingdoms to drop into civil war, as they so desire to do. A bit of creative arson against their religious structures, perhaps?

Once combat is engaged as widely as possible, commence with moves to assassinate top leaders in each of the warring countries. With the heads cut off, the armies will begin to lose focus and descend into chaos... especially if they can be convinced somebody on their own side perpetrated the assassination. Continue eliminating high leaders on all sides while working the "advisors" of my organization higher and higher. Stage attempted assassinations against the advisors in public areas, and have them "miraculously escape" in the eyes of the people, and restore order. Allow them to become the popular choice of the people, and when they are sufficiently in a place of influence, let them work together to "negotiate" peace between the various nations.

With the major nations now at peace, lead by my puppet rulers, we can turn our attentions to the lesser nations through non-military means. It won't take many economic sanctions to bring down the ducal system in the Land of South Winds. Byzantium may hold out well, but a trade embargo against them by the rest of the civilized world will bring them to heel.

Relax in opulent splendor.

[UR Leader Hobbes]

Interesting ideas..

But allow me to play the devils advocate. (Yeah I did this as well with the group for a while before they settled on something..)


drewkitty

Geee...you take the funn out of it with those limitations.

I was going to sujest that they make up a (phony) religion like L. Ron Hubbard did to get ppl to follow him.

Ironicly enough Religion hasn't become a big part of the game. (The weekly session takes place in the Shadow Coast.) Mostly sense none of the players have picked religious OCCs. The closest thing to it is Akh (A Raman) who does give credit to the gods of light. But he's not acively looking to convert people to his religion.

Deific NMI

Start off in Trokker (See Baalgor wastelands!!) IF you can take it and hold it, you could quite easily form your own corner of the world.

That was the groups idea for Bizantium.. They then got involved in the Shadow Rebellion.. So thet've shifted focus a bit.

MrNexx

Humans, from Timiro. Men at Arms should be Upper Class (Knights and Palladins), Priests should worship either Dragonwright or the Church of Light and Dark.

The trick about getting Knights or Palladiuns to start off as nobles is that you gotta make a roll. I had the Kinght (Dave) and he ended up being a new knight. Deffinately a benefit if your able to land it.. But they didn't so they had to go about it the hard way.

filo_clarke

Changelings!

They opted not to pick changelings. They thought it would be too diffucult to maintain the facade.. Although it's not a bad aproach that you have.

keldonus

I'd probably go with something like a Coup in the Western Empire (players as a minor Noble House?), across Phi & Lopan, seize E.T., and on from there.

Or, also, as Giants from Nimro, spreading across Baalgor (to Troker, maybe), across the Old Kingdom gathering a massive group of Orcs, Ogres, etc, and on from there.

It's funny.. The Noble is an OCC that players can pick from the beginning. I was surprised that they didn't pick one. Giants were seriously being considered until they realized that it would be extremely difficult to take over the reminants of the dwarven kingdoms. (Giants not exactly fitting into mountain tunnels.)

J. Lionheart
Interesting but what happens once things settle down?? And how would you coordinate all of these to happen at the same time??
[/b]

[Killer Cyborg]

I would start with a tribe of gnomes.
We would steal the world's underpants.
Then we would take over the world.

[filo_clarke]

I would start with a tribe of gnomes.
We would steal the world's underpants.
Then we would take over the world.

What's the second part of your plan?

[Library Ogre]

MrNexx

Humans, from Timiro. Men at Arms should be Upper Class (Knights and Palladins), Priests should worship either Dragonwright or the Church of Light and Dark.

The trick about getting Knights or Palladiuns to start off as nobles is that you gotta make a roll. I had the Kinght (Dave) and he ended up being a new knight. Deffinately a benefit if your able to land it.. But they didn't so they had to go about it the hard way.

Disagree, given the parameters of the game. Assume, for a moment, there are 5 players.

Player 1 is a Noble.
Player 2 is a Wizard
Player 3 is a Priest.
Players 4 & 5 are a Knight and a Palladin.

Since they're all members of the same family, the fact that one person is a Noble ensures that they're all ennobled. Heck, if he's giving them a choice, then requiring them to roll and choose against their choice would be asinine.

[UR Leader Hobbes]

Disagree, given the parameters of the game. Assume, for a moment, there are 5 players.

Player 1 is a Noble.
Player 2 is a Wizard
Player 3 is a Priest.
Players 4 & 5 are a Knight and a Palladin.

Since they're all members of the same family, the fact that one person is a Noble ensures that they're all ennobled. Heck, if he's giving them a choice, then requiring them to roll and choose against their choice would be asinine.

Ahh there ya go.. That is a loop hole that would get you all established as nobles from the get go.. But in the case of the weekly game nobody opted to pick the noble OCC. Hence Dave had to roll for it.

[UR Leader Hobbes]

we allowed to use dragons???

if so how about a small group of adult dragons... say great horned....

or giants.... say titans, or rahuman...

go for rahuman and go with a knight/ palladin, a mind mage, a wizard or diabolist, backed with a priest or 2

Um well I did allow a hatchling Dragon into the group. But I serioulsy reccomend against it. Afterall Dragons don't get allong well. At the best you could get a mated pair but more then that Dragons tend to get violent with others.