So what do your NPCs know?

“In encouraging players to expand their methods of tackling an adventure a DM has to invest more in the details of the campaign, players aren't going to root about for more if there isn't "more" to be discovered. One means players can expand the power and have richer play is finding out what monsters know about the dungeon/adventure area. What do the monsters know?”

JDJarvis of Aeons& Augauries asks that question and then provides two things that I think are very useful. One is a series of lists of random bits of knowledge organized by Faction, Location, or other Knowledge Areas. (JDJarvis uses Dungeon Level Layout, but since I am not running a dungeon I prefer to use the more generically useful Location.) The lists are nice as a way of quickly generating random facts that an NPC might know. They are also nice in that they force the GM to think about what a particular faction knows and what is known about that faction along with what is interesting or known about a given location. The list provides an additional source for useful information for the players as well as another way to seed the campaign with rumors and plot hooks. It’s a good idea that keys off of the usual sorts of lists that many DMs and GMs use to add variety to their game. What I think is particularly clever is the way he quickly denotes what a given NPC knows.

 

JDJarvis uses the following example: “Orc Mercenaries:  Crimson Tide Faction Plans-2, Level Layout (level 1-3)-2, Crimson Tide Membership-2.” This indicates that an Orc Mercenary know 2 randomly rolled facts from each of the three tables listed. The GM could roll twice and decide that all the Mercs know the same 2 facts, could roll separately for each Merc, or could pick 2 facts from the list. I’d tend to go with something a bit between the first and second choice and would add in another set of roll for each doubling of the number of Mercs; so one Merc rolls 2 times, two roll 2+1 times, four roll 2+1+1 times, eight roll 2+1+1+1 times, etc. (If you like math, the formula is for 2^n opponents with Knowledge-m roll m+n times.) If you don’t like math, just make something up for how many rolls to make.


The GM can easily list NPCs with greater or lesser amounts of knowledge, so an NPC with Crimson Tide Faction Plans-1, Dungeon (level 1-3)-2 would indicate that the NPC knows one random fact about Crimson Tide Faction Plans and two random facts about Dungeon levels 1-3; while an NPC with Dungeon (level-3)-4 would very knowledgeable knowing four random facts about Dungeon level 3.

 

He then provides a couple of 1d10 fact lists or as he calls them, Knowledge Pools. Deciding on the types of knowledge pools and populating them is the heavy lifting for the GM. But you only needs a few small tables to start. You can gradually extend the length of the fact list (depth of the Pool) or the breadth of the knowledge by create new Knowledge Areas or Pools.

 

I’ll be adding this to my Honor+Intrigue campaign. I have a lot of factions, so I expect this will always be a work in progress. Some areas that I want to fill first are Faction Knowledge for the four parties and their purported leaders or figureheads I mentioned in this post:

• Dévots (Catholic Church),
• Bon Français (King),
• Ultramontanists (Pope),
• Gallicans (Cardinal),
• noblesse de robe,
• noblesse d'epee,
• Prince de Condé’s Faction.

Later I’ll want to add in more factions:

• Queen,
• Queen Mother,
• Jesuits,
• Oratorians,
• Huguenots,
• King's Musketeers,
• Several secret organizations.

But I expect all this will take a while to implement and will proceed in parallel with creating a network diagram for the factions and revising and extending the membership lists. A GM’s work is never done.

For more on French politics Go To Political Alignments

Political Alignments

Politics in 1620s France is complicated and from a 21st century perspective, unfamiliar. I've spent some time reading about the political movements of the period and piecing together, such as I am able, who is part of which faction. All this is complicated by the fact that 1620s France still has one foot in the feudalism of the Middle Ages. Ties of family, oaths of feudal loyalty, and patron/client relationships shape the shifting alliances as much as do the larger, philosophical and political differences. For now I am just focusing on the big movements, four of which can be modeled with a Cartesian system. Which is nice since Cartesius or as he is known to most of us, Decartes, is a figure in this period.

Party Alignment Axes

Dévots

Devout Catholics, the dévots favor alliances with the Catholic monarchs of Europe in order to combat the Protestant heresy in France and abroad. Dévots encourage close relations with Spain, Austria, and the papacy and reject support for England, the United Provinces, and German and Scandanavian Protestants. In domestic affairs, the dévots support the continuance of the nobility’s traditional privileges and oppose absolutism and the rise of the bureaucratic robe nobility associated with the centralization of royal power.

Bon Français

Their rivals are the bon Français (literally "good French"), or politicals, who consider themselves patriots of France on equal measure with being good Catholics. The bon Français believe that supporting the king should be the primary concern of his subjects and that the greatest threat to the security of the crown, and by extension France, comes from Habsburg Spain and Austria. The bon Français accept alliances with Protestant powers in the service of protecting the crown against those foreign powers seeking hegemony over France and Europe.

Ultramontanism

Many of the dévots are ultramontanists as well. Ultramontanism is the Roman Catholic belief or doctrine that Papal authority supercedes that of local temporal and spiritual authorities, such as princes and bishops. "Ultramontane" means "beyond the mountains," specifically the Alps, and the original usage referred to a pope elected from outside Italy, but in 17th century France it refers to those who believe the powers and prerogatives of the Pope exceed those of the king or the prelates of the Church in France. Ultramontanists strongly resist the concept of the absolute monarchy and of the civil authority of the state over the persons and institutions of the Church.

Gallicanism

Ultramontanism is in turn opposed by gallicanism. Gallicanism is the belief or doctrine that the royal and civil authorities of France hold power over the French Church comparable to that of the Pope in Rome. Unlike the Anglicans in England, Gallicans do not reject the authority of the Church over temporal and ecclesiastical affairs altogether, but rather emphasize the role of the bishops, and the monarch and the civil authorities, in managing the affairs of the Church in France. The role of the Papacy in Gallicanism is one of 'first among equals.

The Jesuits are perhaps the most vocal proponents of ultramontanism in France.

Power Alignment Axes

Another way of viewing politics in France is by looking at who or what the parties see as the supreme authority in France. The Dévots favor the Catholic Church, while the bon Francais favor the King and the Ultramontanists favor the Pope, while the Gallicans favor the State.

The Noble Parties

The are two parties among the French nobility. The noblesse d'épée and noblesse de robe. In a sense these divisions are similar to concept of old money and nueveau riche or new money. The noblesse d'épée are the old money in France and the noblesse de robe are the new money. It isn't an exact analogy, since the new money is really the merchant and banking classes more than the noblesse de robe, but it is close enough for an analogy.

Noblesse de robe

The ‘nobles of the robe,’ a reference to the gown worn by students at university, hold their titles not through tradition or military prowess but through their ownership of bureaucratic and judicial posts. In order for the emerging professional bureaucracy of the French state to have sufficient status to be taken seriously by the traditional nobility, it was necessary to make many administrative posts both venal (subject to purchase and inheritance) and noble.

The robe nobles are considered to be of a lesser nobility by the sword nobles, leading to considerable friction between the two classes.

Noblesse d'epee

The ‘nobles of the sword’ are heirs to the military and chivalric traditions of France. Before the rise of the professional army in France in the latter half of the sixteenth century, the sword nobles were the men-at-arms (gens d’armes) of the French king, comprising the lion’s share of the French military strength. From the fifteenth century on, they were the core of the compagnies d’ordonnance, the foundation of the army, composed of noble knights and their archers or men-at-arms.

The sword nobles often trace their lineages for centuries. They are proud and jealous of their privileges and place in society.

Acknowledgements

Black Vulmea was helpful in describing the various factions in 1620s. As always his campaign site is a font of information for the period. Also, as often is the case, used judiciously, Wikipedia is your friend.

Once you have factions, you need to know what secrets or knowledge they possess so that you can play interesting interactions and social combat with the PCs. Here is one simple, relatively painless way to track that:

Go To What do your NPCs know? (Available 17JULY)