Nothing wrong with that, man. Let’s be real, it’s a totally different species of campaign if it’s not what you’re used to, and the ideal case is that you SHOULD get to experience it as a player before you try to tackle it as a GM. It just happened that I taught myself to run Birthright because it got a death-grip on my imagination when I was fifteen.

I’m very happy to hear that the series has interested and entertained you!

I’m 100% with you on this.

“…and will not go to space today.” also, a fantastic reference.

I’ve read through all of the articles in this series with interest. Not that I want to run a domain rulership focused campaign (and these articles have shown that my reasons are correct for me), that is not the kind of game I would like to run. But seeing the breakdown of how it all comes together has been very interesting to me. Some of the systems use a lot of abstraction, while others get down “in the weeds” (as you put it). And it all is quite interesting to me.

I think, though, that the only way I’d ever get involved in a game centered around domain rulership is if someone else was running it.

We’re in the last stages of waiting, waiting, waiting. The good news is that this is giving me time to write about HârnManor. 😉

Ditto on what Wyvern wrote.

And Brandes, all the best for you and your wife. I wish a trouble-free labor.

First off, a commenter over in Facebook linked these homebrewed rules: http://walrock-homebrew.blogspot.com/2016/08/worldbuilding-option-fortresses-temples.html, and they are really good (and purpose-built for 5e, which is nice). They are for creating a single settlement and stronghold, but that’s enough for like 90% of campaigns, so that’s awesome. I have my quibbles with some of the decisions here, but overall, big fan.

Secondly, thanks to a conversation with Samhaine (who writes the excellent System Sans Setting blog), I’ve figured out my angle for designing a domain rulership system, borrowed from Fallen Enchantress (my favorite 4X vidjagame). The core problem with Kingdoms and Ultimate Campaign is that micromanaging ONE settlement is interesting and full of meaningful choices, but as soon as you have TWO settlements, oy, what a headache! It’s twice as much Stuff without being twice as interesting.

What I would do about that, then, is set things up so that you only directly administer one settlement. When you “zoom out” to ruling multiple settlements, you commission a Lord Mayor or something, because kings and PCs have better things to do than micromanage a dozen cities. So in Fallen Enchantress, settlements level up from baseline to one of (town, fortress, conclave), which specializes them into economy, military, or research, respectively. The next three levels of advancement grant one enhancement from that settlement type’s list.

To make this 5e-friendly, you’d have some of those be activated features, essentially along the lines of class, feat, or monster features. Sure, the mayors of your other settlements are building cool shit, but their core function is to support the capital – sure, they’re lining their pockets, but as long as the settlement doesn’t go into revolt, it’s probably fine.

This is the tabletop equivalent of designing on “What would Trajan do?” The answer is, Trajan would tell his regional governors what he generally wanted done and trust their knowledge. Considering that Trajan is generally regarded as the second- or third-greatest emperor ever to rule Rome, taking a page from his playbook is probably all right.

So like I said, I’ll get around to doing a full writeup of this someday. Let’s hope it’s before the heat death of the universe.

And I’d *love* to see your take on a domain management system, 5e-compatible or otherwise.

No worries. I’m just just glad that it wasn’t something more serious, like “looking at those books gave me eye-cancer” or thereabouts. I’ll be looking forward to the article!

Good luck with the baby, and Happy New Year!

Sounds good! Do you have a preferred system – published or homebrewed?

…I’m going to go with “October was a super long time ago and I forgot about that email!” I am so sorry, and thank you again for your kind assistance.

Good news, everyone! There will be another domain rulership article, when I have time to write it. (As my wife will give birth to our second child sometime in the next few days, it’s probably going to be a little bit.)

Those (Harn) products aren’t available to you? Did you lose the email that I sent you back at the end of October?