OK, so, here are a set of basic rules for playing as rulers in a medieval-fantasy context. It's basically "Crusader Kings: the TTRPG."
These rules are, as presented here, designed to be playable more or less as a standalone system; I don't have unique playbooks/character classes yet, but if you're fine with everyone being more or less the same, it should work well enough.
This is a mammoth blogpost, be warned. If you want just the rules, here's the link: Rules for Rulers.
There are three key things to know about PbtA games, if you're totally new (if you're not, skip ahead):
If that feels overwhelming, don't panic. Read through these rules, and if you're still confused, ask me.
These rules are designed for an extremely streamlined feudal system; actual feudalism is obscenely complicated, so here's the boiled-down version this system uses (if you've got a basic working knowledge of classic Western European feudal structure, skip ahead):
At the top, there's a singular ruler, usually a King (ruler of a Kingdom). Beneath the King, there's a collection of Dukes (rulers of Duchies), who are like mini-Kings. Beneath the Dukes, there's a larger collection of Counts (rulers of Counties), who are like mini-Dukes. Beneath the Counts, there's a collection of Barons (rulers of Baronies), who realistically just have people beneath them, ranging from landed knights to peasants. These are collectively called Titles: the ruler of a Kingdom Title is the King, and so on.
Every ruler is also a ruler in the tier beneath them: a King is also a Duke, a Duke is also a Count, a Count is also a Baron, who is a generic landowner. The King's Barony is probably the capital of the Kingdom, and thus their County and Duchy are probably rich and powerful.
A Kingdom is made up of Duchies, which are made up of Counties, which are made up of Baronies, which are made up of land. A "regular" Kingdom probably has a half-dozen or less Dukes, one or two dozen Counts, and dozens of Barons (and then hundreds or thousands of Knights). When we talk about the capital-N Nobility (or Nobles), this is who we are talking about.
The Noble who rules over your is called your Liege; the Nobles you rule over are called your Vassals. Keeping your Liege happy is the second-most important thing a Noble has to do, right after keeping their Vassals happy.
Nobles also have Claims: a Claim is essentially a (maybe-)legitimate reason that this particular Noble should control that particular Title. Yes, the laws say one thing, but if something were to shift, our Noble Claimant could make their case to the lords of the realm, and push their Claim. Pushing Claims usually results in war; it's rare to start a war without having a Claim.
Claims most commonly come from being the non-inheriting child of a Noble; if your Duke parent dies and you aren't the inheritor (usually by not being born first), you get a Claim on your sibling's Title. There are a bunch of other ways to get Claims, these are just the most common.
Nobles also have Heirs, the people who inherit when they die. Heirs get assigned on a per-Title basis, not a per-Ruler; if a Noble rules over two Titles, they can assign separate heirs to each. Sometimes, heirs can just be named directly, but more often they're assigned by the laws of the realm: primogeniture, meaning the firstborn child inherits, is quite common.
You can see how all of these start getting complicated, fast. And this is simplified.
You are a Noble; you have a Liege and you have Vassals.
You have several stats, most of which will shift up and down with some regularity:
First are the two realm stats, which have a maximum determined by your particular Title:
- Coin. A measure of your liquid wealth; literal gold, but also holdings, workers, assets, treasure, and so on.
- Swords. A measure of your military and military-ish power; how many soldiers and operatives you control, and how effective they are.
You also have two political stats, which range from -3 to +3:
- Titles. These are titles you own; the stat is based on your highest title. (King is +3, Duke is +2, Count is +1, Baron is +0, Landed Knight is -1)
- Honor. Basically your "universal opinion modifier;" think of it as how fair, trustworthy, and generally "good" you are.
You also have two personal stats:
- Luck. Your personal graces, skills, and abilities: mental, social, and physical. Luck ranges from -2 to +3, and usually doesn't change.
- Stress. Your current psychological well-being; how much pressure you're under and how many fuckups you've made. Stress starts at 0, and goes up to 3.
These stats govern almost everything.
A quick note on time: medieval communication, travel, warfare, and just about everything else was slow. Let your players talk as normal, and just assume that a conversation that takes ten minutes at the table takes like a month in-game (either from letters being sent, or from one lord travelling to meet another). Moves themselves could easily take weeks or months; armies and spies and merchants are also very, very slow. Don't sweat the time, just assume that it all happens slowly.
BASIC MOVES
These are the basic moves that you make most of the time.
PAY FOR INFO
When you pay for information on someone, roll with Coin. On a 10+, you can ask 3 questions, which the GM or another player will answer truthfully; on a 7–9, ask 1, or spend 1 Coin to ask 3:
- To whom do you owe true loyalty?
- What's a dangerous secret of yours?
- What does ______ think of you? What do you think of ______?
- How could I get you to do ______?
On a miss, ask 1 anyway, but whoever you were investigating learns of your inquisition, and gets to ask 1 question of you.
SCOUT AN AREA
When you send your operatives to scout a holding or region, roll with Swords. On a 10+, you can ask 3 questions, which the GM or another player will answer truthfully; on a 7–9, ask 1, or spend 1 Coin to ask 3:
- What's a weakness or vulnerability of this area?
- What wealth, resources, or benefits does this area contain?
- Who really controls this area?
- What's the greatest threat or danger in this area?
On a miss, ask 1 anyway, but whoever you were investigating learns of your scouting, you lose 1 Swords.
TAKE OR DEFEND A HOLDINGWhen your soldiers fight to take or defend a holding, declare how many Swords you're spending, then roll with Swords spent. On a 10+, you take it or keep it, whichever; on a 7–9, you take it or keep it, but mark 1 Stress. On a miss, your soldiers are lost; you lose the holding, and mark 1 Stress.
DIG INTO YOUR COFFERS
When you dig deep into your coffers to pay for something, declare how much Coin you're spending, then roll with Coin spent. On a 10+, you pay for it without issue; on a 7–9, you pay for it, but mark 1 Stress. On a miss, your offerings weren't enough; your gold is gone, and mark 1 Stress.
COLLECT TAXES OR RAISE LEVIES
When you collect taxes or raise levies on your realm, declare which, then roll with Title. On a 10+, you replenish the chosen stat to full; on a 7–9, either mark 1 Stress to replenish the stat to full, or only replenish 1 of that stat. On a miss, mark 1 Stress, replenish no resources, and your lower classes start to grow annoyed.
TEMPT FATE
When you push your luck and tempt fate, be it in battle, love, or court, roll with Luck. On a 10+, you succeed in your attempt. On a 7–9, the GM will offer you a tough choice, a hard bargain, or an ugly outcome. On a miss, fate counters; prepare for the worst.
AID OR IMPEDE A NOBLE
When you aid or impede another noble who has already rolled, wager Stress (max 3), then roll with Stress wagered. On a 10+, they take +2 or -1 (your choice), at no cost to yourself; on a 7–9, they take +2 or -1, but mark the Stress you wagered. On a miss, mark the Stress you wagered to no benefit.
HONOR & FAVOR MOVES
These moves are used in court, for intrigue and subtle guile. They involve fewer dice rolls.
SWEAR AN OATH
When you swear a sacred oath in the eyes of gods and humanity, describe your oath. If you break your oath, you suffer -3 Honor; if you see your oath fulfilled, you gain +1 Honor.
CLAIM TRUTH
When you claim something as truth to the entire court (usually in the context of accusations), roll with Honor. On a 10+, you are believed by all; on a 7-9, the important people believe you, but there are whispers, mark 1 Stress. On a miss, no one important believes you.
If your word is later disproven, you suffer -1 Honor.
COMMIT A CRIME
When you commit a crime and the court believes your guilt, you lose Honor based on your guilt. Lesser crimes might only be -1, high crimes will be -3 or more. Crimes vary, but generally include: theft, slander, murder, heresy, rape, treason, assault, tyranny, and then others, based on the particular realm.
Generally, this is only for crimes against the Nobility (and other important people, like the clergy). Crimes against the peasantry are rarely an issue.
ASK A FAVOR
When a Favor is asked of someone else, the debtor (the person asking) names what they desire of the creditor (the person being asked). Depending on what's asked for, the debtor will owe the creditor one or more Favors in return (determined by creditor and debtor together).
If the debtor has higher Honor or Title than the creditor, the creditor must mark 1 Stress if they refuse the original Favor. If the creditor is a Vassal of the debtor, they also suffer -1 Honor.
CALL IN A DEBT
When a creditor demands what is owed to them by a debtor, they spend one or more Favors from the debtor and make their demands. If the debtor refuses, they mark 1 Stress and suffer -1 Honor.
SIDEBAR: FAVORS
Favors are an abstract measure of who owes whom; they're the basic currency in political intrigue. The regular exchange of lesser Favors between Nobles is how trust is usually built; someone who refuses to engage with Favors at all is seen as a prickly, unhelpful outcast.
Here are some common (non-exhaustive) things Favors can be spent on, either when they're asked for or called in as debt:
- Conceal or reveal a specific secret
- Forgive a specific oath or debt
- Join or abandon a specific cause or Plot
- Give or take 1 Coin or 1 Sword
- Some other specific action
Favors are meant to be flexible; really big asks might take 2 Favors, really small things might get a 2-for-1 Favor deal. Use them as you need.
POLITICAL MOVES
These moves are used for serious action, usually in wartime. The divide between these and Honor & Favor moves is sort of arbitrary, don't sweat them.
DECLARE WAR
When you declare war, declare which of the following you are using as your cause:
- The target has Honor less than zero; you win when you strip them all of their Titles.
- You have legitimate Claims on the target's Title(s): you win when you take those Titles as your own.
- You have proof the target has committed a serious crime: you win when the target is brought before court to face trial.
If you win a war, you gain +1 Honor. If you lose a war, you suffer -1 Honor. If an armistice or white peace is called, the aggressor suffers -1 Honor.
If you declare(d) an unjust war, meaning you have no cause for war or your cause was to be false, you suffer -3 Honor.
RAISE THE BANNERS
When a Liege raises their banners and calls their Vassals to war, Vassals with less Honor than their Liege cannot refuse without suffering -3 Honor.
If a Vassal answers the call and serves their Liege truly through the war, they gain +1 Honor.
AID FROM ALLIES
When you are aided in war by your Vassals or allies, add the number of Nobles supporting you in this specific instance to the roll when you take or defend a holding or raise levies.
GAIN A CLAIM
You gain a claim on a title when any of the following are true:
- Your Noble parent dies and you do not inherit their Title
- You fabricate a Claim by secret plot
- You lose a Title (by any means) that you previously held
- A bordering domain's lower classes rise up against their ruler
- A bordering domain's ruler dies without naming an heir
NAME AN HEIR
When a Noble publicly names an Heir to their Title(s), that Heir gains +1 Honor. If the named Heir goes against the laws of the realm (such as skipping a firstborn), you suffer -1 Honor, and the formerly-presumed Heir will start a plot against you and the Heir.
STRIP A TITLE
When you strip a Vassal of their Title, that Vassal loses their title. If the Vassal has Honor less than zero, this is fine; otherwise you lose Honor equal to the Vassal's Title. If you strip a non-direct Vassal of their title (such as a King stripping a Count, or Duke stripping a Baron), you suffer -1 Honor.
PLOT IN SECRET
When you forge a secret plot to achieve a goal, name your goal, then roll the dice.
For each Noble supporting you (or extremely relevant courtiers, like spymasters or specific bodyguards), take +1 to the roll.
For each increase in Title of their target relative to you, take -2 to the roll (so a Count plotting against a King would suffer -4).
For each domain separating yours, take -1 to the roll (so plotting against someone in your court would take no penalty, an immediate neighbor would take -1, a faraway ruler might take -3 or more).
On a 10+, the plot goes off without a hitch. On a 7–9, the plot works, but someone lets critical details slip to the wrong parties. On a miss, the plot fails, and you and all of your conspirators are found out.
SIDEBAR: PLOTS
Plots are the catch-all "do something sneaky that isn't a basic move." Like Favors, they're meant to be abstract and open-ended; you should sculpt plots to fit the exact proceedings as you need them.
Here are some common (non-exhaustive) things Plots can do:
- Fabricate a Claim on a Title
- Assassinate, kidnap, or otherwise remove a Noble
- Frame a Noble for a crime, or plan to expose for something they already did
- Turn a Vassal's loyalties against their Liege
- Rile up the lower classes against their ruler
- Secretly provide another Noble with support
Obviously, Plots can be used for all sorts of things, these are merely common examples. Get creative in how you work the political game.
STRESS MOVES
When you have time and opportunity, you can make a Stress move to blow off Stress; these can remove some or all of your stress, but carry cost and risk.
If your Stress is at 3 (maximum), the GM can force you to make one of these Stress moves at any time. (GMs, be gleefully nasty when you decide to invoke this.)
INDULGE YOURSELF
When you indulge in sex, drink, or other pleasures of the flesh, roll with Coin. On a 10+, you clear all your Stress with no issues. On a 7–9, you clear all your Stress, but offend the wrong person: you owe them a Favor. On a miss, you mess up really badly; you owe someone a Favor, but clear no Stress.
EXPLOIT THE PEASANTRY
When you exploit the peasantry for gain and sport, roll with Swords. On a 10+, you clear all your Stress as they grovel to you. On a 7–9, you clear all your Stress, but suffer -1 Honor. On a miss, things grow messy; you suffer -1 Honor, but clear no Stress.
ENGAGE IN ZEALOTRY
When you engage in an act of over-righteous zealotry, roll with Honor. On a 10+, you clear all your Stress. On a 7–9, you clear all your Stress, but your act is witnessed by unfriendly eyes, and someone starts a Plot against you. On a miss, you still clear 1 Stress, but a Plot is started and has significant support.
ABUSE A LESSER
When you abuse or shame a someone of lower rank, roll with Title. On a 10+, you clear all your Stress, and they mark 1 Stress. On a 7–9, you clear 1 Stress and they mark 1 Stress. On a miss, both you and they mark 1 Stress; any witnesses will be displeased with you.
OTHER THINGS
This is a random catchall section for odds and ends.
FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE
When you draw cold steel and fight for your life, roll the dice. For each of the following that are true, take +1 to the roll:
- You have heavy arms or armor and the training to use
- You have armed bodyguards or soldiers about you
- Your assailant is untrained, or isn't trying to kill you
On a 10+, you survive with minimal injuries. On a 7–9, you are wounded: if you don't get to safety and receive medical attention soon, you will die. On a miss, you die: the GM will tell you how and when.
NPC STRESS
PCs can take Stress up to 3, and are in full control of themselves up to that point. NPCs are a little different: at 1 Stress, NPCs start to behave erratically, unpredictably, and out of character; at 2 Stress, NPCs start acting destructively to themselves and others, through panic and violence. At 3 Stress, an NPC has either retreated to their chambers to huddle in the fetal position, drank themselves into a coma, or has murdered at least one peasant.
MAX COINS AND SWORDS
The basic rule of thumb I use for this is that a Noble has a maximum of Coins and Swords equal to their Title+1. So a Baron has a max of 1, a Count has 2, Duke 3, and King 4.
For PCs, if they make a good case for it at chargen, shift one max from Coins to Swords or vice versa; this means a Duke with a rich, non-militant realm could have max Coins 4 and max Swords 2, while another Duke in a bitter, martial realm could have max Coins 2 and max Swords 4.
GREATER TITLE RANGE
If it's relevant, you can tack on more Titles. Emperors, with multiple client kings, could be at +4; some immortal turbo-Hegemon of a whole plane might be at +5. Beneath Landed Knights, you might have, like, hedge knights or peasant land-holders at -2. Obviously, +4 Titles are really, really good, and if Empire is a thing in your game, it could be relevant; anything less than -1 really isn't very relevant, so it would just be for times if you're tweaking these rules.
CHARGEN
I wouldn't let players start as Kings or Barons. The interesting juicy play happens at the County and Duchy levels, where players have some power, but not all power. It depends how your players vibe, but I'd tentatively recommend players all start at the same level.
For Luck, either just give everybody +1, have them roll 1d4 from -1 to +2, or let them start at higher Luck in exchange for some nasty penalty (crappy starting Honor, smaller Coin or Swords max, a bunch of enemies, or whatever).
For Honor, start everybody at +1. Lets them be a little flexible if they want to spend it, puts them on equal with most other Nobles, but very upright lords will out-do them.
FAMILIES & HOUSES
This one's complicated. I want to have your family matter, but it would probably take a bunch more moves and/or mechanics. The shorthand I use is that for Favors and Banner-raising, house members always effectively count as having higher Honor than you (so you lose Honor for refusing), but the same is true of you to them.
THE R-MAP
Short for "relationship map," I'd recommend making a big chart with the King, Dukes, and important Counts on it. Draw lines between them, write down who has what relationship to whom. Put it somewhere in the middle of the table where everyone can see it, and then update it as needed.
THE REALM MAP
You need something like a basic political map, but it doesn't need to be complicated. You can honestly just use graph paper and call each square a separate county. It's rough, but it will work fine. If you want to get super into it, you can try to apply county lines to existing territory, or just
steal county maps from Crusader Kings.
SUCCESSION LAWS
There are a
whole bunch of variations, but nine times out of ten, I find following an absolute cognatic primogeniture or elective monarchy is best in terms of balance between drama, complexity, and players understanding what is actually happening. Cognatic means all genders inherit equally; primogeniture means it's firstborn-takes-all, elective monarchy means that the heir is elected by the nobility (assign number of votes equal to Title * 2, simple majority). Players can wrap their heads around it, but it preserves the drama of succession.
CHARACTER SHEETS
I had sheets for this a while ago, but then my hard drive shat itself, so now I don't. Here's a list of what you need to have on a character sheet:
- Name
- Title
- Coin
- Swords
- Luck
- Honor
- Stress
- Your Liege
- Your Vassals
- Favors owed to you
- Favors you owe
- Claims
- Heir to your Titles
- Titles you are Heir to
- Notes
You can definitely just fit this all onto a google doc; there's not any fancy layout you need. There's a super fast and crummy one I made at the end of the
separate rules doc.
Here ends the rules.
HACKING THIS INTO D&D AND THE OSR
The short version of how to hack this into your game is:
- Cut out Luck, tempt fate, and fight for your life.
- Make sure the scope of all of these moves are very broad and not very personal; if it gets personal, use regular D&D rules.
- Sometimes use Honor as a modifier for morale rolls.
- Either make one player the child of a noble and then have that noble die, or make the PCs earn a title through questing. Whether or not all the PCs have their own Titles or if they just somehow share one big Title is up to you and your table.
The longer version is basically just that domain-level play is fundamentally different than the ordinary day-to-day D&D rules, and so I'd argue a different ruleset should be used accordingly. In my experience a lot of domain-level play in D&D ends up either relying on a lot of weird mechanical implications (where personal Charisma determines your ability to lead armies) or just saying "fuck it," and basically forcing the GM to make everything up as you go.
I've also found that a lot of domain-level play ignores the politics. Like, there might be rules for armies and sieges and whatever, but they rarely get into the personal, messy politicking of the court itself. That's really, I think, what these rules are about: they try to get at the interpersonal drama and excitement of political action on a kingdom-wide scale.
In terms of literal conversion, the biggest thing is to cut out Luck and the physical moves. There are only two, because this isn't really a game about that kind of thing—and D&D very much is a game about that kind of thing. D&D rules are very personal and localized and detailed, this ruleset isn't; try to use the two to supplement each other.
The other big thing is to try to keep these two rulesets from stepping on each other's toes. Make sure that the players know when they're using their D&D rules with d20s and attributes, and when they're breaking out their PbtA 2d6 and using moves. Domain play and dungeon play are pretty separate things, tbqh, and the more clear you make that, the better.
In terms of raw mechanics, Stress is kind of a squirrelly one; if you use a system that already has stress, you can try to graft them onto each other; I don't really have any good advice for this. You shouldn't just roll stress into HP; they're different things—stress doesn't kill you, it just makes you reckless and dumb. If you want, you can do some "Spend 1 Stress to get Advantage," or something, but that's probably not necessary overall.
Honor can be used as a modifier for morale, as I said. If you're fighting a foe known to be deeply honorable and trustworthy and just, that means you might be the baddies, so you're more likely to break; if you're fighting under the banner Lord Righteous the Good, you're much more likely to keep fighting, since your side is the right one. How exactly you want to map this onto your system depends on your Morale system; if it's the stereotypical 2d6, you can just apply Honor directly.
The biggest problem I'm still trying to wrestle with is the question of PCs as rulers. If you're running this system here as a standalone, then everybody just plays Counts and it's kind of a semi-competitive game, but an ordinary D&D party is very cooperative. If they all get counties then they're now sort of rivals by default—but you can't really have four people rule a county together, that's just not really how feudalism works. The obvious solution is to just make one player the ruler, and have the rest of the party be their advisors, but that could get icky if your players aren't cool with that kind of obvious power imbalance.
I dunno.
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The three major inspirations for this system are: Undying, by Paul Riddle; Cartel, by Mark Diaz-Truman, and Crusader Kings II, by Paradox Games.
As always, this is pretty untested, and you are welcome to steal and hack it to your pleasure. Let me know how it goes and what you think.
