Arcane Nobility

[hcobb]

This is a way common trope that's easy to run as a TFT variant.

The only "game change" is that Wizardry is hereditary to the ruling class. Any commoner who is a wizard will at least be rumored to be a bastard child of some noble and in the vast majority of cases this is actually true. These low born wizards will struggle to learn talents and might even start with no spells or if they are very lucky, just a few. PCs can also be from fallen noble families with only a thousand silvers' net worth.

On the NPC side the entire principality is run in the name of the princess in the tower, but without her direct knowledge. (She's too busy reading spell books, doing enchantments, and getting dragged away from her mystic research to be cleaned up nicely for meet and greets.) She has a coven of cousins that act as her apprentices while she teaches them spells. These then graduate to either be the figureheads of various feudal houses, or hang around the court running schemes. The Prime Minister is expected to somehow run the country between the demands of the merchant selected members of parliament and the constraints of a nobility who think turning people into toads is a party trick.

The excess children of the nobility (beyond the needs of the land, sea, and air military forces) are sent off to the church as seen on Earth.

[David Bofinger]

You need an explanation for why this society has chosen to make their figurehead leaders wizards. (And perhaps in the past actual rulers.) One reason might be there were some spells which were so useful to a kingdom that having someone able to cast them is or was critical to the kingdom's survival. Candidates would be the story-killing spells: Pathfinder, Scrying, Trance, Telepathy, maybe Detect Enemies.

[hcobb]

It's the Peter principle. Promote those who are least competent at understanding how the place is actually run up to the level where they've "won" at the society thing and only need to worry about each other putting geases on their "humble servants".

It's "Yes, Prime Minister", applied to the Witch Queen.

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

You need an explanation for why this society has chosen to make their figurehead leaders wizards. (And perhaps in the past actual rulers.) One reason might be there were some spells which were so useful to a kingdom that having someone able to cast them is or was critical to the kingdom's survival. Candidates would be the story-killing spells: Pathfinder, Scrying, Trance, Telepathy, maybe Detect Enemies.

This is actually a conspiracy by the bureaucracy. If you had a regular ruler, he might be interested in how the government works and could learn these things easier than a wizard could (with their x2 XP costs).

Thus with the wizards playing Game of Thrones, they don't want to be bothered with the nuts and bolts of running things and usually leave that to the bureaucrats, who perpetuate the "need" to have wizards rule.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

This is actually a conspiracy by the bureaucracy. If you had a regular ruler, he might be interested in how the government works and could learn these things easier than a wizard could (with their x2 XP costs).

Thus with the wizards playing Game of Thrones, they don't want to be bothered with the nuts and bolts of running things and usually leave that to the bureaucrats, who perpetuate the "need" to have wizards rule.

That explains everything!