01-10-2018, 08:16 AM | #1 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
|
Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
Last night my players executed an in-game Coup d'etat. Or rather a reverse version, arresting a band of conspirators with sizeable political power in the dead of night while their leader was out of town.
They asked "So what skill do we roll?" And I was something at a loss. I had no idea, and nothing really satisfied me. So I made them roll at IQ-5 to represent some sort of default, and was generous about complimentary skills. What skill should we have rolled against? Strategy feels too battleground. Intelligence Analysis is about analyzing the data, not performing it. And yes, I know we could have played in through in detail over the course of a month. That's not really how this campaign works. How do you condense it into a single roll?
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
01-10-2018, 08:58 AM | #2 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
I'd say Politics, if it needs to be one roll. It's easy to read the description of Politics skill as being about modern electoral politics, but it's more general than that. Social Engineering, pp64-65 has material on revolutionary politics.
__________________
The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
01-10-2018, 09:07 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
|
Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
I think a coup is really much too complex an operation for a single skill to be plausible, either for or against it. Here's the skills I'd suggest are relevant:
Those are the skills I'd consider absolutely essential for a coup, and that I'd probably call for independent rolls against in the course of it. Many other skills could be complementary, of course, and the skills above can potentially complement each other too. Opposing the coup can draw on an even wider range of skills, depending on the approach used. In the case you described, where the players apparently knew about the coup and wanted to take out a significant chunk of the conspirators, I probably would have called for a Leadership or Psychology roll, to determine exactly how critical to the coup the conspirators actually were, and then Influence skills like Intimidation to actually convince them to come quietly. |
01-10-2018, 09:22 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
Quote:
In a coup in general, there are two issues. One is mechanical: Can you get your people in place to capture and neutralize the people they're working again? The other is political: Can you get the general population to accept the action as justified? Ordinarily, I would treat the first one as Tactics, and the second as Politics. GURPS Social Engineering suggests Propaganda and Psychology (Applied) as complementary skills for the second. In the case you describe, though, the characters aren't actually *replacing* the existing regime; rather, they're taking action against conspirators within it. So I think what they have to do is make a Law roll to ensure that what they do is seen as a valid exercise of power. Propaganda might help communicate the legal basis of their actions to a mass audience; one or more investigative skills, such as Criminology, Administration, or Research, might help find supportive evidence. Similarly to a standard coup, the Law roll could be resisted by the Loyalty of the public to the conspirators. Alternatively, though, you might apply a penalty to the Law roll equal to the Status of the conspirators; arresting "the usual suspects" (Status -1) would be pretty easy, but arresting a pillar of society (Status 3 or 4) would require a damned convincing case.
__________________
Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
|
01-10-2018, 09:31 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
|
Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
Intelligence Analysis* to determine whom it is necessary to arrest, Administration to organise the personnel and resources to do so in a smooth fashion, Tactics if there is a risk of resistance or escape and Leadership to make sure that everyone actually performs the job to which you assign them (with Politics, Propaganda and Public Speaking being possible replacements or supplements to that depending on whether the characters legitimately hold any power or not).
Politics, Propaganda and Public Speaking continue to be vital to ensure that the coup or counter-coup is viewed as legitimate. Law is pretty much irrelevant, except as a Complementary Skill to these. Administration, to keep everything functioning even after arresteing key leaders, will obviously remain important. *Other investigative skills can come into play here, but assuming that the PCs have some underlings who report to them, Intelligence Analysis is probably most appropriate for making determinations about whom it is absolutely necessary to arrest immediately, either to prevent them from seizing control of the state apparatus and/or to allow you to replace them and do the same.
__________________
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! |
01-10-2018, 09:39 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
Normally, I would agree with this. But the stated condition is "a reverse version, arresting a band of conspirators with sizeable political power." That suggests that it's the conspirators who are acting outside the law, though with the cover of a measure of perceived legitimacy. In that case, the people doing the arresting had better be able to establish the legal basis of their own actions. Note that the word "arresting" itself conveys operating under some sort of law; otherwise you'd say "capturing," I think.
__________________
Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
01-10-2018, 09:44 AM | #7 | ||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
|
Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
Quote:
Napoleon didn't ask Lucien to use the Law skill before he used his troops to give rioters a whiff of grapeshot and later to implicitly threaten the deputies, he relied on him for political support. And, in fact, Napoleon acted illegaly, if anyone would have cared. But under the sort of circumstances where coups and counter-coups usually take place, the legitimacy of the existing laws is generally in question, anyway. And what is legal is ultimately determined by which side wins. Quote:
__________________
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 01-10-2018 at 09:56 AM. |
||
01-10-2018, 09:47 AM | #8 |
Aluminated
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
|
Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
A single roll? Yeah, that's the kind of thing you really, really should play out, but if you absolutely must do it in a single roll, I'd go with Strategy. A military coup is ultimately a surprise attack, hitting your enemy in carefully chosen locations before he can shoot back at you.
That said, I'd go with at least two or three rolls: Administration or Politics to pick the right targets, because while it's a military action its in pursuit of targets which are the political leadership and administrative machinery of a nation; Strategy for proper planning and execution of the action; and Leadership to keep the whole dubious enterprise together under trying circumstances. A failure on one of those means you've picked a wrong target or failed to execute properly, so your enemies still have some power and can fight back. Failure on two or three means the whole enterprise has collapsed and it's best to flee the country.
__________________
I've been making pointlessly shiny things, and I've got some gaming-related stuff as well as 3d printing designs. Buy my Warehouse 23 stuff, dammit! |
01-10-2018, 09:48 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
|
Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
You might also apply any relevant Reputations; if the Duke of Earl has Reputation (Conniving Plotter, -2), then his Status is going to be a less effective PR defense than it would be otherwise.
|
01-10-2018, 09:48 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
|
Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup
I think I'd go with Politics here too, rather than Law. Generally anybody considering supporting a coup already knows overthrowing the government is illegal. If they cared much they wouldn't be considering it in the first place. What you want to convince them of is that it's hopeless (don't support them, this plot is certain to fail) or better undesirable (don't support them, they're even worse than the government).
__________________
-- MA Lloyd |
|
|