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Old 01-11-2018, 06:40 PM   #31
sir_pudding
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Default Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
There are circustances where I would reduce plundering a dungeon full of monsters to a single roll.

The players had already identified 4 independent groups of the conspirators, including a clear mastermind.

They had identified a few different allies who are not part of it, particularly at the army level, and at the highest level.

The most interesting arrest, that of the mastermind, will have to wait until he gets back in town.

So we have mostly played it out...

Playing out the same adventure 6 times can be boring, at least for some. At that point the PC's had convinced me they had the methods and organization to pull off the coup. Most of what was left was details. Yes, I totally could have gone into more detail. There are several parts of this campaign were we could have generated secondary PC's and played a sub-campaign. But that's not the game we're playing.
If the question "is what skill covers a routine off-stage arrest carried out procedurally", it is Law Enforcement Officer, or if military justice, Soldier.
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Old 01-11-2018, 07:41 PM   #32
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Default Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup

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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. ll?
Administration. The tricky part about planning or stopping a coup is figuring out who in the power structure is going to be on what side, and who you need to take out to prevent effective resistance from being organized. And it will tell you how coordinate the arrests so you can pick them up at the same time.

Last edited by David Johnston2; 01-13-2018 at 01:17 PM.
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Old 01-12-2018, 09:45 AM   #33
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Default Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup

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It was a successful conspiracy to overthrow the head of state and install a new one. Very few things in life fit exactly into a Platonically abstract category.
George I, the first Hannoverian King of Great Britain, ascended to the throne on the death (from natural causes) of the previous ruler. The succession was put in place 13 years prior to the death of Queen Anne (the previous monarch). How the heck is that a coup?
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Old 01-12-2018, 05:15 PM   #34
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Default Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup

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George I, the first Hannoverian King of Great Britain, ascended to the throne on the death (from natural causes) of the previous ruler. The succession was put in place 13 years prior to the death of Queen Anne (the previous monarch). How the heck is that a coup?
The Hanovers came over when there were out of Stuarts who were willing to serve in James' place after the Glorious Revolution and were an acknowledgement that they were running out of fig-leafs. George I was a legal technicality to apologize for a previous coup and his reign in fact must be analyzed in reference to it.
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Old 01-12-2018, 06:19 PM   #35
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Default Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup

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The Hanovers came over when there were out of Stuarts who were willing to serve in James' place after the Glorious Revolution and were an acknowledgement that they were running out of fig-leafs. George I was a legal technicality to apologize for a previous coup and his reign in fact must be analyzed in reference to it.
The Glorious Revolution was obviously a coup, the ascession of the Protestant Anne over her Catholic-leaning father was a continuation of it, but then the new norm was enshrined with the Act of Settlement. George I was Anne's closest living relative eligible to inherit.
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Old 01-13-2018, 10:47 AM   #36
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Default Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup

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Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
The Hanovers came over when there were out of Stuarts who were willing to serve in James' place after the Glorious Revolution and were an acknowledgement that they were running out of fig-leafs. George I was a legal technicality to apologize for a previous coup and his reign in fact must be analyzed in reference to it.
So, if I'm understanding you correctly, you maintain that the entire period from 1688 to 1715 was a coup?
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Old 01-13-2018, 12:36 PM   #37
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Default Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup

A pair of skills I havn't seen mentioned so far in this thread that strike me as fairly important (but not strategically useful however) are Detect lies and acting. Knowing who is on your side and who isn't strikes me as very useful skills when it comes to surviving long enough to carry out a coup.
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Old 01-13-2018, 01:49 PM   #38
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Default Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
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?
You don't make it clear what action you want to roll for. Knowing there was a conspiracy (Intel Analysis), finding the location of the conspirators' meeting location (Criminology), or carrying out the arrest itself (Professional Skill: Police)?



Different skills would apply to each of those.
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