Want your opinion on this plotline Veeky Forums

Want your opinion on this plotline Veeky Forums.

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>Recently, rumors are spreading that the King is taking a vast army and going about despoiling dungeons himself. Few know why.
>The party investigates
>It turns out the King is going around, surrounding himself with the finest state wizards, rangers, and rogues and with the aid of his army personally defeating dungeons and, afterward, cleansing them and re-purposing them. Into temples, warehouses, castles, and such and saturating them with holy runes and banishment charms. He himself is taking the most valuable items inside.

>Further investigation reveals that the King is literally "doing it for fun" and because "he has a distinct desire to see his nation cleansed of dangerous dungeons and to be the one doing it".
>The King himself takes the most powerful loot, has them checked over by priests and wizards for any curses, and then dons them making himself very powerful. purely because he wants to be able to "fight better. "
>The economy can afford this especially since he's taking all the treasure and cleaning them of any curses too. When all the dungeons are cleansed, he'll have a battle ready army ready for campaign against the saracens and the best magical gear to wage war on them.

In the Kings own words "All I ever see is poor, ill equipped adventurers going on death quests into these dungeons which often cause plagues or trouble my villages. If they survive, they come out stronger and wealthier than before to buy better gear, but the dungeon still is there to cause trouble. And so I thought 'if all adventurers ever want to do is get rich and buy better gear, am I not already the wealthiest person in the Kingdom and therefor a step ahead to become a great fighter? Can I not also defeat dungeons?

This is very exciting and entertaining, and I can see why they try to go back to it."

However, there is growing concern that without dungeons, a lot of adventurers are going to be out of a job.

it sounds very silly

It's an interesting story but is it going to be fun to PLAY? Or just to listen to?

I think it's interesting but also strange.
it could lead to a shift phase about adventurers in the classical sense with dungeon and exploring.
In this period, everything is already mapped, or close. The dungeon are cleaned to stop the insecurity, and so there is less and less a need for adventurers even if it is still a romantic lifestyle.
They discover than the only way there lifestyle is still used is when kingdom are fighting wars, and maybe they don't want to stay with a king who orders them to do things they don't like. Or maybe people want to discover a new continent and make a new life in a colony?
Or maybe they just settle for something like this and a lot of adventurers turn thief and marauders pillaging castle like they do for dungeon?
What are your thoughts?

Not OP, but I think any king worth his salt would leave a portion of his hardened army on the home front to hang looters, so fighting in foreign wars or exploring new places might be the only realistic option.

Yeah but it might be happening just right now so they end up being chased by the army during this big shift in society of DnD. So they go into hiding or join some of those marauders. Or they join the army. Or neither and go to embarq on an expedition to the "new world".

>the king inevitably dies when he tries to fuck with a beholder or something
>chaos ensues

Sounds like he's the BBEG from where we're standing.
Might as well make a similar army of the now defunct adventurers and take back what's ours. Someday with the kingdom in ruins and no oversight the world's natural state will take hold and more dungeons will be built and forgotten and maybe our children's children's children's children could become strong respectable dungeoneers earning their living by the sweat of their brow and the strength in their arms as the Gods clearly intended.
In the meantime we'll need to make unions post kingfall and a restoration society to ensure there's no over-dungeoning and to displace lesser creatures into formerly reclaimed areas to jump start the natural dungeon building processes.

Not sure why the king is risking his own life when he commands an army, but the plan makes sense. Why would you tolerate a bunch of existential threats within your border? Clean that shit out and take the spoils to help the kingdom.

This

>"However, there is growing concern that without dungeons, a lot of adventurers are going to be out of a job."
>adventurer is a job
>dungeons are just naturally occurring monster-nests
>magical gear just appears in said nests

there's a lot to hate about this.
but most important is

Sounds like a good king.
Adventure wise just remind them there are other jobs then dungeons or maybe have them prove themselves to join the kings force.

I suppose if your adventurers were good enough at their job they could scout new dungeons for the king or do general consultancy work.

You could make the characters get real jobs if you wanted to mess with your players. It's a steep fall from adventurer to haberdasher though.

Literally this. I guess it's a neat idea and you could have fun with it but it really doesn't make sense, unless you go with the trope that higher status people are physically stronger so the king is an ultra badass. But even then it's silly. Here's some questions.
Why would the king risk himself?
>because he's such a good person, he wants to help his kingdom
Okay, this is suspect right away because powerful people are NEVER that fucking generous and noble. Power corrupts, it's just reality. The only way this justification works is if the king is a literal angel or other being of pure good.
Does he realize what would happen if he dies and the throne is vacant? Who would seize power? Is there political scheming and corruption in the government?
>no, the government is good
Then your setting is already unrealistic, so do whatever you want, I guess. Back to the power level thing, is the king adventurer tier power level? Because that's the only way this would work, honestly, otherwise he gets sniped by a goblin and dies. I guess he would have to start with easy dungeons and work his way up, like an adventurer. But it seems pretty likely that he'd bite off more than he could chew at some point and end up woefully unprepared to deal with the lich he angered.
Overall, the plot seems like it would be a better fit for a book, TV show, quest, or something else that has one central protagonist who is the focus. I don't really see how it would work in an RPG.

>Okay, this is suspect right away because powerful people are NEVER that fucking generous and noble. Power corrupts, it's just reality. The only way this justification works is if the king is a literal angel or other being of pure good.
He’s pretty obviously not a good guy, just someone with a hidden agenda to push. That’s why the King’s army consists of magical wight knights who obey his every command.

Its meant to be something of a potential side quest the party can go on. Its unlikely that in the course of the Quest the King will actually clear every single dungeon, but there could be loads of ramifications (i.e. getting the King to help them or on good terms).

>Why would the king risk himself?
OP here, I'd imagine.

Because:
-He's not that at risk, he has a big ass army that goes in with him along with the best wizards and heroes available to the Kingdom. If 4 "murderous hobos, as some call them" can go spelunking, why can't "the King, and his best warriors and mages and in the finest crafted armor" do the same
-Loot. Treasure. Wealth. And an assortment of enchanted armor and gear.

>Back to the power level thing, is the king adventurer tier power level? Because that's the only way this would work, honestly, otherwise he gets sniped by a goblin and dies. I guess he would have to start with easy dungeons and work his way up, like an adventurer.
-He's a warrior King already and has had battle experience against Saracen armies. Think Richard the Lionheart or Leon Leoncour (although more like the latter now that he actually has more magical gear). He started off with some royal magical heirlooms that were already providing decent protection against Saracen Imams and Djinn.

>Does he realize what would happen if he dies and the throne is vacant? Who would seize power?
He probably does, but is brave/foolish enough to imagine he won't die.

What would the players be doing in this scenario? Out of work adventurers? The king's crew on an extended escort mission surrounded by shitloads of dudes? Dungeon monsters hoping from dungeon to dungeon trying not to get murdered?

It sounds like a neat story premise but without the right group and lots of care it'd be a real boring campaign.

He can't exactly send his entire army into a dungeon. There's a limit to how protected he is. He very well might die, I would say probably, really, because he's foolhardy enough to do this in the first place so he'd probably get cocky and screw up.

this, this isn't a story for the players, this is just you wanking yourself off

Maybe the party could be freedom fighters for an adventures' union, who want to assassinate the king so he doesn't put all the adventurers out of work.

Im sorry, but this is just ..... terrible. Its your game, you run what you want to, but i agree with

>What would the players be doing in this scenario?
As the players are already on their own quest unrelated to this one, that isn't too time constrained, they could:
-Decide to shift their focus here for opportunity. Either because they suspect the king is up to no good, want to get in good favors with him (by helping him clear out dungeons), or even to loot the dungeons he's clearing out.
-Use it as a means to gain wealth or equipment to boost themselves in preparation for their actual goal of having to defeat a vile witch in a different country
-Attempt to convince the King to go that country, shifting their efforts from a risky infiltration mission to one in which they are participating in a pitched battle on the Witchs front door

Its basically going to open up a door for plan B, giving them the option of the original plan to try and infiltrate and assasinate the witch, or go the loud route and bring an army with them to knock her door down and kill her.

Its entirely optional. I should have clarified this is meant to be a side quest opportunity.

>because he's such a good person, he wants to help his kingdom

I've seen this done before in a game. The GM just had no stomach for "boring political bullshit" so everyone was straightforward, and no figure of authority ever lied to us. We were so paranoid at first, then we just settled in, since our fears never came to pass.

>party looks at everyone twice thinking its a game of GoT-tier douchery
>everyone is earnest and straight-forward
>the PCs look like paranoid weirdos who backstab first because they can't fathom objective honesty

kinda funny desu

What a shit GM. Did he just run combats all session every session?

you know you can have social interaction even without duplicity, right?

Yeah, but it's shit social interaction. If everyone's motives are perfectly fucking clear then there's no tension.

so who is running the government, setting tax policy, engaging in high level diplomacy while the king is dungeon delving. what do foreign powers think about this and react?

Given that the dude is traveling around with a whole gaggle of mages and magical items, it's likely he's using magical means of communication or is simply teleporting back home when anything comes up that demands his personal attention and cannot be foisted off to someone whose job it is to do that specific thing.

But how do you know their motives are 100% clear?

Monsters without lairs will swarm the overworld, killing, looting, eating, and raping (not necessarily that order) everyone in the kingdom. Good luck with that "great" economy when you have zero peasants to grow food. How does that gold taste?

Sounds like you're telling the party it's time to find a new kingdom to set up shop in.

>How does that gold taste?
Probably pretty good after you get the wizards to turn it into a delicious feast. Really, what's the problem with this result? All the proles are dead so the king and the royalty can live happily, doing drugs, fucking whores, etc.

Untrue. There are always unknowns. The tension doesn't have to come from their motives being mysterious.

I don’t really like it but it is kind of original. Really my main question is what is the point? I mean why would the party care, are they supposed to stop the king somehow?

>adventurers union
oh my god you're even worse.

I'm joking user. Calm down.

What if the party are the dungeons pooling their resources together to stop this faggot king

Why is "adventurer" a job and why are there dungeons everywhere?

Interesting, if you can work the players in. Maybe they've been hired to beat the king to a particular piece of loot? What if they keep losing out on treasure because the king is swarming dungeons with massive adventuring parties to beat them with brute force? What if the party is hired to escort a king too foolhardy to realize he's stepping into a trap? What if a malicious agent "okays" cursed or possessed artifacts for use on the king? What if the king is failing to react to outside threats to the kingdom because he's too investing in the adventuring game? Furthermore, what if concerned counselors hire the party to convince him to leave adventuring to adventurers and return to managing affairs of state?

There are a lot of directions this could head, but make the sure the players have some direct stake in matters, otherwise it simply becomes a background element to the setting.

No offence, but I'd brain myself before playing in a campaign with a dynamic like that. Now, if the party itself was the king and his most trusted retainers clearing dungeons, it could be fun as long as the person playing the king wasn't a dick and was willing to keep his nation under control as part of the gameplay. Maybe 3d6 down the line for stats, person with shitiest stats is king? Idk

This is literally isekai logic.

Seneschals? Advisors? Treasurers and Castellans?

No effective government would rely soley on one man to do everything. Especially if its the type of government where the King regularly goes out on crusade.

Adventurer is a job because there are dungeons everywhere.

There are dungeons everywhere, as a facet of the setting. They crop up naturally around dungeon cores.