Another element of the Faerie Queene is that rulers are
often proceeded by processions of unique individuals who illustrate the nature
of their power in various ways. These are often extremely vivid and
interesting, some of the best parts of the book (and also get a bit rubbish
towards the end). In particular, Femme-Satan in her House of Pride gets her
seven wizards riding even beasts, each incarnating a major sin. Cupid also gets
a great entry, first music; "full straunge notes", then Fancy "like
a lovely boy", then Desire beside him, then Doubt "In a discolour'd
cote, of straunge disguyse", then Danger, Fear, Hope, Dissemblance,
Suspect, Grief and Fury, Displeasure and Pleasance, Despight and Cruelty, and
then the winged god himself riding a lion.
 |
| Hey, and here they are, by Walter Crane, proceeding. |
No doubt Edmund had seen a few of these in real life and
just expanded on the structure, introducing supernatural and moral elements.
The utility of the procession in games is varied;
- It makes the main thing feel like the main thing.
Instead of 'oh hey its the King', you get this loooong build up and
concentration of different powers until 'oh fuck, its the king!'.
- It translates feudal/religious/state/family/other power
structures into highly specific, *vivid*, elaborately costumed and
easy-to-remember people.
- It does this sequentially, and slowly. Instead of the PC's wandering into a party or mixed group
and having to navigate it, all the major players are introduced one at a time,
or in linked pairs, they are given a moment to recognise and remark on them,
and when the procession is over, they know who to look for and/or avoid. It
makes the large amorphous mid-sized group which is hard to translate into
natural language for an RPG, more navigable, essentially providing its own map.
- It highlights power structures and precedence in the
kingdom or polity where the PC's are. Different factions and their position in
the procession is a strong indicator of how powerful they are, or want people
to think they are. It's clear who you have to speak to get what.
- If you want to get freaky and Spencerian/Vancian with
it then you can include strange stuff like incarnated moral values that make
the kingdom possible, extra-dimensional alliances, Wizards who have become
their own reflections, dudes made of crystal etc.
A theme in the generator is going to be that each
individual element or member of the procession doesn't have to be that complex.
What important is that they are visually striking, direct, memorable and
exemplify their faction, group or idea in the procession. In Spenserian (and
Comic-Book) fashion, complexity comes not from characters who are complex in a
literary or post-Freudian way, but from the combination and interaction of
individually simple, stark and unique elements. (Plus you can always add
psychological depth if people want to interact with someone).
Firstly, this generator, (or vague idea for a generator) works if you already
have a monarch and a kingdom/empire/barony or whatever. It's built with the
idea that you already know what that is. And of course it works better in
feudal and pseudo-feudal settings.
1. MAKING IT
INTERESTING
Even if it’s interesting, watching a procession is a
somewhat passive act. Here are some ways to make it feel more active and
animated
The Interlocutor;
Its good if the PC's have a guide, or at least an
interesting parasite, who wants to tell them stuff they might not know. The
purpose of this individual is to hang out with the PC's, gossip with them
and These are almost always going to be
chatty extroverts.
1. High-status noble got caught doing something sketchy
with a stableboy or groom, so massive status loss, but can't be kicked out.
2. Faithful but questionably-liberal priest of state
church, happy to be meeting people!
3. Governess or Tutor of minor royal. No-one else they
can really talk to.
4. 'Artists Model' or 'Poet' ridiculously attractive,
likeable & shallow courtesan or rent boy, currently between patrons, happy
to grab the free food. Stays talking to the PCs so they can't be ejected.
5. Very Noble but old-as-fuck individual. No longer cares
about protocol but no-one can stop them rambling to the PC's because nobody
nearby outranks them.
6. Teenage noble wannabe so over this hierarchal bullshit, wants to impress dangerous
outsiders.
Music;
As the procession begins some kind of music will start to
let people know to smarten up. Due to ancient ethnological, cultural or ritual
reasons, the kind of instruments used may be utterly out of seeming character
with the current culture of the kingdom. There is always a specific reason for
this. You can probably make this up yourselves but here's a crappy list;
1. Carnyx
2. Saung
3. Male voice choir
4. Bone flutes
5. Full Orchestra
6. Intense drumbeats
Audience Behaviour;
The audience isn't meant to just stand around and stare,
there is a specific way that everyone is meant to be behaving, and if the PC's aren't behaving that way, then they are
going to get into trouble;
1. Deep and weepy.
2. Silent and stiff-backed.
3. Periodically jubilant.
4. Awed and Amazed, in a positive fashion.
5. Awed and Humbled in a near-downcast fashion.
6. Movement from one of these extremes to the other as
the arrival of the monarch approaches.
Reactions to each
Emergence;
The immediate group around the PC's, and their interlocutor,
will react in particular ways to each emergence of the procession. Each of
these elements, and their position means
something specific to the people around.
These reactions always take place underneath the expected
behaviour, in sotto voice or cross talk, if PC's, and players' don't act this
out then they will lose status and may be ejected. (Of course the rich &
powerful can talk sotto voice as much
as they like, the less important you are, the more you will be policed.)
Here are some ideas
1. A processional farts mid-step. Nearby elite individual
moans "this is the end for us, saddle the horses".
2. Serious intra-group power struggle or doctrinal shift
indicated by micro alteration in ritual - i.e. sword of justice held sideways.
Gasps and remarks abound.
3. Procession member is masked, crowd members suspect
replacement by unknown, those nearby become obsessed with minutia and bearing.
4. Procession member is out too early in procession,
their group or faction has lost power. Shock, interest and comments move
through crowd. Faction members bristle.
5. Procession member is closer to monarch than expected.
Faction members glow with pride, other groups angry or manoeuvring.
6. Procession member is highly divisive with base for
intra-faction reasons, 50% of that faction hate, 50% love them, both groups have
individuals near the PC's. "It's about time" vs "This is the
end!" Other factions utterly indifferent.
7. Members proceeding together represent factions
currently in conflict, tension grows in crowd, will they try something?
8. Procession representative is new to the job and
visibly nervous, looks like they are going to fall/screw it up. Faction members
hold their breath, others observe in fascination.
9. An entire faction is missing! New faction present!
Massive unexpected power shift! Old factions members aghast, new members
thrilled. Tension rises in crowd.
10. Muttered local argument about exact symbology of the
precise thing this faction member is carrying/doing.
2. CONSTRUCTING
THE PROCESSION
Without any actual playtesting, I've decided that the
standard procession is made up of ten individuals, who appear in five groups of
two each.
If you go much lower than ten, it’s not really worth
processing, you may as well just arrive. If you go much over ten then the PC's
have to do a lot of hanging round and are probably not going to remember as
much as they should.
Ten people and five pairs means five whispered
conversations and five repressed (or expressed) reactions, and then the Sovereigns
arrival, and then we are back into 'real game' space where the PC's can wander
around, get into trouble, be called on by, or brought to the attention of, the
ruler.
So this is an abstraction of a 'real' or historical
procession. Many of the ceremonial ones would have been a lot longer than this
I think. It also blurs together quasi-real feudal elements, pseudo-real
'classic fantasy' elements and hipster OSR magical or strange elements.
My guesstimation for how many of each element you want
is;
Standard D&D
Fantasy;
4 Feudal Locations
4 Organisations
2 Powers
Spouse
Pseudo-Real
Fantasy (Harn-ish);
6 Feudal Locations
4 Organisations
Spouse
Highly-Magical
Fantasy (Spencerian);
4 Feudal Locations
6 Powers
Spouse
So we will go through each element of the procession,
deciding what they are, and giving each three (actually four) separate things;
1. A
Name and Title (you are going to need a name generator, or a list).
2. A
Costume.
3. A
Behaviour.
4. An
Object.
These three things, linked together, are intended to form
a sharp and coherent block of identity, easily describable in natural language.
They are then linked in pairs, each emerging together.
Again; these individual concepts don't need to be very
'good', that is, original and deep. The combination of simple, stark, basic
identifiers means the scene as a whole is meant to be easy to read. People are
types and/or want to be see as
types, at least while the procession is on.
If important people are acting in, or dressed as, a
ridiculous fashion or way, then they are doing it for ancient ritual reasons, respected by all, and you are the idiots for pointing it out.
Put simply, this gives the DM something interesting to
describe and the players something interesting to experience, which they will
hopefully remember. The reactions of the crowd and their attempt to interrelate
the PCs with those reactions, hopefully turn the moments of the procession from
a boring experience of watching people going past, to an interesting discovery.
Remember, processions process quite slowly relative to
normal walking
So the ideal process is;
1. Announcer or interlocutor announces names and titles.
2. A Pair Emerges.
3. The DM describes their strange looks and behaviour.
4. The Crowd and/or local guide reacts and relates this
reaction to the PC's.
5. A possible short, whispered conversation takes place
between the guide and the PC's.
The process is repeated four more times as excitement and
drama builds.
6. The Sovereign (and possible Spouse) arrive.
3. LOCATIONS
This isn't the location itself, but someone representing
it. You've seen stuff like this in Game of Thrones and, most recently, Black
Panther. It essentially represents different geographic areas as
Star-Wars-Style mono-biomes with one determining element and character type,
and one costume or symbol that defines them.
In real hisotry what really seems to matter are arable
river valleys and catchment areas, and maybe pastoral hillsides, so in a 'real'
feudal situation, all the location-controllers will be pretty damn similar guys
who each control a river valley.
But this is a game, so, like in Star Wars and Black Panther,
we want them to be grouped as a type and highly distinguishable within that
group.
To pick your locations, look at a map of the areas
controlled by the kingdom or sovereign you are looking at and go for some
combination of economic or political utility, and simple identifying elements.
If you are doing a pseudo-real version of this, then the
guys from the arable river valley that also contains some mountains refer to
themselves as 'the mountain folk' and the guys from the arable river valley
that contains the forest think of themselves as 'the forest folk'. The
components of a feudal culture are as much involved in distinctive and highly
physicalised expressions of identity as players in an RPG.
And in a 'realistic' setting, the representatives of
these places are wearing this whacky stuff and acting in this very arch and
strange way because it is the time
honoured way of their people, and
everyone around takes it super seriously too.
Here are some not-that-good suggestions;
|
Location
|
Costume
|
Behaviour
|
Object
|
|
Forests
|
Green silk ribbands, fake silk leaves, horned crown
|
Scattering truffles, shooting toy arrows into audience
|
Ceremonial hunting bow, hunting horn, charcoal censer.
|
|
Mountains
|
Bear Pelt
|
Being Philosophical (maybe carrying stones or honey
symbolising wisdom?) Disdainfully scattering ‘snow’.
|
Climbing staff. Grapple & rope.
|
|
Rivers
|
Fish-scale cloak
|
Pretend-fishing? Pages blowing into a pseudo-sail or
with pseudo-oars.
|
Trident. Ropes. Scales for trade goods. Net full of
fake or real fish.
|
|
Pastoral Lands ‘The Vale of somethingother’
|
Sheepskin, Cloak of Goat Bells, Great Cow Head
|
Weaving a huge cats cradle, chopping meat, dispensing
hams
|
Hurling meat into crowd, ‘chopping’ crowd with big fake
cleaver
|
4. ORGANISATIONS
An organisation is something that either has a big main
building, or a lot of buildings spread through the domain, or has no building
and is purely distributed.
The Church should always be one of these, if there is a
state religion. The judiciary also. A major school, especially if magical. The
Iron Bank of Bravos is a good example of one of these. The chancellor of the
Kingdom could be one, major regiments or military commanders as well
Most of these actually already have pretty good costumes
and honestly I got bored writing a table for them, it wasn’t very good.
5. POWERS
The idea of a Power originates with the habit of
Spencerian monarchs to spend a lot of time hanging out with literalised
metaphors. In less-Spencerian settings the Powers become a kind of dumping
ground for high-weirdness, or for the strange forms of otherness and ancient
ritual on which many monarchies depend. The King or Queen, after all, is not
just some dude, but is an intercessor
between the material kingdom and a bunch of freaky supernatural stuff that
ordinary people may never see. The axis of eternal powers. And in D&D,
these powers can actually turn up.
Classic D&D
- Powers might represent the Splatbook Races. Crystal dudes, Gythanki,
Warforged or anyone not in the players handbook. They could also be
supernatural monsters whose nature links them to the realm, a Naga in human
form for the major river, an ageless silver dragon in humanoid form.
Vancian D&D
- These would be extra-dimensional entities like meta-wizards or quasi-aliens.
Spenserian D&D
- These would be actual, literal virtues or sins, or other moral or natural
elements, depending on the monarch. For example, the classic virtues are
Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Gratitude and Humility. And
the classic ‘seven sins’ are Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Pride, Greed, Lust and
Sloth.
Hipster OSR
D&D - Bound multidimensional horrors, living reflections carried in
smoking mirrors, and that hoary old standby - freaks in masks.
6. THE SPOUSE
These can add variety and can be very gameable. A kind of
aesthetic and/or behavioural counterpoint to the court as a whole. By bringing
in someone or something 'other' to the group it centres them as a group. Plus the players are
probably going to be dum-dums and completely botch their meeting with the King
so if there's a Queen who has different ideas, it gives them a second chance to
not be fuckwits. Here are a few options.
1. Classic Pairing
- same class, origin and temperament. Not spookily similar but talking to one
is pretty much like talking to the other. Victoria and Alfred would be a good
example. So would Michelle and Barak.
2. Other Does The
Job - whoever is meant to be in the inferior or passive position relative
to this society actually does most of the work and wields most of the power.
So, Marjorie Tyrell in Got (if she had lived). This might be obvious, or
hidden, tolerated, or hated.
3. Rival Power
Scion - If this is the pseudo-euro Empire then the spouse is from the
pseudo-arab Empire. If its pseudo-Han, they are pseudo-Mongol, etc, etc. This
is meant to prevent or halt a major war so the marriage is important, but the
court is freaked out.
4. One-Point
Opposite - A Classic Pairing except one is extremely different in one
particular, behavioural, physical, political or aesthetic way. To the extent
that its either immediately obvious or comes up very quickly in each interaction.
5. Full Opposite
- Physically, mentally, personality, politics, behavioural tics and costume.
One wears black, the other white, etc etc. Could be an accident of the heart,
of political convenience or for strange spiritual or otherworld-management
reasons.
6. Mysterious
'Other' - They aren't even a thing like the things we are! What do they
even do in the bedroom? What's behind the mask/veil/robe/endless dry ice?
7. ENDING THE
PROCESSION
In most cases they will be proceeding towards the throne
or throne-equivalent. During the procession its members will usually take
positions adjacent to the throne, with those coming out first ending up
furthest away. One option is the corridor of individuals, with the Monarch and
Spouse proceeding down it to the throne at the end.
Once the procession is over, Royal business can begin and
this can be PC-centred or background stuff, depending on the needs of the game.
The processionals should move out into the crowd, forming marked and visible
elements to interact with. In less-magical settings they can 'drop character' a
little, and discuss how things went.
If the PC's are trying to get access to the monarch and
the game is that this is hard to do, then space closer to them is dominated by
increasingly important people. The PC's will need to have conversations where
they 'get through' each group or conversation, getting closer and closer to the
main person with each success.
If the PC's are there for other reasons, then there
should be a person, faction or element that doesn't want them there and it
actively trying to get them removed. In this case they may end up having to
socially manoeuvre to stay ahead of them.
In both cases, effective social interactions gains you
social influence, getting them what they want, and the visible processionals
can form predictable nodes in that social structure so PC's can make
interesting decisions about who to go towards or away from, with the DM
bringing in
