Advice/Help Revenge fantasy plot set in Medieval China / Japan

[yoikes]

First, here is the plot:

Spoiler

The Kingdom of Ba was tucked between the White Valleys and sat by the side of the Silk River, helping to turn it into a small, but prosperous kingdom. Their wealth was said to weigh like a mountain, their farmlands fertile, and their forest rich with bounty. Despite all the desirables they possess, the Kingdom of Ba has remained in peace for many generations, thanks to their excellent skill in diplomacy and cunning.

That is, until 345 Year of Fire Tiger when the powerful Kingdom of Zu attacked. No diplomatic efforts, and no amount of money, could stop their greed and lust for blood. "Why should I accept crates of money when I can own them all?", so said Emperor Zu Jian, before ordering the execution of Ba's peace envoys. From the elderly to the young, the Kingdom of Ba raised their arms to repel their invader, but they know it is not a war they can win alone. Calls are sent to the surrounding kingdoms, their allies for many years, desperately begging for help. Out of a dozen, only one answered: the Kingdom of Li from across the river.

No matter how valiant they were, the Kingdom of Zu proved to be too mighty. After two years of fighting, the capital of Ba finally fell. The Ba royal family was executed and left to burn inside their castle, all but the Jewel of Ba, the young Princess Ba. People said that Emperor Zu was curious to see how pretty she is, and fell in love at first sight, taking her in inside his harem. The people of Ba suffered no less bad, their belongings raided by the savage Zu soldiers, forced into servitude for the people of Zu to put to work. The lucky ones managed to cross the river, escaping into the welcoming Kingdom of Li, or scattered to somewhere else.

4 years have passed since then, and although the Kingdom of Ba is no more, the war still rages for the survivors. They desire revenge, chaos, and ruin for the Kingdom of Zu. Carefully and discretely, they begin to put to work the fearsome cunning of the Kingdom of Ba.

Roles:

Spoiler

1. the Princess: The youngest princess of Ba was known to be a heavenly beauty, a "treasure" that the people of Ba could be proud of and brag about to the people from another kingdom. She was 16 when captured, pledging in tears to Emperor Zu to take her as bride and spare her family. She never forgot the mocking laughter Emperor Zu gave her, gloating that he "owned" her already, but agreed to give her family a quick death. She was taken away then, spared from watching the slaughter of her family. Since then she was locked in a small pavilion within the Zu Royal Castle, a golden cage of her own. Emperor Zu, who was already in love with her beauty, grew even madder with the "trill of the chase" to gain her affection. Her beauty and reported kindness to servants and guards also gained her to love the people of Zu. Her presence enrages the two Queens of Zu, seeing her a rival instead of nothing but a mistress, earning the Princess a target behind her back... especially now that she is turning 20 and becoming a grown adult, fully legal to be appointed as the Third Queen of Zu.
2. The Lost Prince: Whether he is the Crown Prince of the youngest prince, he survived his wounds and somehow managed to drag himself out of the burning castle. After being saved by kind peasants, he disguised himself as an intellectual orphan and joined the annual government exam to join the court as an official
3. The Spy: A spy who remained loyal to the royal family of Ba, even if the kingdom is no more. She made her way to join the Princess's group of servants, helping her behind the scenes with her skills and abilities.
4. The Soldier: A soldier who stole the uniform of a dead Zu soldier and was mistakenly accepted as one. While his lie is not caught, he falls deeper and deeper into his fake life and had to continue to live as a "Zu soldier" to stay alive. He hates the people of Zu and how they treat the people from Ba, but there is nothing that he can do about it... or is it?
5. The Slave: Maybe someone who used to be important, like a noble, or just a regular peasant who got captured as a slave. Now working in the household of a high noble / officer / official within Zu's royal court, who is regularly involved in important affairs.
6. The Ambassador: The ambassador from the Kingdom of Li in Zu. They are horrified with how the war ended and frustrated from being unable to save their ally. Although their fight with Zu ended with the war, tension remained high as it's clear that both kingdoms view each other as enemies. The Ambassador in IC has been appointed to work in Zu for two years now, one of their tasks is to keep an eye on and to take care of the Princess's well-being.

Things that I'm worried about:

1. Weaving the characters together to progress the plot. As you might have guessed, it's a character-driven RP with heavy court politics involves, as the characters slowly dismantle the Kingdom of Zu from inside out. I'm worried that it's too complex, and that if a character left, it will make it hard in-story to replace that character with someone else. Say, if the Prince left then it doesn't make sense for another prince to secretly come back to life and somehow manage to infiltrate the court, just like his now-dead brother.
2. The length of the RP. I'm worried that it will be too long due to the potential complexity and trying to figure out a way to make it simpler. At the moment I'm thinking of in-universe "story events" in the idea of games and announcing several goals that the characters will need to accomplish to destroy the Kingdom of Zu. Failing to accomplish side goals, or one of the big goals will affect the NPCs and how the story might end.
3. Number of NPCs. It's going to be HUGE! The Princess alone already will have to deal with three important NPCs regularly, not to mention other NPCs like low-ranked officials they are using as political pawn / something of like. Is this something normal to find in RP? Or is this scale too ambitious and should be scaled down to make sure that it is moderated properly?

I'd be happy if anyone could help me with these worries or offer other advice or critiques! You can PM me too if you are shy about posting here!

Note:
The current example uses a Chinese-inspired setting, but I don't mind changing it to Japanese later according to the future Interest Check thread. If you are interested in co-GMing, feel free to drop me a PM!

 

[Idea]

I have a question: Why are you fixing roles on this RP at all? The premise doesn't lend itself to forcing specific roles, or rather, it doesn't require specific roles to be taken at least as far as I can see. The only way I could see specific roles being needed in this premise is if you want not the premise to be a certain way, but indeed the whole plot.

So, could you clarify your reasoning?

 

[yoikes]

I want to restrict the roleplaying stage to the court of Emperor Zu, and I think that some key positions are needed both story-wise and roleplaying-wise to make sure that destroying the Kingdom of Zu from inside out is possible

Some possibilities are like: the Princess swaying the Emperor and turning him against the two other queens, the Slave feeding the Spy informations, the Soldier finding military informations for the Ambassador

While those are the key roles, other players would still be able to join as other people in the court who are also sharing the same goal of revenge. Although, ideally I want to restrict the RP to 6 roles / 6 players (excluding me, who will be playing as GM)

 

[Idea]

I want to restrict the roleplaying stage to the court of Emperor Zu

Ok, but why? Not saying there's anything wrong with that (outside of the restrictions it imposes on you and your players of course) just wanna understand the motivations here.

I think that some key positions are needed both story-wise and roleplaying-wise to make sure that destroying the Kingdom of Zu from inside out is possible

Well, I would disagree there. Naturally I am not going to presume to know of this kingdom or how it operates, but rarely is something like this so simple that there are no alternate solutions, no cogs that can be moved that would affect the whole in such a way. There's a reason why empires always fall.

So one path would be to simply be more flexible as a GM, to give more leeway for the actions and their effectiveness, to allow the players to try to pursue different paths you maybe didn't forsee.

The other alternative, if you really think those key figures are necessary, then they could easily be NPCs to be managed by the GM. Many plots function like that, where the characters are influencers or agents of those key figures to disrupting the Kingdom, rather than being those figures themselves.

But of course both of these are possibilities. My overall point is you definitely have options that don't involve imposing such huge constraints on your RP. Almost all the problems you present are easily solvable by an exercise in flexibility and in trying to direct players less. This isn't to say those restraints may not be desirable, if there's an alternate goal with them that necessitates them. But they aren't necessary for your plot/premise as presented here. Not unless you're trying to force players down a particular path or way of doing things.

 

[Onmyoji]

I think if you want to make a group rp while having in mind that people might drop out at any time, you should NOT have the key positions taken by players. If without a specific character the story will collapse (such as the prince), the character should be taken by GM or co-GM if you have one, someone who will not drop out and will be able to drive the plot forward if needed.

Players can take the roles of various officials or guards etc, someone who can be important enough for the plot but replaceable if a player drops out. For example, a Minister or Head of royal guards can get assassinated if a player drops out and such character can be replaced by a new character in the same position.

 

[yoikes]

Ok, but why

I don't mean that the entire RP will be done within a single castle, just that it will be mostly done with political intrigue (and occasional murder) instead of "big" actions like enciting rebellion and such

But of course both of these are possibilities. My overall point is you definitely have options that don't involve imposing such huge constraints on your RP. Almost all the problems you present are easily solvable by an exercise in flexibility and in trying to direct players less. This isn't to say those restraints may not be desirable, if there's an alternate goal with them that necessitates them. But they aren't necessary for your plot/premise as presented here. Not unless you're trying to force players down a particular path or way of doing things

I was thinking of a system a king to choose your own adventure games, where the characters / players are free to interact and do what they want, but their choices will influence the "path" the story will take (if that makes any sense)

The other alternative, if you really think those key figures are necessary, then they could easily be NPCs to be managed by the GM. Many plots function like that, where the characters are influencers or agents of those key figures to disrupting the Kingdom, rather than being those figures themselves.

I think if you want to make a group rp while having in mind that people might drop out at any time, you should NOT have the key positions taken by players. If without a specific character the story will collapse (such as the prince), the character should be taken by GM or co-GM if you have one, someone who will not drop out and will be able to drive the plot forward if needed

Noted

If it's this way, then I can imagine the key character(s) tuned down to just the Princess and perhaps the Ambassador, while the Emperor and the two evil queens can be flexibly played by the players for interactions and cannot be killed / harmed without discussion with GM

 

[Idea]

I was thinking of a system a king to choose your own adventure games, where the characters / players are free to interact and do what they want, but their choices will influence the "path" the story will take (if that makes any sense)

Hmmm.... Have you ever heard of what Quest RPs (maybe they have other names elsewhere, but that's what they are called here in RPN)?

They are RPs written in a choose-your-own adventure format, where one the GM writes the story's entry, while the players vote on options provided at the end of the entries.

Edit: There's an area dedicated to those kinds of RPs - Quests

 

[yoikes]

No, I haven't
That sounds interesting, I'll look it up

(Also, to add, enciting rebellion is still possible, is that the players won't be the ones to directly do that or even leading the armies)

 

[Idea]

No, I haven't
That sounds interesting, I'll look it up

Going by what you said, it seems like the type of thing you are aiming for, to an extent at least.

 

[Onmyoji]

The Quest format might actually work for this, players will vote on some major actions. And the choices will be given by the GM, so it won't steer in weird direction or stall too much.

 

[yoikes]

If I understand this right, in Quest RPG, the game will have a GM with specific story and key characters. The GM writes an entry, then the players will discuss about the story and characters, then vote for the next direction of the story?

If yes, the format reminds me of MILGRAM project and a couple of RP in Twitter that uses the voting function

 

[Idea]

If I understand this right, in Quest RPG, the game will have a GM with specific story and key characters. The GM writes an entry, then the players will discuss about the story and characters, then vote for the next direction of the story?

Pretty much. Usually rather than players coming up with a direction on their own, they are offered options to pick from (nothing says you can't change it up into the method you'd prefer though), and from what I can tell there isn't much in the way of discussion usually people just throw in their votes with maybe a reasoning for them.

 

[yoikes]

I feel like it would be a good system for a pretty fun, fast-paced, light hearted "dating sim" inspired romance RP but not this idea.

Though, thank you all for bringing it up, got to learn something new

 

[nerdy tangents]

So in my experience if you want some kind of intrigue style roleplay to work you don’t focus on premade roles but rather a system of (for lack of a better word) secret meetings.

So I saw this done mostly in a roleplay about secret society taking down a corrupt government but it should be usable here.

So basically as people have said the key players in the resistance where all NPCs. So they mostly showed up in secret PMs to players or with the GM pushing a specific plot point.

The player characters were more like members of specific cells of the resistance who would be sent private PMs about their next assignment from “resistance leadership” aka the GM.

The really fun part is you didn’t know whether you were in the resistance or not when you signed up and you weren’t supposed to tell anyone either. Now that might change in this version as certain players can team up.

But I do like the idea of you basically telling the players privately. Hey your in the secret resistance or your just a regular person.

 

[nerdy tangents]

As for what to do if a player leaves? Easy they were imprisoned or assassinated under suspicion for being in the resistance.

 

[yoikes]

So in my experience if you want some kind of intrigue style roleplay to work you don’t focus on premade roles but rather a system of (for lack of a better word) secret meetings.

So I saw this done mostly in a roleplay about secret society taking down a corrupt government but it should be usable here.

So basically as people have said the key players in the resistance where all NPCs. So they mostly showed up in secret PMs to players or with the GM pushing a specific plot point.

The player characters were more like members of specific cells of the resistance who would be sent private PMs about their next assignment from “resistance leadership” aka the GM.

The really fun part is you didn’t know whether you were in the resistance or not when you signed up and you weren’t supposed to tell anyone either. Now that might change in this version as certain players can team up.

But I do like the idea of you basically telling the players privately. Hey your in the secret resistance or your just a regular person.

I'm thinking of doing this for a different, Crime RP! But for this one, I think a secret meetings between characters will be more fun to be acted "in public". Like, a careful conversation over tea, with codes and hints being slipped between their words.

Actually, thanks to Idea and Onmyoji 's input, I'm starting to think that this story will be put to life better in 1x1 format (or perhaps with a 3 person group)