Others forms of government besides monarchies in RPGs

It seems that most of the RPG maker games (as well as RPGs in general) take place in settings that are ruled by monarchs. We usually hear about the settings being a "kingdom" or "empire".

My question is, do you have games where the form of government is different (such as a dictatorship, democracy, or a republic in general)? And what do you think about games that utilize such governments?

My sci-fi/fantasy hyrbrid game has a democratic country which the player starts of in. There are also countries with monarchies and a dictatorship but I'm planning to have my game's story criticize that trope. My sci-fi game takes place in a future Earth which has a democratic government - albeit flawed.

   I think most games utilize monarchies because it is easier to develop believably i.e you don't have to deal with the backlash and contradiction and brick walls to in game political decisions from counter sides when there is only a single ruler; or else they're going with the historical recognition that democratic and republic societies seem to consistently shift back toward the same ruling elite ideals they spawned in opposition to. (So far around the 200-250 year mark unless you're Sheila Jackson.)

   My game actually takes place during such a time, where the country has a group of representatives but they are actually a group of figureheads used to obscure the real ruler who through manipulating emotions and slowly tearing down the various checks and balances meant to keep individuals from having to much power has become an empress in all but name. It's an interesting time, everyone basking in their 'progressive' ideals while an individual sets about controlling every aspect of their lives by whim.

   Other forms of government can easily make for more interesting games, and a democracy in a sci-fi game is unlikely to get any flak. (honestly, few games would, but there are people who have arrogant preconceived notions about the 'unenlightened' eras and think that democracies and republics don't fit in a medieval setting for some unexplained reason.)

Im very glad you brought this up actually. This is a thing my games have fallen into, almost without fail without even thinking about it. Honestly, I think it just feels ... appropriate, to have monarchies in such a setting because that's just how we WERE at that level of technology and philosophy, magic not-withstanding.

As we get more and more into the realm of  - and I hesitate to say modern - government structures, I feel we begin to deviate from the whole "fantasy" aspect. At least in terms of western fantasy, which to me is all about grand castles and sweeping kingdoms. And I am very much a western writer. Castles and strongholds and hungry expansion; these things are what I like writing about, at least in this kind of setting and Emperors and Kings really make this easier. I don't think a democratic society would be very...amenable to war, honestly. Autocracies lend themselves much better to such things.

You are right though, the trope is strong with this one. I also think though, that a very interesting political game/story could be told revolving around a democratic country. Think, House of Cards, the rpg. That would be sickkk. Swap out the base stats for various different skills in manipulation, that could be an idea.

My first game, Undefeated, is not set in a kingdom.  The country is ruled by The Grand Council, which is something of an autocracy/oligarchy, and about which there are political tensions.  They control the army (the only real source of power in this place) through tightly controlling its budget.  The ambition of one of the characters is to travel to other countries which have other systems.  He's even heard that one of them has this thing called a Parliament, which he intends to find out about, and then travel round his own country telling them about other forms of more democratic government.

There has never been a king/emperor.  The person credited with founding the nation set up The Grand Council from the very beginning.

Councils, matriarchal societies (where only the woman rules), dictatorships, countries with no rulers just towns that work together to survive, Church Monopolies, marriage of church and state, guild-based societies, overlords, Deitic, nobility/house states... There's a lot of different ones I've used.

I think my favourite ones are the Church and State version and the Deitic.

The Church and State one is from Love's Requiem, where the Knights of Lavia rule with the co-operation of the Church of Lavia. It's a partnership of Church and the Knights. The actual ruling is done by two people - the High Canian and the First. The Canian is the head of the Church and the First is the head of the Knights. Both are chosen via internal voting, however the Canian chooses the possible First candidates. Both must be of sufficient rank and ability to be considered for the position. 

I've a lot of history about the Church and Knights, how they came to be, why, who various leaders of the past were, the founders and who they were/came to be... A lot of written stuff.

The Deitic is based on a group of gods who govern. It's a meld of magic and ability, in that their governance isn't based on where you were born but who you choose to serve when you come of age. You cannot break that tie - there's a ritual involved - and the Gods themselves give out orders to their most trusted avatars, who then pick the right person for the job. It's an odd society, because there's a lot of pride on the line for the different worshippers - which god is better than the others - even though there's no real competition between the Gods themselves. They only care about seeing things done as they should be, and are more like aspects of nature than people in that they don't have personalities. The avatars are picked from those most close to the Gods' ideal of their aspects and this causes some friction between certain groups under them as the avatars can be a bit unstable due to trying to be more of one thing than another - to extremes.

You know, this would actually help my 'Black Wing' game out, since most of the countries are unaligned provinces.

An oiligarchy is easy enough to do, be it old people or young people, they basically make all of the decisions. You can even have tribal settings, where there's a leader and a shaman and stuff like that.

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I have countries in my game that follow the classic dynasty rule (same family in power) and a kingdom which acts more like electing the pope IRL. When the king dies, there's a Regency council and only its members can vote who'll be the next king.

I like to think I've included quite a few types of societies in my games. In my bigger sci-fi series the society for the most part is quite democratic and progressive. There is one alien species though which utilises a sort of socialist structure within their little town, where all resources owned by the town belong to everyone who lives in it, and everyone works hard for the good of all.

In my smaller sci-fi game the society is more like a dictatorship since all machines are expected to obey the commands given to them by the Central AI and those the AI placed in charge.

In my current dark fantasy project the society used to be monarchical in the distant past, but in the present it's probably closer to anarchy, with bandits roaming about everywhere, and people pretty much banding into smaller villages in order to survive. The only thing keeping people together pretty much is a religious order.

I think it's great fun to explore different types of societies in games.

In my most recent game, I had the elves use a Council, which was basically a loose association of the Elders.  Within each village, the Elder reigns supreme, but, in theory, the Council is above each Elder. 

In my next game, the backstory has aliens put down Teleportation Crystals.  Said Crystals will transport you to anywhere you've already been.  So, the rulers end up forming a loose Council of their own.  Of course, the rulers are those who have physically traveled the farthest, so they can go anywhere the Crystals are.  Most people can't use the Crystals because there is, as yet, no other practical means of rapid transportation between towns.

A neighboring country is a loose association of city-states (think ancient Greece), based on naval power for trade and war.  Since they are at war with their neighbor, nobody can use their Teleportation Crystal, so they don't really know what it's for.

But, I agree that the monarchy is common because it was by far the most popular form of government, at that time, in Western Europe.  I'm sure anyone who is writing, say, a historical JRPG, will have the completely different systems of daimyos and so forth.

I've played a REALLY awesome RPG called Last Scenario having a Republic, Kingdom, and Empire.

I've actually been looking for that game forever. Thank you.

I think part of it is also that monarchies are just so much easier. You get a quest from the king, rescue the princess, etc. Having a legislature and a parliament and all that gets things a bit complicated and takes away from actually playing the game.

In my game, the starting nation, Ori, is called a kingdom, even though the Queen is usually the one running things.

The Borix Empire is a union of countries ruled by the Kezar, though the individual territories still have their own separate regents.

The nation of Bludvald is ruled by a collection of vampire nobles, who keep the werewolf packs, mad scientists, and peasants/snacks under control.

The dwarfs of Urdgard have a sort of parliamentary syste which acts more like the board of managers of a mining company.

My current project takes place in both a monarchist empire and a fundamentalist nation. 

My current project features a quite weird setting, because pretty much nobody is really in power, it's more or less an anarchy with people just trying to scrape by with multiple factions fighting for control. Royalists supporting the King of England, Inquisitors fighting for more power for the Saint among many others... to be honest I haven't thought too much about the politics of ''New London'' - thanks for reminding me about it, I've forgotten to write it all down.

A setting with some really interesting forms of government is Shadowrun and I highly recommend looking into it if your game has a more modern vibe - massive corporations that own entire countries, the ''Flux State'' of Berlin, it's all really cool.

(Or maybe I'm just a nerd when it comes to politics. Who knows ^_^)

I've been using the concept of a big business corporation that oversees a biodome modeled after Earth for my secondary project.

I'm wondering if this would be too far-fetched as a ruling/political idea, but here goes:

There is no king, no government, no figurehead and everyone is of perfectly equal status. They have a hive mind or telepathy crystal of sorts that will link everyone's thoughts and form a consensus of what they want to do or proceed. The peoples convene once in awhile (every week, maybe) for this consensus, which is compulsory, and everyone is obligated to fulfill their roles. The meeting wouldn't last very long, maybe its even instant, as everyone's thoughts are synchronized and reach a compromise and will never end in disagreement. The citizens are then free to proceed however they want after that, going on with their lives. Failure to turn up would result in banishment, as the other citizens cannot trust the individual's thoughts anymore.

This may look sort of like a mindless ant-like behavior to outsiders, but its actually just like a normal meeting, except it considers EVERYONE's situation and point of view and has no chance of corruption (unless plot point or something). This power may even manifest when the country/colony fights, with the soldiers sharing experiences and knowledge of battle; No tactician is required to tell them when to attack or retreat, and every single soldier as powerful as the strongest warrior.

IMO, this is hard to implement in a human-based society, as humans are generically portrayed as idolizing heroes and wanting figureheads to represent them, but I think its a good idea for civilizations such as alien lifeforms, robots and certain fantastical beings, daresay elves, in general.

If you wanted an interesting game, you could set it in the period where humans transition TO this form of government?  Why?  Well, that is the entire plot.

How would humanity react if all of a sudden EVERYONE were telepathic?  Maybe once a week people have a perfect telepathic connection with everyone else, but they don't know WHY this is.  Perhaps well-intentioned aliens set this up to prevent humanity from destroying itself.

In my game, the political power is held primarily by two factions.

One of them is the Academy of Aleko, which is a military organization. Most towns (scattered around the globe) are under their protection, so they're pretty much the rulers of the world.

The other faction is the Yamashiru Empire, which is... not a monarchy. I think it works more like a council, with a prime minister. It's a republic I think.

They are not in war, but they don't like each other either. Yamashiru doesn't has the power needed to outtake the Academy of Aleko, and the Academy is busy fighting the Utgarims, Lilim and other hostile beasts around there. But as soon as they get rid of those (if they actually do), maybe Aleko will try and punch Yamashiru in the face... or start a meaningless war like any other government just to cause fear.

But don't worry, Lilim will NEVER ever cease to exist. They're like the 99% of the species in the world. And for some reason, humans these days are delicious, and most Lilim love to take a bite of them <3.

I have multiple levels of ruling bodies.

Essentially the Council of Kings rules the clans. They rule the clans, not people below them. The Clans system rules over the citizens and villagers of the world.

Citizens are ruled by the governors while the villagers are ruled by the mayors.

Those who belong to the clans are marked by various collars and that makes their role a quite peculiar as they are not slaves or anything like that, but actually quite well paid and arrogant individuals. Well most of them anyway view people below their rank as trash (villagers and citizens.)