- Spoiler:
Ok guys,
Ever since Aziens diplomatic encounter with General Cactus I have heard grumblings along the lines of “diplomacy doesn’t work, don’t bother trying it.”
This statement isn’t true at all but I can understand where the confusion has arisen from. I don’t want the diplomatic part of the game ignored so in an effort to remedy this I figured I would do a bullet point rundown of how the whole thing played out, from my perspective anyway. Hopefully with some perspective and discussion we can make some sense of the situation.
Please note this will include a lot of metagame information that your characters shouldn’t know, but is necessary for the process.
Sorry for the incoming text explosion
- Breakdown:
To begin with:
Ruby Kingdom and Rivering Traders Guild in the middle of a trader war.
Iron Kingdom has trade relationships with Ruby Kingdom but is also fostering relationships with Rivering in an attempt to stay neutral. Neither side overly happy with Iron Kingdoms approach.
After the Iron King makes a trip to Rivering the Ruby King decides he needs to better secure his trade agreement and sends General Cactus to the Iron Kingdom.
General Cactus is ordered to establish a trade embargo on the Rivering border. He is ordered to be civil to Iron Kingdom but to generally ignore them for the time being. This action is publicly labelled as defensive aid for the Iron Kingdom.
Cactus arrives in the Iron Kingdom and establishes the embargo line. Furl also visits the Iron king to inform that Cactus is here to aid with the Iron Kingdoms defence, basically to smooth ruffled feathers over what is a fairly invasive military action.
Furl leaves as the Iron Kingdom realizes all trade is being cut off from the North West. The Iron King is unhappy and wishes Cactus removed and agreements with the Ruby King broken.
Azien visits with Cactus in an attempt to diplomatically remedy the situation.
Azien declares that the Iron Kingdom does not wish for the Ruby king’s aid and that Rivering is not the Iron Kingdoms enemy. Cactus is polite but ignores most of the requests implying that the Iron Kingdom cannot be allied to both Rivering and the Ruby Court, he also infers that he will not leave the Iron Kingdoms land.
Azien demands that Cactus ceases attacks against independent merchants, Cactus agrees. Whether he meant to hold to this agreement is never officially tested as most trade has ceased on this route.
Azien informs Cactus of a different threat on the regions Eastern border, which sort of runs into Ruby King lands. Azien tells Cactus of the Necromancer Saw building an undead army in the mountains.
Azien attempts to convince Cactus to muster his men and march in defence of the Iron Kingdom against the Necromancer Saw. This march will take an estimated 2 to 3 weeks.
Azien makes a diplomacy roll which comes up a critical success.
(Initially Cactus would have politely refused the request from Azien as it was outside the mission he had been tasked to perform and the fact that Azien had no proof to offer apart from his word, but instead due to Azien’s diplomacy roll the following happened;)
Cactus decides that this new threat Azien has told him of does warrant at very least investigation. He is however unwilling to disobey an order from his King. He decides to write a message to his King requesting permission to assign some of his troops to dealing with this potential threat to the Ruby Kingdom.
Due to the importance which he now gives this issue (once again due to Aziens diplomacy roll) Cactus is also willing to trust Azien (A person he has only just met) to deliver the message to his King so as to speed up the process.
(At this point JD seems to become a little frustrated because things did not go as he planned but he decides to see things out and Azien heads for the Ruby city.)
Azien arrives at the Ruby city and has to wait for three days for an audience with the King. This frustrates Azien and he attempts to gain an audience sooner with no success.
Azien finally meets to Ruby King.
(I forget the exact order in which this conversation went but it included all these things)
Azien delivers Cactus’s message.
Azien requests that Cactus’s troops be moved from the North western border to aid where they are really needed.
The Ruby King replies that Rivering is a much greater threat to both the Ruby Court and his allies the Iron Ridge region.
Azien disagrees and tries to convince him otherwise. A diplomacy roll is made. Does not go as well as the roll against Cactus but still not a horrible outcome.
Due to Aziens roll + a bonus from Cactus’s letter the Ruby King decides that the Necromancer issue does warrant a response. He is however unwilling to give up his embargo as he still views Rivering as the greater threat. So instead he offers to send an additional 200 penal legionnaires to assist the Iron Kingdom against the Necromancer Saw.
This is not what Azien wants. (JD now visually more frustrated than before)
Azien conveys his displeasure with the Ruby Kings offer.
The Ruby King conveys that Azien should be more accepting of what help is offered.
Subtle threats are made on both sides.
Azien declines the offer of additional troops.
The Ruby King composes a response to Cactus’s letter and accepts Aziens offer to deliver it.
Azien leaves the Ruby King and heads into the Ruby city.
Azien decides to travel from Inn to Inn in the Ruby city trying to find somebody skilled in forgery.
Me (as the DM) confers to JD that searching for someone to forge court documents in the Ruby city is not a safe avenue to travel down.
JD asks to continue and for me to let him know when it becomes unsafe.
I confer that it has become unsafe and Azien departs the Ruby City bound for the Iron Ridge.
The Ruby Kings response is not delivered to Cactus.
So in summary, from my point of view, JD sent Azien to visit Cactus, with only a vague plan in his head but a clear concept of what he wished to achieve with his dealings. Azien had very little to offer during the dealings except unproven claims and his negative opinions of the Ruby Courts actions. While not achieving what he wanted initially he did procure himself some positives:
Firstly he built a respectful relationship with General Cactus.
Secondly he secured some alternative avenues to follow for fixing the issues at hand. (Being the Generals willingness to help and his sealed message.)
JD decided to attempt the same strategy he used on Cactus on the Ruby King. He had a little more to offer (the letter) but aside from that he was largely in the same situation as before. The Ruby King was a much more skilled diplomatic combatant then Cactus and the dice were not so much in Azien’s favour this time. While he did not secure his main goal of removing the Ruby Courts troops from Iron Kingdom land he did secure aid for the eastern border. As it turned out, unfortunately, these two goals ended up counter acting each other.
What did all this achieve?
My players now belive that diplomacy doesn’t work. Sweet! *sadface*
I guess I should make one final point.
The diplomacy skill is not a Domination spell. It will not make NPC’s completely ignore their own interests, beliefs or morals. And you guys should be happy about this. Because if it did you could never trust NPC’s like Peach to handle even the simplest orders for fear of them running into an opposing NPC with any points in Diplomacy.
“Hey guys, why are Peach and his men running around naked, burning and pillaging our land?”
“Well funny story, they encountered an NPC with the diplomacy skill and he convinced them it was the best thing to do.”
“Damn you diplomacy! DAMN YOU!”With time, hell, maybe you could have diplomatically fixed the situation completely. As with all social interactions some decent leverage would have helped. Unfortunately you didn’t have a ton of time so maybe diplomacy was not a solution by itself. It did however buy you some alternative avenues to explore.
I don’t really know how to finish this post. So I will ask you guys for your input. Post your view of the situation up here.
If this is not how you remember the situation please feel free to post up your account.
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