Need some ideas

[Noctis]

I wonder if this is the right section, but I just want to learn a few ideas from you.
What ways can someone reclaim his throne from someone powerful? Like in FFXII, Ashe seeks out the dawn shard, at some point she also wanted power to restore her kingdom and get back her throne.
My character's main goal is to reclaim his throne. In what different ways can he accomplish it? If you have some ideas I would gladly hear it.

 

[Gemluv]

Random Otaku here to help!
Some ideas:

He kills the king.
Get's the people to favor him over the king.
Find out a secret about the king that is dark and the people don't trust him anymore.
Destroy the Kingdom from the inside and built a new one in it's place as you as the new King.

 

[Noctis]

Random Otaku here to help!
Some ideas:

He kills the king.
Get's the people to favor him over the king.
Find out a secret about the king that is dark and the people don't trust him anymore.
Destroy the Kingdom from the inside and built a new one in it's place as you as the new King.

I'll take note of that :)

Need more ideas :)

 

[Gemluv]

Well just try to elaborate on some of those ideas. Maybe talk to some friends about it :)

 

[Lyon Media]

How about the main character has to basically start a revolution making a small to large army to help him fight for the throne again.

 

[MistyDay]

If you want Your throne back, you will need more than cry my Lord.

 

[Ariahannah]

There are lots of different ways to have someone come into power, if your main character is reclaiming their throne it is important to establish how they lost it in the first place as this should tie in to how they reclaim it.

For instance if they lost the throne through unrest and a subsequent uprising then they would need to win back the faith of the people to reclaim the throne.
If the ruler is determined by possession of a specific object then they would need to acquire that object.
If the current ruler took over by force then they should use force to regain it.
If the current ruler took over the throne by making false claims then they would need to find and provide proof that the claims were false.​

 

[Noctis]

There are lots of different ways to have someone come into power, if your main character is reclaiming their throne it is important to establish how they lost it in the first place as this should tie in to how they reclaim it.

For instance if they lost the throne through unrest and a subsequent uprising then they would need to win back the faith of the people to reclaim the throne.
If the ruler is determined by possession of a specific object then they would need to acquire that object.
If the current ruler took over by force then they should use force to regain it.
If the current ruler took over the throne by making false claims then they would need to find and provide proof that the claims were false.​

The kingdom is invaded by an empire using force, so the protagonist needs to reclaim it by force too right? I'm trying to avoid the "start a resistance and fight the empire" thing if possible but it looks like if the protagonist needs to use force, a resistance seems inevitable, or am I wrong? Are there other ways?

 

[Ariahannah]

The kingdom is invaded by an empire using force, so the protagonist needs to reclaim it by force too right? I'm trying to avoid the "start a resistance and fight the empire" thing if possible but it looks like if the protagonist needs to use force, a resistance seems inevitable, or am I wrong? Are there other ways?

A resistance would be the normal way to take back a kingdom which was taken by force mainly because people who take something by force have no intention of giving it back but there's still room for other options. If you prefer to have your character working solo they could use stealth combined with force such as an assassination. The other main option would be to try and have them convince the current ruler to relinquish control to them.

In terms of story I'd typically start with this:
How did the characters get to this point, why did the current ruler take over, what effect has this had on the main character and their kingdom?
Given how they got to this point how are the characters likely to respond to certain situation i.e. is your main character the type of person to attempt an assassination or would they still feel they were able to try and negotiate the return of their kingdom, how would the current ruler respond to these tactics?
If method A fails will the main character attempt the same sort of plan with some minor modifications or attempt a completely different method i.e. initial negotiations fail and the main character could either go find something the ruler wants to better negotiate with or forgo further negotiation and attempt to kill them instead.
Everyone has a reason for the decisions they make, what are their reasons?

In terms of game mechanics you will want to decide what kind of game you're wanting to make here as well as this can affect how your story plays out.
Do you want your players to have a choice in how things play out (can be more complicated with scripting events depending on how far you want to take this)
Do you want their to be lots of battles, if so you will need to decide if your characters are killing monsters or knocking out enemy soldiers or a mix of both (if there are monsters you may want to cover why they are there as part of you world building)
Do you want the players to explore the world to gain various skills to overcome their challenges rather than just leveling up from battles?
How much of the world will be available to the characters? What, if anything, will block their paths?

I tend to plot all this stuff out in word or one-note before starting on creating an outline of important cut-scenes and where in the game they will appear. Just try and find what works for you and what you are wanting to create.

 

[Noctis]

@Ariahannah Here is the brief summary of the story I have so far

The kingdom of the protagonist is invaded by the empire. But he managed to escape the city with the help of 3 people - a member of the kingsguard, a member of the council, and his friend - under the order of the king. What the antagonist wants is to get control of the Goddess' remnant (some sort of magical relics in my game) that is located in the capital city of the kingdom. After the invasion, the antagonist announced that the king and his son is dead, even though he knows that the prince escaped. Now the antagonist, thinking that the king's son might be an obstacle for his plan, ordered a manhunt for the prince, all of the empire want him and his companions dead.

What I already have in mind is that in the end, they must face the emperor himself and make him surrnder by force, or kill him if needed to reclaim the throne. I'm not quite sure how the party will get to that point.

I don't want choices to affect the story. An assassination seems good, but since the antagonist is surrounded by his generals and large imperial force, what I'm thinking is to have them enter the empire's capital and face most of the imperial force, and then the emperor at the end. The emperor possessed a power beyond a normal human because of the remnants. So you think having the protagonist gain a certain power before facing the empire is good way to go? While gathering a resistance to back them up in the final war?

 

[kuzuryuu_shiko]

I'm not sure if my idea suits what you need, since I'm sure it'd take a lot of modifications if you are already making a progress in your story (or already set up the settings of the story) But I've made a weekly stories about kingdom reclaiming in my college before XD and the idea of mine was like this :

The protagonist(ruler of the kingdom, who owns a powerful ability like no other) meet the antagonist who owns some kind of body-swapping ability, and swaps his body with the ruler's, and thus, the antagonist become the ruler of the protagonist's kingdom , and the protagonist himself has become the antagonist, becoming an outcast in the eyes of people who used to love him, but he still have hope of reclaiming his throne, and the next stage of the story will be up to u. Using this idea, the protagonist will be the enemy of the world, since they see him as the antagonist now.

I know it sounds fantasical, and may not sound so medieval and realistic (If it's the genre you're looking for.) but hell, I just want to give you a little portion of my bizzarely weird mind, so sorry if it doesn't suit u XD and your story was actually quite well-planned already, after all.

 

[Noctis]

@kuzuryuu_shiko That's a good plot, I like the twist of being the enemy of the whole world. But I already have the story, which is actually inspired by Final Fantasy XV I just don't know yet how the protagonist should get to the final point of facing the emperor himself. There are many ideas here, and I'm trying to elaborate each.

 

[kuzuryuu_shiko]

Unfortunately, I never played XV before to understand the plot well XD but assuming your plan of the story is the one above my previous post, then the good way to go is, as you said, getting enough power and gaining allies to aid him in the final point of fighting the empire XD or for some addition, assuming if there are multiple nations which was controlled by the empire, made the protagonist snaps some senses in the people of other nation and make them engage a war against the empire itself in the final point? He IS the former ruler of the empire after all. Though, a war coud be highly complicated for the eventations and would require a lot of determination, I guess (especially if you are making a modern era setting like XV). Alas, 'tis was just the suggestion of one simple person XD maybe others would be able to give more creative ideas.

 

[Noctis]

Unfortunately, I never played XV before to understand the plot well XD but assuming your plan of the story is the one above my previous post, then the good way to go is, as you said, getting enough power and gaining allies to aid him in the final point of fighting the empire XD or for some addition, assuming if there are multiple nations which was controlled by the empire, made the protagonist snaps some senses in the people of other nation and make them engage a war against the empire itself in the final point? He IS the former ruler of the empire after all. Though, a war coud be highly complicated for the eventations and would require a lot of determination, I guess (especially if you are making a modern era setting like XV). Alas, 'tis was just the suggestion of one simple person XD maybe others would be able to give more creative ideas.

I haven't played it too, but it is about the invasion of the empire, so from that I started to make my own version XD. That's a good suggestion, I'll take note of that.

 

[Ariahannah]

@Ariahannah Here is the brief summary of the story I have so far

The kingdom of the protagonist is invaded by the empire. But he managed to escape the city with the help of 3 people - a member of the kingsguard, a member of the council, and his friend - under the order of the king. What the antagonist wants is to get control of the Goddess' remnant (some sort of magical relics in my game) that is located in the capital city of the kingdom. After the invasion, the antagonist announced that the king and his son is dead, even though he knows that the prince escaped. Now the antagonist, thinking that the king's son might be an obstacle for his plan, ordered a manhunt for the prince, all of the empire want him and his companions dead.

What I already have in mind is that in the end, they must face the emperor himself and make him surrnder by force, or kill him if needed to reclaim the throne. I'm not quite sure how the party will get to that point.

I don't want choices to affect the story. An assassination seems good, but since the antagonist is surrounded by his generals and large imperial force, what I'm thinking is to have them enter the empire's capital and face most of the imperial force, and then the emperor at the end. The emperor possessed a power beyond a normal human because of the remnants. So you think having the protagonist gain a certain power before facing the empire is good way to go? While gathering a resistance to back them up in the final war?

There's lots of places you can go with this depending on what you feel is best, gaining a power of some kind to challenge the emperor's power would work well with gathering some loyal followers to not only help win the war but to act as support for the new emperor once they win.

 

[Dad3353]

There are some things in life that are just not worth squabbling over; 'power' is one of them. Your Hero is now released from this burden, and can profitably turn his talents to something useful, such as market gardening. Worth pursuing as a concept..? ;-)

 

[Jiriki9]

Something I do not understand completely is: is the protagonist the former ruler of the empire (as seems to be the tone in the latter posts)? OR is the empire a seperate nation which invaded and took over the protagonists homeland (that's what I thought first)?

 

[Noctis]

Something I do not understand completely is: is the protagonist the former ruler of the empire (as seems to be the tone in the latter posts)? OR is the empire a seperate nation which invaded and took over the protagonists homeland (that's what I thought first)?

The protagonist is the son of the king and heir to the throne. Yes the empire is a different nation who invaded their homeland.

 

[Jiriki9]

Ah, thanks for the clarifying. Then you may consider other persons with high status in the empire as potential allies, I think. Not all may agree with the greedy, aggressive path their emperor has chosen. One might help your group at (a) certain point(s). That could, btw, be without the heroes noting it: A door open that should not be, exactly at the right time. Guards that are not where you expected them. A note of information by a stranger. Ultimately, this help could be the key to getting close to the emperor. Just an idea that popped into my mind, don't know if it fits for you.

 

[Noctis]

Ah, thanks for the clarifying. Then you may consider other persons with high status in the empire as potential allies, I think. Not all may agree with the greedy, aggressive path their emperor has chosen. One might help your group at (a) certain point(s). That could, btw, be without the heroes noting it: A door open that should not be, exactly at the right time. Guards that are not where you expected them. A note of information by a stranger. Ultimately, this help could be the key to getting close to the emperor. Just an idea that popped into my mind, don't know if it fits for you.

I'll probably consider this a traitor inside the empire sounds great, I'll put some twist to it. Maybe a neutral one instead of being a real ally. Thanks!