{"id":191,"date":"2018-05-01T21:06:17","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T02:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/?p=191"},"modified":"2018-05-01T21:07:46","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T02:07:46","slug":"domain-level-play-part-1-what-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/2018\/05\/01\/domain-level-play-part-1-what-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Domain Level Play Part 1 – What is it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Domain level play is when, in a fantasy world, a player\u2019s character establishes a domain of their own.\u00a0 <\/span>This could be a castle, fortress, wizard\u2019s tower or fortified cathedral and its surrounding land.\u00a0 <\/span>This gives the character a home base and makes them the lord of a place and its people.\u00a0 <\/span>This is considered a new \u201clevel\u201d of play because the character is no longer just concerned with their own affairs but the affairs of the area in which they\u2019ve settled down.\u00a0 <\/span>These new arrangements give the character new responsibilities along with status, wealth and power in the game world.\u00a0 <\/span>They tax the people living in their domain and build an army to exert their will.<\/p>\n

The theme behind this is maturity.\u00a0 <\/span>In our own world we\u2019ve all heard the stories told by older men of how they started in the company\u2019s mail room, worked hard and eventually became the company president.\u00a0 <\/span>In western legends the brave adventurers leave home to face danger and eventually return home to lead a kingdom and start the next generation of heroes.\u00a0 <\/span>Fantasy roleplaying mirrors this progression.\u00a0 <\/span>The adventurers who aren\u2019t good at their job die.\u00a0 <\/span>The ones who survive dungeon traps, monsters and evil sorcerers increase in power and gain reputations.\u00a0 <\/span>In time, they realize the limits of doing everything themselves and recruit an army to carry out their will.\u00a0 <\/span>Establishing a domain is intended for higher level characters for two reasons.\u00a0 <\/span>First, the character has amassed wealth from many adventures and can afford to hire builders, engineers, etc.\u00a0 <\/span>Second, the character has created a reputation over time for mighty deeds.\u00a0 <\/span>It is this reputation that brings commoners to live under their protection and men of arms to serve under their banner.<\/p>\n

Domain level play has always been a part of fantasy roleplaying.\u00a0 <\/span>The first fantasy RPG, Original Dungeons & Dragons, had a title for the different character levels.\u00a0 <\/span>Around level nine these titles topped out at what was known as \u201cname level\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>By this time it was assumed the characters saved up the treasure taken from dungeons and used it to finance the construction of a stronghold.\u00a0 <\/span>Although new construction was assumed a character could also conquer a villain\u2019s stronghold or find an abandoned one.\u00a0 <\/span>The cost of building a stronghold would be spent on renovation.<\/p>\n

Even before characters establish their own domain they are hiring servants and soldiers.\u00a0 <\/span>After exploring a dungeon or two the player characters had enough money to hire people to carry their luggage, fight with them in the dungeon, etc.\u00a0 <\/span>Building up a group of hirelings naturally transitioned to leading a kingdom and directing a larger staff.<\/p>\n

Dungeons & Dragons was built on the Appendix N literature so can an example of domain level play be found there?\u00a0 <\/span>Robert E. Howard\u2019s Conan is a good example.\u00a0 <\/span>Conan started out as a penniless adventurer in stories like The God in the Bowl<\/em> and The Tower of the Elephant<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/span>Later, Conan was the king of Aquilonia in The Phoenix on the Sword<\/em> and The Scarlet Citadel<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When D&D was first created it was an offshoot of the tabletop strategy games that Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson liked to play.\u00a0 <\/span>In hindsight it seems natural that higher level characters would graduate to leading armies.\u00a0 <\/span>The domain level of play in D&D was meant to flow into medieval strategy games.<\/p>\n

Because Gygax and Arneson already had strategy games there was no need to write one for D&D characters to join.\u00a0 <\/span>The result was poor support for domain level play.\u00a0 <\/span>It was assumed that game masters would either use their favorite strategy games or write their own rules to handle the details of running one\u2019s own domain.\u00a0 <\/span>Prices were listed for building parts of a stronghold accompanied by rudimentary rules for clearing land for that stronghold.\u00a0 <\/span>What the founders of D&D didn\u2019t realize was roleplaying games would become popular with many people who didn\u2019t play strategy games.<\/p>\n

Over the years most D&D players didn\u2019t engage in domain level play.\u00a0 <\/span>Some liked the idea but weren\u2019t sure how to do it.\u00a0 <\/span>Many weren\u2019t interested.\u00a0 <\/span>Controlling just one character and visiting progressively more difficult dungeons was what they wanted.\u00a0 <\/span>When D&D passed to new hands who wrote later editions domain level play faded away.\u00a0 <\/span>My Fifth Edition books don\u2019t seem to mention it.<\/p>\n

Domain level play simply isn\u2019t for everyone.\u00a0 <\/span>The focus of the game changes and there are more moving parts to consider.\u00a0 <\/span>It isn\u2019t surprising – there are a lot more novels and movies about one or a few heroes alone in a hostile world than there are about leaders of kingdoms deciding how to govern their affairs.\u00a0 <\/span>Many gamers like the romantic idea of an endlessly wandering hero taking on new quests.<\/p>\n

Those who do try domain level play tend to lean in one of two directions.\u00a0 <\/span>Some gamers like to shift from roleplaying to directing armies on a strategy game map.\u00a0 <\/span>Others like the roleplaying possibilities and never place their army on a strategic map.<\/p>\n

Domain level play can keep a higher level campaign fresh.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead of facing tougher and tougher monsters the players can deal with situations that involve many people and resources.\u00a0 <\/span>Combat skill becomes replaced by leadership and diplomacy.\u00a0 <\/span>Innovative tactical thinking in the dungeon replaced by innovative strategic thinking in the larger world.\u00a0 <\/span>Fifth Edition D&D\u2019s tiers of play (local heroes \/ heroes of the realm \/ masters of the realm \/ masters of the world) are better realized through this kind of play.\u00a0 <\/span>Many game masters look for ways to make players want to engage with their fantasy world.\u00a0 <\/span>Domain level play is an excellent way to do this.<\/p>\n

One common misconception is that once domain level play begins the character retires from adventuring.\u00a0 <\/span>Domain level play does not mean the character has hit old age and will never leave home.\u00a0 <\/span>Characters with their own domain can leave it in the hands of a trusty servant and continue traveling for adventure.\u00a0 <\/span>With a piece of the world map bearing their name, characters become more invested in what\u2019s going on.\u00a0 <\/span>They can effect change in ways they never could before.\u00a0 <\/span>Domain level play opens up many possibilities.\u00a0 <\/span>In part 2<\/a> of this series I\u2019ll put domain level play in its proper context and discuss some objections that have been brought up.\u00a0 <\/span>Part 3<\/a> looks at how you can implement domain level play in your own games.\u00a0 <\/span>Part 4<\/a> offers some ideas that just might spark some of your own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Domain level play is when, in a fantasy world, a player\u2019s character establishes a domain of their own.\u00a0 This could be a castle, fortress, wizard\u2019s tower or fortified cathedral and its surrounding land.\u00a0 This gives the character a home base and makes them the lord of a place and its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,7],"tags":[32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}