The Palace of the Prince Governor of Brinston aka All About Courtiers and Wealth by John Josten is a role playing game supplement published by Board Enterprises. This is the generic supplement that is part of the Small Bites series and is also the “World Walker” edition; the full version is three times the length but only available to Patreon supporters.
This is a 22 page PDF that is available for free from RPGNow. One page is the front cover and around half a page has links to the publisher’s sites and an ad for the Patreon campaign.
First there is an Introduction to the supplement, which explains that, as adventurers become more successful and deal with more important and wealthier quest givers, the latter are less likely to post ads at the tavern nor have what are essentially a bunch of violent thugs for hire traipsing around their homes. This is followed by the Table of Contents.
Fletnern Wiki reproduces a number of articles from the wiki. These are articles on geographic features, sites, military units, families, regions and NPCs.
The Sounding Board is a collection of articles reproduced from the blog.
Kings & Nobles – How does all that work? considers what the job of such is and the problems of the concept of divine right in a fantasy setting. Not only is there not a single deity who can grant such (and different deities would approve of different people), in most settings, even such deities as exist rarely have a single, totally unified faith with a distinct individual at the top.
Who runs things? considers how a distant authority can be effectively replaced on a local level by someone who is actually present and known.
Bringing Life to Your Game World starts by referencing, Game of Thrones indirectly, and how the story is made by how the different people in the show interact. So, make up three of these people, figure out how they interact and affect innocent bystanders, and this will flesh out a game world.
Bringing Life to Your Game World – Part II again indirectly and without giving the names, references George R.R. Martin and Game of Thrones (the author does not appear to have a high opinion of either). He mentions how many of the people in that setting are scavenged from history; if a historical character is used, you know how they will behave because you already have details of what they did.
Crappy Governments starts with the problems with role playing and creating stupid people. It continues with an aside about the problem with present politicians and how they get elected. It then continues with how these are useful for creating enemies in a fantasy world.
Soap operas, the Sequel starts with a consideration as to just how badly messed up the lives of people connected to Peter Parker – aka Spider-Man – are, and how many turned into villains as a result. The real reason for this is that this happens because, unlike in police procedurals, characters are reused. Which makes it easier for players to remember the NPCs.
Patrons of Adventure considers who characters actually get their adventures from, probably starting with what is effectively the “man down the pub” before going on to more connected people and groups.
Political Parties gives some Fletnern examples of such, and how they interact.
Lifestyles of the Magical and Mundane details the city of Brinston, the palace, how the hostage system works and the main political parties of the city.
News of Fletnern has a consideration of what Brinston is, a local moonshiner family and a history of the city.
What’s Missing explains what is available in the full version and takes up two pages.
Finally, In Conclusion explains how this supplement was moved up, and gives some gaming background to Brinston.
The PDF is bookmarked but only the major sections are linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of detail. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two column format and appeared free of errors. There are a number of black and white illustrations, all of which appear to be stock. Presentation is okay.
As always, this is a collection of, sometimes loosely, related articles rather than a coherent whole. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of actual material on courtiers and wealth; this could be because this is the abbreviated edition and they could be in the complete one. There are a couple of passing references to Universities of Magic aka All About Mages, which was also primarily about Brinston, and The Chivalrous Knights of Myork aka All About Knights and Nobility.
The Palace of the Prince Governor of Brinston aka All About Courtiers and Wealth is an interesting collection of articles and material, and it can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
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