The Politics Skeleton Template
The throne is just furniture. Build the conflict engine that drives any system.
From Merchant Republics to Tribal Confederations.
Stop Building Thrones. Start Building Engines.
Most worldbuilding stops at the surface. Noble Houses. Voting Blocs. Sacred Chiefs.
But a political system isn't a list of titles. It's a response to one brutal question:
"Who controls what, and why does everyone else accept it?"
Whether you're running a high-fantasy empire or a gritty merchant republic, the skeleton is always the same. You don't need a thousand templates—you need one tool that strips away the marble floors and finds the losers forced to accept the winner's answer.
What's Inside the Kit
The Framework
- ✓ Power Center Identification Map
- ✓ The "Currency of Power" Audit
- ✓ WOAC Cycle stress-test worksheet
- ✓ Hidden Currency (Violence) tracker
- ✓ 3 Speedrun Examples (Republic, Tribe, Regency)
Design Outcomes
- ✓ Build systems that feel alive, not static
- ✓ Generate internal conflicts that drive plots
- ✓ Find the "cracks" where the system shakes
- ✓ Create factions with logical, desperate motives
The Core Variables
The Power Centers
Identify the groups or individuals with enough leverage to move the world.
→ Look past the titles (The Shadow Cabinet)
→ Locate the institutions (The Iron Guild)
→ Map the friction between them
If they stopped existing, would the system collapse?
The Currencies
Determine what people are actually fighting over in this specific system.
→ Visible: Votes, Land, Bloodlines, Consensus
→ Hidden: The credible threat of violence
→ Determine what the system is trying to protect
Break the currency, and you break the system.
Run the WOAC Cycle
Once you have your skeleton, plug it into the human behavior software. This is how you generate story:
WANT
What does the Power Center need to gain or keep?
OBSTACLE
What (or who) is blocking that want? Is it the law itself?
ACTION
What lever do they pull? (Bribery, Scandal, Force?)
CONSEQUENCE
How does this action create a brand new, worse problem?
This cycle doesn't care if your characters wear crowns or togas. It finds the inevitable conflict in any room.
The system changes. Human behavior never does.
Get The Politics Worksheet
Map your power centers and build your conflict engine today.
No spam. Just skeletons and power centers.