So the big problem with the Rulers universe is that it's a potent setting, but hard to come up with a crystal-clear scenario that creates focused play and touches on all the cool aspects of the setting. I call this the Shadowrun problem. So much of Shadowrun's awesome comes from the melange of fantasy and cyberpunk, yet the focus of play is on a teeny, tiny aspect of the universe: dungeon-crawling.
Folks on Story-Games came up with a lot of interesting scenarios. I eventually settled on a Prince Zuko scenario: Royal exiles in the DMZ. The king's sons and daughters are suddenly exiled, cut off from the line of succession, and cast out into the unruled zone between kingdoms.
That's fine, but it still doesn't give characters a real purpose. I like it when there's one thing everyone knows they're supposed to be doing, even if the story deviates from that over time. There's still a central lane players know they're supposed to walk. (For example: Pilgrims help people and get into trouble.)
So, I'm considering an extra wrinkle in the basic exile scenario: It's televised. The whole exile scenario is like a Rumpsringa. Royal exiles proving their worth individually while being forced to stick together by external pressures.
Mechanically, you could pull stuff from the "First Contact" scenario of Split Decision, where optimal actions could negatively impact public approval and vice versa. Minor betryals might get a pass once or twice, but a fickle audience will only put up with so much.
I suppose I should just get down to writing this thing into a playable beta at some point, eh?
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