Board 8 > Can you name some RPGs that are explicitly anti-monarchy?

(+) Yeah! (+)

the atelier rorona series is (very) broadly about a monarchy trying to give up its powers to shift into a republic; meruru in particular is a spoiled princess that grows into actually contributing to her citizens' lives before she inevitably loses her privilege

the individual members of the monarchy are presented as good people, but they all realize their form of government isn't sustainable and want to transition out of it as soon as it's reasonable

I think if we're being this stringent with our requirements we're not going to find many examples from popular culture media. I can't remember the last time a story ended with a big governmental paradign shift.

Game of thrones technically

Another thought- RPGs tend to be in fantasy worlds where magic and gods are provably real, so outdated concepts like the divine right of kings and 'the king is the land' - that is, that a good ruler has the blessing of a higher power and their kingdom will prosper through divine providence as long as they're on the throne- can actually be true. Democracy doesn't have that kind of mythology attached to it, which puts it at a disadvantage in a mythological setting.

Wasn't the point that Bran would be the last king? So the monarchy ends with him. But he'll live forever so I guess it's a moot point?

This is somehow the most unrealistic game plot I've ever read

Tangential but I've been reading the Baru Cormorant series and it's very much "what if Game of Thrones actually thought out its political stances (and was also about lesbians)" - the main character is an accountant for an evil empire who plans to rise though the ranks to reform or destroy the empire from within. But instead of gesturing at it, it really gets down in the dirt about how the empire works and what that would actually look like. I'm only halfway through book 2 but honestly the first one was so strong I feel confident recommending that one alone. So if those kinds of fantasy stories are your jam, check it out!

Tangential but I've been reading the Baru Cormorant series and it's very much "what if Game of Thrones actually thought out its political stances (and was also about lesbians)" - the main character is an accountant for an evil empire who plans to rise though the ranks to reform or destroy the empire from within. But instead of gesturing at it, it really gets down in the dirt about how the empire works and what that would actually look like. I'm only halfway through book 2 but honestly the first one was so strong I feel confident recommending that one alone. So if those kinds of fantasy stories are your jam, check it out!

Skies of Arcadia doesn't go 100% on it (since it has the good guy prince who wants to make things better), but for most part it focuses on the colonialist/imperialist aspect of monarchy, and how it destroyes other populations in the name of "progress".

I have been strongly told not to read past the first one. Honestly even if the sequels were good I feel they'd just water down the story the first told anyway

Destroyed its own population, too. Lower Valua is one of the bleakest cities I've visited in any RPG.

Yeah, earlier it was pointed out that it still ends with good guy prince Enrique becoming emporer, but even then, the Valua he gets is just the survivors of the decimated empire.