ok kind of a dumb question but help me avoid a headache and indulge some nerds. i'm preparing a game and you got this fairly standard medieval fantasy world and the game starts with characters joining a group that plans to overthrow the dominant kingdom because (shocker) it's kinda bad. they don't really have a plan they just want to kill the king and presumably rule in his stead. the vagueness is intentional and is part of it, the players are meant to take charge give the movement direction. anyway when i ran this game for my lib friends i just referred to the group as anarchists and nobody questioned it. but now i'm going to run this game for a bunch of commies and i just know they're gonna be on my ass for it being annoying little nerds since it's technically not anarchism™. so what would you call a group trying to overthrow a feudal state?
A lot of medieval radical groups were called by the name of one of their leaders, or by the town where they started. C.f. Waldensians, Poor Men of Lyon, Dulcinians, and were often religious in nature. If they're defending the traditional rights of the medieval commune against overreaching nobles, then they could be Communards or Communalists.
A lot of medieval radical groups were called by the name of one of their leaders, or by the town where they started
oh thats interesting, never knew that
What's the class makeup of the group? Is it just peasants or also burghers/bougeois elements/artisans/disgruntled nobility/clergy?
Edit: if it's all peasants, call them the Villeins.
kind of all over the place. i basically use this group, amongst other things, as an introduction into the world, so starting village they'll meet some peasants, then some miners, then artisans and such in a larger city, eventually some higher station people hiding their power level from the state
well it sounds like you are going for a peasant revolt type of revolution if "the vagueness is intentional". The goals of historical peasant revolts we're often pretty vague and varied depending on the local conditions. They were often influenced by culture and especially new religions (German peasants war was influenced by the reformation for example)
I would use those opportunity to create some dope religious cult for your players to be a part of and maybe play a role in forming. You can go around the kingdom preaching a religion of liberation, and name the group after your god. "The Path of Ludd" or something like that
oh interesting. there's some major religious elements to the plot, but i honestly never thought of mixing some religion into the revolution itself