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View Full Version : Grifters In Sharn [3.5]



ShadowFighter15
2010-07-26, 08:53 PM
I've had an idea for an Eberron campaign (one I probably won't get around to running for god-knows how long) after watching Hustle, a BBC show about a group of con-artists.

The idea was that I would be the DM and the group's Roper (the one who identifies the mark and lures them in) would be a DMPC. This would give me an easy way to point the player-characters - who control the rest of the crew - to the mark I've designed. The con itself, however, is entirely up to them. Research by the Roper or other members of the crew can identify an in - something the mark's passionate about and that would be a good way to get at his money - and from there I would simply react to what the other players do. Basically, all I have to do is design the mark and leave the planning to the players.

Now I'd have to make a few changes to Eberron for this to work (or at least to make it fun and give the players plenty of options with how to run the con). First of all; the most iconic image of grifter shows and movies: the briefcase full of money. Needless to say, with all of Eberron's currency either being metal coins or Kundarak bank notes (which I see as pretty much being checks) the cash transfer won't be easy to do. So the first thing would simply be to replace the metal currency with paper, with the minting being handled by the various governments (since having House Kundarak handle it might end up giving them too much economic power).

Secondly, the grifters might need a long-ranged, two-way communication device. The only equivalent device I can find in any DnD book is the Sending Stone, which only works once a day and is limited to only a 25 word message and a reply of the same length. However, considering how long the Last War was going on, I imagine that House Cannith might've looked into long-ranged communication devices superior to Sending Stones and someone on the team saw the potential of the devices on the commercial market and was able to organise his own research division to develop a consumer version. It's basically how the mobile phone was invented in real-life (emphasis on basically, but I know the idea came from the radios used in the World Wars), so it wouldn't be too implausible. Mind you; they'd just be phones, no built-in camera, no text messaging, no internet. Two-way audio-only communication and that's it.

There should be plenty of cons that could be run in Eberron; the mark might be convinced to buy a 'winning' aerial race animal (I doubt the Race of Eight Winds is the only one of its kind in Sharn), another might be talked into buying a piece of land (or maybe airspace) for development, only to find out the place is worthless or that he can't build on it due to council regulations (or he knows he can't build there but thinks he's paid off a council official about it, not realising that the 'official' was actually another member of the crew).

Now, gameplay-wise I'd have to make some changes as well. For a start; combat would not be involved in this at all - the PCs are grifters, not adventurers - but as long as I mention that at the start it shouldn't be a problem. The main thing I'd have to change is Bluff. Any grifter worth their salt should be able to come up to a random person on the street and in two sentences, convince them that they're from the Arcanix and looking for promising new students.

Now there are two ways I thought of doing this: firstly, you allow them to Take 10 or Take 15 on Bluff checks and the other way was to just do away with the skill entirely and assume any lie they tell is successful if it sounds plausible. Meaning that if the lie is something the mark would believe, they believe it.

Any thoughts on this, or maybe necessary changes I've missed?

IdleMuse
2010-07-26, 09:08 PM
Further on Bluff; given you're going to want the whole team to be expert bluffers at any rate, it might be worth giving them all an 'extra' skill point per level as long as they spend it on bluff. In other words, they always have max ranks in it.