Working as Homeless (Rags to Riches adventure)

[imp_fireball]

Here's an idea for a campaign -

Set in some place like China, you are all young 1st level human commoners.

When you were young, you worked 10 hours a day, 7 days a week in a sweat shop, making pennies an hour. Now you work 12 hours, 7 days a week with heavy machinery in a factory. You make 25 cents an hour. You liked the sweat shop because you could sit down there.

Player resourcefulness is the main factor here. You have to make enough to pay taxes to the chinese government (or avoid paying), pay for food and find a place to sleep at night without getting killed.

If your good, you can bank well. You can splurge on weapons and become pirates, or you can intimidate your manager into giving you a raise.

Is this good or is it a sensitive issue?

[Lysander]

I don't think it's inherently insensitive (although anything referring to a specific country or ethnicity could become offensive if handled wrong of course). The one big risk is that it might be boring, if it's very realistic and your players spend most of their time working in a factory. If it's more of a pen and paper version of Grand Theft Auto though, completing action-packed missions to get quick boosts in wealth and status, that would be more fun even if it's unrealistic.

[imp_fireball]

I don't think it's inherently insensitive (although anything referring to a specific country or ethnicity could become offensive if handled wrong of course). The one big risk is that it might be boring, if it's very realistic and your players spend most of their time working in a factory. If it's more of a pen and paper version of Grand Theft Auto though, completing action-packed missions to get quick boosts in wealth and status, that would be more fun even if it's unrealistic.

It's very realistic and roleplaying intensive.

The problem with GTA in china is that there are literally PRoC soldiers EVERYWHERE.

A player would get shot if he even looked at a soldier wrong.

That's the point though - the game doesn't put any focus on combat until much later (or if the players make big enemies of any coworkers) and it's pretty opened ended and sandbox (although I probably won't develop everything from the get go - I might reference actual Chinese locations such as streets and public places from google maps but actual characters and businesses, etc., are all fictional).

If google maps has an unlabeled, drab building for example (which I imagine there are millions of those in China) then that could become a place for a fictional business or residence or whatever.

Everyone starts in the same factory though.

It's also realistic, so dialogue would involve plenty of appropriate reactions, aggressiveness, gore and the players must be very socially aware around NPCs. :smallamused:

And again, the characters aren't the players - they're embittered workers that want something more out of life then working until they die. They may be willing to risk there lives more than the average peasant, even if they're 1st level commoners. They could form an underground workers rebellion for example, or one of them could use his charisma to freeload some weapons, etc.
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The reason I put it in China is because it's a lot grittier that way - if players were in the states for example, they could just sit on their arse all day unless I set it in the 30s where the family is being threatened by the mafia and they're intimidated into working in various gangs (which is actually another setting I had planned, but that's not the topic of this thread).
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The factory deal is just a roleplaying setting - players would typically work 12 hours a day and have about 4 hours of free time wherein they must find a place to sleep, talk with the manager, etc.

They wouldn't roleplay the entire 12 hours - it would just be covered by one concentration check (not profession; profession involves managing your own business and plying a relatively free market) each day and I could say whether or not the work day wore them out (a low concentration check could give non-lethal damage or result in an accident and lethal damage or being punished or any number of things) or if any incident occured, etc.

It's sort of like traveling and random encounters in D&D.

Also, since they're chinese peasants, most of them begin with not being able to read etc.

I have a whole unique bunch of details for running D&D in a modern setting that I'm working on (yes, better than d20 modern; modern is too non-specific), so it should all be good.

The actual campaign won't go up for awhile.

[Xefas]

Is this good or is it a sensitive issue?

The great thing about fantasy is that people, for whatever reason, don't get upset if you use even the most thinly veiled metaphor. So instead of China, just be like "That Elven Nation", and instead of factory, you say "Magitech Workshop", or something like that. It'd only be necessary if your players are *really* sensitive, though.

Other thoughts:

Fun idea. I'd play in that campaign, definitely. D&D/d20 is probably one of the worst possible systems to use for this that has ever been created, or likely that will ever be created on this planet, or any other that hosts sapient life*.

*Even that indie RPG the Mars Rover caught the indigenous martian bacteria playing where the only conflict resolution mechanic was goring each other in the reproductive organs with your barbed flagellum.

[Forever Curious]

Fun idea. I'd play in that campaign, definitely. D&D/d20 is probably one of the worst possible systems to use for this that has ever been created, or likely that will ever be created on this planet, or any other that hosts sapient life*.

*Even that indie RPG the Mars Rover caught the indigenous martian bacteria playing where the only conflict resolution mechanic was goring each other in the reproductive organs with your barbed flagellum.

*cough* F.A.T.A.L.*cough*

[Milskidasith]

D&D isn't the right system for this, since even level 1 D&D characters with relatively low PB and a weak class are still above the typical human (sort of; D&D totally lacks any way of modelling a real person).

I'm not sure why this campaign would be fun though.

[Xefas]

Burning Wheel would work scarily well for this if you wanted to do it more fantasy or medievalish.

Characters just start with either City-Born or Slave-Born, maybe take a lead to the Outcast Setting, pick up Urchin or Beggar if they wanted to, but eventually take a lead to the Servitude Setting and stack a few Servant lifepaths.

That would start them out with skills like Streetwise and Inconspicuous, and the traits Mind Numbing Work and Obsequious. After they decided to throw off the shackles of oppression and start doing other things, Burning Wheel has a great set of mechanics for advancement, especially if you're running a game where the focus is not on combat.

EDIT: Not to mention it has a robust system for social conflict resolution, for when you want to have 'combat' but not the stabbing kind.

[imp_fireball]

Do you have a link to burning wheel.

Keep hearing about it, so I wanna see if it's really worth its weight.

[Xefas]

Do you have a link to burning wheel.

Keep hearing about it, so I wanna see if it's really worth its weight.

Link to where you can buy it (http://www.burningempires.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=32&osCsid=d9350d5f0fc30aaa3d22e1e7e0062262)
Link to the official website (http://www.burningwheel.org/)
Link to the wiki (http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)
Link to the forum (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/) (The creator, Luke Crane, is very active on the forum - his forum name is 'Luke')
Here is a link to a podcast about Burning Wheel (http://frontrowcrew.com/geeknights/20071002/the-burning-wheel/)
Here is a link to a podcast interview with the creator of Burning Wheel (http://frontrowcrew.com/geeknights/20061031/interview-with-luke-crane/)

EDIT: While I'm certainly not an expert, I can also attempt to field questions about the system, though I think it'd be more appropriate to do that via Private Message.

[imp_fireball]

It may be a while before I'm able to collect the pdf since my parents have banned me from the computer.

They think I'm getting too smart off it I suppose.


D&D isn't the right system for this, since even level 1 D&D characters with relatively low PB and a weak class are still above the typical human (sort of; D&D totally lacks any way of modelling a real person).


Hm... we could test that.

The system I'm proposing could be a lot more thorough than modern.

[Jallorn]

GURPS could work. I would advise creating a fictional country though, so as to avoid any potential complications.

[SurlySeraph]

The main issue is to make sure there's enough variety and unexpected events to keep things interesting, since day after day of "Roll your Factory Work check. Now roll your Robbery Avoidance check." isn't much fun.

I agree that setting it in a fictional country (though probably a thinly veiled analogue of a real one) is probably best. Myanmar would be a great choice, though. You might also consider setting it a few decades back; while escaping poverty through email scams and sneaking cell phones into prisons are interesting options, a more hardscrabble industrial theme seems to be what you're going for.

You might also want to just list possible ways to make money and what to roll for them or sample encounters, so your players don't surprise you too much. Begging, robbing tourists, lending scams if they've taken economics classes, smuggling, impersonating other workers and taking their paychecks, etc.

[imp_fireball]

while escaping poverty through email scams and sneaking cell phones into prisons are interesting options, a more hardscrabble industrial theme seems to be what you're going for.


The point is that since this is gritty realism, setting it in 21st century would make it easier to escape poverty.

So players start off owning nothing... maybe their deceased relatives tied away a 'big bond' of 100 US dollars for each of them though so they won't die right away due to bad rolls. Maybe it was an act of kindness to those relatives on the part of one of the long time managers working there (but information doesn't get around so well, so the players may or may not know this).
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What I could do is work out each post like a bi-week since that's when the company hands out pay checks. That's the first thing that happens - after that, everyone roleplays and works through mechanics prior to the end of the bi-week.

If there's a complication in a player's character receiving a pay check, I'd let them know.

I'd announce whenever the next bi-week begins (and everyone can receive their pay check).

In the first bi-week, each player character would probably have to find a way to safely put away their first 100 dollars.
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I suppose I could set the game in a fictional equivalent of China, 21st century (so it's like the Simpsons reference of a fictional town of springfield in an unknown state in a real world country) for safety reasons (in case players are chinese and/or sensitive). Massive population of over a billion (non-specific to not make it seem so much like 'China word for word' even though it almost is) in relatively small region, industrialist/socialist progressive oligarchical government. Chinese streets and location names. But the country and city(s) could get a different name. And the currency could be referred to as dollars, to eliminate foreign exchange confusion - which is probably the only soft aspect (the fact that foreign powers all use the same currency as the country you reside in).

Also the game would obviously be for mature players only. Immature players would probably be scared away by the realism and gritty dialogue - if they make an immature approach to the game, they would be punished simply through reality biting down hard on their back sides.


You might also want to just list possible ways to make money and what to roll for them or sample encounters, so your players don't surprise you too much. Begging, robbing tourists, lending scams if they've taken economics classes, smuggling, impersonating other workers and taking their paychecks, etc.

I suppose I could assist players in the beginning, but I still want to make it very open ended and in-depth (roleplaying is encouraged, I'd say). The above you gave are probably something I could describe as 'these are examples of what you can do in this game, each with their own risks/rewards'.


so your players don't surprise you too much

The players are illiterate 1st level commoners in a very immense, highly cluttered region where literally anything could happen, so I guess (I'm hoping) I'll surprise them before they surprise me.

Anything potentially game breaking is also life risking. Say a player mugs a millionaire on the street who just happened to be hoarding his/her money. The player would get the money, but then they'd have to find a way to stow it away safely, and the millionaire could consult with friends and have a dozen mercenaries on the player's back.

Also, if they die, they have to start from scratch as an impoverished factory worker again (creating a new character sheet should be very easy since it's almost a carbon copy; the only thing adjusted is backstory and physical features from the standard 3.5e sheet) - so players will learn that dieing isn't at all fun.

At the beginning, players are pretty much identical aside from gender and slight adjustments to physical appearance (one is taller by an inch, one has naturally messier hair, etc.), however as they gain XP, they can spend it on skill points and 'perks' (which is a system I'm already working on). They can only gain HD when I allow them to, and gaining HD costs the amount of XP effectively required to level up to that ECL in the first place.

Maybe replacing their first commoner hit die might cost less XP though - but again only comes into play when I allow (usually at a logical point in time).

From my perks list, I'd copy and paste a list of what perks they're allowed to take.

[Kiren]

I'd play, sounds fun if you can get the system to work.

Edit: You might as well make your own system at that.