[3.5] Shield and Sidearm (campaign advice?)

[7RED7]

I'm trying to come up with some ideas for a campaign focused around the party either working as part of a city guard, police force, royal investigators, bounty hunters, etc. where the game world will be fairly centralized and and the missions will be focused more on protecting or keeping order in a single city, or several neighboring cities.

I see most of the plot lines focused on internal problems like trying to tackle the city's toughest criminal cases, rooting out spies and assassins, diffusing riots and political rest, etc.
It's just another day on the thin mithril line in Camelotropolis (not the real name, heh).

I'm interested to see what has and hasn't worked for people who have tried similar games. What are some big things to avoid in that kind of setting, that aren't really considered in the normal world-roving adventures.

A couple things I'd like some advice on...

1. Lightweight: How can I best keep it quick to pick up and play. I'd like to include some interesting rules (reputation, property, business, city navigation, etc.) but keep the book keeping rather simple.

2. Appropriate setting: This would most likely end up being standard medieval/renaissance fantasy, but could be somewhat anachronistic. My group tends to like settings with a little bit of everything [for example- minotaurs riding in dune buggies, with mounted .50 cals, protecting druid forest enclaves from oblivion gates], so I could even stretch it to include some d20 modern material. It would be great if some comparative experience could be shared here.

Ideas:

1. A lot of the fun happens during free time and players roll at the start of every new session to see what events happened during their dayjob (with the results used to determine some aspects of how the story progreses). So one player might roll that he had a fairly routine guard patrol with no incidents of note, another might roll that he apprehended a pickpocket (giving him a small boost towards his department reputation and putting him a little closer to a promotion), while another might roll that he was caught drinking on the job, prompting closer scrutiny of the party from internal inquisitors.
This would add a little bit of random fun as well as provide a mechanic for players to progress through the ranks and unlock better salaries, better requisitions for equipment, prestige classes, etc.

2. Income wouldn't be in the form of loot as many opponents would be expected to be brought in alive for interrogation and trial. Their belongings, and the aftermath of potential battles would all be evidence, or a crime scene, and wouldn't be able to be kept (unless the player is willing to risk the wrath of internal affairs by skimming from evidence).
Instead the players rank (in addition to any personal investments) would provide him with a salary that wouldn't be as large as normal adventuring loot, but would come in a steady and reliable pace, with possible commissions or gifts for acts of great heroism.


Thoughts, suggestions, advice? :)

[Fouredged Sword]

Read into d20 modern. Many aspects can be sloted directly into DND 3.5. I would suggest the wealth system with the rank of the profesion skill DM controled by rank in the squad.

In fact it would be interesting to run a game that was dnd 3.5 / D20 modern Gestault. Pick one class from each and get lots of options. Play a strong wizard or a chrasmatic spellthief or a smart fighter. I would play it for E6 to keep the power creep down and grant "pay" every time increment equivelent to a one time wealth payment based on rank to help after they hit max level.

Throw in all the D20 skills, weapons and armor. Call it all steampunk.

[Yora]

I think Star Wars saga can be very easily converted into a modern game. Just drop the alien races and the Force and refluff laser weapons to conventional handguns, and you have a very good modern RPG. Since the game does not assume that a party has any Jedi, it works very well. And as opposed to d20 modern, Saga has a reputation of being very good.

[dsmiles]

Should I, or shouldn't I? :smallconfused:

Meh, doesn't matter, I will anyway...

RISUS! :smallbiggrin:
It can be used for anything, and is about as rules-light as they come. Also, FREE!

[Yora]

For a campaign where the entire plot of the adventure is rolled at the beginning of the session, RISUS seems like an excelent choice. This system is meant for exactly that type of game.

[Fouredged Sword]

I generaly agree that D20 modern is boreing on it's own, but it meashes so well with dnd 3.5 that many aspects of the modern world are easily ported into the 3.5 mechanics. If you want Dnd with modern stuff stuck in it, then it's a good starting point.

[Gorilla2038]

D20 modern has a lot of the elements your looking for(as previously stated).

However, the system isn't well liked by most gamers. In general, i find it came down to this: it is neither grit or shine. That is, characters aren't realistic, as it can take a half dozen bullets or more to kill you, and it doesnt have high tier play, so you cant shatter worlds or play DBZ.

That said, if you want to play die hard 4, fantasy edition, modern is great for that. Start at 5th level or so, and just go from there.

Element you might like:
Low gear(class bonus to AC)
Rep score
Wealth System, while wonky, is easy to level up.
Simple Rules(if you know dnd 3.5 at least)
Action Points give the system some flex.

Cheers, hope you have fun with the game.

[Hat-Trick]

I'm planning a Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai style game and currently have the city mapped, history figured out, and a general idea of how it's all going to work. If you haven't already, your plan for being only one city or at most a handful will make things a lot easier on planning, as the players are less likely to go where you aren't ready due to the game style.

As it stands, you probably should leabe out "got caught with booze during work" as it might be a bit intrusive on the player's character, but other negatives like being framed or some such passed the player's control would be brilliant.

[7RED7]

Thanks for the advice everybody. Sorry I didn't respond sooner.

We actually got the campaign started on Saturday, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. A minor miscommunication made our normal DM a little dissatisfied though. He was running armor optimization and never started claiming miss chances from his tower shield until the group started fighting incorporeal shadow/smoke beings. I thought he was telling me to give them the miss chance for being incorporeal.

TLDR; basic synopsis of the story we've started with, and the setting.

Long Story Short:
The story started out with them being in a tavern, having fun, and mucking about, while everyone finished rolling char sheets. I asked who finished their character first. "Z" said he did. So as Z starts drinking, and having a good time, he starts to pass out a lot faster than usual. He wakes up behind a large bail of hay with the rest of the party and the guard seargent, with arrows and crossbow bolts whizzing through the air around them. The sergeant promplty informs him that, even though they've been pinned down by hostile fire for the last two hours, this is not the best time to take a nap.
[Yes, it started in an imaginary tavern ;) ]
The sgt. caught them up to speed. They started out investigation a farmhouse outside of town that was supposed to be abandoned, but had shown evidence of odd activity over the past few weeks. As they approached the house they started taking fire from the windows and ducked behind the haystacks for cover. They say screw waiting for backup, and break suppression by sending the tank through the window.
Fight ensues. Back half of the house fills with thick black smoke. The Sgt. (who only had 3 weeks left until retirement) opens the front door and is immediately met by 5 large arrows flying into his chest from the smoke. Tank uses gust of wind to clear smoke, and the party mops up the last of the combatants. The jack-of-all-trades actually managed to take one alive (he made an interogation attempt that may have worked, that is if he hadn't taken a head that had been lost in the battle and interogated him by moving its mouth as he talked, psychologically scarring him for life). The tank searched the house and found evidence that led them to suspect that the smoke screen was a delay to give the occupants precious seconds to evacuate and take anything of real importance with them. However, on the table he found a large black coin that was very hard and much heavier than it looks, as well as a note underneath it that said "Catch Ya Later". He bagged it as evidence, and stored it for travel back to the station. The rest of the party searched the bodies to find that some of them had a tattoo (circle with a jagged line through it), but only knew that it had something to do with death cults. Examination of the dead sgt. revealed that the arrows (which didn't even look like they were aerodynamic enough to fly in the first place) were magical and had produced a necrotic effect, aging the sgt. as he died.
Trip back into the city. Long discussion with lieutenant (big goliath with even bigger hammer, and a penchant for donuts [tank actually put ranks in craft: confectionary]) about the details of the case, and potential leads based on what little information they got from the survivor. They visit the slums to try and follow his trail. As they arrive at a tavern to talk to an informant, the building comes under fire from the surrounding rooftops. They move up to the roofs and engage what appears to be 12 shadows firing arrows through the windows of the tavern, and at the people running out. As they do damage, some of the shadows disappear into black smoke, and others coalesce into single, sword-wielding entities (basically dark eldar incubi from 40K). Just as the bladed forms start to get the upper hand backup arrives and they finish them off. But in doing so, the assailants undergo another transformation and coalesce into one final, large shadow monster with a glowing symbol of the jagged circle on the front of it. When they finally defeat the boss it explodes into a large cloud of black smoke and then suddenly condenses down into a large black coin. Glowing red letters appear on the coin that say "Thanks for the Delivery". The party realizes that they unwittingly smuggled one of these entities into their headquarters, and are now on the other side of town, along with their lieutenant (the best defender in their station).
End of Session.

I haven't solidified all the history yet. But the setting is a very early renaissance city called Alnorak, using Florence for the visual basis, but ancient Rome for scale and influence.

It is a mid/high magic environment. Magic is a growing part of everyday life and modern convenience, but isn't necessarily available because it's tightly regulated and metered (think Big Oil), and arcane training has high entry requirements as well as a lot of legal obligations. The timeline is similar to earth history, but stretched out by a large factor, so they've spent several thousand years in what would be considered a "normal" medieval fantasy setting, and have been experiencing a cultural, scientific, and magical rebirth for the last hundred years or so. Great artists, wizards, and engineers/scientists all share a common level of demand and appreciation.
The most prominent figures of progress attain mastery of all 3 professions. As a result, neither magic or science have progressed as quickly as they could if they weren't so intertwined. Instead, researchers have spent more time filling in the blanks between them than pushing them to their limits.
Think pre-steampunk.

The cosmology is mostly dnd standard with the exception that the material plane is much more active, and grows and changes form depending on the balance between other forces. Law and Chaos are the physical substance of the world, and form the material plane wherever they are in balance (constructive interference). Where other interpretations show light and dark shadows of the world (shadowfell/feywild), this world has a rigid, ordered, and immovable side (think Mechanus), and an active, fluid, and unpredictible side (elemental chaos, sans abyss/demon fluff, with some far realm influence). Any time the forces are knocked out of equilibrium they separate and conflict until they cancel each other out again. Any change to the status quo results in primordial titans and mechanical mountains going on the warpath (something I really want to see happen eventually).

I was trying to convince the party to go a more martial route to play out a campaign focused around trying to survive and keep peace in a city where paranormal things always seem to happen. They wouldn't hear of it and we ended up with half the party being magic users. So, instead of the "brave
city guards against all odds" we went with a "departmental experiment using non-standard means to solve crimes / magical dirty dozen" kind of thing.