Plotting for A City Campaign?

[Palanan]

I've been thinking about running a city campaign, and I'm trying to come up with some plot elements for a fast-paced adventure. The party will bounce back and forth across the city, uncovering plots behind plots leading to some sort of grand finale.

I've never tried a city campaign before, so the trick for me is how to design a series of interlocking evil schemes for the players to work their way through. I'm thinking the characters will start very low, probably at second level, and work up to fourth or fifth by the time they reach the big showstopper.

So far I'm thinking they'll be drawn into the machinations of various guilds to start off with; --and then, soon enough, a conspiracy of democratic revolutionaries. There may also be escaped slaves who have become hit-and-run champions of freedom...and possibly gladiators. And a dockside stevedores' union.

The question is how to weave all these elements into a crazy-intense plot which the characters can work their way through. I've never run a city campaign before, so this is a new angle for me. Any ideas?

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[Lightlawbliss]

mysterious person in charge of it all could do it. The person in question could be the final boss fight, or maby he works for someone else. (or whatever)

hidden tunnels connecting various things might do it and they try to figure out how/why they are all connected.

a person they care about being taken hostage and dragged all around trying to keep the hostage a hostage.

I could probably come up with more but those are 3 that come to the front of my mind.

[jokeaccount]

I was once preparing a city campaign but abandoned it 'cause it was getting quite incoherent and forced. Some basic stuff were:

The city was essentially divided in half when it came to "leadership". One part of the city was governed by ganksters/crime syndicate. The other half was governed by none other than pirates. If you wanted to progress you basically had to join one party otherwise there would be tolls and stuff. Once on one party the other group would try to take you out thus justifying random encounters here and there. The goal of the players would basically be to take down both guilds one from outside and one from the inside.

There is a neutral guy that first meets the party and explains stuff to them. He serves as the main informer on many tasks and liaison here and there. It also turns out that he is actually a planted spy from an out of town guild that was looking to conquer the city for themselves. After both guilds are taken down he reveals his true colors and he serves as the last boss since the party need to stop him from contacting his superiors.

Between the two guilds you can put any kind of power play, treasons, reveals etc. One of my biggest problems however was the way I would force the players to join a group. People can be stubborn when it comes to playing criminals even if it is for the right cause and I don't see how you could make a paladin kill a target his mob boss requested. Still, if you can get past those problems it could work

[Palanan]

Thanks for the suggestions, although those weren't quite what I had in mind.

I'm looking for advice on how to chain together some of those ideas I mentioned earlier--and also on how to lay clues that segue from one plot to the next, clues that I can rely on the players to follow.

This is tricky, since players sometimes seize on tiny details and pursue them into the narrowest crevice, while the great barn doors of the plot device hang open and empty. Developing plots and schemes, and designing encounters that lead the players from one to the next--this is where I could use some advice.

[Pally din]

3 clue rule: http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule

That will absolve the DM of not providing enough trail, and provide multiple trails pointing to the same thing so that eventualy players will find their way back. There are a whole seriese of articles there that I think adress your needs from the simple introduction of the concept to advanced execution. Simply: provide 3 clues to each next stage that you want. That way if the players miss one, they may catch the other.

[Amphetryon]

3 clue rule: http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule

That will absolve the DM of not providing enough trail, and provide multiple trails pointing to the same thing so that eventualy players will find their way back. There are a whole seriese of articles there that I think adress your needs from the simple introduction of the concept to advanced execution. Simply: provide 3 clues to each next stage that you want. That way if the players miss one, they may catch the other.

Then hope the Players don't cry "railroading!" when clue after clue after clue points out "DM's Plot Lies This Way."

[SarahV]

How about something political? The various factions could be trying to get a new mayor (or appointee or however your local gov't might be set up) put into place that would support their evil plans or look the other way when they do bad stuff... but the old mayor/whatever has his supporters, too, supplying some NPCs and intelligence to your players. (Or you could flip it and have the old, corrupt mayor supported by the bad guys being challenged by a revolutionary good-guy type candidate and his people.)

That would give you an excuse to have an overarching plot with seemingly unrelated groups/guilds working together. Like you might have the teachers and the truck drivers and police supporting a candidate in the modern world, in your campaign it could be the thieves' guild, the assassins' guild, and the stevedores' union all backing the same candidate and taking part in a variety of underhanded schemes to get the job done by any means necessary.

Probably democratic-style voting would make for a boring plot line ("OK, we spend the next 8 hours making sure no one interferes with the voting booths!") but maybe the different factions are trying to convince/bribe the king to appoint someone... or maybe it's a vote of the city council (read: the rich and powerful guild leaders).

[Pally din]

Then hope the Players don't cry "railroading!" when clue after clue after clue points out "DM's Plot Lies This Way."

Such an astute observation obviously based on reading the articles there. No? Or maybe the articles address that criticism. OR, we could let the OP form their own conclusions while you also offer a solution open to criticism?

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Pally din
3 clue rule: http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/...hree-clue-rule

Thanks for that link. I'd actually looked through that article a few weeks ago, mentally noted it for future perusal, and then completely lost it. But I did remember the essence of it, about triple-redundant clues. Sometimes that's what it takes. :smalltongue:


Originally Posted by SarahV
How about something political?

There will definitely be some politics in there, and definitely some guilds, although I haven't worked out how they'll coexist (or not) within the bounds of the city.

Voting booths, however...the culture isn't quite there yet. The revolutionaries would like it to be--and they'll be bitter, cynical fanatics about it, or at least their leading figures will be.

I also really like the idea of an antislavery movement, or at least the beginnings of a movement, which has some overlap with the democratic fanatics--shared themes of universal rights and liberties--and yet, most of the movement's supporters will make a distinction between agitating against slavery and fomenting the overthrow of their current government.

And, the gladiators. Natural supporters of the antislavery movement, one would expect--but I'm thinking there may be some cultural element to the gladiatorial contests, something which the gladiators themselves would want to perpetuate.

--I need to start small, and let the clues lead the party to broader and broader schemes and conspiracies. So, what's a good point to start with? And what, in this context, would be a useful kind of clue?

[Amphetryon]

Such an astute observation obviously based on reading the articles there. No? Or maybe the articles address that criticism. OR, we could let the OP form their own conclusions while you also offer a solution open to criticism?

I have read the articles. I have, in other threads, offered other solutions; I think that any proposed solution to a problem in an RPG has potential pitfalls specific to a group, and such pitfalls may benefit from being highlighted. I am sorry that your proposed "solution" is not a one-size-fits-all in my experience.