Help Fleshing Out a Small Corrupt City

[nakedonmyfoldin]

I've posted a thread about this before, but it took a turn from what I intended.

I'm looking to make a campaign that centers around a small trading city located on a river delta. The King will more or less neglect his responsibilities as a ruler, leaving the de facto rule in the hands of his trusted advisor, who uses this power to further his own secret agenda. I'm thinking some rival factions carrying out gang flavored violence in different sectors of town. These factions could control certain aspects of trade, and be fighting for more control/money/power/etc.

So I have a few questions:
1. What would cause the King to neglect his position? age? "Theodin Syndrome"?
2. What does the advisor have going on?
3. What are some other aspects of the town that would help further the idea of a truly corrupt city?
4. Are there any aspects of my plan so far that you feel would have a negative effect on the PC's experience?

Thanks to everyone in advance for the help

[Roguenewb]

I'm gonna give my answers as a single coherent idea of a city, but these are just suggestions, mix and match to meet desire. I assume a world like Eberron, where 3 is a well trained adult, 5 is exceptional, and 6 is the non-heroic max, with a limited number of individuals in 7-14 range, and a handful (like 4) of 14+. Magic is common, but not as common as in Eberron, maybe 20% of the population can cast a spell, and 5% are dedicated spellcasters.

1.) King Lastimar is a very nice man. Too nice, in fact. King Lastimar has gotten himself so bogged down in small scale bits of altruism and philanthropy that he is effectively useless on a city scale. He spent 8 months organizing a board of smart trustees to oversee an orphanage of 130 children. Then he spent almost a year ensuring that a series of tarriffs between Marshport and the nearest neighbor didn't unduly suppress small towns along the trade route. He's stuck in the weeds here, and it prevents him from getting anything done.

2.) Lastimar's uncle Zanarsh has slowly taken on more and more responsibility while Lastimar has gotten more and more focused on his acts of compassion. At this point, Zanarsh is the power in Marshport, and unfortunately, Zanarsh has one, and only one goal: making his wife's family's trading fleet the most profitable buisness on the planet, and reaping the rewards of huge wealth in a world where Reincarnate can be bought on demand. Zanarsh's plan is simple, make exotic spell components soooooo valuable that importing even small ship loads of them is enough to make a fortune. He's doing this in too ways, bracing down trade, and making common spellcasting essential. Zanarsh has imposed large levies on anything that doesn't arrive my either sea-gates, or an officially "inspected" main land gate. Official inspects take forever, are brutally expensive, and Zanarsh has staffed them with thugs who extort and blackmail people trying to ship into the city. As a result, land trade is essentially all taxed at the large levy rates, and trade is slowly becoming more and more sea based. Then, Zanarsh implemented "shipping liscenses", without which, you must cede 50% of imported commodities to the crown. The liscense were given out freely to all pre-existing ships, but as merchants fleeing from land trade try to get ships built and start shipping, they've found Zanarsh only issues 8 a year, in a city where 50+ new ships are trying to enter trade every year.

Secondarily, Zanarsh has stirred up spell activity. First, he has secretly encouraged and supported gangs. These gangs are making the town far more dangerous, meaning that those who can cast spells are more and more dependent on them for their safety, which means more spell components and so on. The final cog is Zanarsh's plan is that he has convinced the various mentor wizards and arcane schools in Marshport to greatly encourage experimentation, and to create a mindset that casters should be all-casters all the time, thus also increases their use of spell components.

It's working, Zanarsh make a half million gold in mercury alone last year. He plans to make 10 million in guano this year, even if it destroys Marshport.

3.) Life in Marshport is becoming more and more about who you know. Guilds are gaining power as trade becomes more and more restricted, because they have the money to buy liscenses and inspections, while also providing for defense in the face of the rise in petty violence. Wizard Schools are the only way for young wizards to afford powerful spells, and the only way to stay safe from people who'd love to kill a lone wizard and take his spell book to sell it. Drug abuse is on the rise, as are some darker cults of gods like Nerull and Hextor, and even more sinister things like Far Realm cults, all in the shrinking power of the Marshport government's positive aspects and the churches. A powerful Half-fiend is leading a gang that is going against Zanarsh's plan of petty violence and plans on razing the whole town in the name of Pazuzu.

4.) The players will have a great time, the characters, not as much. Life in Marshport is dangerous. Wealth gets you attacked, power gets people trying to forcibly recruit you so their group stays strong, and an honest heart gets you caught up in the block-by-block struggles of a city descending in heart-breaking anarchy. There are so many innocents, villians, and people in the middle just trying to get by that sorting them out is nearly impossible. Marshport is a powerderkeg, and even a slight spark (which PCs are great at providing) is gonna light the whole damn thing.

Mechanically, safe lodgings are rare and very, very expensive. Spell component pouches are 100 gold each, and go up 25% every week of the campaign. Special components are between 100% and 1000% more expensive. Scrolls and spellbooks to copy are almost nonexistent on the open market, and the black is very dangerous. Magic items that can be used defensively or offensively are being snapped up so quickly its impossible to get them honestly, especially as the guilds vacuum up every crafter they can find.




There's a sketch, hope that helps.

[Telonius]

Theoden Syndrome is one possibility. Another is Earth King Fever: the King is an honorary hereditary position that has a lot of symbolic importance, but not much actual power. You could also have a King Richard situation, where the King wants to go out crusading (or out among his people). The Evil Vizier encourages this (as it leaves the Evil Vizier free to gather control in his absence).

As for why the Vizier wants to encourage the gang warfare ... two possibilities jump to mind. The first is, he has his own faction of thugs and/or mercenaries, and wants his enemies to destroy themselves. Or, he's got contacts in the town guard, who want more business. Or he just wants to stir up trouble by having an increase in crime, then the king gets blamed for not doing anything about it.

Images of a truly corrupt city: local officials openly flouting their own laws. Gambling, drugs, and prostitution rampant. Vast gulf between rich and poor. Roadblocks or checkpoints. Inflated prices for common items.

[nakedonmyfoldin]

These are some seriously awesome ideas, thanks for everything so far.

[aeauseth]

Your basic premis reminds me of The Lord of The Rings:

In The Two Towers, King Théoden of Rohan can no longer think or act for himself. He is under the control of Wormtongue, his former servant.

[ArcturusV]

I'm going to ask if you considered going the other way with it.

Maybe the king is just... a bad king. His position is hereditary. Inbreeding to maintain "Purity" and such of the royal line has left him unquestionably the heir apparent and proper ruler... but nothing like the men and women who came before and were strong enough to carve out an empire on the world. He has a touch of madness, or maybe is just a bit addled naturally. Maybe he's malicious, used to getting everything he wants and sees his Kingdom as basically a toy for his amusement, bleeding the economy dry on his lavish entertainments and hedonistic demands?

The Vizier is a good man (Though go ahead and make him look evil), who is trying desperately to keep the Kingdom running. He's Lawful Good, and won't abide by the idea of overthrowing the king, as the amount of anarchy that would follow in that time of transition is unconscionable to him. He's the political savant that keeps the various nobles, merchant lords, and criminal elements fighting amongst one another, rather than realizing how corrupt and weak the king is. He ENCOURAGES the corruption that people see rife on the streets, as the turmoil is the only way to maintain some semblance of order while he tries to marshal the kingdom, revitalize the knights, and prepare to fix it once and for all in a few years.

At the lowest levels of society, where the players will first likely run into this corruption, it's obvious. People live in a state of fear. The various factions out there (Nobles, corrupt knights, guards, merchants, thugs from one group or another) don't really respect each other's zones and borders. Fighting is open in the streets. But it's rarely general brawls so much as a Surprise Shanking leaving one guy dead and the other guy walking away. Most places are destitute, starving citizens. No one really "asks" the Heroes to help. That's key, because no one really believes that any of this is going to change. At least not until they've made major strides about it.

Let things like drugs be a common trade, along with other typical criminal enterprises, slave trading, bordellos, gambling, etc. Make sure the guards are never "Just around the corner" or something, but anytime you see the guards move out, they're in a deep formation. Which gives the sense that they don't consider themselves rulers in this city but have to fight for every inch they come across.

Honestly? Nothign really hurts the PCs ability to use a city unless it is so anarchist that they cannot rest there. As long as their own coin, reputation, or fearsome abilities means no one is gonna go slit their throats in their sleep? It's still a viable base of operations for adventuring.