Resources and ideas for a 'City Watch' fantasy type campaign?

[RossN]

Does anyone have any ideas or resources for running a campaign where the PCs are part of the City Watch in a bustling fantasy city state? Aside from the Discworld novels that is (don't get me wrong I love the books as much the next person but I don't want set a game in Ankh-Morpork with the serial numbers filed off.)

[Cozzer]

If the game is something similar to D&D, at least in the power level of the main characters, after a certain point the PCs will stop being cops and start being superheroes. Embrace it. Maybe even have a clear, legal distinction between "normal guards" and "one man army badass guards". Maybe have a middle step where you are a "one team army" instead of a "one man army". (which is a pretty nice reason, in-universe, to keep the party together, as they've been fighting alongside each other for a while and have become good at it)

If you're playing a game where the PCs don't get so overpowered, this advice will be useless to you. But if you are, don't try to sweep under the rug the fact that an high-level character could defeat a whole gang of thugs on his own, or your setting will become more and more surreal as the characters level up.

[AMFV]

Does anyone have any ideas or resources for running a campaign where the PCs are part of the City Watch in a bustling fantasy city state? Aside from the Discworld novels that is (don't get me wrong I love the books as much the next person but I don't want set a game in Ankh-Morpork with the serial numbers filed off.)

Well are you aiming for something more silly, like Discworld? Or something more serious?

[hymer]

I think you should be considering how you can have the PCs 'advance' in some fashion. There will probably be mechanical advancement, not knowing the system, which might actually be too much. Why are these guys just guards when they can beat wizards and dragons?
If the system or the campaign has less, or less steep, advancement than D&D typically has, then it makes more sense, but then I'd suggest you give the PCs something else to strive for and accomplish.

[Telonius]

I'm in the planning stages of a similar campaign. The premise is that it starts off somewhere around the "Bad Old Days" with high crime and a dilapidated Watch. The mayor needs a group of patsies heroes who will be able to go in where the Watch can't, and are far enough away from him that he has plausible deniability if a few taverns or orphanages are destroyed in the process of catching the bad guys. So, they're starting off as basically masked vigilantes from early comics.

I'd considered planning this as a Mutants and Masterminds game, but it would have been too much of a pain to figure out a whole new system for me. If you're more familiar with that system, it might have some ideas for you. I'm planning on running it as d20 3.5 (heavily houseruled), e6, with a few extra artifacts like the Mask of the Hero thrown in.

[JeenLeen]

There's a 3.5 book called Cityscape (or at least I think that's the title) that has some urban adventures from a D&D perspective. I don't remember how much useful advice it had on running a campaign like you mention, but if you're using 3.5 and can find a copy, it may be worth looking at.

I can see the opening hooks starting similar to what normal level 1 hooks are: there's goblins causing problems on caravans, or something afoot in the sewers, etc.
It's probably best to have the slums be an essentially lawless area. Maybe a long-term goal can be to clean it up. If you want, you can tie in how criminals there are working with some nobles, to bring in intrigue and bureaucratic issues. What should a guardsman do if he's charged with arresting a gang that the chief of police says to leave alone for unknown and likely corrupt reasons?

Think of the scope of the campaign. If D&D, I agree with Cozzer about needing to embrace the advancement of PCs if you plan on high-level. I'd recommend something where the game ends around level 6. Make mid-level people rare in your world. Maybe the Chief of Police (or the General, if the city watch is part of the military) is level 8-10. The best wizard and head cleric are about that level, too, and there's only rumors of stronger folk.

Likewise, in vein with hymer's comment: make sure the players like the idea and the PCs have reasons to stay and want to be guards. Perhaps just a loyalty to the town and a desire to make it better for their family and friends (or to avenge those who crime has taken away.)

[GloatingSwine]

Does anyone have any ideas or resources for running a campaign where the PCs are part of the City Watch in a bustling fantasy city state? Aside from the Discworld novels that is (don't get me wrong I love the books as much the next person but I don't want set a game in Ankh-Morpork with the serial numbers filed off.)

Best thing to do will be to sack off the fantasy research and read a lot of police procedurals instead.

Figure out how the laws of the place are supposed to work, what the Watch does and where they stand politically in the city and what constraints they're under, and then you can write interesting challenges for the players based on those constraints.

Then figure out how to use unique fantasy elements of your setting to pose problems and present opportunities that that specific Watch would have.

[Cozzer]

Another thing: as the game goes on, it would be nice to give players the choice between getting leadership roles, maybe even getting a bit political, or becoming a super assault team that just chooses HOW to execute the mission they're given. The second option is better from a "party fights enemies" perspective, since if they become commanders you need to make up reasons why they can't just bring a lot of mid-level help with them (which is not impossible but again, in the long term can make things a bit surreal). If the players agree, I think the best thing would be to have their character become a super assault team that also has an "unofficial" say in how things get done. Like... maybe they can't just give orders, but when they speak the people who give orders listen.

[BlueHerring]

It really depends on how you want to do it. Is this a sprawling fantasy metropolis with guards, or is it a major city with decent guards?

But, overall, here are my suggestions:
1) Keep the NPC guardsmen relevant. The PCs can be sort of like a medieval SWAT - the people called in when a situation gets ugly, or too difficult to handle, while the regular law enforcement handles day to day business like petty theft. That way, you have NPCs who aren't just sitting around eating medieval donuts and waiting for the PCs to swoop in and save the day.
2) Security protocols have to make sense. Unless there's a bureaucrat in the upper levels deliberately throwing red tape around the guard, most of the rules and regulations of your guard have to stem from common sense. Having an effective guard commander goes a long way towards this.
3) Realize that ultimately, security is limited. Your guardsmen may be well-equipped and good with protocol, but they can be overwhelmed. Use things like festivals to have smugglers bring in illicit goods and the like, simply because the guard doesn't have the manpower to handle checking every single wagon that enters the city during festival season.

[ImNotTrevor]

Best thing to do will be to sack off the fantasy research and read a lot of police procedurals instead.

Figure out how the laws of the place are supposed to work, what the Watch does and where they stand politically in the city and what constraints they're under, and then you can write interesting challenges for the players based on those constraints.

Then figure out how to use unique fantasy elements of your setting to pose problems and present opportunities that that specific Watch would have.

I'll second this. Watch a bunch of Buddy Cop movies. And by Watch, I mean WATCH. pause, jot down notes, look at the themes they bring up, the cliches, the tropes, the apparent goals of the genre. Break them down to their genreless cores and slather them with Fantasy gravy, then fry until golden.

[GungHo]

You can branch this into a lot of things. Going undercover, murder mysteries, narcotics enforcement, corrupt politicians getting kick backs, organized crime, etc, and the theme can change from week to week. That being said, you are likely going to want to consider emphasizing skill checks over brawn for most police story campaigns. While there is a time and place for action, police work isn't just about busting heads, but a lot of game systems (and their rewards) are oriented toward that.

[GloatingSwine]

I'll second this. Watch a bunch of Buddy Cop movies. And by Watch, I mean WATCH. pause, jot down notes, look at the themes they bring up, the cliches, the tropes, the apparent goals of the genre. Break them down to their genreless cores and slather them with Fantasy gravy, then fry until golden.

Buddy cop movies will have more dynamics about the relationship between the central odd couple than the crime and policing bit. They're more likely to either not mention any rules and constraints of policing or one of them will be the Murtaugh and ignore them with no consequences, which would break the spirit of the setting if you let players do it.

If you're going to watch stuff make it cop drama TV. The Sweeney*, Homicide: Life on the Street, or NYPD Blue are probably better because they'll show the police working under constraints and being creative to deal with problems within them.


* Probably a good model for the players, The Sweeney is based on the Flying Squad, which was a semi-autonomous unit tasked with dealing with serious and organised crime.