How would you run a Bartimaeus style campaign?

[frogglesmash]

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to run a campaign settiong based off of the Bartimaeus books?

If you're unfamiliar with the books, the setting is an alternate london that is run by magicians. Magicians in the Bartimaeus setting don't cast spells like most fantasy mages, but instead bind demons/jinn/elementals of varying power to do their bidding.

[Firechanter]

Wonderful series!
What were the five classes of "Demons" again? Was it something like
- Imp
- Kobold
- Djinni
- Afrit
- Marid
?
Not sure about the two weaker ones.

Basically, Magicians study to summon and bind successively more powerful beings. The slightest mistake in the process gets them eaten. The only kind of human magic beyond this seems to be various means to chastise unruly servants.

Long story short, while it's a lovely setting, D&D is probably not a good system for it.

[Andrybz]

Is that true? How you run this campaigns?

What are the specialties in your program?

[ExLibrisMortis]

I would get the party to play the demons, rather than the wizards. I think. I mean, it's usually the demons that do stuff, especially the action, which is the focus of D&D as system. Even so, it'd be a relatively low-combat high-politics setting, and wizards do a lot of politicking. Maybe alternating is a good idea.

[Milo v3]

Have the only casting class be the Summoner class from Pathfinder.

[Lord Raziere]

I can see two ways:

The caster campaign:
where your a bunch of magicians being all conspiratorial and scheming and sending the demons out to do things and you have to use your smarts to do whatever it is your trying to achieve.

The demon campaign:
A more direct and action oriented campaign. I'd have the classes of demon have trade offs rather than being straight more powerful, weaker ones would have more stealth and smarts and such, while more powerful ones would have more raw power, magic but not be as subtle or clever, with Djinn being in the middle, given that Bartimaeus can be both when he needs to. This would allow for a more diverse party with more roles, and would be a good explanation for why an Imp would be in the same party as an Afrit.

so yeah, probably demon style. I'd leave it up to the players whether they want to break free of their magician or not, probably giving them the choice at the end of the first adventure without the magician knowing, some item that would break them free that if they did it would break them free, but if they went back and gave it to their summoner would score them a lot of points with them. such a decision would tell me a lot about what game they'd want to play.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I think ExLibrisMortis has the right idea in putting the focus on the demons, with the wizards (or wizard; seems easiest to have everyone summoned by one guy) serving as mission-giving semi-antagonists. Half the fun would be twisting your orders around to suit; I don't think it would work nearly as well if you were giving yourself instructions.

I also don't think I'd use D&D-- the emphasis on class doesn't seem compatible with the demons having such similar powers, levels don't seem to be important so much as broad categories of power, and there's none of the game's focus on resource management. Something more aimed at superheroes seems like a better bet, or something like Fate where more minor, personality-based differences can provide mechanical differentiation.

[Strigon]

Wonderful series!
What were the five classes of "Demons" again? Was it something like
- Imp
- Kobold
- Djinni
- Afrit
- Marid
?
Not sure about the two weaker ones.

Basically, Magicians study to summon and bind successively more powerful beings. The slightest mistake in the process gets them eaten. The only kind of human magic beyond this seems to be various means to chastise unruly servants.

Long story short, while it's a lovely setting, D&D is probably not a good system for it.

Imp, yes, Kobold, no; It was Foliot.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. If I did, however, I'd use a rules-light system.
Remember, you have to account for the fact that spirits can transform into pretty much any living creature, and the clever ones do so on-the-fly, constantly. There are also the myriad of spells they can cast offensively. Having a rule for every thing your players can do will either result in a ridiculous number of rules, or arbitrary restrictions on player actions.

You'll also have to account for the fact that they don't naturally grow in power, or keep wealth between summonings. So levelling up is straight out, unless you want to bend the rules.

[Firechanter]

Maybe you could also play a Resistance campaign. Commoners who have had enough.
(OFC you wouldn't want to play the NPC Commoner class.)