Need a bit of help with a plot point.

[Sipex]

Juhn, go away, no reading for you!

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So I'm running a game based in a large city which serves as a huge trading port for a good portion of the game world. The city swears allegiance to no country but instead governs itself and depends on the protection from other nations which depend on it.

Now, there's a plot in place to have the city get taken over by one of the dependant nations. Essentially the mayor will be blackmailed into having the city declare allegiance to this country...there's a whole big conspiracy behind it.

That said, I want to motivate the players in preventing this but I'm not sure how. Most of them aren't high-ranking individuals in this plot, they're just different people in town for different reasons who are getting wrapped up in something bigger than they are.

How do I present this in a way which would reasonably motivate a player (they're all reasonably good) to prevent it? I'm afraid they'll learn the plot and go "Okay, so we're now under rule of X. Why do I care?"

Any suggestions are welcome! Please :D

[dsmiles]

So, Country X takes over City-State Y. Country X arrests all the craftsmen/tradesmen and replaces them with their own citizens. Then the new craftsmen/tradesmen charge exorbitant fees for everything. The general population get upset, then angry, then they get riled up enough to rebel. The rebellion is put down, and some of the loved ones of the PCs are killed or imprisoned. Enter PCs.

Of course, you'll have to fluff that up to make sense in your campaign setting, but I'd jump on that plot hook.

[Jay R]

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That said, I want to motivate the players in preventing this but I'm not sure how. Most of them aren't high-ranking individuals in this plot, they're just different people in town for different reasons who are getting wrapped up in something bigger than they are.

How do I present this in a way which would reasonably motivate a player (they're all reasonably good) to prevent it? I'm afraid they'll learn the plot and go "Okay, so we're now under rule of X. Why do I care?"

A. Because X will arrest people of PC A's religion.

B. Because X will destroy people of PC B's race.

C. Because X will prevent <some activity they are involved with>.

D. Because X is an enemy of the party's most common benefactor / mentor.

E. Because X has good loot.

F. Because the mayor hired them to defend the city.

In short, either it's bad for them, or it's bad for others they care about, or it's bad in general and they are good, or fighting it is good for them, or why should they care?

[Sipex]

So obvious yet effective. Can't believe I didn't think of it. All I kept coming up with is 'Leader of country X is an evil Lich' which doesn't really fit with the game.

Thanks guys, I can definitely use that info :)

[Traab]

The country taking over will spark off a war that will annihilate the entire area. All the other countries will invade to protect their interests and the whole place will become a war zone.

[Sipex]

That's a good point. I can actually use a lot of the points. The warzone arguement pulls in the PCs then use the personal bits to give the PCs a personal vendetta.

[Telok]

Taxes and riots.

I learned long ago that players are willing to deal with murderous scumbags if they can get a 15% discount. Even better, putting licensing or registration fees on magic items and spellbooks will make even the most mild mannered wizard into a hardened criminal.

Being taken over by a foreign power will anger the local population. The normal reaction to this is rioting, which will reduce trade and the supply of good thus increasing prices. Troops will be used to put down the riots, violent suppression of everyone on the street from young urchins to old grandmothers. This will get your lawful good characters involved.

Maintaining a standing army in a hostile city takes money. Taxes will be imposed. Who has the most loose cash and the fewest friends? Professional adventurers. A 100% tax per spell level on magic items and a 250 gp per spell level licensing fee on spellbooks is a good start.

Next you make all spellcasters get a license to cast spells. The organized temples can get (very very expensive) a blanket license for their priests, but players usually don't belong to one of them. About 1000 gp per spell level that the character can cast is a good fee to charge.

Since this is one of the largest cities and the biggest trading port in the world it can be not only the best place to find certain magic items and spells, but possible the only place to do so. Because magic can be so dangerous the penalty for unregistered items and books is confiscation and fines of five times the value of the item. Unlicensed spellcasting is, of course, punishable by death. Violent, immediate, death. Because how does anyone know if the unregistered caster is doing Cure Light Wounds or Cloud Kill until you find piles of dead bodies in the street?

Congratulations! Your players are now hardcore revolutionaries and wanted criminals.

[Sipex]

Good point, finding ways to make the players 'bad' without actually making them do bad things is a great way to start. Taxes make sense too.

Well, I've started going overdrive on inspiration with all these ideas, I've got papers which will need to be controlled or silenced and the like, should make for a good second half of the campaign.

Thanks!