Campaign Idea: Thin Blue Line

[kieza]

So, I'm working on a start to my next campaign, and one of the things I'm considering is a "police drama" sort of campaign, in which the players work for some sort of law enforcement agency. The thing is, I'm not looking to have a serious recurring villain for a while, just a series of more-or-less mundane (for the setting) cases.

Some of the ideas I've come up with:

-The squad gets seconded to INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) to assist in a raid on a goblin warren harboring a number of fugitives whose visas have been revoked. Said raid turns up evidence of a goblin separatist conspiracy planning to blow up an arsenal in the city.
-An apprentice wizard turns up with his throat slit in a seedy part of town. At first it's assumed to be a mugging gone wrong, but then the investigators find an illicit alchemist's lab in his apartment and discover that he's been producing designer drugs.
-A body pulled out of the river rises as a vampire at sunset. The vampire is not happy about this development, and would very much like to have his sire brought to justice. Unfortunately, the local vampire population insists on handling the matter internally, prompting the victim to take matters into his own hands.
-A high-profile industrialist commits suicide, apparently out of the blue. His relatives and staff insist that he wouldn't do such a thing, and an arcanist determines that he was under emotion-altering magic at the time of his demise.

And finally, one for later in the campaign, once they've solved one or two high-profile cases:
-A bard with political pull gets permission to shadow the unit on their cases, and insists on providing input--which, some of the time, is actually helpful.

Any other ideas?

[Chilingsworth]

- Nonnative species are becoming pests in town. A chain of specialty shops catering to familiar-seeking wizards has been implicated.

- A particular bar has developed an alarmingly high rate of barfights. Find out why.

- A domestic disturbance between a dwarf and elf couple has resulting in the cops being called. Keep the mismatched lovers from hurting eachother.

- Investigate a ring of wizards who drag race flying carpets and phantom steeds on public roads. Are they having harmless fun, or are they a cover for something more sinister?

- A group of sentient magic items are racing adventurers dressed in drag and wearing rings. What's going on here?!

[Doktor Per]

Cop games are the best games! Your players are lucky.


- Interdepartmental drama! The guys on the Vice Squad are total prinks, gloating as they strut around the station with their aviator sunglasses (maybe even have them all the same race) On occasion they come in on the PC's cases and it becomes a race to who solves the case first!

- Man is found walking down the street naked, with no recollection of how he got there. Realizes he's lost his wedding ring and goes into hysterics.

- The cops get mugged, by completely incompetent fools. Maybe they were forced into the life of crime by financial windfall. Leading to a larger scourge on the community, a loan shark.

- Pimps, accused murderers and drug dealers are dropping like flies all around town, and no one knows why, only how. Immense bodily harm. A conspiracy within the walls of the police itself. Is it only the new Hobgoblin recruits? Or is Captain Riley, the old codger from St. Cuthbert, involved somehow?

[Yukitsu]

-You players are out of line! You're all off the case! Your swords and your badges!

-You're off the case, but are pretty sure that being an even more loose halberd will solve whatever the problem is.

[Saintheart]

- Someone's debasing the currency, i.e. passing round gold coins with half the actual weight in gold than is marked on them. Economic collapse threatens unless you can find the counterfeiter.

[Spamotron]

- A powerful but very disliked by the public VIP is giving a speech at the amphitheater. Rumor has it that a group of prankster sorcerers is out to humiliate him. Your squad is on security detail and its likely that the VIP will use his influence to take it out on you personally if his speech doesn't go flawlessly.

[Vulaas]

Several individuals are coming up dead in increasingly unlikely acts of 'nature.' Find out what's really going on.

An important Fey claims that the PC's owe her a favor, and demands they do some side work for her. However, you're already on a case with your own unit. Can you both satisfy her and keep your job?

An upstart Wizard by the name of Dresden goes on the books as a PI, but any time he gets involved in a case, it seems to get far more deadly than you ever expected. Is it coincidence, or something more sinister?

[Garwain]

Some of the ideas I've come up with:

-The squad gets seconded to INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) to assist in a raid on a goblin warren harboring a number of fugitives whose visas have been revoked. Said raid turns up evidence of a goblin separatist conspiracy planning to blow up an arsenal in the city.
-An apprentice wizard turns up with his throat slit in a seedy part of town. At first it's assumed to be a mugging gone wrong, but then the investigators find an illicit alchemist's lab in his apartment and discover that he's been producing designer drugs.
-A body pulled out of the river rises as a vampire at sunset. The vampire is not happy about this development, and would very much like to have his sire brought to justice. Unfortunately, the local vampire population insists on handling the matter internally, prompting the victim to take matters into his own hands.
-A high-profile industrialist commits suicide, apparently out of the blue. His relatives and staff insist that he wouldn't do such a thing, and an arcanist determines that he was under emotion-altering magic at the time of his demise.

And finally, one for later in the campaign, once they've solved one or two high-profile cases:
-A bard with political pull gets permission to shadow the unit on their cases, and insists on providing input--which, some of the time, is actually helpful.

Any other ideas?

you'll have to tie the stories togheter somehow to make it coherent.

* the wizard drug manufacturer was making an order for the goblin seperatist.
* The body/vampire seems to be the killer of the wizard. vampires seem to combat the goblins.
* the industrialist was funding both the vampires movement and the goblin seperatists, hired the wizard
* the bard turns out to be the head of the secret organisation and doesn't want either side to win (cfr IFCC)

[KineticDiplomat]

-Policing relies on the majority of the people, more or less, accepting the idea of being policed. As the large mob outside the station house indicates, they have stopped accepting it just right now. Defuse the situation, then track down and right the source of this massed public unrest. Oh, and the mayor has asked the army to intervene...and they will probably solve it somewhat bluntly.

[Spamotron]

-A citizen calls in about a neighbor having an illegal pet. The pet in question is a Cryohydra.

[Sorcerer Blob]

I think it's safe to say that this is one of the best ideas I've ever heard of. This just sounds like fun, and fairly easy to do on the fly.

Mix in some more Law & Order-esque cases and you are golden! Or even better, corrupt cops..

[Doktor Per]

you'll have to tie the stories togheter somehow to make it coherent.

* the wizard drug manufacturer was making an order for the goblin seperatist.
* The body/vampire seems to be the killer of the wizard. vampires seem to combat the goblins.
* the industrialist was funding both the vampires movement and the goblin seperatists, hired the wizard
* the bard turns out to be the head of the secret organisation and doesn't want either side to win (cfr IFCC)

Large interconnected bits are good in moderation, police procedurals rarely have interconnected cases too much. But what can be done to connect the cases are sort of "The Usual Suspects" and people who work in locations that see a lot of important things, innkeepers and such. Cops tend to have strong ties to the community.

OP, for inspiration, I recommend the Real Cop Commentary track on Hot Fuzz, which is very interesting and sort of cute.

[Spamotron]

The Goddess of Thieves walks into the station and files a complaint that she was the victim of a purse snatcher.

[Iceforge]

you'll have to tie the stories togheter somehow to make it coherent.

* the wizard drug manufacturer was making an order for the goblin seperatist.
* The body/vampire seems to be the killer of the wizard. vampires seem to combat the goblins.
* the industrialist was funding both the vampires movement and the goblin seperatists, hired the wizard
* the bard turns out to be the head of the secret organisation and doesn't want either side to win (cfr IFCC)

They are also already kind of connected by them all being crimes and the PCs working as police who has to deal with crimes.

All cases of crime being linked directly just seems....unbeliveable and Im afraid that would break the 4th wall and willfull suspension of disbelief

[Human Paragon 3]

The PCs are asked to investigate a break and entry case for a wealthy land owner in the city, but he refuses to give them full run of his estate, leaving some areas off limits. When the PCs finally gain entry to the secret room, they find a broken magic circle. What escaped from the circle, and how is it connected to the robbery?

[mint]

The more you connect things the further you venture into pulp. If that's not what you want, you should not connect everything.

[Morghen]

One thing to be aware of:

Your players may only see the vase.

Your players may have a hard time getting out of the "hobos with shotguns" mindset and into a "Gotta follow the rules or I'm gonna get fired" mindset.
Of course, if you set the thing in a totalitarian state, then all bets are off.

I played in a Shadowrun tournament once in which we played FBI agents.

My favorite moment of the whole experience came after about five minutes of planning how to get inside a building we knew had something we were looking for. We were all so used to the standard Shadowrun paradigm of "We're the bad guys" that when one of the guys at the table went "Oh, hey. What about getting search warrants?" the rest of us, like, triple-facepalmed.

[Doktor Per]

It helps when the players are presented with "this is what you can do as police, and these are the limits of that."

Any player worth his salt will start looking for ways to abuse that power, and if that power follows a Code of Conduct....

[Acanous]

-A local merchant has been caught smuggling illegal substances into town. Upon questioning, he admits his guilt, but says he did it to protect his daughter, who has been kidnapped to ensure his loyalty.

-Dwarves have started a protest against the local human-run coal mine, saying the tunnels have disrupted their infastructure, costing them hundreds of GP to repair and demand reparations. The human foreman says the dwarves are trying to monopolize the coal industry, and may be hiding something even more valuable down there...

[Connington]

-A bard with political pull gets permission to shadow the unit on their cases, and insists on providing input--which, some of the time, is actually helpful.

Any other ideas?

Awesome idea. Try to make the reason he's bucking in related to the player's behavior. If they aren't following procedure, he's a hard ass from IA; if they're having trouble finding clues, he's a wily old cop trying to show them how it's done, and so on and so on.

Of course, it can be revealed that he's actually corrupt, or acting as a vigilante, or whatever. Hopefully the PCs pick up on his advice first.

It helps when the players are presented with "this is what you can do as police, and these are the limits of that."

An important corollary to the above is that they have more resources and real authority. They can boss civilian NPCs around in an emergency and they can call for backup. It might not always be wise to do that, but being a cop does have its perks.

[Urpriest]

And finally, one for later in the campaign, once they've solved one or two high-profile cases:
-A bard with political pull gets permission to shadow the unit on their cases, and insists on providing input--which, some of the time, is actually helpful.

Is this bard named Castle by any chance?

It's an awesome idea, anyway. I'd probably end up borrowing a few plots from the Discworld novels.

[TomBaker]

Firstly awesome idea; Secondly my friends now want me to run a campaign in the same vein.

Also: Pratchett's Watch Series from the Discworld Universe is near on perfect material.

[kieza]

Is this bard named Castle by any chance?

+1 cookie.

That or De Worde.

[Fhaolan]

There was an RPG supplement once that might even be useful... hold on, I think I have a copy...

Ah, found it. Cyberpunk 2020: Protect and Serve.

While not technically a D&D/Fantasy suppliment, there's lots of stuff in there that could be translated. It's an out-of-print thing though, and I don't know if you can get legal pdfs anywhere.