PCs as Town Guards

[Octopusapult]

Considering a game where the PCs are town guards or another form of law enforcement (something that would justify people as powerful as PCs usually are.) and was wondering if anyone had any wisdom from similar games for me? Ideas or pitfalls to avoid in particular.

I think it would be a fun twist to have them taking care of a town when a group of "Adventurers" wonders in and brings with them a significant amount of trouble. Probably later in their careers so they've grown accustomed to and comfortable in their little village. Then they'd know exactly how every veteran guard has ever felt when they've seen a group of "wandering murder hobos" come into their city.

[Mr. Mask]

You could go for a sheriff wild west set up, where the players are the only kind of law around. This could offer them a lot of freedom in how they can act and give them any kind of problem they're willing to tackle. Depending how wild the area is, everyone else is likely to be pretty tough too--unless law enforcement in the area has only collapsed recently (people might still be quite violent, even if lacking competence).

You could go for a more standard cop setting, adapting the storylines of cop dramas if you wished. Some of them would require narcotics to be illegal (it was considered more of a social issue than a crime, most places). And some stories wouldn't work with more iron fisted governments.

General city guards don't tend to have exciting lives (except in the first case). Either unusual circumstances brings the players into adventure, or they're in a position like SWAT or detectices, where they go and deal with interesting crimes when they occur.

[Angelalex242]

Well, the thing is...

Wandering Murderhobos generally target the people with the phat lewt. Which is probably the PCs. The richest guy in town may have less total monetary value to the murderhobo then the PCs do. Also, killing the PCs is worth more XP.

So your team of Murderhobos should specifically target the town guard PCs because they want to kill them and take their stuff. Murderhobos in this case should be capital E Evil, sort of parodies of what the average PC is actually like.

Bonus points if the casters of the murderhobo party use effective PC tactics like scry and die. The Murderhobo party should view the PCs as nothing more then fleshy bags of XP and loot for their own benefit.

[Daer]

I like the idea, it has great potential as long players like it.
if you need ideas skyrim cops parody might help :)

[Demidos]

I once played in a high-powered fantasy campaign like this. We were in a large city that had been hit by a plague and was quarantined from the outside world and had just graduated the Guards' "Academy". We were offered a choice to skip the 10 years of service and fast-track to Captains if we recovered the cure (which had been stolen). The guards (conveniently) functioned in small squads, so our party was able to explore and still recieve directions from HQ. It was a lot of fun! If you want more details, I do believe the DM stole the plot directly from neverwinter knights 2, which none of the players had played :P The summary is here, if you're interested.

[Octopusapult]

Well, the thing is...

Wandering Murderhobos generally target the people with the phat lewt. Which is probably the PCs. The richest guy in town may have less total monetary value to the murderhobo then the PCs do. Also, killing the PCs is worth more XP.

So your team of Murderhobos should specifically target the town guard PCs because they want to kill them and take their stuff. Murderhobos in this case should be capital E Evil, sort of parodies of what the average PC is actually like.

Bonus points if the casters of the murderhobo party use effective PC tactics like scry and die. The Murderhobo party should view the PCs as nothing more then fleshy bags of XP and loot for their own benefit.

I want to fill all the tropes with the NPCs masquerading as PCs. The thief who is stealing everything in sight just because, the min-max'd mage-type who sees everyone as fleshy bags of XP and loot carriers, the Paladin trying desperately to keep his moral standing, often literally just turning around and plugging his ears pretending not to see the evil things the rest of his party is doing. I want to poke fun at as many tropes as possible so they can see how insane it looks from the other side.

I like the idea, it has great potential as long players like it.
if you need ideas skyrim cops parody might help :)

I can't remember when I first watched this, but I did think about it when I came up with this idea. It is a pretty funny video. Guards in RPGs have the toughest jobs... XD

I once played in a high-powered fantasy campaign like this. We were in a large city that had been hit by a plague and was quarantined from the outside world and had just graduated the Guards' "Academy". We were offered a choice to skip the 10 years of service and fast-track to Captains if we recovered the cure (which had been stolen). The guards (conveniently) functioned in small squads, so our party was able to explore and still recieve directions from HQ. It was a lot of fun! If you want more details, I do believe the DM stole the plot directly from neverwinter knights 2, which none of the players had played :P The summary is here, if you're interested.

I'll look it over, thank you. High-powered is rarely my type, I'm a big fan of E6 for example. But the stories they create are almost always worth reading. After all...

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

[Octopusapult]

You could go for a sheriff wild west set up, where the players are the only kind of law around. This could offer them a lot of freedom in how they can act and give them any kind of problem they're willing to tackle. Depending how wild the area is, everyone else is likely to be pretty tough too--unless law enforcement in the area has only collapsed recently (people might still be quite violent, even if lacking competence).

You could go for a more standard cop setting, adapting the storylines of cop dramas if you wished. Some of them would require narcotics to be illegal (it was considered more of a social issue than a crime, most places). And some stories wouldn't work with more iron fisted governments.

General city guards don't tend to have exciting lives (except in the first case). Either unusual circumstances brings the players into adventure, or they're in a position like SWAT or detectices, where they go and deal with interesting crimes when they occur.

Somehow skipped your post when I first replied, sorry.

I'm going pretty generic I think. Low-powered but otherwise typical fantasy. Not that they couldn't be similar in essence to the wild west situation. With pioneer towns and trade stops having little law enforcement and almost no long-distance travel methods outside of carriages.

But I was thinking the PCs would be more akin to modern day SWAT. A middle ground between the everyday cops and the national guard.

It'd be fun to do a "Morning Brief" type of scene with them where a commander or captain or something tells them what they're going to be doing that day. But that would require a sort of "regular" police force and contradicts the "lonely, pioneer village" type. I think I'll go this direction though so they don't go crazy with power and annihilate the town on the first run. My regular players can be trusted about as far as they can be thrown.

[Angelalex242]

Oh. Nice. See, the inclusion of a Paladin among the murderhobos means the PCs, if they have anything resembling a brain between them, can turn the Paladin on his erstwhile allies simply by forcing him to admit what his allies are doing is evil.

Seriously, the first step I as the guard would do is pull the fingers out of his ears, walk him over to the family that's been murdered by the mage and robbed by the rogue, and ask him what justice demands. And while I'm at it, I think I'd have him detect evil his friends. There's only so long you can do stuff like that before neutral alignments slip to evil.

[Shalist]

There any room for an NPC bard with uber diplomacy / bluff (glibness) sweet-talking their way out of jail? The PCs could get suspicious after the 4th or 5th time the adventuring party is released with just a warning, or after the PCs are chewed out for hassling such upstanding and obviously innocent folks.

Or lock them up, and come back to find the jail doors all missing; heaven forbid you use any masterwork or otherwise expensive shackles...

Have the PCs help the town prepare for the adventurers arrival. (And people wonder why murder-hobo's burn towns like this to the ground?)

Of course, Scrooge wouldn't want to pay even a copper to stay at the local inn, and just roughs it by sleeping outside. In a perhaps vane attempt to keep him from burning the town down, your PCs have to help track down the magic goodies and artifacts of ancient evil he'd been using as a pillow (hint: that urchin with the horns and fiery footprints might know something...)

Since everyone knows that idle adventurers are the Abyss's playthings, perhaps the guards will help implement the village's contingency plan, which involves transporting dire rats to someone's basement, releasing those bandits they'd caught a few months back, and so on. Whatever reward money is offered would likely be recaptured via those platinum apples, legal fees and fines, and so on.

[Mr. Mask]

If your players have been bad PCs, write a list of all the conveniences that were going for them against guards and the like.


They were probably more powerful that just about anything around.

Circumstances probably saved them when they did fail. A god or an important figure or ridiculous diplomacy skill.

They will have had plenty of utility spells probably.

There was a lack of concern for their lives and the lives of those around them. The guards have to be concerned for others' lives. Consider giving the guards families in the city.


Work out that list of stuff that has been going for them in past adventures, and work out how to use it against them in this one. You'll want to balance these things somewhat, so it isn't too frustrating.

You'll want to consider how powerful the PCs are compared to the adventurers. Maybe when it comes to the other guards in the city which the PCs can use, they can overwhelm the adventurers in a straight, open fight. But maybe the guard NPCs don't want to die and so will run when they're obviously outclassed. Maybe you have a limited number of guards. Work out how you want the balance of power to be, and remember your players might be thick idiots, so if there's a way they can mess it up they likely will.

Work out the comparable utility of the two sides. Can the adventurers teleport out as soon as they get hurt? It's OK if it's just an expendable scroll, but if it's a spell, then that makes it very hard to do much about them (which can be fine, if that's the focus of the adventure). Will your PCs have extreme utility magic like teleportation? You mentioned this was low-powered fantasy, so I assume not. Still, you need to consider utility functions you want, and ones you don't want.

Consider how to make your players feel responsible for the townspeople. Giving them families, making it part of their job with chances of promotion if they do well, a general goal of getting money out of the adventurers to help your town, the threat of failure being the execution of the players and possibly the death of their families.



Those are the basic variables to consider. You'll also want to work out a general plan and path for the adventurers as to what they're going to do. If their first act is to attack the town from the gates, that won't make for a long or interesting game. If their first act is threatening merchants to sell and buy goods at unreasonable prices, then the players might be sent to standby in case it breaks out into the fight. You could have the adventurers fight off the PCs and retreat into the dangerous criss-cross alleyways of the city (where it's easy to lose them, and they can ambush and kill you if you're not careful).

You could even consider multiple groups of adventurers arriving in the city, with some being less psychotic than others, and potential to hire one lot to fight the other.

[Octopusapult]

There any room for an NPC bard with uber diplomacy / bluff (glibness) sweet-talking their way out of jail? The PCs could get suspicious after the 4th or 5th time the adventuring party is released with just a warning, or after the PCs are chewed out for hassling such upstanding and obviously innocent folks.

Or lock them up, and come back to find the jail doors all missing; heaven forbid you use any masterwork or otherwise expensive shackles...

Have the PCs help the town prepare for the adventurers arrival. (And people wonder why murder-hobo's burn towns like this to the ground?)

Of course, Scrooge wouldn't want to pay even a copper to stay at the local inn, and just roughs it by sleeping outside. In a perhaps vane attempt to keep him from burning the town down, your PCs have to help track down the magic goodies and artifacts of ancient evil he'd been using as a pillow (hint: that urchin with the horns and fiery footprints might know something...)

Since everyone knows that idle adventurers are the Abyss's playthings, perhaps the guards will help implement the village's contingency plan, which involves transporting dire rats to someone's basement, releasing those bandits they'd caught a few months back, and so on. Whatever reward money is offered would likely be recaptured via those platinum apples, legal fees and fines, and so on.

I like the bard. That might be the party make-up. Rogue, Mage, Paladin, and Bard. Maybe a chunky Barbarian as well who I think would highlight my one regular player who generally says next to nothing and almost always ends up splitting the party. But that's less of a typical trope and more making fun of him.

The idea of having the PCs as guards setting up those generic sort of "rats in the basement" quests is actually pretty funny, I might have to do that.

If your players have been bad PCs, write a list of all the conveniences that were going for them against guards and the like.


They were probably more powerful that just about anything around.

Circumstances probably saved them when they did fail. A god or an important figure or ridiculous diplomacy skill.

They will have had plenty of utility spells probably.

There was a lack of concern for their lives and the lives of those around them. The guards have to be concerned for others' lives. Consider giving the guards families in the city.


Work out that list of stuff that has been going for them in past adventures, and work out how to use it against them in this one. You'll want to balance these things somewhat, so it isn't too frustrating.

You'll want to consider how powerful the PCs are compared to the adventurers. Maybe when it comes to the other guards in the city which the PCs can use, they can overwhelm the adventurers in a straight, open fight. But maybe the guard NPCs don't want to die and so will run when they're obviously outclassed. Maybe you have a limited number of guards. Work out how you want the balance of power to be, and remember your players might be thick idiots, so if there's a way they can mess it up they likely will.

Work out the comparable utility of the two sides. Can the adventurers teleport out as soon as they get hurt? It's OK if it's just an expendable scroll, but if it's a spell, then that makes it very hard to do much about them (which can be fine, if that's the focus of the adventure). Will your PCs have extreme utility magic like teleportation? You mentioned this was low-powered fantasy, so I assume not. Still, you need to consider utility functions you want, and ones you don't want.

Consider how to make your players feel responsible for the townspeople. Giving them families, making it part of their job with chances of promotion if they do well, a general goal of getting money out of the adventurers to help your town, the threat of failure being the execution of the players and possibly the death of their families.



Those are the basic variables to consider. You'll also want to work out a general plan and path for the adventurers as to what they're going to do. If their first act is to attack the town from the gates, that won't make for a long or interesting game. If their first act is threatening merchants to sell and buy goods at unreasonable prices, then the players might be sent to standby in case it breaks out into the fight. You could have the adventurers fight off the PCs and retreat into the dangerous criss-cross alleyways of the city (where it's easy to lose them, and they can ambush and kill you if you're not careful).

You could even consider multiple groups of adventurers arriving in the city, with some being less psychotic than others, and potential to hire one lot to fight the other.

I think to make them feel responsible for the town and its people I'll have to have them take some kind of oath or something. I'm not sure how to make them care about families if I forced that onto them, so that'd be their choice I guess. And even then they might not actually bother too much with them.

[Storm_Of_Snow]

Have a look at scenarios for things like the Judge Dredd RPG - I'm sure there's stuff in there you could use. Another alternative might be any "Imperial characters hunting Rebels" based scenarios in Star Wars, or the straighter, non-PvP forms of Paranoia.

But to be honest, the basic idea of making the players face people worse behaved than themselves seems quite limited to me, so it's probably better used as a one off or a short series of adventures (maybe the party have annoyed someone, so they've inducted them into the local law enforcement body for a short period of time), and, as they can't really claim any goods or riches from anyone they defeat, you'll probably have to award XPs for items that are seized or give them things (higher rank, better equipment) as they advance, otherwise, sooner or later, the PCs are likely to start down the "corrupt cop" route.

Unless you want them to go that way of course.

Another thing you'll have to watch is that sooner or later, at least one player will realise that they are the law, and can pretty much do what they want - especially if they're sheriffs of a small town with no obvious oversight. In a larger settlement, there's the chance for more oversight, but you'll have to have much higher level NPCs to ensure you keep them in line.

Adventure ideas: Solving a crime's the obvious one (and not just murder), but you could also have a day in the life (say it's some kind of a large festival, and the PCs have to police it, dealing with everything from drunks and pickpockets to someone trying to summon monsters, burn down all the buildings and cheat on the "test your strength" machine), tracking and arresting a criminal wanted in another settlement (whether they're guilty or innocent is up to you) and so on.

[Eisenheim]

There is some setting support and at least one PRC for PC's doing an investigative thing in Eberron, in Sharn specifically I think.

[Knaight]

Wandering Murderhobos generally target the people with the phat lewt. Which is probably the PCs. The richest guy in town may have less total monetary value to the murderhobo then the PCs do. Also, killing the PCs is worth more XP.

So your team of Murderhobos should specifically target the town guard PCs because they want to kill them and take their stuff. Murderhobos in this case should be capital E Evil, sort of parodies of what the average PC is actually like.

You may notice that this is not one of the D&D boards. This particular trope is very much a D&D thing - in basically any other game in which the concept of PCs as guards is even valid, they are almost certainly not the richest people around, by a long shot. They're less likely to be targeted - at least, until they get involved and resisting arrest comes in.

There's also a lot of fun to be had involving property damage, and dealing with it.

[Angelalex242]

I believe this is to be a D&D setting, and I have not heard the topic creator say otherwise.

In practice, however, Wealth By Level means, unless the richest guy in town is flat out higher level, and therefore more powerful then the PCs are, he's probably just an aristocrat who thinks he's wealthy, but in truth, the sum of everything he owns is worth less then the PC's magic items.

And if he is higher level...

How much protection do you suppose that 15th level wizard really needs from 10th level PCs?

[Octopusapult]

PCs as guards facing off against the annoying adventurers wouldn't be the basis of the whole game. Just a one-off thing.

They'd be getting paid to do the guard work and would be able to buy better gear themselves I imagine. Maybe saving the merchants and market districts often grants them some discounts or special deals. A little incentive to play it straight.

This isn't a D&D setting. It's a homebrew game, but I didn't think the system was relevant since the principal isn't much different.

[Sartharina]

I've been wanting to try this ever since I read Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!.

Having the players have to rebuild a watch in a city that's suffered a breakdown in order might be an angle to take, to give them something to do between bouts of handling Murderhobos. And, there should be some genuinely-well-intentioned-but-still-troublesome NPCs as well, like the OotS in Cliffport.

[Erik Vale]

*Skim Reeds*
Wait, no one's brought up the possibilities the players may slip into semi-murderhoboism, go corrupt with a capital C and E [though probably not CE], be rather draconian with their laws and such?
Edit: Ok, one person brought it up, board redeemed...


...
I'd probably make this a one shot of a particularly bad day for a cities guard [maybe with pre-gens/limited options], that way the players don't think your taking out your frustration on them for all their murderhoboism.

[Mr. Mask]

Octo: The oath is a good idea. You could try modifying the constable's oath, changing it to better fit the setting and be more appealing to your players: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_oath

There are other oaths you could consider as well. Writing your own up might be best, though the others can still offer inspiration.

Depending, you could even make a fairly serious ceremony at the start of the adventure, making each player stand and read out the oath, one after the other. I'd find that pretty cool, but your players mightn't like it so much.



With the adventurers not being central, you'll need to consider when they show up and how in relation to the rest of the adventure. If the war with them could torch the whole town, that might make the next adventure planned not work out. There's also the question of if they'll stick around and can be hired for stuff. You could get around this, make it that they're too busy with another quest to help the guards with what they're doing, or something.

[Storm_Of_Snow]

*Skim Reeds*
Wait, no one's brought up the possibilities the players may slip into semi-murderhoboism, go corrupt with a capital C and E [though probably not CE], be rather draconian with their laws and such?
Edit: Ok, one person brought it up, board redeemed...

Glad to be of service.

[czieg]

There was a module in second edition called 'Under Illfarn' the group has met each other previously as part of the guard. When a disaster strikes, the CO puts them into a special squad and sends them to investigate. Personally, when I was playing this, it was a lot of fun. I recommend the module or at least the idea.

[Shalist]

Probably also worth a mention:

Liberty City Police Face Allegations of Incompetence and Brutality:

..."I used to feel safe in Liberty City, but lately, it's been total mayhem," said night-shift worker Lola Del Rio, who spoke to reporters while sucking nervously on a red lollipop. "In the past week alone, I've been carjacked twice, run over 10 times, and witness to a half-dozen gunfights that ended with automobiles exploding. What are the police doing to stop all this?"...

[Octopusapult]

I've been wanting to try this ever since I read Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!.

Having the players have to rebuild a watch in a city that's suffered a breakdown in order might be an angle to take, to give them something to do between bouts of handling Murderhobos. And, there should be some genuinely-well-intentioned-but-still-troublesome NPCs as well, like the OotS in Cliffport.

Of course they're well intentioned. Why else would the Paladin be there? The rogue is just a necessary evil after all.

Why is it that with all their divinity and combat training no one ever bothered to show the Paladin how to work a lockpick anyway?

*Skim Reeds*
Wait, no one's brought up the possibilities the players may slip into semi-murderhoboism, go corrupt with a capital C and E [though probably not CE], be rather draconian with their laws and such?
Edit: Ok, one person brought it up, board redeemed...


...
I'd probably make this a one shot of a particularly bad day for a cities guard [maybe with pre-gens/limited options], that way the players don't think your taking out your frustration on them for all their murderhoboism.

Hopefully no one suspects me of venting frustrations at them. For all their shenanigans and game derailment it's always a good laugh. I never take it personally when a game breaks down and doesn't go the way I planned. Hopefully they'll have the same reaction.

The destructive murderhobos playing up all the popular tropes are of course just a one-off. Maybe they get themselves killed, maybe they stick around and can be offered "quests." It all comes down to the choices of the PCs.

Octo: The oath is a good idea. You could try modifying the constable's oath, changing it to better fit the setting and be more appealing to your players: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_oath

There are other oaths you could consider as well. Writing your own up might be best, though the others can still offer inspiration.

Depending, you could even make a fairly serious ceremony at the start of the adventure, making each player stand and read out the oath, one after the other. I'd find that pretty cool, but your players mightn't like it so much.



With the adventurers not being central, you'll need to consider when they show up and how in relation to the rest of the adventure. If the war with them could torch the whole town, that might make the next adventure planned not work out. There's also the question of if they'll stick around and can be hired for stuff. You could get around this, make it that they're too busy with another quest to help the guards with what they're doing, or something.

I would probably write it myself, but that link is a good place to start, thank you.

I haven't figured out if there will be a grand overarching plot to the thing or if they'll just take it crime after crime day after day.

It could be fun to give them detective (Inquisitor?) like roles and let them solve and connect smaller crimes (think L.A. Noir meets D&D) but I guess it'd be up to them. Maybe they're a collection of multiple departments?

Barbarian / Fighter types being a part of the Enforcement? Rangers / Rogues being Specialists? That would also open up some nifty backstory maybe for them to give themselves. Like being from the 17th Enforcer Branch and having connections there or maybe even some benefits from your branch selection.

There was a module in second edition called 'Under Illfarn' the group has met each other previously as part of the guard. When a disaster strikes, the CO puts them into a special squad and sends them to investigate. Personally, when I was playing this, it was a lot of fun. I recommend the module or at least the idea.

This is exactly what I was thinking as most player controlled characters are above-and-beyond the people they're alongside of. This would be no different in that regards and their superiors will take notice naturally.

Probably also worth a mention:

Liberty City Police Face Allegations of Incompetence and Brutality:

This article... this made me laugh...

[Mr. Mask]

You might want to avoid the place seeming too organized with different branches. The more organized and structure it is, the more likely you are to have the wizards in charge of forensics and investigation, with the warriors stuck drinking coffee until they need a building stormed or something. With a less organized situation, more akin to the wild west, no one is going to complain if the fighter decides to ask around town for leads on the recent murder. It also helps if the police force is short-handed in competent people (so, you could have plenty of traffic cops, but not many worthy detectives or SWAT members).

You could still make use of branches. They'd have to be lacking competent and versatile people, and the players swap between them based off which matters are the most pressing. Shouldn't be too formalized or bureaucratic.

If you want the players to have backstory as rogues from Intelligence or whichever, you can have it that they were transferred from more organized, competent cities' law enforcement. But then they'll feel less rooted in the town, unless they were transferred a long time back (having in their background that their old cities abandoned them, and this town welcomed them with open arms, that could help them feel better towards the town).


Important part is to start off with stuff to do. If you work out ten interesting adventures, then you can consider a way of connecting the dots for an overarching narrative. Even if you come up with a cool narrative first, you'll still need to make ten adventures.

[DeadMech]

I've only played a town guard once and not for very long. It ended up a bit something like this.

GM: You see a suspicious man in a residential area.
Me: Okay, what's suspicious about him?
GM: He's not a local you haven't seen him before.
Me: Okay...
GM: So what do you do?
Me: Aside from not being from around here what is he doing?
GM: He's walking down the street
Me: okay... I walk by and say hello as I pass continuing on my patrol.
GM: Nothing else happens on your patrol. The next morning you hear that someone broke into a home and murdered the resident inside on the street you saw the foreigner. Missed side quest but no time to worry about that though. You're getting roped into escorting a wizard and his companions through the pass. Along the way a rock slide occurs blocking the path back to town.

Less than a great start to a campaign. Punished for refusing to profile and investigate a random passerby, denied the chance to make up for it by looking for the guy, and railroaded out of town on a surprise one way trip.

[Octopusapult]

You might want to avoid the place seeming too organized with different branches. The more organized and structure it is, the more likely you are to have the wizards in charge of forensics and investigation, with the warriors stuck drinking coffee until they need a building stormed or something. With a less organized situation, more akin to the wild west, no one is going to complain if the fighter decides to ask around town for leads on the recent murder. It also helps if the police force is short-handed in competent people (so, you could have plenty of traffic cops, but not many worthy detectives or SWAT members).

You could still make use of branches. They'd have to be lacking competent and versatile people, and the players swap between them based off which matters are the most pressing. Shouldn't be too formalized or bureaucratic.

If you want the players to have backstory as rogues from Intelligence or whichever, you can have it that they were transferred from more organized, competent cities' law enforcement. But then they'll feel less rooted in the town, unless they were transferred a long time back (having in their background that their old cities abandoned them, and this town welcomed them with open arms, that could help them feel better towards the town).


Important part is to start off with stuff to do. If you work out ten interesting adventures, then you can consider a way of connecting the dots for an overarching narrative. Even if you come up with a cool narrative first, you'll still need to make ten adventures.

Yeah this is true. Not entirely sure what direction I'm taking it yet. I guess there's two ways to go really.

A pioneer town on the fringe of society with little in the way of "law" leaving the PCs to their own vices.

Or a city so large, so filled with law enforcement and rules that the PCs don't have to be the only competent people because the rest of the people who know what they're doing have their own districts and routes to deal with.

I've only played a town guard once and not for very long. It ended up a bit something like this.

GM: You see a suspicious man in a residential area.
Me: Okay, what's suspicious about him?
GM: He's not a local you haven't seen him before.
Me: Okay...
GM: So what do you do?
Me: Aside from not being from around here what is he doing?
GM: He's walking down the street
Me: okay... I walk by and say hello as I pass continuing on my patrol.
GM: Nothing else happens on your patrol. The next morning you hear that someone broke into a home and murdered the resident inside on the street you saw the foreigner. Missed side quest but no time to worry about that though. You're getting roped into escorting a wizard and his companions through the pass. Along the way a rock slide occurs blocking the path back to town.

Less than a great start to a campaign. Punished for refusing to profile and investigate a random passerby, denied the chance to make up for it by looking for the guy, and railroaded out of town on a surprise one way trip.

That's your GMs fault for expecting you to investigate a person based solely on "he dun looked funny."

You did good. Your GM was being a jerk.

[Sartharina]

Yeah this is true. Not entirely sure what direction I'm taking it yet. I guess there's two ways to go really.

A pioneer town on the fringe of society with little in the way of "law" leaving the PCs to their own vices.

Or a city so large, so filled with law enforcement and rules that the PCs don't have to be the only competent people because the rest of the people who know what they're doing have their own districts and routes to deal with.

The problem I see with DMing a Law Enforcement campaign is keeping it interesting while properly providing and simulating crime in the city that the PCs have to handle. Then again, the sheer number of successful Police Procedural shows (A good source of inspiration) and their success means it's not impossible/implausible.

Both of these suggestions can work out well, if you've got the time and patience for it (Then again, maybe ALL DMs have the time and patience, and I'm just a terrible attempt at a DM). The Small Town allows the PCs the challenge of creating and maintaining order in a manageable community, with checks on their authority coming from within(Don't want a revolt) and without (Men With No Names bringing Frontier Justice - then again, the PC's job is to stop those people from bringing 'wrong" frontier justice to town). And in the bigger city, they can be in charge of one of the more (initially) troublesome districts - they're the ones responsible for cleaning the place up, but if they abuse their power, they still answer to a higher authority. There's a fine balance between agency(Players can proactively make decisions to improve and reshape the state of law in their area), responsibility, and accountability(No turning the cops into a Cartel worse than the Mafia!) that needs to be balanced for a City Watch campaign to be fun.

[Mr. Mask]

Note that you can make the PCs responsible for the area around the town as well, if something major crops up in the villages or frontier homes. The people out on the frontier should be tougher than those in the town (people in towns could be very tough, so you'll need to decide on how tough you want them), depending on how rough the frontier is they can be dangerous as enemies (out in the wild, you can't rely on law enforcement protecting you, so you get tough).

In the areas outside the town, the players are likely to have more freedom in being corrupt, with less people to find them out and less organized resistance. This can be balanced out by those they're wronging being tougher, adding risk to the reward.

Either way, this'd give you the option for wild-west like quests as well, and possibly some more typical DnD quests.

[Braininthejar2]

I'm pretty sure there was a D&D book with a huge encounter table specifically for city guards, listing all the stuff that might happen in such adventures, from mages duelling in the street, through fires, robberies, domestic violence and sudden infant death syndrome (non ressurectable - in d&d it results from faulty fate - the child literally had no more life to live)

Even if you don't want to roll it, the list itself might be mighty useful - does anyone remember what book it was?

[Octopusapult]

Note that you can make the PCs responsible for the area around the town as well, if something major crops up in the villages or frontier homes. The people out on the frontier should be tougher than those in the town (people in towns could be very tough, so you'll need to decide on how tough you want them), depending on how rough the frontier is they can be dangerous as enemies (out in the wild, you can't rely on law enforcement protecting you, so you get tough).

In the areas outside the town, the players are likely to have more freedom in being corrupt, with less people to find them out and less organized resistance. This can be balanced out by those they're wronging being tougher, adding risk to the reward.

Either way, this'd give you the option for wild-west like quests as well, and possibly some more typical DnD quests.

This might be a really good way to mix both the Pioneer & Larger City ideas as one. If the larger city is something akin to Sharn or Ravnica (Magic the Gathering) and actually massive nearly beyond comprehension with some of the poorer slums on the outside.

Maybe, rather than the outsiders being "poor" they're simply not native to the city? Or the city is a border city and the people outside are not allowed in and don't have the resources to leave, so they're stuck there. The caravans and shops are entirely run by the "guests" and since what happens to them isn't technically happening to the residents of the nation / city not much done out there is a breach of the law.

So when the players are stationed outside the city to guard the Guests, they pretty much have their own run of the place and can run as loose as possible, destroy what they want, and be as overall vicious as they want / need to be.

And when they're stuck inside their actions and responsibilities are taken rather seriously by the brass if they don't go about playing something straight or endanger lives unnecessarily.

I'm pretty sure there was a D&D book with a huge encounter table specifically for city guards, listing all the stuff that might happen in such adventures, from mages duelling in the street, through fires, robberies, domestic violence and sudden infant death syndrome (non ressurectable - in d&d it results from faulty fate - the child literally had no more life to live)

Even if you don't want to roll it, the list itself might be mighty useful - does anyone remember what book it was?

I've heard some of these before, are you sure it's not just from the 3.5 DMG? I think it had some urban encounter tables in it.