Swordjockey
First Post
I haven't tried the new GM before but I'd like to give it a shot, and I think I came up with an interesting campaign idea. It's an evil PC only campaign, the players would start off as a dirt poor street gang in a medieval high fantasy city similar to the fictional city of Roanapur from Black Lagoon. the players goal would be to build up a criminal syndicate and drive out all of their rivals for control of the city. as the players become more more successful they'd be able to create NPC lieutenants that would serve to run aspects of the organization such as drug manufacturing and distribution or protection. I would also have them have illegal weapons limiting their ability to get more powerful items and magic weapons. With the advantage of this being that the players would eventually have large amounts of gold to be able to just buy out right magical items. as the players become more more successful they would be attacked by the other mobs and because the city is carefully balanced by the four pre-existing organized crime groups the city would plunge more and more into chaos, until eventually the players drive out or kill all the competition and reestablish order under their rules.
I have hopefully come up with a way to keep the players from killing each other First resurrection's not allowed generally my head hurt at the implications of a potentially immortal society depending on how much money you have. The second is that the new character that the play would take over would be one of the previous NPC lieutenants and they are one level below the now dead character. And that the group's primary income would be from activities performed between encounters, with the amount of money being decided based on skill rolls, for example the player with craft alchemy skill would roll their skill check to see the potency of the drugs and thus how much they could sell them, I would multiply the result they got by multiplications of 10^x so at beginning it would be multiplied by 10, then later on it would be multiplied by 100, and even later by 1000 based on how much territory they had control of. also all the player would be be sharing from the same pool of money for these that the players will divvy up among themselves to buy equipment and to pay for operations, and that individual money will only be given based on what they scavenged after encounters. Thus players repeatedly killing each other would mean they are permanently poor and that magical items would be virtually unattainable because the only they would be able to get the magical items would be to either craft them, buy them out right but because in the setting all magical items are illegal there'd be a big price increase on them, or pick them from their dead enemies but because of the requirements only the most powerful of their enemies would even have magical items.
I'm also looking for some general advice on this because the story would be going into darker places and I want to know how to handle this still gives the subject the gravity it needs and the play is still a fun. My idea would be to make it clear to the players that if something the stories making them uncomfortable tell me private and I will either remove it or scale back on that subject.
I also hope to make it possible for players to have multiple methods of completing objectives. For example one of the objects would be to get inside a well guarded mansion to kill one of their rival gang leaders. One method would be to just go straight through and kill everything that stands in there way, another would be to try to talk their way to the enemy's office and then get out, another one I thought of was to speak in underneath using the sewers that they would need to get assistance by one eyed goblin that had been tested on by a wizard and so it is much smarter than the average goblin but requires the players do something for him, in this case bringing him the person who took out his eye, and the person has to be alive, so that the goblin can set him on fire. suggestions for other scenarios and solutions on how the players could complete them would be welcomed.
I also thought of some random encounters, such as an enemy syndicate attacking there facilities, NPS that are part of the play is group attacking, raids by the city guards, that sort of thing. these encounters would be totally up to the players on whether or not they want engage in them, however if the players choose not to engage them success or failure will be decided by a role of a D20 with 1-4 being absolute failure 5-9 being failure but some things were saved, or there were low casualties. 10-14 being successful but with high casualties, 15-20 being a complete success. Some additional random encounter ideas would be appreciated.
Also and I admit I'm completely stealing this from Shadowrun the last and most powerful of the syndicates the players will go up against is led by a Dragon.
I'm looking for general advice on all facets, general GM advice, story and campaign creation advice, and advice if running an evil campaign is even a good idea.
I have hopefully come up with a way to keep the players from killing each other First resurrection's not allowed generally my head hurt at the implications of a potentially immortal society depending on how much money you have. The second is that the new character that the play would take over would be one of the previous NPC lieutenants and they are one level below the now dead character. And that the group's primary income would be from activities performed between encounters, with the amount of money being decided based on skill rolls, for example the player with craft alchemy skill would roll their skill check to see the potency of the drugs and thus how much they could sell them, I would multiply the result they got by multiplications of 10^x so at beginning it would be multiplied by 10, then later on it would be multiplied by 100, and even later by 1000 based on how much territory they had control of. also all the player would be be sharing from the same pool of money for these that the players will divvy up among themselves to buy equipment and to pay for operations, and that individual money will only be given based on what they scavenged after encounters. Thus players repeatedly killing each other would mean they are permanently poor and that magical items would be virtually unattainable because the only they would be able to get the magical items would be to either craft them, buy them out right but because in the setting all magical items are illegal there'd be a big price increase on them, or pick them from their dead enemies but because of the requirements only the most powerful of their enemies would even have magical items.
I'm also looking for some general advice on this because the story would be going into darker places and I want to know how to handle this still gives the subject the gravity it needs and the play is still a fun. My idea would be to make it clear to the players that if something the stories making them uncomfortable tell me private and I will either remove it or scale back on that subject.
I also hope to make it possible for players to have multiple methods of completing objectives. For example one of the objects would be to get inside a well guarded mansion to kill one of their rival gang leaders. One method would be to just go straight through and kill everything that stands in there way, another would be to try to talk their way to the enemy's office and then get out, another one I thought of was to speak in underneath using the sewers that they would need to get assistance by one eyed goblin that had been tested on by a wizard and so it is much smarter than the average goblin but requires the players do something for him, in this case bringing him the person who took out his eye, and the person has to be alive, so that the goblin can set him on fire. suggestions for other scenarios and solutions on how the players could complete them would be welcomed.
I also thought of some random encounters, such as an enemy syndicate attacking there facilities, NPS that are part of the play is group attacking, raids by the city guards, that sort of thing. these encounters would be totally up to the players on whether or not they want engage in them, however if the players choose not to engage them success or failure will be decided by a role of a D20 with 1-4 being absolute failure 5-9 being failure but some things were saved, or there were low casualties. 10-14 being successful but with high casualties, 15-20 being a complete success. Some additional random encounter ideas would be appreciated.
Also and I admit I'm completely stealing this from Shadowrun the last and most powerful of the syndicates the players will go up against is led by a Dragon.
I'm looking for general advice on all facets, general GM advice, story and campaign creation advice, and advice if running an evil campaign is even a good idea.
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