Need ideas for....Grand Theft Arcana campaign

Superunknown_GP · Mar 20, 2004

Hello there!

I'm starting a new campaign. The concept is Grand Theft Auto meets Urban Arcana (hence, I'm calling it Grand Theft Arcana). The "heroes" are all low-level flunkies in a crime family, with the goal of improving their status in the underworld (whether that means money, social status, whatever).

It's a fun concept, and I think it'll go well. However, I need some help.

For starters, I need a name for the city. I'm building my own- I'm sort of shooting for something that feels halfway between Chicago and New York City. Any suggestions for a name? Something that re-inforces the campaign theme would be awesome.

Secondly, I need ideas for rival gangs. I had the idea of theming them as well, around different monster types. For example, there'd be a crime family comprised primarily (although not entirely) of the undead. If anyone has any suggestions for other gangs (or perhaps even a different theme for them) I'd love to hear them.

Lastly, I've got two adventures planned out, but I'd like mroe, and ENWorld is nothing if not a font of good ideas. Anyone got any suggestions for adventures?

Thanks for any help you care to share!

blackshirt5 · Mar 20, 2004

Well, the obvious one, at least to my mind, is calling it New Jack City, although maybe too obvious.

How about a Chinese gang called the "Ghost Dragons"?

Gundark · Mar 21, 2004

New Chicago City.....okay I'm joking....let's see......St. Augustine? (kind of a gothic place with Cathedrals and stuff).......New Freeport?...Port Hamilton?....Darkport?... oh well....

BrooklynKnight · Mar 21, 2004

There is no reason you cant use real city names like NYC and Chicago. IMO.

I dont think there is any legal reason anyway.

Personally I'd LOVE a setting/game set in a real world city (like nyc) to play in.
If you use a real city you already have a world of resources and real places to use. All you do is place your own twist on them.

Byrons_Ghost · Mar 21, 2004

Well, I know that in the last contemporary game I ran, I made up a city simply because I was concerned with getting something horribly wrong, setting-wise. Is it a vaild concern? Not really, I always could have said it was different in my game, and I doubt any of my players would've been too familiar with any city that I chose (this was on the west coast). I just felt that it would detract from the game if we discovered a major gaffe later in play. So maybe that's Super's feelings as well.

Anyhow, I like the concept- have you played many of the GTA games? It's sort of funny, I haven't played the recent ones, but if you can find cheap copies of the first two then they'd have pretty much what you're looking for- maps taken from disguised real-world cities (I think it was NYC, San Francisco, and Miami in the 1st one, not sure about the second), and there's always different rival gangs you have to deal with. So these may help you out more than you'd think.

A friend of mine ran a supernatural vigilante game for a while (using the Dark Champions sourcebook, an excellent crime reference if you can find it), where the major foe were diabolist mobsters. They weren't actually devil worshippers, or deranged cultists, or anything like that. It's just that one of the up-and-coming bosses got his hands on a functioning grimoire, made some allies in the infernal regions, and used it to take over the streets. He wasn't a commited "force of evil" or anything, just figured he was probably going to hell anyway...

There's always the whole Jamaican posse/voodoo thing, although that's kind of cliched. Making them good guys, white magicians trying to protect their neighborhood might work out better. Or possibly some sort of South American cartel into Santeria (sort of South American voodoo) for a change of pace.

A crime-busting group of spook fed MiB types might be nice. Like a secret gang unit in the FBI that's also dealing with outsiders, maybe from a place like Mechanus that wants to impose it's own alien brand of order on the world. Someone from the law is going to have to come after the characters eventually, why not cyborg cops?

Superunknown_GP · Mar 21, 2004

Hmmm...

St. Augustine it is. If nothing else, it gives me tons of juicy quotes to use. "Rebellious angels are worse than disbelieving men...."

Plus, it lets me use "St. Og" as a slang name for the city, which is funny, because I used to run a stereotypical (humorously so) barbarian in a long-running campaign named "Ogg"....

I think I'll try to give it a Gotham-style twist now. Thanks Gundark! You da man.

I didn't want to use a real city- I'd hate to use the "well, it's different IMC" excuse. With a fictional city, I get free suspension of disbelief.

I have indeed played almost all of GTA- I never got around to finishing III, but I finished 1, 2, and Vice City. The only one I've still got a map for is Vice City, though. But that's a good thought.

I like the idea of FBI agents in league with an extraplanar being/power of Order. Maybe a group of Modrons wandered in from the Shadows....

Where could I find Dark Champions? Is it worth picking up? Is there anything like a GURPS: Magical Crime or something that would make a handy source of ideas?

I really like the campaign concept, I just think it's going to be a tremendous amount of work.

King of Old School · Mar 22, 2004

One thing you might consider is using Northport from Polyhedron #161 (Dungeon #102) as a starting point for your city design. It was intended as a fictional city for Pulp Heroes which incorporated aspects of NYC, Chicago and LA; it wouldn't take too much work to update it to the present day (or rename it St. Ogg), and the noir-pulp atmosphere would be perfect for something like GTA. Plus, combining aspects of the Big Three cities gives you the whole range of modern crime and pop culture tropes to throw in your game.

KoOS

Byrons_Ghost · Mar 22, 2004

Where could I find Dark Champions? Is it worth picking up? Is there anything like a GURPS: Magical Crime or something that would make a handy source of ideas?

Dark Champions was the street-level vigilante sourcebook for the Hero system. All the copies I've seen are fairly old, I don't know if it's still in print. I do think it was once of the first RPG books to present real information on criminal enterprises, IIRC.

I can't really think of any GURPS books that would fit the bill, although their Police supplement is excellent. For D20, Hogshead games has a line of books out for playing Police and Mobsters, but it's not exactly D20 Modern so I'd take a look at them before buying. I think the series is called "Crime Scene".

nobodez · Mar 22, 2004

Dark Champions 5th Ed.

I know that they're coming out with a new edition of Dark Champions for HERO 5th this year or next.

Also, I heartily recommend the Newport map from the d20M Pulp issue of Poly. With a bit of updating, it shouldn't have any problems.

Gundark · Mar 22, 2004

Superunknown_GP said:
St. Augustine it is. If nothing else, it gives me tons of juicy quotes to use. "Rebellious angels are worse than disbelieving men...."

Plus, it lets me use "St. Og" as a slang name for the city, which is funny, because I used to run a stereotypical (humorously so) barbarian in a long-running campaign named "Ogg"....

I think I'll try to give it a Gotham-style twist now. Thanks Gundark! You da man. .

Well thanks, it's always good to have my ego built up

. I like the chinese triad called the Ghost dragons. They could have assasins that use invisiblity, or something like a tattooed (did I spell that right) assasin where there tattoos give them magical powers

Also a group of Vampires called Night Haunt (or something) their lair is in a graveyard like the ones that you see in New Orleans, do an internet search for pictures, info. They really a unique look and have quite a gothic feel to them.
Here is a map of one http://cml.upenn.edu/nola/14maps/14mapsimg/nolabase_red.jpg

Hmm we could turn this thread into a "Build St. Augustine kind of thread"....that is if Superunknown_GP doesn't mind (he may wanna build the city himself)