Inspiration for an urban intrigue/espionage adventure

[Magean]

Hi all,

So, I'm DM-ing an Eberron game on 5e. I know there's a D&D 5e sub-forum, but it seems to be mostly about rules, so I'll keep my general plot-related questions here while going into the specifics there.

The game has an urban setting and is about fantasy cold war plots, intrigue, espionage, investigation and so forth. It should take some stress out of combat as compared to traditional D&D adventures.


I already have a good idea of the storyline: the factions involved, their objectives, the means they're willing to use to achieve said objectives...


What I need however is inspiration to design "subquests" for players to gradually discover who is up to what. For now they know very little, the desire to learn more should keep them interested in the campaign. Their characters have become entangled in a web of intrigue, as a result the local organizations may play carrot, stick or carrot-and-stick with them. Player characters would need to investigate the underworld, find out what's going on with the gang war getting worse and worse, for their own sake and that of their patrons. They may have to burgle into some rich and influential merchant's mansion to find evidence of his involvement in such or such scheme. They could also be mislead by dead trails. Or be tasked with identifying the cover agent of nation X.

That said, I'm somewhat at a loss to devise non-repetitive sub-quests. Burgle this mansion, follow that guy, steal this item, overhear that conversation, infiltrate this organization, eliminate such or such threat... I fear all adventures hooks would eventually look similar.


So, I'm turning to you for quick quest ideas or inspiration revolving around espionage, detective work, intrigue and powerplays...


Thanks in advance!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

As far as inspiration goes, I’d recommend reading Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastards series and watching the first batch of James Bond movies.

As much as I love the Sherlock Holmes stories, I don’t think they’re a good place to start for inspiration. Most players aren’t gifted with superhuman powers of observation, after all.

There’s also a wonderful blog entry on mystery/investigation adventures that I’ve found to be vastly useful:

http://blogofholding.com/?p=6649

For my part, I think that the key to proper investigation adventures is to not have a set “go there, do this, then go there, do this” outline. Instead, come up with interesting characters, complications, dead ends, and events. Then let the players decide how they are going to try to unravel the mystery. The key is to make sure that even when they’re wrong, something interesting or fun is happening. I don’t need to know that they’re going to ask Gungmiles the Sage in the Tower District about the spell component residue, but I do need to know that informant #1 is a gnome, speaks in overly complicated terms, knows about the spell components used in the secret ritual, and wants his competitor embarrassed in return for the information. Who the informant ends up being lies with the players. Maybe they decide to ask that drunken wizard they helped out a few adventures ago. Or go to the cleric's elders.

 

[Magean]

As far as inspiration goes, I’d recommend reading Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastards series and watching the first batch of James Bond movies.

As much as I love the Sherlock Holmes stories, I don’t think they’re a good place to start for inspiration. Most players aren’t gifted with superhuman powers of observation, after all.

There’s also a wonderful blog entry on mystery/investigation adventures that I’ve found to be vastly useful:

http://blogofholding.com/?p=6649

For my part, I think that the key to proper investigation adventures is to not have a set “go there, do this, then go there, do this” outline. Instead, come up with interesting characters, complications, dead ends, and events. Then let the players decide how they are going to try to unravel the mystery. The key is to make sure that even when they’re wrong, something interesting or fun is happening. I don’t need to know that they’re going to ask Gungmiles the Sage in the Tower District about the spell component residue, but I do need to know that informant #1 is a gnome, speaks in overly complicated terms, knows about the spell components used in the secret ritual, and wants his competitor embarrassed in return for the information. Who the informant ends up being lies with the players. Maybe they decide to ask that drunken wizard they helped out a few adventures ago. Or go to the cleric's elders.

Thanks! I didn't know about this Gentleman Bastards series, looks like a good read.

I guess the way to go would be to flesh out the city as much as possible, developing at least one location of each archetype (smoky squalid tavern, high-profile inn, marketplace, university, thieves' den, cultist base, sewers, bourgeois mansion, castle...) as well as the main NPCs, and then letting things evolve based on what players choose to do, moving clues and letting rumors spread if necessary, while keeping a few shake-up events (PCs stalked by an assassination squad, sudden chase sequence...) at hand?

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I guess the way to go would be to flesh out the city as much as possible, developing at least one location of each archetype (smoky squalid tavern, high-profile inn, marketplace, university, thieves' den, cultist base, sewers, bourgeois mansion, castle...) as well as the main NPCs, and then letting things evolve based on what players choose to do, moving clues and letting rumors spread if necessary, while keeping a few shake-up events (PCs stalked by an assassination squad, sudden chase sequence...) at hand?

I recommend getting the players involved. Give them a homework assignment to create a location, person, and faction. (And consider throwing in an item and event too.) It does part of the heavy lifting for you and gives you story elements that the players are interested in. I would be clear that these things may not show up in the game or may be changed by you to fit your campaign to appropriately set your players' expectations. Or if you want it more collaborative, take their creations and work with them for how they will appear in your campaign.

I would also work with the players before the campaign to find out what they want their characters to do--what factions they want to be associated with, what job they want to have, etc. I'd develop plot hooks based around those and would sprinkle leads for your central plot within them. If the Rogue wants to be part of a thieves' guild, give her robbery and con job plot hooks. As she resolves those plots, throw in clues for your main plot for her to start looking into.

But don't just give them plot hook, use your plot hooks to jump start them to driving the plot. Since the Rogue got to decide she's part of the thieves' guild instead of being told by the GM where her character fits, it'll hopefully get more buy in from her. If she's more invested it'll (hopefully) encourage her to being proactive. If she decides she wants to expand her guilds' territory let her do it and again, throw in trails for your main plot.

If you let the players guide the story more, I found it's helpful to have outside of the game discussions about what the characters want to do in the upcoming session. They're by no means obligated to follow through with their intended course of action but it's easier to weave your main plot into the seemingly tangential subplots if you know what they might get into.

Good luck! Keep us posted on how it goes!

 

[Magean]

I recommend getting the players involved. Give them a homework assignment to create a location, person, and faction. (And consider throwing in an item and event too.) It does part of the heavy lifting for you and gives you story elements that the players are interested in. I would be clear that these things may not show up in the game or may be changed by you to fit your campaign to appropriately set your players' expectations. Or if you want it more collaborative, take their creations and work with them for how they will appear in your campaign.

I would also work with the players before the campaign to find out what they want their characters to do--what factions they want to be associated with, what job they want to have, etc. I'd develop plot hooks based around those and would sprinkle leads for your central plot within them. If the Rogue wants to be part of a thieves' guild, give her robbery and con job plot hooks. As she resolves those plots, throw in clues for your main plot for her to start looking into.

But don't just give them plot hook, use your plot hooks to jump start them to driving the plot. Since the Rogue got to decide she's part of the thieves' guild instead of being told by the GM where her character fits, it'll hopefully get more buy in from her. If she's more invested it'll (hopefully) encourage her to being proactive. If she decides she wants to expand her guilds' territory let her do it and again, throw in trails for your main plot.

If you let the players guide the story more, I found it's helpful to have outside of the game discussions about what the characters want to do in the upcoming session. They're by no means obligated to follow through with their intended course of action but it's easier to weave your main plot into the seemingly tangential subplots if you know what they might get into.

Good luck! Keep us posted on how it goes!

Thanks, I'll sure do!

Since I'm playing on a published setting, I wouldn't change too many things regarding factions, lest it sort of breaks the overall consistency of the setting. However, I know how my players' character fit into this world, and I'm going to adjust the plot accordingly.

I also posted a detailed version of the storyline here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...Dragonmarked-Houses-and-intelligence-services
I posted these two threads because I thought D&D specific stuff wouldn't be appropriate in this subforum.

 

[Eltab]

My web-fu is poor (or maybe I'm just too lazy to do a meaningful search), but...

There was a thread a while back about "What can an L1 Rogue do that isn't combat?". The suggestions eventually gelled around a fancy-dress ball and the Rogue being the "head butler" for the party. You might want to include:
- Somebody is wearing a mask like a famous literary character. (Phantom of the Opera, Man in the Iron Mask, Zorro, &c.) Who is it, and why?
- An individual seems to be able to move from room to room without walking down the hallway in between. How does he do that?
- A drunken older gentleman is hovering over the punch bowl making inappropriate suggestions to women who come by for a drink. Get him to move away.
- Romeo and Juliet are trying to sneak outside to a quiet secluded niche to play kissyface.
- It is very important to The Lady Of The House that the east side of the building have NOBODY outside after the moon sets.
- Two mildly-drunk gentlemen are getting into an argument over something silly (the upcoming horse races?), maybe heading towards a brawl.
- A batch of teenagers have dared each other to do something foolish, like climb up the ivy-covered outside walls without a rope or proper gear
- Somebody somehow let in a member of the lower classes; get him out without making a scene.
- A distinguished gentleman who is not the evening's entertainment is singing. He sounds better than the band. Get him to pipe down anyways.

Any of these can have additional information attached to them to link to one of your established plot threads.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

A sandbox approach would definitely work out well as an approach.That would enable the PCs to have the freedom to pursue leads and work through the mysteries on their own.

Though, rather than doing as much as possible, I would recommend focusing on just a few interesting things. You don’t need a million wizards, but one Gleep Wurp The Eyebiter will stick in the players memories. And just a few familiar locations will help the setting come to life. I couldn’t tell you about any other bar in the Thieves World series, but I certainly can picture The Vulgar Unicorn.

I guess the way to go would be to flesh out the city as much as possible, developing at least one location of each archetype (smoky squalid tavern, high-profile inn, marketplace, university, thieves' den, cultist base, sewers, bourgeois mansion, castle...) as well as the main NPCs, and then letting things evolve based on what players choose to do, moving clues and letting rumors spread if necessary, while keeping a few shake-up events (PCs stalked by an assassination squad, sudden chase sequence...) at hand?

We did just this for the Dresden Files RPG, which was heavily investigation-based. It enabled some great ideas and story arcs that never would’ve happened with just one person coming up with stuff. And when “their idea” came up in the game, the player was definitely more invested in it.

I recommend getting the players involved. Give them a homework assignment to create a location, person, and faction. (And consider throwing in an item and event too.) It does part of the heavy lifting for you and gives you story elements that the players are interested in. I would be clear that these things may not show up in the game or may be changed by you to fit your campaign to appropriately set your players' expectations. Or if you want it more collaborative, take their creations and work with them for how they will appear in your campaign.

 

[Magean]

So... We had our session. As PCs' backgrounds weren't developed enough, I let players have a sandbox in the main city, to discover the setting and flesh out their RP. I didn't want my scenario to be botched by not being as developed as I had envisioned it, with characters feeling dropped in with no reason. Eventually, at 3 AM, everyone was tired and players decided to enter the "haunted" cathedral just because (in fact it wasn't haunted, but the crypt and underlying cavern were populated by a gang which had used illusion magic to scare off intruders). They found the secret entrance to the gang' lair - but just entered before we ended the session and didn't encounter any thug yet.

Now I guess, at least I have an easy way to railroad everyone into a gang war. They're only level 3 and they can't realistically destroy the historically established gang alone, and should they make out of it or run away they'll be hunted down by the gang. However... why not having them dropping by a battle between it and a rival organization trying to take over the place ? That would make some fun introduction. I could even add in some law enforcement guys, sent there to cleanse the place at the same time. Battle royale! PCs could be forced into serving X or Y.

Also, I planted an adventure seed with a gems' robbery in a museum. The players investigated but gave up upon realizing the network was too big a fish for them.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That’s a great idea for a first session in an urban campaign, one I wouldn’t have thought of. Sounds like a solid way to ground them in the worldbuilding, and get to know each other’s characters. Might have to use it for my next campaign…

So... We had our session. As PCs' backgrounds weren't developed enough, I let players have a sandbox in the main city, to discover the setting and flesh out their RP.

 

[Eltab]

I could even add in some law enforcement guys, sent there to cleanse the place at the same time. Battle royale!

When the police figure out two gangs are fighting each other, they just hang back and watch.