Adventure Ideas for Bounty Hunters?

[Castellan]

In late January/early February, I'm looking at starting up a new D&D campaign with a group of 3 (perhaps 4, though not likely) PCs. I've asked the players to come up with a reason why they're adventuring together, and they're currently kicking around the idea that they're bounty hunters of some kind. It's early enough in the planning phase that I'm not pushing for much more than that, yet.

Their discussion got me to wondering what kind of bounty-hunter-themed adventures might be run for a small group of PCs? My players are looking for adventures that would be somewhat episodic: we've had a good run of the mega-plot-arc, and we're all ready to encapsulate adventures in smaller chunks that may or may not be interconnected.

So, I put it to you: What kind of adventure ideas might be good for 3 bounty hunters?

 

[Breakstone]

Actually, I came up with a bunch of these over the summer.

1) Multiplication Man: There's a common thief one day who the characters stop and kill/send to jail. Then, a day later, the same man is seen stealing again. Twelve hours later, he (or someone exactly like him) is seen once more, this time violently mugging someone. Turns out that, for whatever reason, this criminal is budding off copies of himself. How do the characters stop him? And does the reward double with every copy?

2) Freaks. A cult of mutants has been raiding the city and retreating to their home in the sewers below. The characters are hired to bring back the head of the cult's leader. However, it turns out that the freaks are stealing supplies in order to fight off a greater menace that threatens both the freaks AND the city...

3) Archer. The characters are hired to capture/kill an ecoterrorist- an elven ranger archer who never misses. How will they take down this killer without being killed themselves?

4) The Man Who Has Everything. The characters are hired to capture/kill a criminal. After they defeat him, they find that he has been harboring an extremely powerful artifact. However, this artifact is also the target of many, many powerful enemies. Will the characters be able to figure out how the artifact works before the enemies find them?

 

[rbingham2000]

Tsunami touched on a very good point: every bounty head the PCs go after is different, and presents his or her own problems that the PCs have to deal with.

Like the young man who "kidnapped" a noblewoman because he's in love with her and wants to save her from being married off to an unpleasant noble.

Or the impulsive embittered kid who got hold of a powerful magic item and is running roughshod through the village taking vengeance upon everyone who wronged him.

Or a deadly vigilante fighter that travels from town to town slaughtering those who he thinks is evil.

And also, the PCs' pasts can figure into adventures in quite a way, like they did in Cowboy Bebop.

 

[Breakstone]

And also, the PCs' pasts can figure into adventures in quite a way, like they did in Cowboy Bebop.

Yup! Also, adding other, competing bounty hunters into the mix can be fun. Such as:


Family Possessions: The characters are hired to hunt down and kill a new criminal in town who is committing plently of violent crimes and collecting together his own organization. However, it turns out that this criminal is one of the character's sibling/parent/child/close friend, and he has been possessed by an evil spirit/powerful demon. Furthermore, another, extremely talented and deadly bounty hunter has been hired by another patron. Can the characters save the relative, defeat the demon, and still collect their bounty?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Inspired by another thread ...

Adventurers raided a magic item shop, and the PCs have been hired to bring them to justice and bring back the treasure.

It seems that in of of the magically trapped chests they stole was an artifact/being of infinite evil ... which they inadvertantly release. When it is discoverd, the bounty hunters have that added to their contract.

 

[Rel]

Once upon a time I ran a solo campaign for a friend who wanted to play a Bounty Hunter and I stole the plot from Jhereg by Steven Brust. I highly recommend his books regardless, but that one in particular played out great. In case you haven't read it...SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:







The antagonist was part of an organized criminal organization and he stole a very large amount of money from them. He then went to visit a Noble/Sorcerer who had a large castle (a floating castle actually) and was widely known to entertain many guests at a time. This Noble also made it clear that any wrong visited upon one of his guests was an affront to him and would incur his wrath.

SO...The criminal organization hires the PC(s) to go find this guy and kill him and/or get their money back (in the book it was most important that he die to teach other would-be thieves that they couldn't get away with this sort of thing). The problem of course is that when they find out where he is they also discover that if they kill or attempt to capture him there then they invoke the wrath of the (powerful) Noble. The Noble refuses to ask him to leave as it would be considered rude, though he isn't happy about being used by a criminal either.

The further twist is this: The criminal wants to die. His family was wronged in the distant past (the race in the book are very long lived) by both the criminal organization he's part of AND the Noble house of his host. He knows that the criminal organization can't suffer him to live having robbed them. They'll be forced to kill him and need to do it quickly if they want to save face. By killing him in the home of the Noble they'll touch off a full scale war between the Noble house and the criminal organization bringing down both of them.

So the task for the PC's is to somehow get him to leave of his own free will because the Noble won't allow him to be forced out and won't allow him to be harmed or captured while under his hospitality. Meanwhile the criminal organization is becoming more and more desperate to have this guy taken care of before every two-bit thief in the empire decides that they can be stolen from without reprisal. As such they'll start to hire other assassins who may interfere in whatever the party has planned or even threaten to kill them if they don't hurry up and get on with the job.

I don't know if I've done this plot justice but this campaign was among my very best ever and the dilemma and creative ways the PC managed to solve it made it very memorable.

For what it's worth, I think this might not be perfectly suited as a starting adventure but if you were to weave these various NPC's into the campaign and THEN spring this idea on them, I think it could make an awesome adventure for a troupe of bounty hunters.

Good luck!

 

[Ruined]

Nice thread. I have similar ideas for a Planescape campaign I hope to start up this year, with all PCs being bounty hunters.

If your PCs are moving from city to city, one difficult mission could be to grab a target in a city where the law isn't friendly to bounty hunters. Perhaps they don't recognize the authority of said PCs. It could make for a difficult mission when the forces of law and order are bigger adversaries than the target himself.

 

[ydirbut]

Idea

* Catch the runaway daughter/son of a nobleman.

 

[Ry]

Introduce competition in one adventure; have the competition _be_ the bounty in a later adventure. THe thing is he knows all the tricks, and will lay traps and use deception based on the kind of assumptions he'd make if he were in their position.

 

[Poster Bard]

Try The Whispering Woodwind as an early adventure in your bounty hunter campaign.