Defend the town, for the entire campaign

[Bullgrit]

This quote comes from another thread:

The village where they live would be beset by monsters every game. Orcs, trolls, dragons, whatever - they would come with regular frequency. Fighting them off would simply be part of the everyday grind. At the same time there would be a lot of emphasis on character development and people living day to day.

This idea really struck me for some reason. I think this is a really cool idea for a campaign. But could it work?

A relatively small village or town, situated way out in the wildlands, far from any outside help. It has something about it -- a product, a location, a personage, something -- that draws attackers to it. The PCs are the only "heroically trained/talented" residents, so they become the defacto defenders.

Each adventure would have some kind of antagonist that the PCs must repel. They could/would never leave the town -- they are cursed, they are well paid, or maybe they just accept that they are needed to defend the town.

Maybe the PCs are officially known as the defenders, or maybe they are secret heroes working without recognition.

Maybe the town grows throughout the campaign, with the PCs. Maybe it doesn't -- maybe its survival totally relys on the PCs holding off the invading evils.

Has anyone done something like this before? What are some other aspect and ideas to consider with such a campaign?

Bullgrit
Total Bullgrit

 

[Aeolius]

Attacks would come not only from outside of the town, but also from within. Secret organizations, cults, and guilds could keep the party on their toes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would worry you'd have too few sets and NPCs to play with over time, unless you thought of EVERYTHING to begin with, and if you can, please write a how-to-DM guide.

 

[maddman75]

You are describing a default game of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sure its modern instead of fantasy, but the concept is the same. I've ran a few of those, so here's what made it work IMO.

- Set pieces instead of dungeons. The action here isn't going to be some exotic place the PCs are exploring, but their old familiar stomping grounds. You need several interesting places, such as the friendly Inn, the temple, the keep, and so on.
- Interesting NPCs. Moreso than in exploratory games, the NPCs need to breathe. They need to be someone the PCs care about. Introduce drama with them. Make them fall in love/despise/worship/betray the PCs on a regular basis.
- Cinematic Framing. In an exploratory game, who is going where in what order often matters a great deal. In a game where everyone is in the same town, they can get to where they need to go with little problem. Cut scenes from one to the next, introducing conflicts and subplots.
- Monster Central. Buffy has the Hellmouth, a center of mystical convergence that draws in vampires, witches, werewolves, demons, and everything else you could imagine. This town could have the fantasy equivelent. Maybe a portal to the abyss. Little evil things are drawn to it naturally, and big evil things want to blow it wide open. Or an altar of power in the temple, or even a mine full of gold or mithril.
- Explore the subplots. When I'd make a Buffy game, I'd pick the Monster Of The Week to show up and start terrorizing teenagers. There would be the initial exploration, rising action, and resolution, but I would intersperse that with subplots for each character. Each character got at least once scene per game to explore a romance, emotions, relationships, and so on.

 

[Nightson]

Each adventure would have some kind of antagonist that the PCs must repel. They could/would never leave the town -- they are cursed, they are well paid, or maybe they just accept that they are needed to defend the town.

Maybe the PCs are officially known as the defenders, or maybe they are secret heroes working without recognition.
http://www.totalbullgrit.com

Simplest way to manage it would be to make them grow up in the town, let them have friends and family still in town. Pretty hard to leave your mom to get killed by orcs.

 

[Cadfan]

To add to maddman's list- make the commonplace unfamiliar. Maybe the tavern gets an entire wall torn off by a rampaging demon, changing its layout, freaking out the characters, and letting you slowly repair it over the next few sessions, giving you "new" scenery and a potentially different layout for the newly repaired building. Maybe the "church" set piece that's been used repeatedly in the past turns out to have a secret door under the altar that leads to a blasphemous cultist lair- what you're aiming for is either, "Woah, what HAPPENED to this place!" or, "That's been there ALL THIS TIME?"

 

[Pbartender]

Personally I'd make it a relatively large city. It gives you a little more room to play in, would make it easier to orchestrate "threats from within", and would make possible "modified dungeons" within the city -- a warren of back alleys in the slums, for example.

Also, to use the 4E "point of light" paradigm, you could apply the same principle to the city itself... Certain districts, buildings, organizations and locations could be considered "points of lights" within the city. Places are that can always be considered relatively safe by adventuring standards. Whereas other locations and neighborhoods take the place of the proverbial deep dark woods -- it's not safe to walk there even in daylight.

Ancient Rome during its heyday would be a good example... or perhaps if you can envision a medieval version of Gotham City.

 

[Ktulu]

This is basically what the heroic tier of my campaign was (finished last saturday). The town was actually a city, but they were away from all aid and were left on their own. They had to deal with assassins, root out spies, fight off the conquering army (they failed), then gain aid from outside sources and retake the city (finale', went awesomely).

As long as you don't restrict the players, it works great. I allowed them the freedom of choice, but left the timeline advancing. When they left the city to save an ally, they found the city walls were breached and the battle raged on.

 

[redwing]

Seven Samurai comes to mind.

Even the anime Samurai 7 could be mined for inspiration. It's episodic nature translates well to table top roleplaying

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Unless done right it could get old pretty quick.

If this town out in the middle of nowhere is getting attacked by hordes of monsters every week, why aren't people leaving in droves?

If characters start dying, where do replacements come from? And why haven't they been helping right along if they've been in town the whole time?

If the characters are saving the town every week, why aren't they being given the best equipment available as soon as it becomes obvious that they are? ("Sorry, you're not high enough level for that.")