Got an Idea for a Campaign, now I need a ruleset

[teach]

I'm looking to start a game in a post-something city where the players are going to become a major force in a city wracked by gangs and factions fighting over turf. I'd like the actual play to still resemble d&d, not necessarily in ruleset, but rather in style: players have a goal, control one PC and seek to accomplish that goal in a play session. However, I would like to have a "meta-game" on top of this game where the players are rewarded for control of certain areas. I see an important part of this game being a map of the city, showing what areas are under their control and what areas are under rival factions control.

Some of my inspirations for this include:

Batman: No Man's Land - Batman fights to regain Gotham after an earthquake causes the US government to give up on Gotham.
Paizo's Kingmaker - Players are slowly building up a feudal territory, and get bonuses for how they build up their city.
Escape from New York - A ruined city with a power vacuum, cut off from the outside.

Right now, I'm not too concerned about the time period. I could see this set in the stone age to the transhuman age, as its the tale of a group of people taking power and control of those around them, but I do have have to ask you, oh story gamers, two questions:

What rulesets do you think would work well for this sort of gaming? I already see Apocalypse World being great for this, but would love some other suggestions.
Let's assume that my players will only play some form of D&D. How would you adapt/add to the ruleset of D&D to play this kind of game? Is the Kingmaker rules robust enough to work for a long term campaign?

Thanks everyone!

 

[CHC]

What about the Dark Sun campaign setting? It's slightly post-apocolyptic and has a lot of interesting things going for it. The best part is the accepted canon for the campaign setting usually starts games off with the death of Kalak, a sorcerer-king who ruled the city of Tyr. The ensuing chaos and power vacuum play a heavy role in the adventures to come. Your game could quite easily fit into the (perhaps now sealed?) city of Tyr as different gangs and factions vie for power.

Best of all, the setting is official D&D (AD&D2 / 4e both have it published) so there will plenty of material for inspiration or filling in gaps.

Anyway, that would be my suggestion - have fun with it and enjoy!

 

[AngryMojo]

Considering you're using No Man's Land as an inspiration, have you thought of using the DC Adventures/Mutants and Masterminds 3rd? It's hella fun and might work out with what you're looking for.

 

[Nagol]

So you need a game where different territories generate long-term value of interest to the PCs.

I can think of a couple of options off the top of my head: a modified
Birthright setting where all the ley lines are inside the city or a modified Ars Magica campaign where different areas generate vis.

 

[Lwaxy]

Gammaworld? Darwin's World?

Or small campaign settings fit for adaption? I am toying with a similar idea for DarkLore (Malladin’s Gate Press) or the Redstar Campaign setting (Mythic Vistas/Green Ronin).
​

 

[teach]

Thank you Nagol for actually reading my post. That's very helpful. I'll have to check out birthright, I've never seen it before. And I didn't realize that Ars Magica might fit. I'll have to check that out as well.

Thanks [MENTION=6688687]CHC[/MENTION] and [MENTION=83096]AngryMojo[/MENTION] for rule sets for the actual play, but I'm not as concerned about the rules for PC play, rather, I'm looking for how to manage the areas and factions that will come under the PCs control. I'd love for them to provide some form of mechanical benefit for the PCs as they adventure in this city, and for their adventures to have some impact on the regions and factions they control.

Thanks [MENTION=53286]Lwaxy[/MENTION], but how would those campaign settings support faction and area control type game play? I haven't seen them before, so I'm curious.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My personal preference would be some form of HERO- Fantasy HERO if you want to stick with fantasy- because HERO is soooo flexible. You could even use it to simulate PC types from all versions of D&D simultaneously.

GURPS, a system I don't particularly like, could probably do likewise.

Stepping outside of fantasy, you might look at Paranoia. The Mongoose version has rules that let you run such a game in its original comedic form OR as a serious sci-fi game. Since each PC (regardless of which version of the game you play) is a member of a secret society, the metagame you want is baked in. So will infraparty conflict, since PCs are not inherently members of the same society.

The WoD games- ESPECIALLY Mage and Vampire- are full of dueling factions, and are definitely story first systems.

Within the purely D&D rulesets, DarkSun would be my first instinct. Given your "post-something" setting, using a (homebrewed) city-state that is not currently under the scaly thumb of a reigning dragon-king could be interesting. The warring factions could be locals & outsiders vying to assume control...and/or to prevent others from doing so. There might even be a faction trying to keep the city free of ANY dragon-king's rule.

 

[Lwaxy]

Darwin's World is a post ap setting where everyone is fighting for resources. There are gangs and cities controlled by crime lords who hoard the resources. You could basically pick any city to fight over.

Gamma World is similar. Civilization is just trying to regain any meaning but there are enough groups not wanting to see everyone cooperate. The setting is more future like though.

Red Star offers a world much like hours, just that history developed differently. Lots of nations are under oppressive regimes, fundamentalist religious types and those fighting for freedom. It can be easily modified to include city states doing their very own thing while needing to keep in mind the politics around them.

DarkLore is a fantasy post ap setting. After the gods went to war, the world is desolate and dark and only one continent does reasonably well. Any city placed there could have issues about who controls it and what type of politics, if any, are to follow.

 

[nedjer]

If you don't mind Old School, and (for now) PDF, you could take a look at clone Corruption.

The set-up you describe of rewarding specific missions and rewarding wider on-going challenges for doing stuff is one of the options built into the game. It's done in a flexible/ some my say loose Old School way, but there are clear mechanisms for bringing together what PCs do in the game world and rewarding that.

Other options, which might tie-in with the factional in-fighting and slightly caustrophobic/ internecine feel, (my reading of your notes), include adding the Corruption attribute to play around with moral dilemmas - and a thick slice of new 'twist of evil' content in terms of monsters, items and sort of event 'items', (Seeds of Corruption), which make things a touch darker without descending into gloom.

The licence includes printing personal copies of the Players' Guide for all your players, as it cuts the cost of setting-up a group - and players with a free players' guide but not the GM's Guide are back in the position of playing against the unknown whenever the new content pops-up.

Lots of sample material from Thistle Games and the game from Drive Thru.

 

[Derulbaskul]

Savage Worlds.

I find it's a great "go to" system for when I am not sure what would otherwise work. It's also got great (non-feral) fans who are very helpful should you need help developing ideas (and I am sure at least one has created a Kingmaker-like set of rules for SW).