Help a new GM with plot for a Thief, the Dark Project game

[Kemrain]

I was hoping I could get some help in the form of plotline suggestions from the wonderfully creative readers of this forum. (Note: Flattery in the first sentence.) I am new to GMing, so I don’t think I could handle hugely in-depth over-arching Super-Plots, but any ideas that help me come up with something usable would be quite appreciated.

A little information about my game: I will be running a 3e D&D game, using Kenneth S. Hood’s Grim and Gritty system. (Ask for more information if you need it.) The setting will be derived from Looking Glass Studios hit First Person Sneaker Thief, the Dark Project. As such, there are no spellcasters in the party, magic is very rare, and the only race of note is Humanity. Odd D&D game, huh?

I will be making an attempt at The Eye, for those of you familiar with the Thief series, though not for Constantine. I have a plotline in development revolving around the magical/spiritual side of the mythos. What I’m lacking is the more mundane ‘X is looking to gain power from Y by doing Z and he’s going to use A and B to do it’ sorta thing.

So far the party consists of 2 first level Rogues, and when the other guy/people who’ll be playing makes his/their character/s, I’ll have three or four Rogues running about. As it stands, one of them is an Informer, and the other is an aspiring Information Broker. (Perfect reason for them to know each other already.) I have a feeling that the other character/s are going to be more object-oriented Rogues, like Pickpockets or Boxmen. When you only get one class to choose from at first level, you need to make your character as different fro the others as possible.

People who know the setting and have Ideas are quite welcome to give me any suggestions they can come up with, and people who don’t know the setting could still give me wonderful ideas that I could adapt with little effort, so please don’t feel you shouldn’t post just because you’ve never played Thief.

If you’re interested in this setting, you can go here for more information. If you have any questions for me, that would help you understand what I’m talking about, or be better able to help me, please feel free to ask as many as you’d like. Thank you ahead of time for any assistance you can give me.

- Kemrain the Keeper

 

[yennico]

I will be running a 3e D&D game, using Kenneth S. Hood’s Grim and Gritty system. (Ask for more information if you need it.)

I do not know this system

The setting will be derived from Looking Glass Studios hit First Person Sneaker Thief, the Dark Project.

I only played some missions of Thief 2. I liked the game.

As such, there are no spellcasters in the party, magic is very rare, and the only race of note is Humanity. Odd D&D game, huh?

No. I think it is a theme-based setting. I would like to play it I always like to play a rogue/wizards. Ok in your campaign magic is very rare...

If you restrict magic sou must also restrict healing potions, magic weapons, and some of the equipment lthe thief uses invisibility potions. If you want you can allow equipment like the water arrows, these equipment is not based on magic but on technology.

I was thinking about running a game in an arabian nights setting, but all players must be rogues. They started as low level members of a gang. The PCs make their carreer as gangsters. They must carry out jobs like observe some persons or buildings. The infos they get through this jobs are used by the thieves guild. Or they had to protect their neighborhood against other gangs. Or coellect protection money from persons who did not want to pay. Later that game (after gaining several levels (6-10)) one PC can perhaps multiclass as fighter. Or another rogue is infected by a disease called sorcery

I will be making an attempt at The Eye, for those of you familiar with the Thief series, though not for Constantine.

I do not recommend to play the story of the PC game. If some of the players have played this PC game he already knows everything. I would take the world of the PC game and create my own plotline.

Plotline:
Think about some big, evil guy. The guy in command of everything which is done against the player. This guy has several persons who wor for him. He also blackmails some important persons to do favors for him. Perhaps the guy is the leader of an smuggling organisation.

So far the party consists of 2 first level Rogues, and when the other guy/people who’ll be playing makes his/their character/s, I’ll have three or four Rogues running about. As it stands, one of them is an Informer, and the other is an aspiring Information Broker. (Perfect reason for them to know each other already.) I have a feeling that the other character/s are going to be more object-oriented Rogues, like Pickpockets or Boxmen. When you only get one class to choose from at first level, you need to make your character as different fro the others as possible.

It is a good thing that every rogue must take another role model.

The alignment of the rogues can be a problem. Are they the good guys or must they be the good guys? Or are they chaotic neutral ?

Just my 2 cents
yennico

 

[Cyclops]

I like letting the players bump into some elaborate villain's plot.

For example. The PC's spote a skeleton in an alley, bent over a dead human. The skeleton looks up (he has eyeballs), sees the PC and flees disapearing into a maze.

The human is dead, eyes gone. A trail of blood leads to a warehouse that is too active for this time of night.

The PC's have stumbled into a counterfiting ring. Gold plate on lead coins from a nieghboring kingdom. The skeleton is an undead pirate that needs fresh eyes every month just to see.

The pirate is only a part of the plot. The organization is much bigger than him. Living humans do the forgery work, and the pirate with his skeleton crew enter the harbor, walk on the botom and tie bags of counterfit coins to the chains of specific artsy anchors.

The organization can be rebels dedicated to the overthrow of a neighboring country, the overthrow of the entire region, or just an inventive theives guild using an neutral port to secretly ply their trade.

Sea lions, trained giant squid, undead pirates that say "Arrr." and normal thieves and thugs are all part of this enterprise.

 

[Arc]

Hmmm... Theif seemed to be heavy on stealing very expensive things. Add a magical item (rare, remember) and suddenly you've got an impedus. Get a buyer or fence to let slip that he's heard about it, and that he'd be willing to pay a pretty penny, and you've got a plot hook. If you're willing to spend the time, draw up some detailed floorplans, guard patterns, etc. and let one or two of the PC's start observing the site. Let them buy information, bribe guards, trade in rumors just to get an opening in security. It's easy to make a single loot run quite interesting.