Burrahobbit
Explorer
So, here's the scenario:
Setting: High fantasy. There's a certain port city, wherein a mafia-style thieves' guild has established total control. They have their hands in every business transaction worth nothing; they control the civil government, have half the police force in their employ and the other half bribed to look the other way, and even have branches in many other cities of the realm.
Recently, they went one step too far by accosting (possibly killing, possibly just robbing and offending) a close relative of the realm's sovereign, or else a foreign dignitary, something like that...the upshot being that the sovereign has decided not to take it anymore. He sends a new constable into town, a veteran campaigner and a notorious stickler for civic order and the rule of law. He promptly fires most of the police force, and with the loyal and dedicated remnants begins to root out the city's very deep-rooted criminal underworld.
But eventually he walks into an ambush, leaving his small force decimated and himself badly injured. The message from the thieves' guild is to get out of town. The constable has no intention of doing so, and asks for more support from the king. In response, the thieves' guild stages small "warning" uprisings in several cities across the realm. They clearly are threatening all-out war, and a costly, urban-guerilla style war at that, if they are not left their hard-won piece of the pie.
The PCs need the kingdom's military assistance as a broader campaign goal, but the sovereign is unwilling to commit any troops while under threat of a major civil uprising. So they're sent to the constable to see what they can do. The constable doesn't want it to turn into war (he hates the thought of innocent civilians put in danger under his watch), but he is under pressure from the king and the guild, both of whom are gearing up for a major showdown. The constable, crippled from the assault, deputizes the PCs and sends them on a last desperate gambit to bring down the guild before the country is embroiled in civil war, and the PCs own hopes for aid against the Main Bad Guy are thwarted.
Whew. A bit complicated, but I wanted to make sure all the background info was there before I asked: how might you go about running this adventure? I'm still debating about where to start, and what the goals should be - arresting (or killing) the heads of the thieves' guild one by one? Making it more of a mystery scenario where the big deal is finding out just who's in charge? Just marching into HQ guns (well, swords and wands) blazing?
Maybe my main problem is making the adventure compact enough, since the premise is big enough to span almost an entire campaign; I need the adventure to be pretty clear and focused in terms of what needs done, but on the other hand I don't want to lead the PCs around by the nose.
I've thought of dividing the guild up into a few "families" so that each could be tackled on their own in some kind of home base, before finally reaching the mysterious Boss; this seems a bit Mario-style, but it would make it more straightforward. On the other hand I could just make a map, plot out where the baddies will be on each of the, oh, say 5 days the PCs have before they run out of time, drop in some clues, shifty NPC informants, and rumor mills, and let them go nuts. But this runs the risk of being frustrating for the PCs (and hence for me), and would probably require a heaping dose of contingency planning and making things up on the fly (not that that's a *bad* thing, I guess).
Anyway, thoughts, comments, success stories in similar circumstances, failures in same?
Setting: High fantasy. There's a certain port city, wherein a mafia-style thieves' guild has established total control. They have their hands in every business transaction worth nothing; they control the civil government, have half the police force in their employ and the other half bribed to look the other way, and even have branches in many other cities of the realm.
Recently, they went one step too far by accosting (possibly killing, possibly just robbing and offending) a close relative of the realm's sovereign, or else a foreign dignitary, something like that...the upshot being that the sovereign has decided not to take it anymore. He sends a new constable into town, a veteran campaigner and a notorious stickler for civic order and the rule of law. He promptly fires most of the police force, and with the loyal and dedicated remnants begins to root out the city's very deep-rooted criminal underworld.
But eventually he walks into an ambush, leaving his small force decimated and himself badly injured. The message from the thieves' guild is to get out of town. The constable has no intention of doing so, and asks for more support from the king. In response, the thieves' guild stages small "warning" uprisings in several cities across the realm. They clearly are threatening all-out war, and a costly, urban-guerilla style war at that, if they are not left their hard-won piece of the pie.
The PCs need the kingdom's military assistance as a broader campaign goal, but the sovereign is unwilling to commit any troops while under threat of a major civil uprising. So they're sent to the constable to see what they can do. The constable doesn't want it to turn into war (he hates the thought of innocent civilians put in danger under his watch), but he is under pressure from the king and the guild, both of whom are gearing up for a major showdown. The constable, crippled from the assault, deputizes the PCs and sends them on a last desperate gambit to bring down the guild before the country is embroiled in civil war, and the PCs own hopes for aid against the Main Bad Guy are thwarted.
Whew. A bit complicated, but I wanted to make sure all the background info was there before I asked: how might you go about running this adventure? I'm still debating about where to start, and what the goals should be - arresting (or killing) the heads of the thieves' guild one by one? Making it more of a mystery scenario where the big deal is finding out just who's in charge? Just marching into HQ guns (well, swords and wands) blazing?
Maybe my main problem is making the adventure compact enough, since the premise is big enough to span almost an entire campaign; I need the adventure to be pretty clear and focused in terms of what needs done, but on the other hand I don't want to lead the PCs around by the nose.
I've thought of dividing the guild up into a few "families" so that each could be tackled on their own in some kind of home base, before finally reaching the mysterious Boss; this seems a bit Mario-style, but it would make it more straightforward. On the other hand I could just make a map, plot out where the baddies will be on each of the, oh, say 5 days the PCs have before they run out of time, drop in some clues, shifty NPC informants, and rumor mills, and let them go nuts. But this runs the risk of being frustrating for the PCs (and hence for me), and would probably require a heaping dose of contingency planning and making things up on the fly (not that that's a *bad* thing, I guess).
Anyway, thoughts, comments, success stories in similar circumstances, failures in same?
