The Campaign Builder's Guild

So not intended for publication (at least not for now), the home-brew I've been running a Pathfinder campaign with is the Free City of Zentiir. Lying along a rugged coast, at the mouth of river that cuts a narrow chasm through a plateau reaching the sea. At the mouth of that river is a small area just above the waterline large enough to place a single city, though it is dependant on naval traffic, as it is too difficult to travel inland along the fast moving rapids heavy river.

A mercantile league first established the free city as a charter from the Duchy of Dernallion who claims this coastal march. For a given reduced discounted price for goods acquired in Zentiir then dispersed to the inner territories. A stipulation in the charter allowed for outlaws, criminals and exiles to seek refuge within the city, after a given amount of time, there crimes are rescinded and they are considered free. As an unusual addition the charter is binding for 10,000 years. The contract was also binding whether either or both port city and controlling sovereignties were replaced with other owners.

One of the senior league litigant/magistrates was actually an outsider agent serving a lawful neutral deity as a watchdog in the organization. He was one of the legal officers to sign this charter and its additions, thus making it binding at an extraplanar level.

Now criminals, sociopaths, wanted necromancers, exiled or outlawed elementals, genies, efrit, rakshasa, outerplaner beings dwelled in the city trying to gain their freedom... overtime these outsiders have become the various guildmasters, merchant princes, even holding city offices like the marid harbormaster.

A bounty hunters guild obtains official warrants from various outerplanar and 'terran' authorities trying to apprehend those exiles and criminals hiding in Zentiir. Once caught a church run temple prison, whose guard-adherents abhor capital punishment preferring maximum security incarceration. They manifacture and implement nutrients into the diet of inmates that slow down their aging process, thus a sentence of triple life or 500 years can be fully served.

Various outerplanar agencies maintain office/embassies in the city even help funding the various institutions that allow the existence and holding of outsider prisoners.

The PCs work for various agencies, guilds and other factions in a cold war between various outsider powers in the city - lots of politics, stealth missions, espionage, assassination, and some dungeon crawls under the city.

Just to give it that extra 'spice' I'm having an RPG playing attorney friend of mine draw up the City Charter in semi-legalese and old world style as a 'legal document' presenting the city's existence and bylaws as an interesting player hand-out of the city. He's doing it as a favor.

Thoughts?

GP

Sounds fantastic!  How many players, and who/what are they playing (if you know yet)?

Does anyone keep the peace within the city itself, apart from the bounty hunters?

As I said, a Mercantile League founded the city, but a century ago a militant naval empire took over the city as their own, but being lawful evil acknowledged the charter and maintained the required discounted trade goods and all its bylaws. They maintain a professional law enforcement city guard that watch the city and maintain security at extra tight levels. There is a griffen riding 'air force' that maintains a 'no fly' zone above the city. So yes, very tight control. The bounty hunters though legal and licensed often break the law in the pursuit of their bounties, so the police try to minimize their behavior as well. Both divine and arcane spellcasters are in this force as well.

Despite the rulership by an evil military governor, he has proven to be shrewd and willing to give concessions to the good factions and support for the commoners, so is recognized as wise, even by the good churches and paladin order in the city. All alignments, all factions exist here and though a terrestrial location has many other-planar aspects due to its unusual outsider population.

I've got one bounty hunter, for now using the new Pathfinder Advanced Player Guild class, the Inquisitor - a stealthy, melee strong, limited divine caster. I've got a rogue assassin, who is wanted by both the civil authorities and the assassins guild, having left to go 'free agent', except nobody leaves the assassins guild alive. I've got a female noble figher who has been exiled from her family due to liaisons with rebel anti-noble group in a plot against her own king (that king wants her dead.) I've got one priest who is to be a vile necromancer 'taking what he kills' as his own - already with both bounty hunters and the city watch after him. I've got a Summoner (another new APG class), but he's out of state for the next couple weeks so nobody as the arcane caster for the moment.

This next weekend though one of the younger members of the group has a D&D playing friend for the weekend who will be joining the game, and we'll have to adapt his chosen character or give him a slight pre-gen to fix up, since he won't be a permanent player.

That's it so far!

GP

My attorney friend is at trial this week so too busy to get to the City Charter, but he said, he'd be interested and thought it was a fun idea, also mentioned if there were any other fantasy contracts I might need he would provide. So I hinted to him I need a Bounty Hunter's License and an Assassin's Contract - so he'll be working on those too. Since the Free City of Zentiir is strongly lawfully based, the 'legal contracts, charters and licenses' as hand-outs help emphasis this aspect of the setting we're playing in. I should ask for a Bounty Hunter's Warrant/Bounty as well.

GP

Will you be posting those legal texts here? They could be valuable as models/inspiration for us other world designers.

I sure will Ghostman! I've needed an Assassin's contract in the past, and sort of winged it myself, but would have much preferred a contract with some official sounding legalese, that might have some legal ground by the way its written. So it dawned on me that I knew someone who might just do this for me, for fun!

I'll cut and paste the straight legal texts, but might also post an artistically rendered contract in parchment and olde style text as well.

I think they can certainly be inspirational (sounds funny thinking of 'lawyer' work as inspirational for an RPG game).

GP

Got a bunch of new players all of a sudden. The friend of one of our players wants to play D&D again, and is teaching his girlfriend the game (she really seems interested). Apparently someone living two houses down from another player joined in too, he's about their age as well - so three new players. Since the existing party has a problematic mix - especially in the cleric necromancer, I've been thinking about starting over, so all the players can start at 1st and really get the feel of the setting.

The Advanced Players Guide for Pathfinder is not in my hands yet, preordered from Amazon for release on August 24th ($26+), but from threads on various boards, not only does the book introduce some recently playtested new classes, but have some variant class builds of the base classes - some with very interesting flavor that fits this campaign.

The APG has: Detective Bard, Investigator Rogue, Urban Ranger, Urban Druid and the Inquisitor new class, the latter being kind of a ranger serving churches and holy causes with more divine spells starting at 1st level and other unusual abilities. All fit in the Bounty Hunter Guild theme which I think is the direction I'd like to take the campaign. While some PCs could be agents for one of the various outsiders running the city as guildmaster or other position. Prowling on the various outlaws and exiles - the human form at low levels and outsiders at higher levels could make for an interesting campaign. Even a paladin fits the role.

Then all the legal document player hand-outs would have greater significance to the game, giving them license to play their role as a Bounty Hunter should. Since bounty hunters sometimes break the law to pursue their quarry, they aren't always on the best terms with the local authorities who consider them wild cards and vigilantes, and worth hauling off to jail when they get out of hand. So bounty hunters aren't the law. Law prevents outsiders from pursuing those criminals that have escaped their bondage. The Bounty Hunter's Guild is the only licensed entity within Zentiir allowed to capture those whom their legal warrants specify, given to them by agents of various governments and extraplanar courts.

Some of the PC Bounty Hunters might have bounties on their own heads, which add to inter party dynamics as well as encounters with other hunters after them, while hiding as a BH as cover until your freedom is granted.

While I might make a definitive Bounty Hunter class for someone to take, the majority of party members choose from one of the new urban variants from the APG.

GP

Now I'm building a Nosferatu prestige class for the setting. They aren't as powerful as PF vampires, but then they don't have all the weaknesses either. These guys are blood-drinkers that cause CON damage, not drain, nor ability drain, so not as devastating to a party of adventures, nor as overpowered PC vampires.

They start with 10 weaknesses at 1st level and each level up, they get to remove one of them, so at level 10 Water Immersion remains as their only weakness. Also these guys are daywalkers, one of their weaknesses is light blindness, which renders them blind the first round, then they are only light sensitive on rounds thereafter causing a -2 penalty to checks and attacks. But they don't turn into ash piles in the sun.

Also planning on the VtM or VtR (whichever you're familiar) to have different houses of Nosferatu, and each providing a different set of special vampire abilities, so that members of one house are different then members of another.

Just something I need for this city campaign.

GP

Thank you very much for the tip on a good deal on the APG. I had been holding off buying it-- that tipped me over the edge.

I am interested in seeing how your legal documents turn out. I once considered writing a fantasy novel based on legal themes, but I never thought about the much easier method of writing legal contracts for a fantasy world.

No problem - I couldn't pass up that deal with Amazon either. I would love to support Paizo directly, but times are yet tough for me, my gaming budget is much smaller than it used to be, so I have to take the best deal when I can.

Yeah, I try to dream up 'hand out' ideas all the time, and that one popped in my head the day before I posted about it up top. I thought it was a surprisingly good idea.

But there's all kinds of 'legal documents' that could serve as gaming tools. A bill to deliver goods, for a PC party to venture across the wilderness to a distant town to deliver something as a first adventure. The bill makes a nice hand-out.

I've already come up with a wanted poster, and have a blank template for one, but requires some kind of illustration of the wanted person - easy for me, not so much for others.

How about a legal document authorizing the entry and preparation for an estate sale at a wizard's tower... there's lots of plot hook ideas that could arrive as legal documents.

I'm glad I thought of it!  :-p t