In post 682, Oman wrote:And Vi, I loved what you wrote. I like thinking about it. Thank you for taking the time to write it out for us.
o.o
Thank you.
Um, I guess if you want an encore, this is the scenario I'd run given time and the right player group. Pathfinder is the system I know so that's probably what it would show up in.
Money is power, and everyone has their price. With enough resources to trade, a government official can do more than what their job requires (or do it at all), a righteous person may agree to look the other way... a king may even consider abdicating their throne. But there are some things money cannot buy. You can purchase a dog, but not the wag of its tail. You can purchase a journey to a faraway land, but you cannot purchase good weather or good fortune along the way. You can make a contract to build a house of finest quality, but you cannot make it appear overnight. These are things that people simply cannot furnish, regardless of the offer.
So when the intangibles are really necessary, certain people who are "in the know" can contact a group that operates deep under the table. An organization that can, in fact, provide everything they want as they want it - for a premium, of course, but with a price point contingent on services rendered. As far as secret societies go, one of the most spoken-of is the Domicile Acquisition Mercenary Network. Their mission is simple - people who desire a place to live can have the home of their dreams prepared for them, made to order. In practice, the network rarely
builds
any new structures. Rather, their clients seek to live in buildings that already exist but are presently uninhabitable - most frequently because someone already lives there. And that's where the agents come in.
You, for whichever reason - being desperately short on funds, being indentured to a higher-up in the society, or being a person whose mental state should be of concern to those around you - have signed on to being one of the Network's field agents. The terms of your employment are long and not the sort of thing you can get out of; but the pay is attractive, travel on company business is taken care of for you, and they offer cookies at staff meetings. How bad could it be?
So the basic spine of the campaign is that the party goes on missions where they reach a dungeon (using the term VERY loosely), have to complete an objective related to making the place habitable, and usually wind up running like hell from someone who's not pleased about what they're doing. A plot can be generated from the sequence of these missions and their consequences, and from that side quests can etc. etc.
--
One other thing I want to try is lifted pretty much directly from FE: Fates - the concept that there's some special trait that defines each player character uniquely. The idea is that, in addition to whatever default character customization there is, I'd offer the player a set of Feats that is only available to them, and they can choose to go into them or not. I don't really care that much about balance on this as long as it's fun and not game-breaking.
For example, if a character was an ex-shopkeep or something, I could offer them the following Feat tree--
*
Merchants' Rapport
. Available at Level 1. When shopping by yourself, merchants are more likely to have an item of greater-than-usual rarity, and tend to offer it as a discount.
*
Merchants' Union
. Available at Level 5. The next session will be a side quest that, if sufficiently successful, will result in you receiving the following item.
**
Ring of Merchants' Union
. A minor artifact, strong whatever school teleportation is. A symbol of authority among shopkeeps everywhere. 1/day - When a command phrase is spoken, opens a two-way teleportal between directly in front of you and the nearest place that sells goods. Free movement is permitted for ten minutes, after which the portal closes and everything that's on the wrong side gets shunted back (taking damage proportional to distance traveled). Things can "switch sides" only if they are a part of an agreed-upon transaction. One side effect is that everything on the foreign side of the portal that isn't nailed down glows with a faint luminescence and appears to have a blank price tag attached.
*
Merchants' Visa
. Available at Level 9. Enchants the
Ring of Merchants' Union
such that the bearer has the authority to purchase goods at 50% off. As proof of the bearer's authority, these items are glamored to look gilded. Should anyone without the ring be seen using a gilded item by someone who knows what it means... well... have you ever tried stealing from a shop in a roguelike?
*
Extraplanar Merchants' Union
. Available at Level 13. Enchants the
Ring of Merchants' Union
such that the target shop can be specified by the user. This shop can either be one that the bearer has been inside previously, or it can be the nearest shop to their current position in the corresponding location in other planes (the user chooses the plane).
---
I mean, I say these things, but unless I hit the lottery I'm not going to be able to do any of this <.<
Everything you say and do matters. People will respond in ways you may never see. May those responses be what you intend.