During the week, you have 3 choices of activities-
1) Day Job: You have a legitimate business that brings in money. You earn the result of your Craft or Profession check each week in gp. As a villain, you can also use Bluff, Intimidate, Sleight of Hand, or Stealth to represent a less honorable trade.
2) Crafting: You may spend your time crafting mundane, alchemical, or magical equipment if you have the appropriate craft skill. See the crafting skill for more information. For our purposes, a "full week" is five days (weekends are for questing!).
3) Loitering: You spend your time wandering the streets taking treats from children or eating scraps you find from the dumpster. Either way, your lifestyle doesn't really cost anything (but doesn't profit you anything either).
Weekends (questing):
On weekends, you quest. You may choose one of the following-
1) Out of the City: You may quest for a specific artifact or objective (a mind-control device, an altar of great suffering, a wizard that will grant you a wish, whatever) or quest randomly.
Roll a [knowledge local/diplomacy gather information] to find something (item or spell effect value up to [check result] x [50gp] x [level]). Then roll a [survival + knowledge geography] check to track down the location.
2) In the City: You may attempt to infiltrate and occupy the Finders' Keep. Although this may change later, at present I plan to make this a shifting environment resulting in a randomized quest each time (so you can't just "come prepared"). It will probably be 1.5x the CR of a standard quest, so be ready.
3) Up to no good: You may attempt to intercept the heroes in their quest. If your tracking check total equal theirs, you arrive at the quest site at the same time. Each 1 by which your check totals differ represents an hour of disparity between your arrivals (so if the other team beats you by a total of 10, you arrive 10 hours after they did). You can try to confront them directly, lay traps for them, steal their treasure, turn the locals against them, etc. The only limit is your imagination (and the game mechanics)!
Quest Rolls (I make these):
[dice=North, South, East, West]1d4[/dice]
[dice=Abandoned, Haunted, Mysterious, Little Known]1d4[/dice]
[dice=Cave, Dungeon, Temple, Village, Tower, Peak]1d6[/dice]
[dice=Lone, Group of, Tribe of]1d3[/dice]
[dice=Madman, Cultist, Primitive, Monster]1d4[/dice]
DICE of town there lies an DICE DICE where a DICE DICE is said to reside.
Challenge
[dice]1d6[/dice]
1-Guardian(diplomacy, combat, or stealth)
2-Trap(disable device, sleight of hand, acrobatics, etc)
3-Puzzle
4-Curse(ghost, haunt, dancing weapon, zone of weakness, etc)
5-Skill(climb, swim, heal, linguistics, perform, etc)
6-Infestation(combat)
Ruling the City:
So you captured the Finders' Keep, now what?
Weekdays: Collect Taxes - [1000gp x level] income per week (divide as you see fit).
Weekends: Quest as normal or defend the Keep. The more of you that leave the Keep to quest, the less defended it will be when the heroes decide to show up!
Setting:
The game will begin in "the City!", where you live and work as despicable criminals and/or urban legends. "the City!" itself (hereafter referred to as simply the City) is a nebulous area wherein you may go to find an inn, sell goods, buy goods and services, hide from heroes, etc. Spellcasting services are available for any CL1 spells (so 1st-level clerics and wizards, 4th-level paladins, and so on). Magic items available for purchase include +1 armor and weapons, as well as anything costing 1000gp or less.
Being a Villain:
You will be expected to be LE or NE, and to act appropriately. If a villain is acting out of line, non-lethal PvP is permitted. If a villain outright betrays you (and isn't kicked from the game), lethal PvP is permitted. You are a villain, and your job is to oppress the citizens. Don't make it complicated.
Death:
If you die, one of 3 things will happen:
1) You will "surprisingly" survive, but with heavy ability damage that will take a lot of time (or magic) to heal. This option requires that you are either dragged off for later reviving, or your team won (or the other team fled) after you "died". If your whole team goes down, or they leave you behind, this one is pretty much off the table.
2) You will be captured. If the heroes beat you, they'll lock you in the Finder's Keep dungeon (or some other sinister location) and you'll have to escape (or, if your teammates were smart, they evaded capture and can spring you). If you were killed by a dungeon trap or something, this is pretty much off the table.
3) You will be dead. Maybe the heroes went a little overboard and hit you with a disintegrate, or maybe you fell into The Pit of Eternal Fires and a Thousand Million Deaths (Or PEFTMD, for short). Either way, you're dead. You can: bring in a new character, drop from the game entirely, or play an NPC (of my making) while your team quests for a way to resurrect you.
Keeping the Keep:
When you capture the Finders' Keep, you'll be in possession of the Throne Room. Whoever sits in any of the thrones may command a force of construct guards that issue forth from a service door in the main gate. These guards enforce laws and tax collection. They do not perform any duties within the Keep, and if they are commanded to return to the Keep, they simply re-enter the main gate (if possible) and return to an extradimensional repair facility. They cannot be used as forced within the Keep itself. They cannot be commanded to go beyond the City walls.
These construct guards may be commanded mentally by anyone seated in a throne. One or more of them may be scried upon as with arcane eye, but only one such sensor may be active at a time. What the eye sees is displayed magically above the dais in the center of the throne room. This action can only be performed by someone seated in the greater throne. If commands given to construct guards conflict, the individual seated in the greater throne has the final word. If lesser rulers give conflicting orders, the guards may simply stand paralyzed or may even combat each other.
There is only one direct route to the Throne Room that doesn't require fighting monsters and dodging traps. This route is through the main gate of the Keep, which is normally impassible. However, the last person to have sat in any of the thrones may command the gate to open or close. Opening or closing the gate is a verbal command that requires a 30ft proximity to the gate. Using the gate allows an individual to enter the Throne Room safely from outside of the Keep.
