Characters
ACG classes fine. Paizo OK. No 3rd party.
25 point attribute buy
Level 5.
Xgp each. No more than Ygp on any given item. Some additional items given free.
Design considerations:
It is inspired by many sources; Simon R Green's Nightside and Haven, Noir detective stories, and of course Spooky's Darkest Cornersthread.
I would like a city with enough people to start to run into metropolis problems.
I would like a large class of poor, and a small class of very rich, and Tammany Hall politics.
I would like the death of pretty much any individual to be something that gets investigated. For pretty much everyone to have rights. But I would like there to be an oppressed subclass.
I would like it to be primarily human and human-like races.
I would like it to be in the early stages of an "industrial revolution" using alchemy and magic.
I would like the PCs to be elite members of the "Guards", which are a police type force. The guards also do military and crowd control, PCs unit would be responsible for investigating unusual crimes.
The City:
Quantium
Quantium was designed and built by magic, then rebuilt to withstand the magical war that shattered the landscape 4000 years ago. Little bigger across than a particularly large town, buildings have been forced up and loom over the populace in the streets.
Quantium’s outer walls form a diameter 4800ft circle.
Was designed to hold off magical attack, so walls are a mix of materials, hardened and thick.
Buildings tend to build up rather than out.
Statues of heroes everywhere - many of which are also defences.
Given this is the home of the inventor of the create demiplane spell, I see that a lot of places don't exist solely in this plane.
Stealing from Haven I'd like to have a long, straight Street of the Gods. Temples to the big gods at the near end, with lesser gods - or others - forced to the far end. Street stretches impossibly for miles in a straight line. and Nexian citizens come here for amusement as well as to worship; and they have a tendency to shop around when they need a miracle.
The Street of the gods have their own special guard unit of avowed atheists.
Citizenship, residency and property:
Citizens, visitors, strays and property: While Nex prides itself on not discriminating based on race, there is a world of difference between the four classes of residents. The death of the poorest Citizen is far more important than that of the richest and most powerful stray.
Nex is proud of not discriminating. Pretty much anything can be made a citizen, which has allowed their kingdom to incorporate significantly powerful 'monsters'.
citizens have rights. Use of magic on a citizen against their will is a crime, and is investigated by the Guard (those poor bastards). Citizens have access to some elementary assistance regarding food and shelter. Citizens have legal rights and very few obligations. Each citizen has one vote.
The descendants of the heroes who helped Nex found his city have all been granted eternal citizenship.Many of these families have fallen into Poverty over FOUR THOUSAND years, but still reside in the city because terrible as their life may be they have access to the necessities to survive. These poor live in slum-like quarters, but the murder of any of them is the murder of a Citizen, and is investigated by the Guard.
Those who come to Nex may apply for Citizenship. Usually this requires paying an exorbitant fee or working for the government for some time. This is significantly easier for magically gifted people and creatures.
There is a residency status for visitors who do not seek to become citizens; usually traders and sometimes students. Such residents are treated much as citizens legally but fewer rights (no vote, for example).
There are also 'informal residents' - also known colloquially as strays. These creatures have few rights at all. They are not counted in the 60,000.
There are 'property'. These are slaves, or sometimes bound creatures, or those working off prison sentences etc. It is a very bad thing to be property in Nex. Also not counted in the 60,000.
Magic, especially constructs, do a lot of the work in Nex. There is probably 2-3 constructs for every citizen/resident. Much manufacturing, repair and other simple work is done by constructs. Recent advances (especially the Soulbound concepts) have managed to create constructs with near-sentient or sentient minds. At the moment a construct is considered property, though it could be granted Citizenship. There is a significant prejudice against constructs in the city, especially in the poorer sections where citizens cannot get jobs.
The Guard:
The Guard is responsible for maintaining order, and enforcing the will of the council.
Different units within the guard tend to be given different jobs to specialize in.
Higher levels within the Guard are increasingly - and eventually completely - political.
The PCs are a squad put together to investigate special crimes and rumors of rogue monsters. Looking for a good name here! Such squads tend to have a high turnover due to death, but are an excellent place to distinguish oneself. Often membership in such squads is as a way of earning Citizenship.
PCs would have private wealth and draw a salary. They could also take kickbacks etc. Standard Guard equipment is issued to the squad. PCs are elites, and it is expected they may be up against very dangerous monsters so equipment is not skimped on. IE game is not about collecting loot.
The Guard, no really, tell me more:
You lot are part of a "special squad". You don't have scheduled duty, but you are on call 24/7.
You also go out together because when you face something it is likely to be scary.
This makes you different from the vast majority of Guards.
One of you will be a Junior Guard Sergeant, the rest will be Guards or Junior Guard Sorcerers. You'll be able to boss around most normal Guards, but will have to worry about your own officers.
Your immediate boss is Senior Guard Lieutenant Spooky. He leads four special squads in your area nicknamed; Undercover, Redcoats (the medics - so named because their coats are said to be red to cover up blood), Spooky (you) and Worms (the poor bastards with sewer patrol).
Your Company is responsible for the bodies and souls (where applicable) of your area of Quantium (called a Ward). Spooky's boss is Junior Guard Captain Kisk (who reputedly got the position through family connections - connections that were then used in turn to get Castor a job).
When something unusual is found they call in you.
If you can't handle it you can escalate up to one of the more prestigious groups. Better have a good reason.
The Guard, even more please:
Guards are members of the military force, tasked with emergency services, keeping the peace, and guarding the city walls and gates.
Mostly guards patrol in teams of two.
A squad is three teams. In most situations these teams will work in 9 hour shifts (a half hour overlap on either end of an 8 hour shift).
A platoon generally consists of four nearby squads. In the event of trouble a platoon will generally be enough to handle a problem.
A company consists of five platoons; generally four normal platoons and a "special" platoon. It also has a degree of support staff. Companies are tasked with particular jobs like "patrol this area of the city" but also "defend the gates" or "maintain air defences". The "special" platoons usually consists of four squads that do specialized work.
"Central" is actually a series of companies that work together to provide specialized resources that individual companies will not often need. This includes payroll. Central's companies are generally just an easy way of clumping people together administratively for specialized tasks.
I'm figuring every guard is a "Guard". While technically accurate it tends to be used as a signifier of the lowest rank.
A Guard Sergeant leads a squad.
A Guard Lieutenant leads a platoon.
A Guard Captain leads a company.
One who is employed primarily for their magical ability will be awarded the title "Guard Sorcerer". This is a historical oddity that is applied to all magic users regardless of class or background. Those with a high enough knowledge:history can know the obscure millenia old reasons for this, but most people just accept it.
Each of the various ranks has three sub-ranks, being Junior, Senior and BLANK; so one might be a Senior Guard Sergeant, a Junior Guard Sergeant or just a Guard Sergeant. Officially this designation is informal and has no bearing on who has more status than who, but getting a designation wrong can be a serious CLM (Career Limiting Move).
One only has to accept orders from one's superiors, which means that a Junior Guard can totally ignore an order from a Senior Guard Captain from another company. This is likely to be a CLM.
There are about 3000 Guards in Quantium, and 26 captains. 7 of these are senior Captains. This is enforced by the Council because the idea of putting one Captain in charge pretty much sounds like a recipe for that person to try to seize power.
This results in every Guard Captain politically fighting for their particular company to receive the best treatment, ESPECIALLY among the Senior Guard Captains who basically have nowhere to go from here.
Religion :
Nex does not discriminate against religions.
It does prosecute anyone who breaks the law, even for religious reasons.
You can openly worship Hanspur, Hastur or Urgathoa here. Sacrifice even one unwilling citizen and you're in trouble.
That said, Nethys and Pharasma are the two biggest religions. Nethys because he is the god of magic and Pharasma due to the millenia long war with Geb.
Pharasman Inquisitors have no special legal powers in Nex. It would make sense for them to join the guard though, as they can then arrest or destroy any undead they catch breaking the law, or that are strays.
One of the major threats is going to be rogue Geb agents, escaped lab experiments (some of whom are undead abominations) and accidentally reactivated Geb terrorist monsters from the height of the war.
It does mean, however, that you might know there is a lich abomination raising zombies as slaves, and not be able to do anything about it because it's all legal. I guess the drug war might be a good parallel. "Sure we haven't caught him doing anything illegal, but he's totally going to. All we can do is wait and catch him when he does... and let him know we're watching him."
Economics of the game:
(A) the cost of magic & items is cheaper in Nex than just about anywhere. Given the game is set within Nex we ignore this and just accept the magic mart presented by the default pathfinder rules.
(B) YOU CANNOT LOOT THE BAD GUYS. You can confiscate stolen items etc, but these go to central stores.
(C) some bribery, extortion and patronage is expected - don't get caught, don't get greedy.
(D) guards maintain their own equipment
(E) particular items can be issued to the group for particular missions. These items can be requested if sufficient reasoning is shown (eg if you are going up against a were, and can prove it is a were, you could request silver weapons or silver weapon blanch.
(F) expendable items used in the course of duty can be replaced, but this requires going through red tape and proving the use was necessary.
(G) particularly impressive performance (*cough* levelling *cough*) is likely to result in being 'permanently lent' items from central stores.
(H) you can absolutely run a business on the side. Bear in mind you might need someone to run it for you if you get sent on a week long mission to s a slow demi-plane.
Free Stuff:
Group will be issued;
A wand of CLW (arcane) - 20 charges
A wand of CLW (divine) - 20 charges
A wand of Gentle Repose - 50 charges
A scroll of Quench (druid CL 5)
A scroll of Phantom Chariot (CL 7)
A scroll of Whispering Wind (CL 3)
Parchment Messenger
Reasoning being that while these are also able to be used for the team (with paperwork) they are there so your squad can act as impromptu emergency services.
One signal whistle per member (all guards have these; a call on the signal whistle is a call for help and it is expected that nearby guards will respond. Whistle can be heard about a quarter of a mile off without too much difficulty.
All squad members are expected to have a (highly secured) hair clipping with Central.
Your unit will be rostered into one of the sections of Nex, and given an allowance to hire a Guard Station. much like a fire station in our world. Nex learned in the war the folly of putting all your Guards in a single AoE. The default guard station is expected to have living quarters for at least eight Guards and four prisoners. For simplicity the allowance will let the group 'purchase' 3000gp of rooms. Characters may invest their starting money in this if they wish.
(see discussion for how this was spent)
Parchment messenger:
This is a piece of paper that can be written on as normal.
It also contains a rough map of Nex.
By speaking the command word and drawing a route on the map (a full round action) the parchment messenger folds itself into a tiny bird-like glider and follows the route. Once there it emits a piercing whistle until it is unfolded and read.
An erase spell removes the writing on the parchment messenger, but the map must be re-scribed.
Parchment Messenger is a tiny construct with cloth, flammable, slow (ground), alternate movement (fly) and faster (fly)x2. It has a fly speed of 35ft, and can fly half a mile in about 4 minutes.
Construct Race:
+20RP for construct
-darkvision
-low light vision
gains "Susceptible to Mind-Affecting Effects (Ex)"
gains the disadvantage "windup" and "maintenance"
as a construct can do integration as normal.
gets the human +2 to one attribute.
