Are there any groups (besides the Order of the Scourge among the Hellknights) that are dedicated to law enforcement, specifically in places like Varisia? Perhaps a Golarion equivalent of the U.S. Marshal's office or the Texas Rangers?
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Korvosa and the surrounding region has the Korvosan Guard.
Magnimar has the City Guard and Justice Court; with the guard doing the ground work and the court making rulings on major crimes and disputes.
Gaston Cromarcky pays mercenaries to enforce his laws in Riddleport, though that's mostly him maintaining power and making sure his city doesn't fall apart or get taken over by another pirate or crime lord.
I don't know of any one organization that ranges over all of Varisia for law enforcement, though.
Thanks for the responses. I'd think so as well, however I'm trying to look for things for a character in an upcoming Rise of the Runelords game, kind of as his goal as a deputy sheriff in Sandpoint of doing his job on a wider scale. Goals for PCs that make them more "human" are fun!
Gaston Cromarcky pays mercenaries to enforce his laws in Riddleport, though that's mostly him maintaining power and making sure his city doesn't fall apart or get taken over by another pirate or crime lord.
I think they're called the Gendarmes...
Does Rise of the Runelords have a large amount of info on Varisia? I was looking at the area for a home game.
In the Inner Sea Guide it says Riddleport is not as unruly as one might suspect. I don't have the specific text in front of me but I remember it either says or implies several powerful crime lords and/or pirate captains keep order....
I would imagine it would be similar to Deadwood, ruled over by a few "Al Swearinger" types...
Does Rise of the Runelords have a large amount of info on Varisia? I was looking at the area for a home game.
In the Inner Sea Guide it says Riddleport is not as unruly as one might suspect. I don't have the specific text in front of me but I remember it either says or implies several powerful crime lords and/or pirate captains keep order....
I would imagine it would be similar to Deadwood, ruled over by a few "Al Swearinger" types...
ROTR has a huge amount of info on Varisia. (I think book 3 has a gazeteer of Varisia as well, listing the 3 city states and a lot of the surrounding cocuntryside.)
COCT has info on Korvosa. SD has lots of info on Riddleport (the entire first book takes place in Riddleport). JR has more info on Varisia, and Feast of Ravenmoor also takes place in Varisia (as does one of the sample encounters in classic horrors revisited if I rememeber correctly).
Are there any groups (besides the Order of the Scourge among the Hellknights) that are dedicated to law enforcement, specifically in places like Varisia? Perhaps a Golarion equivalent of the U.S. Marshal's office or the Texas Rangers?
My game (a heavily modified version of Rise of the Runelords) is mostly focused on the Sandpoint/Magnimar area. In my game, there are a few troops of Andorran Eagle Knights (Steel Falcons) that are in Varisia. Gray Corsairs are not an uncommon sight in the ports of Magnimar or even Sandpoint. Eagle Knights are providing an unofficial level of law enforcement in the less-populated areas, as they see Magnimar's domain as a place that would could be open to the concept of Common Rule without too many changes to the current system.
I suppose the Hellknights cover the law enforcement angle across places like Varisia but I know that my character wouldn't be good with emotionless, rigid adherence to The Law.
Maybe I'll just have him found one. I was just hoping there was something canon outside of the Hellknights to work with.
I don't recall much about the Hell Knights having any influence in Varisia, but I could be remembering wrong. One option is the Black Arrows, though I don't recall just how far reaching they were as written. If I were going to try and go with something preexisting, Black Arrows is what I would use. Or, like you said, make something up. Though personally I don't like the idea of the unified, all encopmasing law enforcement idea. The reason the U.S. Marshals works in the US is because, as much as it doesn't always look like it, the states are unified by an over all government. Varisia isn't, not even close. Maginmar and Khorvosa aren't just different states. Someone with authority in one has absolutely no authority in the other. What it sounds like to me you're asking for, isn't a US Marshal, but someone who has legal authority in multiple countries...which to my knowledge doesn't exist in the real world.
Besides Interpol, not that I'm aware of as far as real world settings go.
As far as I know, Hellknights have influence wherever Hellknights want to have influence. They seem to come in and have a "What are you going to do about it?" attitude when dealing with government and sovereign officials when carrying out their duty as they believe their cause for absolute law is pure, while others are tainted and weak. Though, I could be completely wrong there.
What I'm looking for would be probably a group that had treaties, contracts and such with the city states and their outlying territories in enforcing their laws, patrolling routes, arresting / exterminating bandits, capturing fugitives, supporting prisoner transport from the smaller towns to the large courts and the like with official support depending on the jurisdiction. So kiiind of like the U.S. Marshals. I think I'll just get my character to work at putting this all together and slowly build it from the ground up.
I don't know much about the Black Arrows, what do they do?
Actually, upon re-reading the Hellknights, they have that attitude once you invite them in to help solve your criminal problem and then want them to leave.
@GeraintElberion: Yeah, my character is Sandpoint's deputy sheriff but I'd imagine he'd want to expand his duties to something a bit larger after going through the Rise campaign. Taking over Belor's job wouldn't be what he'd want.
If/when I have time I can look more thuroughly, but from memory, the Black Arrows are a group of woodsmen/ranger/military from I believe Magnimar, and are either all, or mostly former criminals magically compelled to follow orders/do their job. If you don't mind spoilers I'll throw some more specifics in later, but for now...they police some of the wilder areas of Varisia, protecting civilization from monsters, and I believe hunting down criminals. To me, they sound very close to what your talking about, though I don't know how much weight they would have with Khorvosa/Ridleport, but I believe they are considered the next best thing to actual law in the wilderness.
What you're looking for would be a really hard thing to accomplish I think, basically, it wouldn't fly if I were the GM, but the idea is interesting. I'd be interested in reading how it goes, if you decide to post updates.
I don't imagine the effort will pay off in that character's lifetime. The amount of BS he'd have to go through to get them all to agree to investing authority into an outside organization would be staggering, but since it's not really something that exists, it'd be something he'd work towards.
When he starts getting to that point (and if I remember) I'll post updates on how obnoxious the leaders of the city-states will be. :D