Home-brew mechanic "Suspicion level" for critique

[MC Templar]

Conceptually, I am designing a mechanic to fairly control something that we had always managed as GM fiat. "How suspicious of your character is the city watch?"

Back-story:

The intent of this system was to define a mechanic of control, prior to character generation so no one would feel like their character was being picked on. Everyone gets to go in with their eyes open.

The game genesis for this is one-shot I was planning based on the party being members of one of many thieves' guilds that operate in an urban environment. I am trying to capture a mechanic the players can grasp and use, to support why everyone is armed and armored lightly in a turf war.

The mechanic is each character must make a daily check (Charisma DC5)

If the character fails, the city guard follow the PC and 'observe him or her closely'
If the character fails by 4 or more, the guards stage a confrontation and attempt an arrest (arrest will inconvenience players and deprive them of equipment for bribes, but not kill characters) Guard always attack with non=lethal force until a PC has killed one of their own.

The base mechanic is easy to succeed, intentionally so. The rules exist in the modifiers

Character Alignment LG+0 LN+1 LE+4 NG+1 N+2 NE+6 CG+2 CN+4 CE+8 (or 10)

presumption:

This is based on the opinion that it is impossible to hide a person's nature forever, non-verbal body language will betray a person's opinion enough for authority figures to make judgments about them without consciously knowing why..

Race: Most Core+0 half-Orc+1 "odd race"+2 Tiefling+3 "Monstrous race"+4

Modifiers
Reputation for good -2
Reputation for honor -2
(Additional noteworthy honorable or good deeds) -2 each
Armored (wearing medium or heavy armor) +4
Non Concealed weapon +2 (not counting club or quarterstaff)
carrying 2-handed weapon +4 (not counting club or quarterstaff)
Fought with guards recently +2 (additional +2 per dead guard in fight)

[rainzax]

interesting.

maybe you could stage it as sort of a skill-attack challenge.

Guards have an 'AC' of 10 + their Sense Motive bonus.

PCs must use skills to 'attack', such as Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Intimidate, Perform, etc (or failing that, just a CHA check).

success on the PCs behalf means they get through, no hassle. failure means they are Followed (as you wrote), critical failure means they are Arrested (as you wrote).

i would keep it simple with the circumstance modifiers. Heavily armed? -2 penalty. Racial minority? -2 penalty. Totally unarmed? +2 bonus. Racial majority? +2 bonus. etc.

cool idea

[MC Templar]

Some form of skill checks for the players is a good idea.

preserving a feeling of adjacency and control, and also making skills matter more, advantaging a character that spends time and effort trying to be able to manipulate social situations.

I appreciate the feedback

[Ciaran Barnes]

I usually just role-play this out, but I don't think making a roll is a terrible thing.

My suggestion though it to boost the DCs. A proper adventuring party will automatically attract attention. This is where a "stupid" skill like Disguise would help out though. Also, your +2 per dead guard is... I don't know what to say. With even one dead guard, the other guards should send for reinforcements and (attempt to) apprehend those responsible. Maybe a good PC would even turn himself in.

[Fig]

Take a look at the reputation statistic for d20 Modern and perhaps Wheel of Time d20 RPG.

[Orich Starkhart]

MC Templar -
I like this idea, though like Ciaran Barnes I think the +2 for a recent scuffle and +2 for dead guard is too lenient. Perhaps, though, your numbers are intended to reflect the likelihood that any given set of guards that might be encountered know about the scuffle and the injuries, and you would modify the DC further due to circumstances. (e.g., increasing DC dramatically due to, say, the relatively small size of the particular town and/or the guard contingent; perhaps there is almost 100% chance a given guard will regard the particular PC suspiciously, and a significant chance the guard was involved and recognizes the PC).