Appropriate for a character to start as a member of the Korvosan Guard?

[Green Eyed Liar]

We are about to start a campaign using the hardcover module. One of my players' rough draft is a monk that is a member of the Korvosan Guard. I feel like I remember reading that these types of affiliations are discouraged, but I cannot for the life of me find that reference anywhere. Is my memory correct or flawed?

Even if the text does not mention it, should I discourage the bond anyways, since the characters all are going to be working so closely with the Guard before the end of Edge of Anarchy?

[domicilius]

It's alright to be affiliated with the Guard, but working directly for the Guard as a "street cop" for a PC would mean they'd have other responsibilities for most of books 1 and 2 (and likely 3 as well...), namely riot control.

That said, a really good idea would be for the player to be a detective or independent investigator (as opposed to the equivalent of a beat cop) investigating Gaedren Lamm as one of their first major cases. That gives good reason for the detective to be working with outside informants (the other PCs), be reporting to Cressida directly, not need to be responsible for things like riot control, and to go back to Cressida when Gaedren is dead (which is *really* what the AP wants the players to do). It also provides a voice in the party immediately telling the others to trust Cressida and take her instruction, which really doesn't hurt either.

If you take the common track and extend Gaedren Lamm's story be the whole of Book 1, it makes even more sense for the detective to then work with the party afterwards. The other PCs helped the detective solve their first major case, and (depending on how you run it) might be directly related to plague case that happens immediately after.

In short, it can definitely work, you'll just need to make sure that working with the party is one of the paramount principles of the Guard PC.

[Gideon Stargrave]

One of my Players created an investigator - and the back story created was that he was an ex-guard turned Private eye. He left the guard in disgrace as he was charge of solving the Key-Lock killer case (Rolf years previous) and failed - disobeying orders in the process.

It has made great roleplaying and I have increased Rolf's presence and influence in EOA to encourage the PC in solving the case. It is a bit more work for the GM, as you have to modify interactions with the guard as members will recognise him for the good and bad. Also - elements of the criminal world may know him either from his guard day's or as a P.I.

With this back story - you do not have to extend Gaedren's story too much - as his role is like a foundation for the greater evil - Rolf.
I would say I have reworked Rolf's story so that he will be the main antagonist equal with the Queen.

[fireshade]

I had two PC that were members of the Guard, and we have not had any problems. Sure, they went a bit vigilante by going after Lamm without authorization, but with the riots breaking out, nobody took the time to give it a second look. Seeing that most of the rank-and-file guards were busy handling riot control, I had Kroft appoint those two as Special Investigators and deputized the rest of the party to aid them. I did have one of them bristle a bit later in the plot as Kroft asked them to act as "plain-clothes" guards, since the entire organization was under scrutiny from the Grey Maidens. And, of course, everyone had an issue with Book 4, but I added in a segment about rescuing Kroft from being turned over to the Hellknights and then raiding the Grey Maidens' headquarters cheered them up a bit.

[Sacredless]

Yes, I think it's entirely appropriate to play a character that is a member of the Korvosan Guard or the Sable Company. The TL;DR, though; doing it by the book is explicitly no longer an option by the time that the players start this adventure path. The city is gridlocked with corruption. The guards continue to do things by the book; the adventurers are called in to do things off-book.

Example character: Lakyle Ashwood, Coroner of the Korvosan Guard
Lakyle grew up on a Chelish farm close to the Ashwood Forest in Varisia, with a dwarven family as his only neighbors. He and the dwarf girl next door were quite fond of each other before the incident. An evil transmutor had polymorphed her into a fox. By the time that Lakyle realized that there was something different about this fox, it already lay bleeding from his slingshot bullet in the grass.

She survived, but Lakyle became driven to bring this kind of abuse of magic to justice. He flunked out of wizard school and instead became an errand boy to the coroner of the Korvosan Guard. In time, Lakyle learned to apply alchemy to the investigations of his mentor.

Though the character still had a place within the guard, the character failed to deliver evidence that Lamm had commited the crime. He felt certain that Lamm had done it, but the evidence was contaminated and a child-murderer had gotten off free. Between himself and Croft, he was given permission to cut loose the Korvosan Tabard for a few months, if only to put Lamm to justice.

It worked really well, I think. My DM told me that Croft didn't want us to be associated with the guard, so my character would have to go it civillian. It was really nice when I ended up meeting guardsmen around town, because I could comment on them from my perspective. Meet a drunk guardsman? Feel embarassed and even hostile towards him. Meet a former guardsman? Try to fight for him. Is a riot being controlled? What would my character prioritize at that moment?

It lead to a lot of interesting things. HOWEVER.

Doing it off-the-books
Both DM and players need to know this up front; this campaign isn't friendly out of the box to doing things by the book. The city is gridlocked by corruption. Between all of the crime syndicates, the city is practically in it's death throes throughout the campaign.

I was particularly frustrated with the Curse of the Crimson Throne where it came to doing things by the book or off the book. Solving things without violence isn't really Paizo's MO, but there are a lot of situations in the campaign where I felt like mercy was being telegraphed as a desirable option, when it reality that wasn't. I am not saying that mercy was discouraged; rather, the books aren't built with mercy in mind. It just seems like that from the outside.

Eventually, we had to come together as a group, DM included, to say that we were supposed to break down doors and take names and not worry too much about making or losing friends. We had set the intention to stay within the scope of the adventure path for this, because we wanted to give our DM more breathing space.

When you have a guard character in your party, you'll have to pay some special attention to this question; what is 'off book' for this campaign? Do you want players to connect with NPCs or do you want give players a taste of adventure without worrying too much?