What Agents of Edgewatch is missing... [SPOILERS]

[Evil Paul]

I'm starting Agents of Edgewatch next week and have been reading through all the mods, doing the usual pre-campaign uber-prep. I'm pretty pumped, it looks like a great AP full of good set-pieces, interesting dungeons, a great setting/concept and lots of opportunities for players to riff off their characters.

That said, for a Watch-themed AP, it seems to be missing a few key elements that I'd want to see. I favour a maximilist printed-AP-as-the-skeleton approach, so I'm already working on new content to weave these elements into my campaign. I'm curious to see what other DMs are doing, and what ideas people might have for having these elements.

Investigations and Actual Police Work
For a Watch-themed AP, there isn't a whole lot of true case-work investigations (where you can get the answer wrong). I'm thinking of the likes of your "mystery of the week" crime show, or LA Noire, or other such thing where you have a crime being committed, a bunch of suspects and clues, and the heroes have to filter through the noise to determine the real killer. I would have expected a bunch of these, even if they were side-quests at the back of the AP. I'm writing up some of my own, have people already been doing these? Something like Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective creates a group of interesting NPCs that the PCs can go to for help with their cases (the mortician, the occultist, the cab-driver etc). Having recurring characters like that, as well as the cases get progressively more difficult (including magic, etc) would really explore the Detective aspects.

Police Corruption
Having twelve watch divisions, three of which are at openly corrupt (almost to the level of common knowledge in the city) grants a great background for internecine feuds. Cop shows are almost always full of conspiracies that go up the police chain. But we don't really explore this as part of the AP. Chapters 2+3 are set in districts with significant corruption, and chapters 4+5 have the watch being turned against the PCs, but without any cop-on-cop action. I would like to see elements of at least one (preferably 2 or 3) criminal conspiracies within the Watch that the PCs can solve. Chapter 4 is based on "Assault on Precinct 13", the remake of which sees corrupt cops attack a precinct, but the threat from inside the force seems to be missing. We are also missing detail on the leadership of the Watch. Presumably the Watch as a whole reports to the Council and the Force Captains are mid-level management. So there will be a Watch commander + deputies of some sort overseing, which seems an excellent place for the corruption to seep up to.

Politics, Legailities, Bureaucratic conflict.
No police procedural is missing elements of buerocracy. From "You'll need more evidence to get a warrant" (Search warrants date back to the Middle Ages, and would certainly be present in Absalom), from "I've got jusidiction here, I'm taking over this case!", from interference from the council over high-class subjects, etc, we need to feel like the city is a breathing organism of laws and procedures, with the Watch caught up in that. The fact that a city council member is the ultimate villain means we really want to bring the politics into the story frequently. There isn't really any great oppertunities for a "Give me your badge and your sword, you're off the force!" moments where the PCs realise they need to step outside the system to get something done.

Difficult Decisions
From finding out that the bread-stealer was doing so to feed his family, or catching the killer only to find they were protecting their wife against a brutal enemy, police stories are full of issues where the Law and Morality come into conflict, forcing the hero to decide between the two in various shades of grey. We don't get so much of that here, generally the bad guys are the bad guys and that is that. Ap 5 has the nice elements of working with evil, but that's a long way off from the start of the campaign.

I guess a lot of the above four categories spill into each other. Some side-quests that are cases with difficult decisions are totally possible, and political issues can be caused by police corruption. So they aren't too hard to create. But I'm also interested in more structural changes to the AP, like moving Hunting Lodge 7 to the Starwatch HQ and having the Token Guard be in league with Flakflatter (and the ones assaulting the precinct), as well as bringing in more high level corrupt NPCs to head up the conspiracies.

A lot to discuss certainly. Any thoughts, friends?

[CH2050]

That was some brilliant idea.

[OmegaZ]

Love the ideas here! I suspect some of these points (especially the mystery investigation aspects) are the result of the inherent limitations of publishing, budgets, page counts, due dates, etc. but your points are valid.

Regarding the police corruption, there is the seed in book 1 (pg 6, Faces of Edgewatch box) with Corporal Kerr Batiste. Toss in a few of the Gray Queen's co-conspirators in, have GQ kill/pacify them all off at the end, and you're set! I'm also tossing in a bullying guardsman in Edgewatch who's doing more obvious protection-racket style corruption for the PC's to go after early on.

[Slamy Mcbiteo]

I would love to see more "Investigations and Actual Police Work". I was thinking something like "LA Noire" also. I am still getting through all the APs so would love to swap notes

[Naurgul]

Slamy Mcbiteo wrote:

I would love to see more "Investigations and Actual Police Work". I was thinking something like "LA Noire" also. I am still getting through all the APs so would love to swap notes

I've made expansions on two investigations so far, you can find them here:

• Investigating the missing persons case
  
• Investigating the bank robbery case
  

Hope you like them. Also if you have any feedback please do let me know.

[Kazimir_980]

Awesome stuff!

In addition to the investigations that Naurgul posted, I've been trying to steer away from the AP's liberal use of "Some NPC comes and tells you where to go next" (literally every single point where the Agents could do some police work, the book just has someone appear and tell them where to go next).

We're currently finishing up Book 3 and I've been making heavy use of The Alexandrian's 3-clue-rule and Revelation lists.

Before each session I try to make a revelation list of what the PCs need to discover/learn. For each of those revelations, I come up with 3 clues that I can sprinkle into the game. Even if my players end up going to a completely different location than where the book assumes they will go, it usually isn't too hard to drop some of those clues to get them back onto the trail of the badguys.

Another thing I do is keep track of what the Twilight Four are trying to do. If the Agents interfere, what will the other members of the Four do? If they chase a red herring and don't arrive in time to stop the evil plan, what will happen?

With regard to the Bureaucratic conflict, I plan to give them such a moment with the End of Book 4/start of Book 5. Depending on how my players confront the injustice of being wrongfully arrested and the improper arrest of Wynsal, they may choose to turn in their badges and operate on their own, or maybe even try to root out the corruption in the force. Whatever ends up happening, I think it'll be a great turning point in the adventure.