New Submissions
By day Nicco is a city guardsman valued as much for his agility and strength as his astounding ability to solve crimes. By night he works for La Mace d’Ars (mafia-like organisation) paying off an old debt, as their chief assassin. He doesn’t relish his second lifestyle, but does it out of fear of his powerful mafia creditors. When one of his missions goes badly wrong and he mistakenly kills an innocent family this double life backfires on him and he is asked to solve his own crime.
The innocent family in question is that of Franco di Minisco, a very influential merchant in the city’s upper echelons. He makes it clear to the special investigation branch of the city guard (the PCs) that he will not be satisfied until the killer is found. He has so much sway that he could easily get them sacked (or even hung, if it’s a particularly sadistic campaign world) for inefficiency if they failed to solve the crime.
The other city guards (PCs) suspect nothing and he must lead them off his trail while the GM places tantalising clues pointing to his guilt. Even when the other PCs find out, will they really grass him up, will they be forced to arrest someone they know to be innocent, or will they simply admit defeat and risk losing their jobs?
There are many ways out of this situation, foremost being to find someone with a grudge against Franco di Minisco and get them to murder him (I’m not saying these ways are morally scrupulous, just possible). Or the PCs could elope from the city, which would have the unfortunate consequence of making them look guilty.
September 27, 2002, 16:03
Everybody will know something is going on, or do they, but will they figure it out? A good one where any conversations about the game would be in characters since "Nicco" has to keep up his story and the others don't have a clue to what is going on exactly. Sounds like a lot of fun.
August 8, 2003, 3:21
Even though there is a lot of players who like to stick around a certain city or point in a campaign world, many also like to travel. If I look at the characters I like to play, they would never make good guardspeople, not even special brigade guardspeople.
Also I feel that you put the PC who is playing Nicco in a impossible situation. He either gets hanged for killing the people or he gets hanged for not finding the killer... (or he can flee the city)
Personaly I would set this up with Nicco being a NPC, that way, I would be much easier to pull of I feel.
August 8, 2003, 3:33
November 10, 2003, 14:19
January 24, 2004, 1:39
If your characters want to move around, then this is a fine story to begin with...assuming they don't give up their man or accuse an innocent, they will most likely sneak away. This could lead to a good fugitive background to link them together.
Or, just have the man get them fired. Then they are free to seek employment that will take them out of the city.
February 20, 2004, 1:38
It would make an ideal start to a campaign but I can see it could be tricky to pull off in an already ongoing game.
To make the latter work, have the 'Nicco' character wake up one morning murder weapon in his possession (preferably in his hand) with the entire neighbourhood abuzz with the news of the horrfic murders nearby. He has no recollection of anything happening in the night naturally. To make it even more interesting, make it the character that is the most disliked in the party.
And of course the murdered family were all friends to the PCs, perhaps a recurring helpful NPC from the past to make it more personal for everyone.
This way the characters will have a good incentive to investigate the crime, the 'Nicco' character will have enough incentive to hide his role from the others until he has figured out what has happened and you can have further complications to add to your campaign: perhaps Nicco has been framed, perhaps Nicco's weapon is cursed and similar crimes will happen in the future, perhaps Nicco has been geased or otherwise coerced without his knowledge. Then you have other ends to throw in, like if Nicco isn't behind it, who is...?
July 19, 2006, 15:13
May 4, 2011, 10:57
This sounds like a good scenerio for a LARP!
April 16, 2012, 16:11
Great way to start a campaign.
murder mysteries are always fun.