30 Mayors

1-The Figurehead 

He is a close friend of one of the richest people in town, and largely takes orders behind the scenes from him as long as he can live in comfort and enjoy all the perks of office.

2-The Crime Boss

On the surface the city mayor, his real job is as the boss of the Mafia of the city. He has all manner of crimes ordered, but at the same time he knows how to show restraint. Crimes against children and drug trafficking within the city limits are banned on his orders, and those of his men who are caught in the act tend to disappear. Unorganised crime, rival Mafia families and homeless people are either expelled from the city or violently repressed. Despite being a Mafia boss, he also rules the city surprisingly well, not wanting most of the citizens to detest him. He dislikes the Honest, but not enough to send assassins all the way to  the other side of the country to kill him.

3-The Honest

The last mayor of the town turned out to be notorious for his corruption, so the Honest decided to run for office against him. Wearing a white suit and running as an independent candidate, few people thought he would win the election, but when it came down to it, most citizens were on the side of Good and fed up with corrupt government.

He means well, but has no proper political experience and doesn’t know how to run the local government properly. If he learns fast he could be a very good mayor indeed, but if he remains inept, many citizens will regret their vote, as at least the corrupt former mayor knew how to do the job properly.

4-The Walking Scandal

Sleeping with other people’s wives? He’s done it. Embezzlement of city funds? He’s done it. Illegally helping certain businesses over others? He’s done it. Rumoured links with organised crime? Most likely true. If he is not careful sooner or later justice will catch up with him and he’ll end up in a cell, or fleeing somewhere where he can’t be extradited from.

5-The Open Figurehead 

He’s a figurehead and everybody knows it. It was of course not always this way. Once the Mayor had real power over the town and decided upon the city laws like an absolute monarch. But over a time period of seven hundred years, a combination of inept mayors, different political ideas that crept in, clever politicking behind the scenes and central government getting ever more powerful, slowly leached the power of the Mayor away.

Now he takes part in a city parade once a year, opens hospitals, beauty contests and funfairs, and things of that sort, and a different Mayor is chosen each year. Being the Mayor is an honour, but the real ruling is done by the central government of the country nowdays.

6-The Vampire Slayer

The town mayor by day, he has a secret identity as a Vampire Slayer by night. Along with a handful of trusted aides who help him, he risks his life staking the many vampires who prey on the poor and the unwary within his city. He fears that if it were to become public knowledge that his city was infested with vampires, at best he would be blamed and removed from office-at worst the King of his country would have the city burned down and everyone inside put to the sword to destroy the vampiric infection.

7-The Ruthlessly Ambitious 

Several years before becoming the city mayor, the Ruthlessly Ambitious joined the police force and when the attempted coup happened, he was the deputy police commander. He sympathised with the coup plotters but thought them too inept to throw his weight behind them and stayed out of it. His boss chose the wrong side and was sacked and disgraced, and the Ruthlessly Ambitious took over and became a close friend of the Drunk.

He also forged links with organised crime, whilst at the same time warning the crime bosses not to go too far and destroy the city economy or he would crack down hard on them. Certain opponents of him fell out of windows or suffered other unfortunate “accidents “ and when he took over from the Drunk he has solidified his power behind the scenes, cheating in the city elections to make sure he wins. At least he is sober though, and city services have improved under his rule.

8-The Weak

The Weak is not weak as in ill health, but weak because he often cannot make up his mind, and does whatever his advisers suggest to him, even when they have contradictory ideas about what to do. As a result, not much is being done, city services are suffering and many of the citizens are getting heartily frustrated with him and will not be voting for him in the next city elections.

9-The Drunk

He came to power in his large town by successfully rallying people against a military coup-as many of them were family members of the soldiers, the soldiers decided to mutiny rather than slay their own family. Two days of wild celebrations followed, with fireworks, feasting and lots of booze. Unfortunately, the new mayor has a weakness for alcohol, which has made him the town drunk and unable to govern properly. Organized crime took advantage of this, and infested the town. When he stepped down, his deputy, the Ruthlessly Ambitious, took over.

10-The Full of Himself 

An enormously pompous man, it’s surprising that he was ever able to win the election for Mayor. People walk away from him when he starts talking about himself , with good reason.

11-The Strict 

An ex police officer, he is very strict and determined to make sure that the laws of the city are properly enforced. Homeless people are merely run out of town for a first offence and put to hard labour if they return, littering attracts a heavy fine, thieves are whipped and imprisoned, and scolds are gagged and humiliated by being publicly displayed in the town square with a “Scold” sign  around their necks. A gallows and gibbit awaits anybody who dares to commit murder in the town but for now at least it is unused.

12-The Gabrielle D’Nunnzio

When a war came to an end, he came in at the head of an improvised militia and seized control of a city that was supposed to be given away to the neighbouring country as part of a peace deal. He has some interesting if rather erratic ideas about city government, but the army of his own country is threatening to shell him out of there with artillery, so it’s unlikely that he will have the time to put any of his ideas into practice.

13-The Dungeon Master 

The city of Livingstone that he rules as the elected Mayor grew up around the entrance to the Livingstone Labyrinth, a dungeon second only in size and in fame to the Gygaxian Gyre. The town grows wealthy on the taxes from adventuring parties that come from far and wide, and he keeps everything running smoothly. He does insist that no necromancy scrolls or spell books of necromancy are taken into the Labyrinth, in case the dungeon core reacts very badly to that and blames the city, and lets loose a load of monsters to punish it. He fears that one day the rapidly expanding Labyrinth will make contact with the Gygaxian Gyre and the two dungeons will attack and try and absorb each other.

14-The Collaborator 

When his country was occupied by an aggressive foreign army, from day one he has kowtowed to the unpopular foreigners and made a right Quisling of himself. From being obsequious to them in public, to leading roundups for forced labour or worse , and giving citizen’s homes away to foreign soldiers, most citizens heartily hate him. The local resistance cell is planning to assassinate him- if he survives, then if his country is liberated he is likely to face either the death penalty or at least several years in a harsh prison for treason.

15-The Resistance Leader 

On the surface a collaborator too, he is in fact a senior member of the resistance movement. He helps escaped prisoners of war escape recapture, hides weapons belonging to the local resistance cell in his cellar, falsely insists that people who the occupation forces try to round up are vital to the smooth running of the town, and everything would choggle up without them, and of course never snitches on anyone who is against the occupation. Although he once barely managed to keep a straight face, when he heard someone swearing but in nice tones at a foreign soldier who had no idea that the person he was speaking to was saying all manner of foul language at him.

16-The Wordy

People like him, but he does go on a lot, using ten words when one word would do. During his election campaign all his key speeches were written for him by talented speechwriters but now that he has been elected he feels he doesn’t need their help anymore and his listeners rapidly get bored of what he has to say.

17-The Vice Chancellor 

He wears in effect two hats of both town and gown, as the Vice Chancellor and de facto head of a major university of Magic, and as the Mayor of the large city that surrounds it, and he does his best to keep his students happy and well behaved and the townsfolk contented as well, with success most of the time.

18-The Prince

Although the country he lives in and is a Prince of is an absolute monarchy at the highest level, its towns and cities have elected mayors. His father the King has decided to appoint him as a mayor of one of the largest cities to give him ruling experience , much  to the dismay and anger of many of the more politically active citizens who like being able to vote their mayor in or out of office.

If he governs wisely and well he will be able to even win them over but if he messes it up not only will the citizens be annoyed but his father might give the post of Crown Prince to his younger brother instead of him.

19-The Disappointed

He had high hopes of being a very successful mayor, but the last mayor overspent the money in the city treasury and if he puts the taxes up, it will lead to the businesses shutting down and people having their houses foreclosed on. So he can’t afford any city improvements or hire any new people, and can barely pay his current staff.

20-The Old

Whilst his mind is still sharp, he’s ninety years old and does not have long to live, and will likely die in office. He lives in a state with no time limits for political office,  where although it’s a democracy one political party has held power for a very long time, and has been the city mayor for thirty years.

21-The Young

Officially aged 21, he is in fact only 18 and many people think he’s too young to run for office, although they do think that his heart is in the right place. He comes from a very influential and wealthy family, which is why he was given this position despite his obvious inexperience.

22-The Good

This is the Mayor that many citizens wish that their Mayor was like. He can wow the crowds at election time, has no proven links to organised crime, resists the temptation to embezzle the city tax revenues or sleep with other people’s wives or indulge in vile vices. He is the most popular politician in his city’s history and his friends are encouraging him to run for a Senate seat next.

23-The Bad

Many bad mayors are linked with organised crime or scandal ridden, but he is just rubbish at his job and unable to balance the books properly. His supporters are very disappointed and dissatisfied with his performance , and he is very unlikely to win another term in office.

24-The Ugly

Ugly from birth and teased when he was young, he decided to one day hold a post of political power, and his great oratory won him a Mayor post despite his ugly face. He’s doing well at it too and hopes to win a Senate seat next year and perhaps rise even further, maybe even to President.

25-The Sneaky 

By day a conventional staid , polite Mayor, by night he sneaks around the part of town known to have a “bad”  reputation, drinking in the bars, taking soft drugs, rutting with the women of the night and occasionally even fighting. Once he got a black eye and ended up wearing sunglasses in public for two weeks to cover it up.

26-The Changeling

No one knows that this  mayor is in fact a changeling general, who heads a team of deep cover love gathering changelings who gather love and distribute it in secret to a hidden changeling hive outside the town. He is a good mayor, as a well run town means happy content citizens and more love to gather to keep the changelings sleek and glossy and their foals well fed.

27-The Insane

He was sane enough when he became the mayor three years ago, but he is cracking up under the weight of work and is starting to have very disturbing fantasies of running amok with guns. And as the city mayor, he owns two pistols and a rifle legally. If he can’t control his own mind, his city will become known for a day of horror when the Mayor went on the rampage.

28-The Spy

His father and mother are deep cover sleeper agents whose orders were to infiltrate another country with fake IDs, date, marry, bring up children and place their children in high positions as sleeper agents in their turn. One of his brothers is a major general, another is a senator, his sister married a leading politician, and he became a mayor of the capital city. When he and they are activated, they will leak a whole treasure trove of information to the country that they are secretly working for.

29-The Ex Adventurer

Maybe the PCs used to adventure with him in the past. He started with minor dungeons until he was experienced enough to enter the Gygaxian Gyre, and made quite a bit of money, but decided to hang up his sword before he went too far and got himself killed or enslaved by the Wights. He became a candidate for Mayor of a mid sized city and won the election. Once he punched someone in the head for throwing an egg at him, but it didn’t do his political career any harm. He would enjoy having a beer or two with the PCs.

30-The Blackmailed One

The Blackmailed One did or said something that he should not have done or said, and someone caught him in the act and is blackmailing him for money, sexual favours or both. It could be something political, like criticism of his country’s dictator in private, embarrassing, like having a secret crossdressing habit, or seriously illegal. He wants to pay the PC’s to silence the blackmailer permanently.