How would you make a game about lowlevel exterminators and trashmen in a fantasy setting with an actual plot with...

>an actual plot with demons and dragons and a chosen hero happening in the background that the PC party hears about in bard's tales and news but cannot join?
Then why have those rumors at all? Why have that part exist at all?

World building mostly. Like there's a big war going on but that's another story. Also even though it's happening far away, it still affects you. For example, let's say that the PC party goes to the local pub after a hard day of work. The talk of the night is how the chosen one routed the demonic army and they are in retreat. This means that in a few weeks, demonic mercenaries/demon army turned theives might be heading to the remote frontier city that the PCs have set up shop in to raid and loot. Of course as the game goes on, the PC party might start having a bigger impact on the world's plot, but I'm not too sure about how that'd work just yet.

What's stopping them from just joining the hero and doing the important shit?

Because they're shitters who can only barely take on their enemies by working and using traps and tactics that wouldn't work anywhere other than the small, dark sewers and caves that they usually do their job in. Griffins and Ogres for them are highly dangerous and high paying contracts.

*low level shitters

*working together

Seems overly masturbatory to me. But if your players told you that this is exactly what they want, then that's fine.

It's just a concept for a game with a unique twist I might run. I wanted Veeky Forums's input. Already did the world spanning epic story with heroes and villains and all that jazz thing and feel like doing something different.

As long as you make your players aware of what's going to happen in the game, it's fine.

Use DnD 2e or 3e. Or Pathfinder. High lethality.

This. Most people don't want to play some RPG only to be constantly told they're unimportant shitters who have to sit out the actual fun.

See They may be low level shitters but they are important and do an important job. Considering what I said earlier about them being in a frontier city and a war going on far away, they are some the strongest people around locally. The fun in this would be a Dark Souls combined with Witcher style fun. You have to figure out tactics to use against your enemies and have to be careful or your contract will end in disaster.

>Obviously this kind of story would take inspiration from things like The Witcher and Goblin Slayer.
Really? Because I'd steal from noir fiction.

I don't get this, honestly. I'd cheerfully play a game with characters who aren't the most powerful or important people in the world. Sure, your stakes aren't the same as their stakes; you're not necessarily battling against elemental forces of evil to prevent the world from disintegrating into nothingness, or whatever. But that doesn't mean they're not important. Ever been in a city during a sanitation workers' strike?

And there's stuff that heroes can't see very well. By their nature, heroes have a somewhat black-and-white view of things, justified by the fact that they really are, by definition, fighting against the forces of darkness. For non-heroes, on the other hand, most of life is a confusing muddle, an endless battle against the forces of... entropy, mostly. Against bad news and unfair parking tickets and dickheads with authority. It's not that dramatic, but it's hardly unimportant.

This

And I don't get how someone can enjoy the idea of their GM bragging about all the cool shit someone important who isn't the player is doing.

Watching the news must be unbearable for you I suppose.

Because I work a job in real life. I play games for escapism.

What do news have to do with a tabletop RPG?

Because hearing bard's tales and rumors would be this setting's equivalent of the news.

If you want a mundane job in a fantasy world campaign it at least needs to be adventure-adjacent so that the players feel like they have a meaningful impact on the world while being super unappreciated.

Have them work in something involved in the advetureres day-to-day.
Shopkeepers who have to find a way to sell magical artifacts sold by heroes, dungeon remodellers who have to turn old monster dens into livable outposts, guild clerks who have to take adventure requests and assign them to heroes while keeping heroes happy, the town guard who have to actually do the preliminary investigations to determine if it is something mundane or supernatural at work, the spys and scouts who have to steal the maps and plans to the evil fortresses.

You know, the "boring" stuff.

On a blind test based solely on summary I'd take OP's game over a more traditional campaign in a hearbeat. Saving the princess/slaying the dragon/overthrowing the dark lord/destroying the lich all sounds quite a bit bland and boring

Also, there's chances for the important shit to affect the party. Like, say, them getting attacked by some petty demon that got left behind from an attempt at dimensional invasion in the middle of an otherwise routine gig and using that as a boss fight.

Your analogy is retarded. I don't watch the news as a substitute for playing roleplaying games. Try again.

>all my games need to be the same exact story and setting or I'll get mad

Breh.

That's one hell of a lack of reading comprehension. Either you're trolling or you're stupid.

>say something retarded
>get called out
>lmao bait xD
Lurk more.

>I'll just call him a newfag, that'll show him

The concept I have is that since there's a large wara against the evil demon army, the Kingdom's military is either busy fighting or protecting important areas. This means that the defense of small or far out of the way cities and towns and monster extermination that's usually done by the military needs to be done in some other way. Contractors are hired by these desperate people. The PC party is one such group of contractors in the frontier.

>you must hate watching the news because you hate it when the GM fellates some NPC you've never met before through """subtle""" background rumors

>I have to be the center of attention at all times

The real problem is that you get and a large amount of this thread gets mad about a potential, hypothetical campaign where a bunch of people you don't even know play as average joes instead of superheroes who determine the direction of the world solely through their actions. It's not even a new or particularly uncommon idea.

The other problem is that you are using a jojo reaction image

>I love having the DM narrate his self insert dmpc's grand adventures to me

you and a large amount*

>not being allowed to self insert as a world changing ubermensch triggers me so I accuse others of self inserting

>hurr someone more important than me exists how dare you put your DMPC self insert fantasies into this game I willingly joined knowing it was going to be low power from the start

It's a pretty shit idea if you don't tell the players that this is what you're going for, down to the fact that you'll frequently be referring to the actual hero of the world and using him to purposefully emphasize how negligible the PC's achievements are.

If they're down for it, that's fine. I don't kinkshame.

The problem is that op came and asked for "opinions" on his idea and when most people said it wasn't a good idea, thus not validating him, those people were then talked down to and told they're self absorbed and childish.

No I didn't. Show me where I did.

The "talking down" was done by other people when almost everyone went straight for OP's jugular

See The purpose of the hero is for worldbuilding and also the fact that the war he is fighting affects you and your job.

Yeah? Did I say something you didn't like?

You assume that just because you aren't the center of attention in the story means that it's a personal attack on you despite there being legit in game reasons for it.

In addition, OP stressed multiple times that the PCs are doing an important job that is the opposite of negligible. You seem to have a tough time getting that through your thick skull.

You're all acting as if OP was some malevolent mastermind who lures people with promises of a wonderful high fantasy game where they could fulfill or defy fate itself, then goes "SURPRISE BITCHES YOU'RE ACTUALLY IRRELEVANT PEST EXTERMINATORS, SUCK IT UP"

At least in every campaign I've been in we've got a pretty detailed description of what the GM is going for in the game BEFORE having a session 0 for character creation and further discussion/feedback

What are you talking about? You think your players would feel personally attacked by that idea? Maybe it's not a game for them, then.

I don't think that was what he meant

I'm not OP, genius. Also read the second part of my post

Is there some kind of a problem with presenting the premise to the players by saying that their achievements will be negligible compared to the hero's? I thought that was the whole point.

This is what I do too. I usually talk to my players for a few days once I have everything ironed out before starting. Right now this is just a concept for a game and I'd like to expand on it a bit more before presenting it to my players.
t. OP

I assume OP's players will go into the game knowing fully well what kind of game they would be playing.

Damn this thread turned into an utter shitshow.

You could have the party eventually join an actual "important" fight if only on the capacity of conscripts for a major conflict. That could do for a few session's worth of material

You could also alternate between self-contained monster-hunting sessions and stuff that relates to the greater conflict

I wouldn't have a DMPC ruin things.

Make a shit op and get a shit thread.

I still fail to understand what makes people so irrationally angry about not being literally the most important people alive on their game's setting

Also, a DMPC is a fucking player character being regularly used by the DM, not any character the DM makes. That's just a NPC. And unless he actually stats him, only on the most strict sense possible in that it is a character who isn't a player. The term's been misused the whole fucking thread

That's fine as long as it isn't the sole selling point of the setting.

Some people LIKE low power campaigns and don't see it as a drawback or inherently bad idea that has to be made up for by the DM

And OP's already said what's the point of the campaign, everyone just fixates in the bit about hearing someone else's adventures. Despite him never even implying the larger-than-life adventurer is going to be anything but a plot device

>Some people LIKE low power campaigns and don't see it as a drawback or inherently bad idea that has to be made up for by the DM
Okay?

>everyone just fixates in the bit about hearing someone else's adventures
But that's the whole premise, that the PC's are the background characters to the real hero. It's literally said in the OP.

Well I am planning on the PC party making their own waves in the world as time goes on. That's a good idea. I was also thinking that the Demon Army can notice that attacks on the frontier city that the PCs are based in are being repelled against all odds so they send people to go investigate.

But their job is important.

Read this post by OP Also: Never join a WFRP game, for the sake of your mental health

No, the premise is that the PCs are blue collar workers who work in a frontier city and get affected by a far away hero's actions. Please learn to read

>That's just a NPC
It's an NPC used as though it's the DM's player character. On one hand you can have a Gandalf-esque guide where a NPC behaves alike a player but still knows there are others at the table. On the other hand, you'd get the DM's power fantasy as the DMPC becomes a borderline self-insert & worse yet, the DM is still in control of the scenarios & thus openly harming or opposing said DMPC is both risky & unlikely to succeed.

The Hero doesn't show up in the game. The PCs only ever hear about him and his actions make messes for the PCs to clean up. Have you read what the OP said at all?

You obviously haven't read that post. It didn't specify whatever role the dmpc has. I've seen campaigns who're supposed to be sidestories of some story yet still have an annoying dm in love with an npc so much they can't stop turning things into a fanfiction.

No, a DMPC can be less relevant to the big picture. All that matters is that we have an NPC which the DM treats like its his own PC. This can be done well to guide the group but so many times it's just masturbating an ego & the equivalent of a PC writing the scenario with all the self-servingness that situation allows.

Just make sure that your players know that this is what will happen in the game, and that you'll frequently refer to the hero and talk about his much grander achievements.

If they're down with that, then that's cool.

>t's an NPC used as though it's the DM's player character
No you idiot it's used for background events. There's no logical reason to think the DM would actually play with it. It is a plot device, a concept they should have taught you about all the way back in high school

There are two ways to do this. The first, and the one I'd suggest, is to make sure your players are aware that is what you are doing and to have them all agree that it sounds interesting. This allows them to build their characters and backstories with this in mind. It also ensures they won't go chasing off after those rumors assuming its a plot hook.

The other is to gate them off with power levels. The PCs are specialized vermin killers because vermin are fucking tough opponents. But as tough as goblins and other village wreckers are, the shit the heroes in the background have to deal with is on an entirely other level. Consider having something happen near the village, maybe one of the nests the PCs are supposed to clear out, and have prepped and readied for, has been handled already, by a dragon or something totally outside their ability to deal with. Then have a "hero" come waltzing in and deal with it easily. This kind of approach asserts their position, but many players won't like it.

Tell that to some DMs I've seen. An NPC who follows the characters around & behaves almost like a PC. They don't play along, they want the players to do that. More often than not, it's a power fantasy. I've seen blatantly self-inserts as NPCs, doing things the DM wishes they could, being all amazing, all because the DM lets them.

What about a campaign where the players start off as nobodies but end up being pulled into a bigger conflict alongside the actual hero.

The hero won't be following them around though. Learn to fucking read.

Are you that clown on /a/ wanting to use 3e?

>it's OP tries to insert his "great" idead about isekai animu mmo adventurer guild in mahou shoujo garbage

ratcatchers in the sewer

there's weird shit in the sewers.....

>players are a party of low-rate henchmen who are hired to run through a dungeon filled with traps with the express goal to activate as many of the traps as possible before they die so that the real heroes have less trouble when they make their own run-through

Isn't goblin slayer one of the few recent non-isekai fantasy weeb things one could be inspired by?