I have a campaign in mind where the players are fantasy bounty hunters. They work through a bounty hunting office, where they will get jobs from one main contact to bring in people the local police can't or can't be bothered to. The idea behind this is that the PC's can go on a different adventure every week or 2 bringing in different baddies. Also they get paid more if they bring them in alive. Does this sound like it would work? And also can anyone suggest any ideas for bounties? I've already got a few in mind but I am always looking for more ideas.
Also the reason I'm asking is because I am a brand new DM and a little intimidated about actually running a game, so I don't want it to be shit
Leo Mitchell
Sounds pretty neato, maybe as they level up they could get sent after someone into some shit that gets them dragged into something above their paygrade.
John Evans
Yeah I was thinking about there being an organized crime syndicate, with 8 different heads in charge of different operations, like drugs, slavery, prostitution, etc. I would have the heads be powerful people in their own right around lvl 10-15
Parker Johnson
How powerful is this contact? Someone has to put up a reward for the bounty and posting a bounty on a powerful member of a criminal syndicate seems like a dangerous job in and of itself. Especially if these criminals have influence in/around the city, if they’re really that powerful than they can put the political hurt on this bounty hunting operation. Like a corrupt politician or judge that gets them out of trouble/actively works to ban bounty hunting. Also are the bounties always going to be evil people or will the players have to decide if some of these bounties aren’t worth claiming due to the morality involved, like a fugitive on the run after they killed a crooked guard in self defense. How does the city and the police view the adventurers?
Chase Rogers
Well there are more than just the party as bounty hunters. In fact for one bounty I was thinking of having the PC's and a bounty Hunter team race to see who could catch the perp first. The contact is very powerful, a retired adventurer sitting at lvl 12 down from at least lvl 15. He has lots of contacts around the world and he and his party were very famous in their day, having killed a black dragon. I was definitely going to explore the idea that not all of these guys are really bad, just wrong place wrong time kind of stuff.
Sebastian Lewis
If you wanna have a counter organization you can mold it after V for Vendetta. "The Nose" - detective's looking for stuff "The Ear" - Listening in to what the public thinks "The Eye" - Watching people "The Mouth" - Telling people what's going on "The Hand" - The group that bring the people in.
Maybe gives you an idea to play with.
James Robinson
But who’s putting up the reward money? If Old Farmer Joe wants to put up a bounty to get some help clearing the goblin nest near his property is he shit out of luck if no one wants to take a job for the measley amount of gold a farmer can spare? Also I meant that the act of even placing a bounty on those powerful people would be dangerous. What’s to stop Cragma the Taker from sending out some goons to break a merchant’s legs or torture his family until he revoked the bounty. Organized crime is usually in bed with powerful politicians, unless all of these criminals are outside of the city.
Samuel Torres
Generally the reward money will be put up by old farmer Joe, when it comes to early lvl, then it will be local mayor, and eventually getting to something like "FBI's most wanted" gets paid for by the government. Also the big take downs won't be public, but rather placed by the contact (Mercer) himself, he has considerable wealth and is willing to part with it if these people are brought to justice. He has beef with them from the past
Jordan Peterson
don't be intimidated.just do prep work and listen to your players.remember it's a game and honest input is the best way to advance as a DM.
Jayden Harris
>They work through a bounty hunting office, where they will get jobs from one main contact to bring in people >the local police can't or can't be bothered to.
There are a lot of assumptions here that aren't compatible with traditional medieval government. That's fine, but you should be aware of them so you can think through your setting.
The idea of a central government in a feudal system isn't very strong. In imperial systems, you do have a strong central government with local authorities and a single law and policy that everyone adheres to. That is, you have centralized institutions like what you're suggesting. So China in eras when the dynasties have been strong, or Persia, or ancient Egypt should be your models: powerful despots (possibly enlightened despots, but still despots), and your personal place in society stems directly from your relationship to the central ruler and his government.
In more fractured systems like ancient Greece, Rome except during its 1-2 centuries of greatest power, China when it's fractured, pre-Tokugawa Japan, and medieval Europe, you have very weak central institutions, if such institutions exist at all. Instead, you have a chaotic array of powerful people who derive their power from different sources (mostly wealth and military power, but also sources of legitimacy and status like the Church). The Law has very little force; instead the rules for commoners are basically at the discretion of the most powerful local VIP who knows/cares. For nobility, the rules are more ritualized and there's a pretense of rule of law, but mostly it works out the same.
Josiah Torres
For the most part, investigating crimes is a game of intrigue at high levels but for most people, when some crime is committed it's up to the victim or their family to accuse someone. Then the local village headman or some noble who happens to be around judges the case and decides what to do about it. If the alleged perpetrator is missing, then they're hunted by the local soldiers. Unless there's a war, they're just sitting around anyway. If that doesn't work and it's important enough, then the victim or the local noble will put up a bounty. It doesn't need to be all that much.
In a D&D style rpg, you have very steep power curves. So bounties will be much higher and escalate more quickly. Also, you'll have professional hunters because the local government won't have high-level people sitting around waiting. Finally, class mobility will be considerable, so expect lots of competing factions (plus competing "bounties" that amount to assassination contracts).
Cooper Roberts
I wasn't going to have it be traditional medieval, let me state the background so hopefully someone can critique it. So there are 8 different nation's, with a something like a UN. This happened after a war between the halfings/gnomes and the dwarves where the dwarves lost and we're enslaved. Humans built up there forces and liberated the dwarves and defeated the halfings while 9 wizards created giant permanent gates to the different nation's (powered by a demon Lord). Every nation rules themselves but they have a UN for global decisions. Most people in power are elves. Being very long lived, almost all elves have considerable power, either martially, magically, or politically. (average elf lvl is 5, with there only being 10,000 elves in total due to having children reduces their life force.) So generally nation's are ruled with a council of elves and a council of humans/halflings/dwarves/whatever.
How big are these nations? Are they more like city states, or do they still have nobles/royal families, who resent not having their own control anymore?
You could make them more like City States or principalities in an empire, like the Holy Roman Empire.
Christian Sanders
Given how he used Darkest Dungeons BH. Most likely evil as a criminals policing criminals kind of bounty hunter.
It isnt because they are bringing them to justice but it is easier for a fellow criminal with debts to pay to bring in another criminal with debts to pay.
Camden Perez
>I have a campaign in mind where the players are fantasy bounty hunters.
Yawn.
>They work through a bounty hunting office, where they will get jobs from one main contact to bring in people the local police can't or can't be bothered to.
Zzz zzz zzz. . .
Samuel Peterson
I imagined them to be medium to small size nation's, with the biggest being something like the size of the UK.
Hudson Reed
Way to be constructive there buddy.
Adam Richardson
So an adventurers guild?
Ryan Peterson
Sort of but just for catching criminal; I was hoping to avoid the word "guild" though as I know it fires up some people's autism.
Matthew Price
It might work, but I know from experience that players are extremely confused by the concept of individuals kitted out for capture rather than killing.
I had them face a group of manhunters once and the nets, non-lethal yet extremely painful and incapacitating weaponry and decisions they made in combat were completely baffling to them because it wasn't just aiming for the kill. So be prepared to get it through their thick skull.
Juan White
I think it'd be fine for a campaign premise.
Just make sure you leave the problem solving to your players when it comes to hunting the bounties. Allow your players to find creative solutions to the problems of where to find the guy, how to trap or capture them.
Maybe, instead of just being sent to capture a target, they get paid to "resolve a problem";
>Someone's been stealing from trade caravans along the lakeside roadway. Find who's doing it, and bring 'em in.
Giving the players an investigation to do will lend itself to more creative play than just "go get this guy".
Benjamin Johnson
Thanks for the advice, I could definitely do that. That's a good point, I haven't put much thought into non lethal weaponry in 5e, I was mostly going to go with the PC's using the blunt part of their blades to knock out the perp. You mentioned nets what are some other good non lethal weapon?
Brandon Wright
What a faggot, that's /v/ tier coment, thanks to you this board lose quality everyday, hating for the sake of hate and never a positive response, why do you even come here to bait.
