[Writing Notes:
The setting is inspired by a clothing brand name, and therefore probably can't be openly published. It is designed to be just shy of SteamPunk in tone. A sooty, stone and mud world with massive wealth disparity and villains as far as the campaign can see. This setting is the bones on a fantasy game and currently rules agnostic. It's my intention to keep it that way as I build a sandbox and the roots of campaigns. I've sidelined this setting in favor of running other games and becasue I don't have the basis in Fanstasy DMing. The vibe of this should high-stakes, high-risk opportunities to rob deserving criminals. Dirty cops and corrupt politicians and orgaizations operating almost baldly in the face of the powerless. this campaign should be a challenge the situational ethics of "Neutral" characters. The Easy money is always Bloody, the easier the money, the dirtier it is.
A Rogues (and rogue-like) campaign setting.
The Corrupt kingdom of $name1 is the starting point of our adventure. Rich on the wealth of $Resource and at the hub of land and sea trade routes, it's a haven for the lawless and criminal. While the kingdom is corrupt and run by evil organizations, the overall alignment is Lawful Evil. There are codes and rules to follow to "get along" and "know your place". Backstabbing and hurting others is a reasonable way to get ahead, if you follow the rules, pay your way out, win dramatically, or otherwise justify your crimes. The outlaw and lawless are welcome here as long as they stay within the system. Bribes and blackmail are respected ways to show a person's understanding of the rules.
$name1 is a totalitarian dictatorship run as a hereditary monarchy. The $monarch1 's power is checked and backed by several collaborating and competing guilds and noble houses. [...]
The power dynamic is that the Kings is on top and complacent. The noble houses are declining in wealth and power, as their economics is zero sum additive. While the Guilds are increasing their power, at the beginning of the geometric rise of Capitalism. The Guilds are anti-competitive concentrations of capital on the verge of governmental capture.
[Describe typical adventures and themes]
The kingdom is a hereditary monarchy of kings only with an absolute dictatorship over the people. The flood of money into the coffers over the last hundred or so years has made the monarchy complacent to let the nobles and guilds handle the day-to-day of running the state and to only exert effort if the kingdom is threatened, if they have an agenda to push or if they feel like it.
The Palace is known for the Crown’s opulent style and extravagant parties
Functioning as an advisory cabinet and board of Governors, the Court meets in times of crisis, 1 week a month with optional attendance for redress of Grievance and biannually for 2 months for all representatives to attend and address issues and improvements. There are hangers’ on who are at every public appearance and are around the palace even when Court is out to curry favor, gossip and plot. Others only attend court biannually or as required by crisis.
The Redress Courts are open to the public as the court of last resort for peon and prince alike. If a disagreement can’t be settled elsewise, it can be brought to the Redress Court, where the king (or representative assigned by the king) will settle the matter with the power of the state. Judgements are often unjust, cruel and typically favor the wealthy. All verdicts are final, often executed immediately. On occasion the King will order a duel or trial by combat to settle a matter.
These Unions are not the will of the workers united, but the owners of businesses and other capital syndicating together to exert social control. These organizations are chartered by the crown of $Name1 or delegated royal family. There is conflict between lesser Nobles and the Guilds as the Guilds are beginning to become richer and more powerful then some of the noble families.
The farms and agriculture are still run by nobles that have stopped using serfs and moved to tenant farmers and sharecroppers. Rent to the noble is typically onerous and prevents any real savings or improvement. Sharecroppers tend to live the majority of their life in deepening debt to the noble, becoming effectively indentured.
The trade union controls travel and the roads. they pay much of the tolls to the crown, but keep enough to be wealthy. People traveling the roads without having paid the tolls are subject to arrest and confiscation of their goods. If they can't pay the exorbitant fine they are indentured and their labor is sold to merchants or others of means. The Trade Union is deputized as a Highway Patrol, and while their presence on the official roads is supposed to keep the public passages free of bandits, it's lead to bandits carving up smuggling and unmarked trails as their territory and the Trade patrols shaking down anyone unlucky enough to travel the main roads.
The Trade Union is also in charge of the Docks [...]
The Merchants Guild is an organization of craftsmen and manufacturers. The $name1 kingdom is in a proto-industrial mode with large workshops and early factories. Tradespeople can either pay exorbitantly to be members of the guild or work for guild members. Starting your own business is strictly forbidden and the Merchant Guild will have the City Guard break up your shop or store, confiscate your goods and tools (if any are left after the raid) and arrest you for "Unpermitted business."
Spellcasters United is a mutual aid group of magicians, sorcerers, wizards and other people with magical abilities. They function much like the Merchants Union but in regards to magic for hire and magical items. Necromancy and the type of magic item creation that costs sapient lives is common here, but not easily found without spending lots of money. Spellcasting or magical ability people must either pay guild dues or pay less expensive "permits" that allow them to exist, but not to practice magic inside the kingdom (and especially the cities). They are hostile to the local churches as they have a preexisting relationship to the crown and will not confederate and are often in direct competition.
The "Thieves Guild'' is distributed into several neighborhood organizations. All communicate with each other at the highest levels and have dispute resolution protocols. If an agent associated with one crosses another, it usually gets resolved by discussion and restitution rather then intramural combat.
The "Chamber of Commerce'' works closely with the Merchant's guild and also deals in stolen goods. Protection rackets, driving out “Undesirable” businesses and managing less then legal businesses that cannot join the Merchant’s Guild are other operations the Chamber engages in.
The "Rotary Association" being the front for housebreakers and cutpurses. Focusing on individuals and not businesses they mostly stay in the good graces of the Chamber of Commerce. They also sometimes may help the Debating Salon get access to hard to reach places for whatever then might need to do there. Their access to gossip and information that is notionally secret also gives them more leverage then their financial standing would imply.
The "Debating Salon" is a front for assassins and political influencers. There is some tension and crossover with the Chamber of Commerce’s Protection and “zoning” activities. Generally Debating Salon activities are aimed at influencing the Crown’s Court and Nobles, but as more businesses acquire more power and capital, they turn to the Salon to bend the opinion of other owners and businesses.
In addition to the guilds there are other organizations that the players should be wary of. Powerful groups like Churches and Cults, the Noble Houses and the City Guard.
The Primary Church of $Kingdom is (Prosperity Gospel beliefs, Pluosteen [$Lawful Evil God], heavy on the Lawful). The Church is targeted to families of the small and middle business owners, with the Noble Families often shown as the exemplars of piety. Abundant Triumphs explicitly says that the more you donate or tithe to the church, the better you will be rewarded as well as saying that those that have much are closer to Pluosteen then those who have less. The Crown and the Church have an arrangement to show the King as the Most Holy, and “Infallible”, above suspicion or wrongdoing.
This Church is a thinly veiled worship of Greed with practically nothing in good works for the needy. Abundant Triumphs builds schools and other Public Works, but mostly for the Middle and Working Classes where they further inoculate their beliefs and try to get the children hooked and to bring their parents to church.
The Abundant Triumphs Church has several branches in the better parts of town, especially those areas that border Working Class areas, all the better to inspire greed and jealousy. It’s showcase is near the Palace, a near-Cathedral made of expensive hardwood, imported marble, and gilt with gold anywhere that makes sense. All of these churches enforce a dress code, a hard one against the poor and a social one, encouraging people to buy more expensive clothes to not be the subject of ridicule or derision.
The Palliative Ministries are a more recent institution, but still one with enough money and time to be tolerated, if not accepted. This church is dedicated to [$Chaotic Evil God “The Giving God” (Loviatar, goddess of pain? Death Domain, Forgotten Realms] who is depicted as having sacrificed everything of Herself to help people (Story of the Foolish Traveler rewritten as a parable) Palliative Ministries are the primary charity organization in the $Kingdom preaching volunteerism and charity to the point of “Give Until it Hurts”. They have a Quiverful ideology, that “Children quickly grow into people who can help too”. The Ministries serve the poor and working class with a minority of middle class members.
The downside is that most of the donations they take in never make it to the poor and needy. Dead that are brought for burial are often used as supplies for necromantic rites or even reanimated as undead servants to The Giving God. The Priests and Clerics are all well trained in lying and concealing the nature of the organization and generally have a down-to-earth demeanor, friendly and approachable. The $LEGod clerics and others in the know are smart enough to export the capital they extract from the people of $Kingdom to endeavors where their God works under different names towards Her goals more directly.
Palliative Ministries stay in the good graces of the $Kingdom by way of generous and quiet donations to the Crown and friendly relations with the Guilds. They often help the poor get work as laborers for Guild Businesses (and making sure that the Guild both sets the bargain basement wage and looks good for doing it). Their community ties make the Palliative Ministries a good place for businesses or Guilds to be seen making a donation or doing good works. The Crown has adopted a Pay to Survive racket with the $upstart Church, where as long as the gold flows, the weight of government won’t come down on it. Due to the King’s persona with the Abundant Triumphs Church, he cannot be associated with the $Upstart Church directly. There is also a tacit agreement that the Ministries will “Work within the system” rather then allow revolutionary sentiment to arise.
The Abundant Triumphs Church doesn’t know about the grift and considers the Ministries to be its main competitor for the income of the Middle Class. They have some light slander towards the Palliatives, but for the most part leave them alone to pick at the scraps they can get from the poor. On the other hand, while Palliative Ministries doesn’t overtly say anything about Abundant Triumphs, they do consider them their primary opposition in the Kingdom and are plotting a long game to take them out with scandals, assassinations and other deniable and underhanded methods. $CE God sees much potential in death and suffering in this kingdom to be exploited.
Standard Life Sphere Clerics of a Neutral Good God, forced to operate and work in secret. They skulk around the poorest areas and the Slums healing the sick, purifying food and drink, teaching as much as they can to families or small groups. Serving as a counterpoint to the mild and exploitive aid of the Ministries and the active hate and neglect from Abundant Triumphs, the very existence of the Brotherhood is revolutionary.
The 2 established churches and the City Guard are all hostile to the Brotherhood, but they want to slander, discredit and quietly destroy them to prevent the creation of a martyr or messiah.
A secret organization infiltrating the $Capital to undermine the $Kingdom and advance the agenda of $Rival Neighbor Kingdom. While they function like a cell-style cult, they have no god or strong religious beliefs leading their actions. This secret society is quietly agitating for the idea of democracy and worker ownership/control of businesses. They advocate for the gamut of resistance actions from work slowdowns to sabotage and assassination.
Currently, they have the advantage that the Crown, Guilds and Churches haven’t caught onto their existence, but the City Guard are on the lookout for provocateurs and secret agents.
Also known simply as The Guard to everyone in the city. The City Guard are both the police and the militia of the city/state. The organization is chartered and controlled by the King. They are responsible for the military defense of the Walled City and the peace thereof. The organization is built on military lines and ranks. The leadership of the Guard are well aware of the interactions of the various Guilds and specifically how the Thieves Guild works. The organization generally will not interfere or investigate “interactions” involving the Guilds and Noble Houses unless ordered by the Crown.
Police operations of the City Guard is the part that most people will interact with. The enlisted Guardsmen are The Guard on the Street is there to break up fights and arrest overt crimes, especially by the poor and unaligned. The law is flexible and in the name of city safety, a Guardsman can do nearly anything they want on a public street. Officers of the Guard are empowered to hold summary judgment, of fines, imprisonment or death. The City Guard has both jails and a program of using convicts for public works labor and renting convict labor to Nobles and large businesses at rates just above the cost of keeping the people imprisoned. The money often is embezzled by the officer in charge.
The military aspects of the Guard are chronically underfunded and undermanned. The lost capacity is often sold on the black market by commanders and even individual guardsmen. The City Guard are responsible to patrol the wall, guard the gates, and even patrol the region and borders. In the event of invasion the City Guard are expected to be the immediate force to counter the attack, and to serve as the officer corps and cadre of the national army.
The Noble Court is subordinate to the King's Court and functions almost as a Guild of Nobles. At an equal table heads of each Noble House vote, plot, and conspire together as a power block, as well as against each other in smaller groups.
Main location is the $Capital walled city, major port and [...]. Inside the walls is squalid and filthy from smoke and poor sanitation. Outside the walls is the stronghold of the Trade Union patrols and sharecropped farms owned by the gentry.
Just outside of the $Capital, between that main walled city and the [river? Ocean?] there are the Docks. An area of piers, warehouses, some industry and slums for the workers thereof. The Docks have a dedicated Gate to the Capital. The grade is sloping downhill from the $Capital to the piers with cliffs on the east side of the city . The west side of the Docks is wild swamps and wetlands. These geographic features mean that goods shipped from the Southern ports have to come through the $Capital, and thus are subject to tariffs, inspection, and confiscation. Much of what is in the warehouses of the Docks (And more then a few of the people there) cannot continue through the $Capital and also cannot be reshipped back out as the $Capital has plenty of goods to fill the outbound ships to other ports.
The Trade Union and the City Guard both patrol the Docks heavily. The City Guard have several defensive emplacements and there are ramparts and other defensive positions built into the area, but not all of these are manned all the time and are favorite spots for the unhoused to rest and the stone walls are an invitation for posted bills or other graffiti.
The Trade Union are bullies making sure that all workers on the piers and warehouses have paid for their work licenses and other Guild permits. There are many workers with expired or fraudulent papers busking for work on the side of the road, or just sitting in the shade looking for a likely employer. The Union will also bust employers who don’t respect the Guild rules for employment and fine them or break up their business for hiring unpapered workers.
The Walled $Capital City enforces a defensive cordon of about 100m around the walls and at The Gates. Three Large structures that mediate the movement of goods and people into and out of the city. At the beginning of the cordon there is a City Guard inspection [looking for...] and after clearing that there is a Trade Union checkpoint, to ensure that people pay the Guild fees and purchase the correct Guild licenses. Then there is 100m of open road with [... on either side . At the gate there is City Guard “Traffic Control” to make sure that incoming and outgoing traffic doesn’t get confused or into collisions. This control will guide the person through the blocks and defenses to the second Trade Union checkpoint where they verify you bought the right permits and fees, effectively a second inspection.
The Gates are at the Northwest, the East and at the Docks in the South. Outside the $Capital the traffic between the Northwest and East is also bridged by a simple, but wide road. There are slums at both gates and trailing the northern edge of the city between the road and the cordon. The City Guard consider the Gates and the Wall the edge of thor responsibility, but there are a few military units that patrol through the slums, unconcerned with crime but looking for threats to the $Capital.
Life inside the city is miserable , but the slums that have formed around the gates to support travelers who can’t or won’t enter the $Capital, serve as freer markets without direct Guild Intervention for goods moving around the $capital and of course hosting crime, scams and other illicit activities. Both slums are rookeries of ramshackle construction, subdivided buildings, hidden pathways and dark corners aplenty.
(run by Noble Houses)
[ Minimum 10 Cities, run by “petit Rois”, one+ per house]
[$Resource Extraction city]
[Gate City to the Skeleton War setting, in the north, heavily militarized, Noble is deep into the arms and mercenary trade]
[Farming town food]
[Farming Town $cash crop]
[Cattle Town, Eastern border?]
As one might expect, the law of the land is flexible and typically ignored. The law is more flexible the more wealth and power a person has. In many situations the law is non-existent and what’s legal, is what you can get away with. The King is the final arbiter of the law from the Redress Courts, but few wrongs ever get that far. The Thieves Guild handles matters internally as much as possible, and may handle problems between the other unions as well, on a cash basis. Each noble has some sort of court or magistrate for internal matters.
Regular street crime and crimes not committed by Nobles or Guild members are adjudicated by City Guard officers, either immediately if the crime is “obvious” in their eyes, or at a tribunal at a City Guardhouse if the facts are not apparent or there may be complications. The concepts of a jury or fair trial are inconceivable.
The kingdom is recovering from a banking crisis where banking services were being offered by several big businesses and 2 noble houses. Fractional banking and compounding interest lead multiple cascading bank crises until the King stepped in and declared Banking to be a State function. All debt was forgiven, all deposits considered lost, all banking contracts voided.
The State Bank operates as an extension of the Treasury. It will accept deposits from anyone, but only issues loans per royal decree at interest rates of the king’s choice. It’s well known that any deposits that are in the Treasury can be confiscated at any time. As such few people or organizations store significant wealth with the State Bank. Strongrooms and safes are commonplace as everyone keeps their wealth close. The Rotary Association prefers it this way. It’s much easier to rob a household's safe then a bank.
Important Details:
$Resource
Pipeweed $Cash Crop
Items that are specific and different to the area.
Instant Legolas bow magazines
Cranked mounted Machine Bows (City Guard Emplacements)
Spring powered Bowguns (treat as Medium and Hand crossbows, but with a thin profile)
These lands are the most important to the lives of those in the plains and mesas or this region. They circle our setting and border each other.
For a bigger view of the world. This grants a little world view and in case the game moves.
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