User talk:DanielDraco/wip

Unanswered Questions
I'm putting this here for my own reference, although any input is certainly welcome.


 * 1. How does the city feed its people, when it is essentially under siege?
 * See #2
 * 2. Where do raw materials like metal and leather come from?
 * Drifters bring some sort of deus ex machina item -- one-use True Creation, to produce any natural material. The method of creating these items is unknown to city-bound pauper-mages, but Drifters carry them by the hundreds to sell to craftsmen.
 * 3. Are there any trusted spellcasters (e.g., good priests)?
 * Nope. Maybe in certain circles, but the public will never trust a spellcaster. Often a pauper-mage will act benevolent, but turn out to be just as self-serving as the others.
 * 4. What is the role of magic items in the city?
 * Highly prized, but people are very cautious about them. Harmless magic items are fine (sustaining spoons are common), but people must first be absolutely sure that they are indeed harmless.
 * 5. What is the role of religion in the city?
 * Mainstream religion is strictly non-mystical. Divine spellcasters are not any more trusted than arcane ones. The churches might secretly praise those faithful who are gifted with miraculous power, but they urge them, for safety's sake, to never let anyone know about their magical practice.
 * 6. Are people generally armed?
 * Yes, definitely. Nobody trusts anybody.
 * 7. Do people generally trust each other, or does paranoia of pauper-mages dominate all interactions?
 * People are not paralytically paranoid, but they absolutely do not trust strangers. Shops, for instance, are arranged so that the shopkeeper can see all customers at all times.
 * 8. How can I create a setting that really hammers into players' heads the idea that if they leave the city, they will die? Should I just create a way to outright prevent it?
 * 9. Who keeps the peace, and how?
 * The guards do. They're not completely dominated by the pauper-mages.
 * 10. Does it remain meaningful to say that something is "illegal"?
 * Yes. The guard is able to maintain routine operations and enforcement. It's just that there's also a lot of shady stuff going on.
 * 11. Why do Drifters, with access to such wonders, bother to trade? They certainly cannot be trading for wealth, so what do they want?


 * 1, 2: The two sentence description doesn't say it's under siege, just that poor people can't leave.
 * 3: Priests are the sort of people one would expect to have working for the authority figures. Maybe some of the lesser priests are actually on your side, but they can't make that too obvious or they'll be fired.
 * 4, 5, 7: I'm not sufficiently informed as to your objective to suggest something for those.
 * 6: Probably not with any weapons that can seriously harm the leaders, so only things like swords, ballistas, and fireballs. This changes depending on the CRs of the leaders, of course.
 * 8: I think the traditional method is to have some sort of opening scene that shows escaping people dying. And is it so bad if your campaign becomes a heist campaign (in the movie sense) about escaping the city? --Foxwarrior (talk) 18:36, 24 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Well the two sentence description isn't a full account of what's going on. I'd link the sandbox page that this started with, but it contains some things that I'm not going to be preserving. The basic premise is that power and prestige are mutually exclusive because the city is filled with Machiavellian pricks. Arcane spellcasters use their power to coerce members of the government into doing what they want &mdash; and there are so many of these spellcasters that they effectively hold all of the power between them, with the government left unable to make any decisions on its own terms. But if any one of these mages begins to rise to prominence, he'll be either similarly manipulated or struck down by the others, so even the most influential among them must operate incognito and never allow himself to appear to be above the common man. Hence, these individuals, rich in resources but living a life just as squalid as any other commoner, are known as pauper-mages &mdash; or maybe just Paupers, I haven't decided yet. Think of them as Anonymous taken to its logical extreme, plus magic and Objectivism.


 * Sometimes a pauper-mage seeks to leave the city and live a freer life as a hermit or a vagabond, in the same way that a powerful wizard in a standard campaign world might seclude himself in a tower. But they don't stop being domineering assholes &mdash; anyone who leaves the city is guaranteed to be attacked, either to be robbed, or more likely enslaved/zombified, by the pauper-mages who have already established themselves outside the city. So it takes a particularly powerful mage to survive outside &mdash; common people, and even most pauper-mages are unable to leave the city to farm, trade, or do anything else. So, in effect, the city is under siege.


 * Clerics working for the authority figures presents a problem, because it gives the "ruling" class an effective way to resist the pauper-mages, and ruins the whole concept of the setting. I'm leaning toward including divine spellcasters among the pauper-mages, and creating a few underground religious organizations to give them other options without giving them much power. I've already got one organization idea that is likely to include a fair number of clerics.


 * With completely decentralized power, the city is likely to live in a sort of stable anarchy. So weapons are probably a good idea, I'm thinking. But that leads to another question (added to the list!)


 * Escaping the city can be an ultimate goal, but it becomes an entirely different campaign setting once the players leave. So if that is the goal, the setting needs to be able to support that goal all the way to the campaign's conclusion &mdash; which means either making characters terrified to leave until they're damn strong, or outright preventing them from leaving until they are powerful enough to overcome whatever is restricting them.


 * Thanks for the input, it's very helpful! --DanielDraco (talk) 20:07, 24 November 2012 (UTC)


 * 10: "Improper" or "not done" becomes a much harsher term than "illegal". --Foxwarrior (talk) 08:08, 25 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Oh, certainly &mdash; the law is far less important than not drawing the ire of the pauper-mages. But I need to figure out whether the city guard still exists, still has teeth, and still upholds any sort of law aside from the whims of the pauper-mages. I need to figure out what balance to strike between corrupt but active government and anarchy. --DanielDraco (talk) 19:39, 25 November 2012 (UTC)