I'm finally watching this splendid show by HBO (I bought the first two seasons on DVD) and I fell in love with the idea of playing a game of "realistic" cop & outlaws in a fantasy urban setting.

Of course the genre is ripe with examples (from the old "Lankhmar" supplement for AD&D to the various splatbooks about rogues, thieves guilds etc.) However, is there a particular game/supplement/system you would suggest for a campaign of this kind?

I was thinking, for example, about the legal implications of actions that many PCs give for granted. For example, in the first season of "The Wire" getting the authorization for *a single* wiretapping requires a score of episodes. I was thinking how, in a city with a strong legal structure, this would make the use of spells like "scrying" illegal unless authorized (with the "guards" having to seek permission, whereas the evildoers use them freely - until caught). The same for "offensive" spells: firing a fireball without "rightful reason" could lead to serious trouble, due to the potential to harm innocent bystanders.

Or about how some potions can be sold as drugs - maybe those that give you extra strenght/intelligence/whatever - but leave you drained afterwards, with a potential stat loss, and addicted. And what about the "CSI"? Dudes specialized in determining if a fire was natural or magical, from where the component of a potion found in a victim's stomach come from etc.

And all the classic stuff, of course: informants, going undercover, turf fightning in the inner cities etc.

Any ideas?

I think there's a lot of good potential here. It might be interesting to have the practice of sorcery be broadly illegal.

Governments might encourage certain magic specialties, such as diviners to use detection spells to find criminals and abjurers to protect important people.  People with those abilities have an easier time getting work and getting promoted within the government.
 
A noble would probably have things like protection from arrows at public events. An 0rganized government might have standard procedures for teams, for protective spells and low level magical equipment - criminals would want to know these procedures to exploit them.  
 
Certain spells are going to be frowned upon for property damage, such as most invokation spells.  Some spells will be outright illegal by non-government officials as they have no good purpose, such as charm person.  In that case, even possession of a spell book or scroll with an illegal spell might be a crime.
 
Depending on the government, one, some, or all religions might be illegal.

I'm just intrigued by the idea that it may be the assumption of civilized jurisprudence that the practice of sorcery itself inevitably is bad for the community (common in many societies that presume it to exist, look at viking law and seidr). As opposed to looking at "magic" as "guns" maybe as if "magic" was the setting's equivalent to "drug trafficking."

You know there's a possible cross over with the pundits thread about adventurers being scum in this idea...

Long ago a friend of mine ran a short campaign where the PCs were all members of 'Golem Team IX' (his name for the campaign)... it was his fantasy 'Blade Runner' game where we were worked for a secretive group of warlocks/sorcerors as 'muscle'... if any summoned creatures or constructs got loose it was up to us to track them down and return/destroy them before the general public caught on, got into an outrage and marched on the magicians with flaming pitchforks.
One quarry I remember was a renegade sorceror who had stolen some powerful artifacts, another was a possessed slave who, unknowingly, was something of a time-bomb.
So we had no official power except with the network of supporters the magicians had (many of them were rich and powerful though)... and even though some of us had magic we couldn't use it openly.

In-game it was a lot like playing undercover cops... who had to maintain the illusion that everything was 'normal' while dealing with various demons and homunculi and witches (the occult underground).

Quote from: Reckall;421926However, is there a particular game/supplement/system you would suggest for a campaign of this kind?

You should seriously check these two from Atlas Games :

Crime and Punishment
Dynasties & Demagogues

I've been thinking about doing something like this for some time now. This thread could prove extremely valuable. I'll be keeping a close watch on this one.

Focusing on the cops-and-robbers elements of the Wire is a dead-end if your goal is to recreate the feel of the series.

What you need is a well-developed sense of place, a story with a large cast of characters each playing small parts, a theme that each arc reflects, and various instutions / factions which PCs must swear loyalty to, act within the confines of, and be frustrated by the gap between claims and reality.

Some sparse ideas I thought about:

- The first one derives from the different laws for firearms in Europe and the USA. In Europe you cannot carry them except under special circumstances. In the USA ownership is allowed, but this doesn't mean that you can own an assault gun or go around with grenades in your pockets. Also, the right to own a gun doesn't mean that you can use it irresponsibly.

- This implies, in the game, a "legality level" system similar to GURPS' one. Spells are classified according to their "legality", and, according to the legality level of the city, private possession of some is allowed while others cannot be used/carried (in the case of scrolls/magic items/potions) without permission (or only by law enforcement agencies).

So, being able to cast a magic missile (for self defense) is allowed, but a fireball is military/law enforcement only (and more powerful spells could be the realm of the army only). Same with weapons (going around with a two handed sword is frowned upon...)

Some consequences: if you are "busted" carrying forbidden magic items or even the material components for a specific spell you are in trouble: if they are not for you, they can still ask for who you are carrying them, and so on.

This, also, leads to smuggling and black market - which in turn leads to counter-activities: inspections and detect magic spells on random shipments, for example.

- Right to privacy: beside the aforementioned restrictions on "scrying" spells and items, practices like "read mind" or even "divination" could be restricted to law enforcement agencies, and before using them you must obtain a warrant. You cannot pick a dude and read his mind to see if he is a concealed fireball casting mage: you must first make a case for it using other means. Of course the dude can still wave his rights and allow the scrying.

- Spells whose use is restricted to specific situations: like with a car, they are not strictly illegal but you can use them to do illegal things. "Invisibility", for example, can be used to escape arrest, to spy and violate other's privacy and so on. This could give you a count of "illegal use of invisibility".

- Talking about cars, what about CUI - "casting under the influence"? A drunken or drugged mage merrily casting spells can find himself in trouble - due to the inherent danger he poses. If the campaign is "drugs heavy" (with drugs meaning also forbidden potions" you can be arrested/in trouble for being under the influence in the first place.

- Specific decetction spells should be developed, like "detects if he has a potion in his bloodstream". These spells could be used freely by law enforcers - like alcohol detecting devices in real life.

- Different levels of "law enforcement". Lowly guards at ward level do not have access to all these resources. The city HQ has more resources - but gets involved only in serious cases. Then there is the Palace Guard (which protects nobilty, like the Secret Service) and the Kingdom Guard (the FBI) - both with A LOT of resources.

- Private security organizations and investigators. Both must have a permit, be officially recognized, and operate within their legal systems.

- And of course differen places can have different legal systems - just think about the differences between a totalitarian state and a more libertarian system.

Well, these were the first random thoughts. More as I think about it.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;422151Focusing on the cops-and-robbers elements of the Wire is a dead-end if your goal is to recreate the feel of the series.

What you need is a well-developed sense of place, a story with a large cast of characters each playing small parts, a theme that each arc reflects, and various instutions / factions which PCs must swear loyalty to, act within the confines of, and be frustrated by the gap between claims and reality.

Well, "The Wire" of course presents multiple storylines and the story is told by both sides. However, the campaign can focus on *one* of these storylines (i.e. The Detail, or the young generation of drug dealers) while maintaining the realistic approach to law enforcement - gap between claims and reality included.

If the characters are newly sworn agents, for example, I guess that the impact of "reality" on them will be mirrored by the impact on the players - usually accostumed to go around the local Manhattan carrying scrolls of "Meteor Swarm"

Regarding the place and "the cast", the RPG market is full of supplements that describe a city / fantasy cities in painful detail (like "Waterdeep" or the old "Cities" by Chaosium). Upping the "realism" factor and creating factions, NPC, political motivations (even within law enforcement) and so on would be part of the normal research work for a campaign.

One way i'd run it would be with the "adventurers" as the criminals the City Watch are trying to track down and bring to justice, this group seems to have an almost constant stream of new recruits that come into the town looking for "quests" usually given in the seedy taverns in the poorer parts of town by shadowey "wize men" or other people of questionable intent.

Mmmm...smells like the early years of the Thieves' World series to me to a degree (and that's not a bad thing, in my book).

This issue came up for me running the new Pavis Rises for RQII. Briefly openly wearing armour is illegal as is carrying anything larger than a shortsword or any kind of missile weapon. Shortswords and smaller can be carried sheathed but must be bound in a specially bought red ribbon.

But of course in Glorantha everyone knows some magic and an Orlanthi with a Skybolt spell is significantly more dangerous than someone with a shortsword. Which led me to wonder how magic is policed. Mugging using magic is just a mugging but running around with an openly displayed air rune is probably the equivalent of carrying a loaded crossbow. Haven't really got an answer to that but it is interesting to ponder.

OK, to start my research with the right foot I bought "GURPS Cops" (after all I have tons of supplements about fantasy cities, rogues and the like). I feel that starting with real-life procedures and then thinking about their fantasy equivalents can be very helpful.

I was totally blindsided by the fact, shown in "The Wire" that a simple wiretap, asked by cops working on a drugs case, required five episodes of hard work and a detailed case to be presented to a judge. But thinking about it after watching the show I can see how it makes sense - in a fantasy world too.

Quote from: Reckall;422156Well, "The Wire" of course presents multiple storylines and the story is told by both sides. However, the campaign can focus on *one* of these storylines (i.e. The Detail, or the young generation of drug dealers) while maintaining the realistic approach to law enforcement - gap between claims and reality included.

I wouldn't. Go nuts - have players create multiple characters and run scenes with both crooks and cops (or whatever else).

QuoteRegarding the place and "the cast", the RPG market is full of supplements that describe a city / fantasy cities in painful detail (like "Waterdeep" or the old "Cities" by Chaosium). Upping the "realism" factor and creating factions, NPC, political motivations (even within law enforcement) and so on would be part of the normal research work for a campaign.

Yes, but one reason that it will be hard to recreate the Wire is that David Simon and his collaborators are basing it off of decades of experience observing police work and living in Baltimore, and therefore have dozens of RL anecdotes and characters to draw from and use to flesh out the Wire.

I would recommend using a similar process if you wanted to recreate the Wire in a fantasy setting. Go and grab biographies or accounts of medieval knights and other figures, and adapt them closely to your campaign.

The Wire is, in part, a rebuttal of other police procedurals. Similarly, the more tropes of the fantasy genre that you undermine, subvert, and show to be hollow rhetoric, the more "Wire-like" the game is going to feel.