Fantasy Faction:
Street Rats
Quick Sketch:
There is the city; it could be any city. OK, not just any city, this is a stereotypical RPG-flavored fantasy city that is vaguely Europeanish and has things like a city wall surrounding an Old City and a river and some docks and a market town (called Newmarket) just outside the city walls. The bad guys are either an occupying military force, the corrupt henchmen of a local power, or just the usual city watch: in this example I’ll call them the Guard. Our good guys are the poor and working class of the old city, living in a run-down neglected neighborhood I’ll call The Warren – not quite a slum, but not any good part of town either. There was an “Incident”, and now the street rats and toughs of The Warren are fighting the Guard.
You can change the details to suit either an existing setting, or use my quick thumbnail sketch as a launching point of your own. File the serial numbers off etc.
The Guard might be too far away from home to easily summon reinforcements (if occupiers) or not official enough to ask for help from The Crown (is there a crown? Maybe there isn’t an outside ‘national’ force to call for backup), or The-Perhaps-Nonexistent-Crown might have most of the ‘real’ army away fighting a war. For whatever reason, it’s an even fight, a temporary stalemate where the two sides face each other over barricades.
Our Heroes, the party, grew up in The Warren but now have to find ways to get food & supplies through the Guards’ blockade, need to find allies, and must discover a weakness or strategy to eventually win. Maybe they can call on the Crown? Like the old (but still serviceable) Robin-Hood-Prince-John-King-Richard setup – Or they just need to hold out long enough for the ‘siege’ to be lifted – Or maybe they grow and learn and skill up until they can win by guile or force of arms.
It might also work out that the party can “win” but then have to leave the city, the only world they know, and get launched out into the wide mysterious unknown of the rest of the continent, depending on what kind of campaign you’re looking for.
General Background:
For all party members, our base assumption is they grew up in the city and live and work there. They can be any age or occupation that vaguely fits that baseline, or your players can get creative with backstories (growing up on a farm before becoming an orphan is popular) that might allow other gameplay options.
Our Associates:
[Player types, by class; suggestions for play – or for notable NPCs]
Rogues – In this time of unrest and trouble, the rouges are our frontline skirmishers and brawlers, fighting with a dagger or less – not members of the illustrious guild, those folks have real skill (and a certain amount of status). A rogue of this party is just a street rat, though they might aspire to being an actual thief & member of the guild in good standing.
All of our street “fighters” are just rogues and young punks and the sort of small-time petty criminals that, if circumstances were different, would be fighting each other over turf and scraps. None are really fighters, never having the training even the rawest military recruit gets. [Three options for PC/NPC Fighters are given below; see also Barbarian, next:]
Barbarian – Brute Squad Street Tough – (Yes I am specifically thinking of Fessik from The Princess Bride) A lot of people are fighting in the streets now, but just a few take to it with such… gusto. Brute Squad members will fill the role of a berserker, but only when driven to it by extreme circumstances. Until the odds are really against them, they put the tough in “street tough” and use their unarmored defense bonus and uncanny battle senses to act as literally muscular shields for the other, less beefy fighters and all the innocent bystanders
Bard – Trash-talking Rap Battler – The Street Bard can use cutting words to not just distract or confuse, but to literally taunt opponents into blind fury attacks, ignoring any odds (and the Bard’s allies) lowering their effective armor class and giving any strike an attack advantage. The ‘College’ for street bards is The School of Hard Knocks; some of the Lore is different and there may be more weapon proficiencies, feats of acrobatics, dance, and evasion than spells, but a Bard is a Bard even if their chosen instrument is voice and rhyme.
Cleric – Street Medic – Once just a bystander, perhaps a barmaid or apprentice, who jumped in to drag away the wounded from the fray, the medic has been called to Serve. While completely unschooled and untrained, at least so far, they serve as a direct conduit and can channel healing spells they don’t even know the name of yet. [GM Note: taking into consideration the lack of weapon skills and actual priest training, you might work with the player of the Street Medic and allow them to start two levels above the rest of the party, but with the understanding ahead of time that the bonus levels will need to be “relearned” (or as role-played: actually learned for the first time) so additional leveling will be much slower]
Druid – The Rat King – the Rat King has never left the city, he doesn’t know the secret languages or druid signs; he might not even recognize himself as a druid. He used to be a “mudlark”, one of the orphans who picked the exposed river banks at low tide for a dropped copper or some other bit that might have value. Through that he got to know the rhythms of nature (even inside these city walls) and eventually came to understand what Wild there was here, in alleys and sewers and walled-off gardens. His Wild Shape is a giant ratform – one he uses so seldom it is an urban myth – but his friends the rats are everywhere. Sometimes it seems like he can even speak with them. Not just rats, but snakes and birds, and he is also unusually good with ponies, cart mules, and livestock, though the huge horses of the Guard just snort and paw the ground at him
Fighter – “Here Comes Our General” – She rose above the crowd very early in the fighting, through a mix of luck and a few key shrewd decisions, in one of the very first clashes. She survived, and saved a few others besides; several of those now loyally follow her lead. Somewhere she found a heavy knife long enough it might pass for a short sword, and uses a stout walking stick in her off hand mostly to block, but also as a way to rally the toughs and point to objectives, over the din and noise. A colorful scarf was soon added, as a “banner”, and she wears a matching one around her head. Relying more on raw charisma and natural talent, with a gift for tactics, Our General is untrained in arms but is being given many opportunities to practice.
Fighter – “I used to be an adventurer, before I took an arrow to the knee”. Some folks in The Warren most assuredly used to be something else before settling here, and (at GM’s discretion) an actual Fighter might be part of the party, a wounded veteran or a codger well past being called back to active duty. [Similar to our Street Medic, the GM might grant two levels over the rest of the party but in exchange for a negative attribute modifier, due to age or scars, and a slower base movement speed, perhaps an “old wound” that can be overcome with some sort of willpower check in dire need but at a hit point & endurance cost]
Fighter – The Defector – Maybe a younger, rookie member, new to the Guard and given no reason for either personal or professional loyalty, decides to leave the Guard and join the rats. He has had training; he is probably much more proficient with weapons than any street tough, but even if he could bring his gear with him when leaving, he probably can’t wear any of the armor or use the shield, for fear of being mistaken for the Guard-he-was and stabbed in the back. Oops. Sorry bro, my mistake. The defector would need a really good reason™ to switch sides (it’s usually the romantic subplot) and even with good reasons, will be met with suspicion and distrust. As an NPC, this might be solved by finding a way for the defector to safely leave town (with their love, assuming that was a mutual thing). As a PC option, this might work as a way to bring in a new player who joins the campaign a few sessions after it started.
Monk – The “Holy Beggars” are by tradition restricted to the plaza between the Council House and Temple Row, though many practice outside the city walls among the many markets and the caravaners’ tent bazaar. They are not “holy” in the sense of feeling either divine favor or a call to serve, but because in seeking alms they perform ‘miracles’, like fire-eating, or handling snakes, or lying on a bed of nails, or contorting themselves into all sorts of shapes. Their skin is tough, they are flexible to the point of seeming unjointed, they seem impervious to fire and poison, and they are pissed off. It is unknown what the Guard did to rile the bottled fury of the entire “Order” of Holy Beggars but they are a force unmatched in the rioting. Literally vaulting over the heads of others to tangle and engage the Guard as flying balls of limbs and fists and striking feet, spinning on the ground or flipping backwards or seemingly drunk, but always hitting from an unforeseen angle and seemingly always out of reach for any counterattack.
Paladin – Sign-carrying Street Prophet – before The Incident, he was just another crank, another beggar, living off alms and spending daylight hours banging a stick against a pot, intoning “The End is Nigh” while slowly walking a circuit around the city, or occasionally (as penance, he says) walking the entire outside perimeter of both the Old Walled City and Newmarket. Since the rioting started, he has changed aspect almost entirely (when did he get so tall? did he used to just always walk hunched over?) and he wears the pot-as-helmet on his head. His stick he traded for a stout cudgel, and he will be found leaping barricades while shouting his new battlecry “Your End Is Here!”
The Rangers – Sling Urchins – There are so many orphans, since the war, and not enough to care for them. They form packs, almost feral, looking out for each other and taking care of the youngest. Some get by as mudlarks, gleaning the banks at low tide. Others pick over trash tips and discarded junk outside the markets and caravan wagons, or steal bits of food to survive. They must be careful, and quick: orphans have been snatched up by the Guard, to be sold as an apprentice or farmhand, forced to “honest” work (at least until they can escape again). Or worse. The orphans do not say why, but one particular gang hates the Guard, their natural enemy, more than most. One or two of these are always trailing groups of Guard, unseen, to find opportunities for tricks, or theft, or injury – and sending runners to Our General to let her know always what the Guard are up to. What used to be a game for bored kids, slinging stones at birds or rats, has become a harassment technique now: stones and well-shaped shards of broken pottery are being flung with force and accuracy, often finding the gaps in helms or the exposed throat of those unwary.
Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard: A wild magic user suddenly appearing among our roguish skirmishers, or an otherwise weak street fighter given a chance at real power through an otherworldly bargain, would not be too out of place, but talking to you as one GM to another: I would be careful. At this level, of unorganized brawls in an urban setting, anyone bringing real magic to this fight is likely going to shift the balance to the point where there is no balance anymore. Any escalation would likely quickly be met by the Guard (would have to be matched, from a storyteller’s perspective) and we could quickly burn down the whole city.
[GM note inside the GM note: All plans gone awry, the city on fire, a person who must be found in the chaos, a magic mcguffin AND innocents who must be protected – that sounds like a fantastic capstone adventure to this low-level urban mini-campaign and you should find a cliffhanger in it and split it over at least two sessions]
If a player wanted to bring a magic user of just about any flavor, you might ask if they would take the role-play opportunity of a dual-class character, leveling once or twice as a rogue before The Event (sidequest!) that leads to them becoming a Sorcerer or Warlock. The scholarly, wizardly option might be effectively closed as a path, if we assume our urchins and street rats are illiterate. (An old Wizard NPC who must be found/rescued/persuaded to help for some special circumstance the party can’t otherwise overcome would probably be a nice mini-quest too, maybe good for two or three sessions)
Other Encounters:
The street rats are a coherent NPC faction with a strong theme, obvious place & time to encounter them, and a generic enough backstory that they could be found in just about any smallish city that has a similar conflict in place. A party of PCs could be mercenaries brought in to reinforce the Guard, adventurers passing though who just happened to be using the city and a tavern in The Warren as their base of operations, or agents of (did-we-decide-there-was-a-Crown-or-not-I-forget) the Crown who are sent to find facts and restore order.
No matter the set-up, telling your party they face two beggars, three kids, and a wiry teen dressed in what are those, rat pelts? and then being taken down by a hail of sling bullets, a Holy MMA Beggar, a swarm of rats, and the Zealot Pothelm Paladin braining your lead fighter with a stick while shouting “Your End Is Here!” will probably teach them something about underestimating opponents – or make them paranoid in every “innocent” city encounter from that session on. Either way: Win!
Next Week’s Fantasy Faction
The Lodge