Need help running a Police Drama in Sharn

[Redshirt Army]

For a change of pace, I'm planning on running a police drama campaign, set in Sharn (in Eberron). (Inspired by this thread.) I've DMed before, but I'm doing two things differently in this campaign:

- This is my first time running an established setting, having always simply making my own world for my other campaigns. Are there any pitfalls I should avoid, or will I be fine as long as I read the relevant books?

- How do I run a police drama in such a way that everything doesn't come crashing to a halt if the PC's don't follow my train of logic? I remember there being some guidelines to building campaigns like this, but I can't find them.

Any general DMing advice, ideas for the PC's to investigate, advice on running Sharn/an investigative game, ect. would also be very appreciated.

More campaign details in the spoiler, if anyone needs them:

Spoiler

Show

-Campaign begins at 8th level (Don't panic, I have some ideas to deal with Speak with Dead)
-The PC's are members of Sharn's City Watch, who have been organized into a special task force (ie. party ) after all original members of said task force were killed (plot hook ahoy!).
-I'm allowing homebrew pending my approval.
-Flaws are allowed pending my approval.
-HOUSERULES:
*Weapon Finesse has no prerequisite.
*All classes have Knowledge: Local, Spot, Gather Information, Sense Motive and Search as a class skill.
*Classes without casting have a minimum of 4 + Int Skill points per level.
*All weapons can, at no additional cost, be constructed to deal nonlethal damage at no penalty, but in that case, do lethal damage at a -6 penalty.
*Forgery is opposed by Search, not Forgery. (Having 5 or more ranks in Forgery gives you a +2 synergy bonus to Search to detect forgeries.)

[Redshirt Army]

Really? 24 hours and no comments?

[McSmack]

Yeah it's not uncommon for good threads to go unnoticed, especially if there's a busy thread overshadowing it.

It was probably about ToB or whether or not said DM is a jerk.

On topic:
I think this is a great idea! I'm thinking of doing something similar for my next campaign.

1 - You should be fine running a Sharn campaign. Pick up the Sharn book, the ECS, and probably one or two of the other splatbooks - Player's Guide, Magic and Five Nations are my recommendations. Other than that you should be set.
The Sharn book is pretty detailed, so it might help to start the PC's working mainly in a single district, until they gain some notoriety.

If you're going to have the PC's actually employed by the city as members of the Sharn Watch, then it should be relatively easy to direct them to your larger points. The PC's have a boss, who gives them their cases, and reprimands them if they aren't producing results.

One of the Eberron adventure books had a nice way of dealing with keeping the pace of the game moving. Simply have a list of enemies that kick in the door from time to time to give the party a needed break from the strain of piecing the clues together, and can help to give them an extra push in the right direction by dropping an extra clue.

The Watch is notoriously corrupt. Use this to your advantage. Have bad guys get set free on 'technicalities' or somesuch and have friendly NPC's arrested for crimes they didn't commit.

I'd offer them some reputation based rewards as they gain a good record with the Watch. Discounts on artificer commissions, potions, etc. I think the Player's Guide to Eberron had a page or two about running mercenary organizations (The Red something Brigade or somesuch). That might make a good starting place for a rep/reward system.

[begooler]

Oh look, here's this thread. I was going to comment on it yesterday, but there was a great thread on Iron Heart Surge that distracted me... (I kid.)

I'm about five or six sessions in to a similar campaign (but in a homebrew setting with lots of details stolen from published materials.)

As far as expecting the players to follow your logic threads... don't. In fact, expect that they won't and be prepared to come up with avenues by which they can eventually get to where you thought they were going to go in the first place.

It's important that you reward them every time they follow a clue, even if its really off track. Whenever they start to go in a direction, start thinking of a plan that will could lead them to the right answer. Sometimes that solution might have to be serendipitous and not actually have anything to do with the choice they made.
For example, they happen to follow a suspect who has nothing to do with the plot. Go along with it, give them details that contribute to what they know about the setting, and let this search reach its conclusion. Once they've decided this is a dead end, they're heading back to the station, and the happen to cross paths with... plot creature #64.
Alternatively, NPC's can become important as a result of characters interacting with them. "Oh that guy? Yeah, it just so happens he's the barber of the fellow who runs the cartel you're investigating."

If they happen to follow your logic, great, they get the prize sooner.

[Kol Korran]

hhhmmm... this sounds like a splendid idea. a few thoughts though:

- read This page it helps dealing with following clues and such. i didn't test it, but it sounds like a good advice.

- Sharn: this is THE most complex city in Eberron, might be quite a bit to handle. if you're going to use it, know it WELL. and preferably have the players know it fairl well themselves (unless they are coming from outside it)

- Level 8 is BIG BUSINESS in Eberron (one of the nation's rulers is 8th level, Boranel, king of Breland is about 10/11 (? can't remember). you can't handwave it and play it as in other worlds, but if in Eberron, just assume most of who they face are mooks. they should have good tricks of evasion more of a direct fight.

- that said, Everyone who is SOMEONE arrives at Sharn, and so they may find high level opponents against them. whether from the Last War, or maybe from the Daask (monsterous gang, if i remember correctly), or else.

- changelings, changelings, changelings. enough said (Races of Eberron expand on them)

- if you have the time, read "Dragonmarked", and incorporate the untouchable-hands-in-everything power houses.

- lastly- good luck, perhaps i'll run something similar in the future!

[Redshirt Army]

Thanks for the link, those were the guidelines I was looking for.