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D&D Ideas — Law Enforcement

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is law enforcement, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of crime it’s the other half of the equation in our very own Zoo Mafia RPG. We’re developing this game where you play zoo animals who secretly run criminal organizations under the noses of caretakers and tourists. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

Nerdy News

Brush up on the week that was! Rediscover a font of information, learn some quick magic and make the most of magical armor plus our weekly hangout and a live chat with an industry pro round out this week’s Nerdy News. Check it out here.

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

Law enforcement can be a central element of a roleplaying game whether you are playing fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons or another RPG. I’ve seen it both as a Game Master and player in different games over the years. I’ve played in a 5E D&D one shot where we played members of the Sorcery Victim Unit (SVU) over on the General Adventuring Company YouTube channel. My Monster of the Week Campaign was based around the players belonging to a secret government agency where they’d work paranormal cases. Even in our own games our characters would work together with the local watch to solve problems and threats to the town of Gryphongaffe. From this friendships were formed. Even a romance between one of the players and the head of the watch in Gryphongaffe blossomed.

In a D&D context the players could be a part of the local watch or be deputized by local authorities. Diving into the 5E D&D books you can find several of the D&D backgrounds have law enforcement tones: City Watch, Investigator and Urban Bounty Hunter.

Even if your game doesn’t feature the characters actively working as law enforcement it could still be a prominent part of the experience. Do the adventurers haul in bandits to the local constable for bounties? Maybe the local watch is corrupt and terrorizes the local population. The characters could either suffer at their hands or seek to stand up to them on behalf of the local citizens. Instead of being corrupt the City Watch could have been replaced with dopplegangers, changelings and other shapeshifters. Can the characters discern there is something amiss? Are the members of the City Watch still alive? Can the characters find and free them?

To recap how to use law enforcement in 5E D&D games:

• Quest Givers
• Adversaries
• Sources of Information
• Organization or Faction

From Ted’s Head

Dealing with agents of the law can be either a hardship or a lot of fun depending on the kind of 5E D&D game you are playing. If your character has a City Watch or Investigator background it can be assumed at least some point in time they actually worked for law enforcement. Several other backgrounds could technically be stretched to imply a character had some authority. For instance Folk Hero describes how your character performed a heroic deed but the details are left to the player. The character could have been a city guard who did something heroic and thus became a Folk Hero.

When you look at classes a paladin sits high on the scale of law enforcement. Paladins are often of a higher caliber because they are held to a higher standard. In previous editions they even had to be lawful good. The class that stands out the most — though you might not think of it this way — is the rogue.

A lot of people think that rogue means thief and almost one of the worst classes, but from they are still the most expert class that 5e offers. It could easily be assumed that they have expert training in combat allowing them to be better shots and better at blades than many others and are trained in a variety of skills. Putting expertise in survival, perception or investigation makes them very qualified to work for a town watch.

When it comes to adventures it is easy to have the players brought in under city officials to work either officially or unofficially as law enforcement. Are the local thieves guilds on a rampage causing lots of carnage or committing grander and rander thefts? Are rival organizations warring in the streets? If your players have established themselves as heroes worthy of trust by those in charge then having them brought in to deal with these kinds of threats makes a lot of sense. The characters could literally be presented with a badge or symbol of office. They might even have soldiers at their disposal for certain missions.

Other things that can be done would be to bring in the subject of law enforcement right into the concept of the game. Having the core of the game be about solving crimes can easily be done. Dave played in a game like this called S.V.U. — Sorcery Victims Unit, which you can check out here.

But if you do not want to be the law enforcement officer then they players can always work alongside them. They can be special agents similar to how Harry Dresden works with them as a consultant.

From the Nerditor’s Desk

The live chat about law enforcement with Nerdarchist Ted is one of my favorites and with over 150 of these topical videos under our belts this is saying something! I’m a big fan of procedural investigation shows and movies as it stands and incorporating D&D into the mix creates some amazing gaming opportunities. Blending relatable elements from real life with the fantasy components of D&D is a wonderful creative space within which to play.

During the chat we explored lots of great ideas for playing a 5E D&D campaign focused on law enforcement. The broad strokes puts the characters as officers of the law and a stroke of genius from one of the viewers provided a perfect starting point for this concept. What other creature makes a more fitting law enforcement captain than a copper dragon?!

Playing a campaign where the characters all represent law enforcement sounds incredibly fun, much more than playing a group of criminals for my taste. During the chat we explored ideas for this concept and I think it could really freshen up a lot of game play out there. For one thing real world examples can do a ton of heavy lifting. Everyone has at least some knowledge of law enforcement if only through media entertainment.

A law enforcement campaign also opens the door to a great deal of 5E D&D material largely ignored in favor of more exciting combat related stuff. Have you ever seen detect poison and disease cast in a meaningful way in your games? Or at all? It’s no guiding bolt or entangle but how useful are those when you’re trying to figure out what killed a victim at a crime scene?

It’s not all about magic either. The good ol’ fighter gets access to lots of Ability Score Improvements (or feats) and there’s nothing stopping a player from using either of those options to improve their character’s noncombat capabilities. Fighters are awesome at fighting no matter what so it won’t cripple a character to choose, say, the prodigy feat or improve their Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma. I’ll bet a Battle Master’s Know Your Enemy feature would be a lot more useful interviewing creatures of interest than in a typical dungeon delve too.

Law enforcement themes in 5E D&D needn’t be limited to low level adventurers either. Towards the very end of the live chat I remembered a very powerful creature whose whole existence is tied to enforcing the law. A marut serves a singular purpose — enforcing contracts forged in the Hall of Concordance in the city of Sigil. I can think of a zillion ways to incorporate an awesome creature like this. Here’s one with a more lighthearted and comedic take — an overzealous marut (whoa) gets reassigned to a podunk plane of existence where things move a little slower. The cosmic construct is soon frustrated by the mundane dimension, their lazy and incompetent colleagues (the player characters) and local commitment to low crime rather than law enforcement.

*Featured image — Go Wild. Do Crime. Don’t Get Caught. Visit the Zoo Mafia website to learn more and be the first to get news, playtest information, Quick Start rules and more right here!

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