The actual setting itself takes place in a large, medieval metropolitan area similar to Chicago, which I live close by, and is comparable in culture to that of Gary, Indiana which I reside a mere fifteen minutes away from. To bring a fictitious analogy to mind, think Batman’s Gotham City, only in the context of a fantasy game and tad bit more impoverished. Urban decay, noir fantasy, the potential for good, corruption where you least expect it, and the futility of traditional heroics preside as the central themes to the game. The city itself has existed for centuries, built over the ruins of the native people, with new and older buildings tightly intermixed.
There are three distinct levels of city as well. The Undermuck rests just beneath the cobblestone terraces above, accessible only through certain locked entryways and older structures, where the sewers, catacombs, natural cave systems, black-market, refuse piles and ancient remains of past nations reside. The Boulevards consist mainly on the ground level of the city, with its docks, warehouses, asylum, shops, red light district, residential areas and guild offices. Lastly is the Overrise , whose buildings stay high above the surrounding ones, and includes temples, noble houses, city offices, guard headquarters and the city garrison.
Along with the nonhuman aspects of the city, there are also five major human ethnicities present, interacting with the city in their own ways. The Aldeir hold the most positions of power in the city, as they were its original settlers. The Galyn are the secondary settlers of the city, looked down upon by their more nativist Aldeirian cousins at times for their service as mercenaries in a war hundreds of years ago. The Valhein act as scholars and artists, bringing an exotic flair to their new home, and are more welcomed than the Galyn. The Sengali are a displaced people, generally poor, but rich with culture. Lastly are the Tzumalu, a strong and mysterious people that keep an iron grip over the city’s red light district.
----- Using the ideas above, I created three concepts (that I still remember).
*Knights of Destitution: A small, all-encompassing order of religious warriors and administrators that sincerely aspire to make life better for the downtrodden masses of the city’s poverty-stricken, sometimes even venturing into the Undermuck. They offer a variety of charitable events, soup kitchens, and even some free muscle to those with specific grievances that require a protective hand or two.
*Order of Sundered Twilight: Having suffered a great injustice long ago, the founders of this organization relinquished what shred of humanity they had to wreak vengeance on their aggressors without mercy. Now with chapters around the globe, the Order acts as assassins targeting those whom they deem as corrupted. They are overtly zealous in their duty though, and are likely to decapitate a petty thief just as soon as they would a serial killer.
*Rakta Gang: Named after an indigenous plant from their homeland that slowly grows to engulf whole villages, this Tzumalu affiliated group has connections to every brothel, armory, pleasure post, tavern and shop that exists within the city’s red light district. They primarily act to keep out rival thugs, maintain peace in their neighborhoods, prevent any brothel’s clientele from becoming too violent and also guard those deemed important to the Tzumalu community.
----- Besides that, I’m still thinking. I need about seventeen more organizations before I can be satisfied with myself. As I said before, I’d relish any inspiration, comments, concepts, or ideas anyone might have.
The Sisterhood of Shadows
A society of beautiful and dangerous courtesans that deal in information and death, for the right price of course. Found very young in the Undermuck they are trained all their life in the arts of subterfuge, politics, poisons, and their most important weapon: Seduction.
http://www.encounteraday.com/category/setting-seeds/steal-this-setting/
Now, I'm sure you'll get a lot of suggestions for typical fantasy-style societies, guilds, temples, magic colleges and so forth, but you should include other kinds of organizations. It's always good to simply mimic the real world, so...
Law enforcement agencies:
The Watch - regular cops, slightly or extremely corrupt, divided into precincts, used to dealing with simple cases.
The City Regiment - formerly a military unit, led by military officers, used for crowd control, somewhat brutal, inflexible, using mounts, well equipped, dealing with protests, rebellions and riots.
The "stipendiary police" - the guilds, nobles and other wealthy individuals and organizations pool money from which bounty hunters, thieftakers and informants are rewarded.
The more complicated crimes go unpunished most of the time, since investigation is the responsibility of individual victims.
City officials:
The Metronomers - the officials in charge of weighing and taxing all the merchandise imported to the city, as well as controlling the weight and quality of coinage. They are a very powerful organization, since they effectively control distribution and prices of various commodities. They have offices on every city gate and near every market.
The City Treasury - they control the amount of official city coins in circulation, and also determine the interest rates and rent selling. They work closely with the Metronomers.
The Risers - They were once a guild of construction workers, but ever since the Rise became a crucial component and symbol of city authority, the city took control of it (a source of much controversy). They now employ engineers, architects and urban planers instead of common workers.
The Archives - keepers of all scholastic knowledge, including arcane and religious writings (to an extent - most of those are controlled by magic colleges and religious organizations). They either work on keeping, organizing and preserving city records, or as official scribes. Some nobles who can't afford their own scribes and archives use their services for a fee. They also provide education for the nobles who cannot afford private tutors or boarding schools. They are also rumored to have another role - information gathering and spying for the city authorities.
I might think of more later...
But I digress.
I’m enjoying the ideas so far, particularly Juk’s suggestion of giving the city a more post-modern infrastructure and organizational setup to it, maybe reminiscent of old Tammany Hall politics with different lobbyist groups running around recruiting supporters? I don’t want the majority of the action to focus around council members though. Hmm, anyway, while I’m at it, I think the architecture should take on a more contemporary look as well, between the 20th century’s Art Nouveau and medieval Gothic movements. Though I’m not entirely sure what century the concept of unionizing came into existence, I wouldn’t mind working with the thought of guilds forming whole federations of various laborers, which could very well count the jaded ex-members of the Risers among their ranks.
City officials aside however, I also wanted to set up some antagonistic groups for my adventurers. While thieves’ guilds, assassin organizations, uber-bad guys, and cults seem like the obvious answer, I want more ambiguous villains to prowl the streets of my dim city. Kind of like the very brief excerpt of the OST above, killers who slay the “bad guys” brutally, but still might reasonably come into conflict with the more merciful PCs. Seemingly benevolent crime-bosses, an orphanage that exploits the black market to feed starving children, or the disillusioned, destitute poor that are desperate to survive no matter what the cost all fit the bill.
The “stipendiary police” Juk was talking about could also provide some conflict, maybe a specific mercenary company that has been foiled by the PCs one too many times?