I've always liked building big, complex urban environments.
Problem has always been what to do with it?
Cities are tough places for fantasy adventurers because unlike out there in the wilderness or down in the dungeon, civilization is all around you, everything and everyone is interconnected, and its hard to stay focused.  Besides, if there is real trouble, you report it to the proper authorities and they take care of it.

And then, watching The Watch the answer became obvious.

Make the characters the people who have to "take care of it."  A good chunk of the people you'd have to "tale care of" would be, in different stories, the adventurers.

For added fun make the Constabulary under funded, under staffed, under equipped, and with a sad lack of political connections.  Naturally, the city is a dense tangle of political connections and those political connections are half the problem.  Okay, two thirds.

The characters are a blend of idealist and misfit, committed to the job for one reason or another, and told to "take care of it."

So what's the interest in what would be a DnD Cop Game?

In reply to Eur512 (msg # 1):

Something like this could be very interesting for me. I assume that the setting will be a home-brewed one -- will it be medieval, as opposed to more modern? Also, what edition of D&D are you planning to use?

Thanks,
~T.

Pathfinder has some nice urban rules and the investigator class is pretty interesting :)

In reply to Tancred (msg # 2):

I would use 5e to make it consistent with my existing game world and mesh it in, as a parallel section.

Interested, but not seen The Watch yet to compare with the books. Also bear in mind that troubles your constables have to deal with also include rowdy adventurers, and, unless your city has more loose interpretations, actual death rather than confinement is generally frowned upon.

There are a lot of negative reviews to The Watch, all for good reasons, but with few exceptions I can forgive them.  It's clear they weren't trying to create THE Discworld, more of a parallels universe to it.

Some things they botched up badly, but such is life.

But I'm not trying to recreate it either, rather, it just gave me the inspiration for how to keep characters driven during an urban campaign.

And yes, of course, taking down minor offenders without killing them is part of the problem characters would face.

Definitely interested in this in a 5e setting. Other source books actually have City Watch as a background.

Sounds like a good setup.  There are several backgrounds tailored to urban environments that get under valued in the normal games, any of them could be very useful.

I think the idea of a disparate group of law-people trying to earn the trust of the community is a great idea for a campaign. I would like to play.

I haven't seen it either. The reviews I have read suggest that if you approach it as a Discworld fan you may be disappointed, but if you view it as a new concept it is actually good fun.

So I shall try to ignore the faxct that it is loosely based on Discworld and just try to enjoy it, when it finally makes it to the UK!

In reply to Jarodemo (msg # 10):

Wait, they made a Terry Pratchett adaptation and didn't release it in the UK?  How does that even happen?

In reply to scuff (msg # 11):

BBC America... go figure!!!

I'm in the process of putting this together.  If you are interested send me an rmail I will put you on the list.