There is Therefore a Strange Land: Concept and the Fence Generator

The idea of There is Therefore a Strange Land is, partially, to formalise some of the procedures I've been using for a long time for games which revolve around city-based intrigue. (See previous posts here and here.) While the setting assumes dungeon exploration and derring-do in a fantastical otherspace (the 'Strange Land' of the title), it also assumes an 18th Century real world British city full of investigators, antiquarians, nobles, fences, robbers, assassins, smugglers, scholars and magicians who - directly or indirectly - interact with it. When the PCs return from the Strange Land bearing loot, they will want to find scholars to tell them what it is, fences to sell it on, or collectors to buy it. They will want to avoid the unwanted attentions of thieves and rival investigators. They will come to the attention of powerful forces who may want portals to the Strange Land kept hidden, or who want their expertise. They will inevitably become caught up in webs of social intrigue as a result.

So the book will provide a means for generating these social webs and ideas for operating them. This is the kind of thing I am working on - the fence - which is one archetype who the PCs will come into contact with.

Dice	Appearance	Personality	Twist/Spice	Specialism	Traits
1	Grossly fat	Pompous and pretentious	Consults a dice or pack of cards when deciding on the price.	Coins	Untrustworthy
2	Skeletally thin	Lascivious and suggestive	Is French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc., with contacts abroad.	Art	Powerful
3	Strikingly handsome or beautiful	Blunt and dismissive	Is accompanied by a monkey, parrot etc. who he/she makes a big play of asking for appraisals.	Furniture	Weak
4	Goitred and deformed	Boorishly talkative	Is blind and appraises items through touch/smell.	Weapons	Connected
5	Decrepit and old	Quiet and reserved	Is possessed by a demon (of a randomly determined type): has the untrustworthy, powerful and miserly traits.	Minerals	Foolish
6	Wiry and sinuous	Hateful and suspicious	Has a peg leg and keeps money in the peg.	Jewellery	Miserly
7	Muscular and powerful	Flies into impotent rages	Is an “exotic” from Africa, India or the Americas.	Flora	Untrustworthy
8	Missing an eye, ear, nose or tongue	Friendly and welcoming	Has a strange predilection which can convince him to lower or waive fees.	Coins	Powerful
9	Youthful and fresh-faced	Nervous and constantly sweating	Communicates only by whispering to an interlocutor.	Weapons	Weak
10	Red-nosed and consumptive	Shifty, never making eye contact	Gives discounts for those who can beat him/her in an arm wrestling match, chess game, drinking bout, etc.	Jewellery	Connected
11	Warty and ugly	Aggressive and confrontational	Has a boil which constantly oozes pus.	Fauna	Foolish
12	A small person	Painfully shy	Only communicates from behind a curtain - keeps true identity secret.	Art	Miserly

A fence has one specialism. Generally a fence is happy to make an introduction to another fence (from among his contacts or allies) for a fee or a favour (typically doing something to harm the interests of a rival).

An untrustworthy fence has a 1 in 6 chance of passing information about a client on to robbers (from among his contacts or allies), with the aim of getting a cut of the takings from a robbery.

A powerful fence has twice the ordinary level of resources.

A weak fence has half the ordinary level of resources.

A foolish fence gives +d6x10% to all prices. A miserly fence takes +d6x10% from all prices.

A connected fence knows a royal or noble.

Resources

A fence has TT: A, and a slush fund of 2,000 guineas. He or she also has d6+5 guards or retainers (1st level fighting-men) and access to a pool of as many hirelings as he or she can afford.

Contacts, allies, and rivals

A fence knows d3 collectors for his specialism. He also has d3+3 other contacts (determine using table below). One is a rival and one is an ally.

Dice	Contact/Ally/Rival
1	Fence
2	Robbers
3	Minor investigators
4	Assassin, brothel madam, pub landlord
5	Doctor
6	Major investigator

This type of thing is still a work in progress, but you can see what I am aiming for. The DM creates a limited social network during campaign setup, which to a certain extent generates itself - as contacts have contacts, allies and rivals, who can (if desired) be further detailed and given their own contacts, allies and rivals, allowing the network to expand. This can also be done on an ad hoc basis during play. The PCs may know a fence who specialises in weapons, but they have brought some weird coins back with them through their portal. Their fence introduces them to a contact, a fence specialising in coins, who previously was just a single phrase jotted down, but who can now be fleshed out and given his own set of contacts, allies and rivals. This new fence may have a rival, and agrees to take on the coins and sell them if the PCs agree to spy on that rival. And so on.