The Thief and The City

Fiendishrabbit

Introduction to the City

This is the Metropolis. The home of over half a million people. A Kaifeng, Baghdad, Cairo, Constantinopel, Rome, Hangzhou or Venice. Located near the narrow strait that separates Mare Thalassas and the Emerald Sea it controls the all trade between them, and from its harbour it launches a thousand ships to uphold its reign.
It’s a city republic, one of many city republics dotting the shores and islands of the Emerald Sea, and the most powerful city republic of them all. Nominally under the rule of the Senate, it is in truth ruled by the guilds and the Archon, the commander of the city’s military forces, each grasping for more power and weaving an ever more intricate web of lies, deceit and violence.
A city unlike any other in the known world it’s power is not based on its increasingly ineffectual mage guilds, but on the power of technology. On steam and cogwheels, gunpowder and liquid fire, on ships and cannon. Much of this supplied by the Brotherhood of Steam, a guild that has risen to prominence in the last few centuries.
It’s a corrupt city, although not every man has a price you can afford, held together only by the Accords of the Guildpact. An agreement between the Archon and the various guilds that restricts their behavior, that regulates what is allowed and not allowed within the city. An agreement enforced by the most feared guild of them all; The Brotherhood of St.Markus the Tyrannicide; The Guild of Assassins.

All of this matters to you. All of this is irrelevant to you. You are a free journeyman of the Ordo Obscurum, a loosely knit guild of thieves, spies, scholars and trickster mages (mostly thieves). However, no matter how long the leash, your allegiance is bound as if by iron. Every member of the Order has tattoos on the tongue and inside of the eyelids, tattoos that grant him many abilities but ensures that he can not speak of or betray the guild.
As a freelance member of the order you survive by theft, fraud and deceit; a burglar extraordinaire always on the lookout for the perfect heist. You die by making one too many mistakes, or being noticed by the wrong people. As a career thief, there are a lot of wrong people. Some being more wrong than others. If you piss of the wrong crime boss you may survive for a long time, even die of natural causes if you’re smart, resourceful and manage to stay ahead. If you annoy the Archon, the Brotherhood of St.Markus, the Brotherhood of Steam or one of the more powerful mages your death will come quickly. If you're lucky...

Hello PA. I've been working on my campaignworld The Thief and The City for a while now, building what I feel is a fairly unique world (although I admit, frequently adhering to the Pablo Picasso mantra). The world itself is heavily inspired by the Thief series, but drawing equally on "Staden" (a Swedish RPG project), my knowledge of world history and my own imagination.
It's a project born from annoyance (which might stem in ignorance) that the world seemed to be divided into systems oriented heavily towards violence (where danger is best solved through overkill, regardless of lethality) versus rule-less (or near so) systems geared towards solving things through charm and ingenuity.

Though the system still needs a lot of polish (both in terms of rules and appearance) it's close to playable now. Sufficiently close that I would appreciate input from others. You can find all my public documents in this Google Drive folder. It includes an outline of the basic rules system, how to create a character, a map of the city (hideous), a progress list and more.

Primarily it's the OBP and Tricks sections that need work before I start up a more long-term campaign (instead of one-shot heists), so I would really appreciate your input on those sections.

Links
Google Drive folder
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sA4jU988Wsj9Aca9sEsmHXMHOCqpAn_m6ssbxTqyZ3w

I'll try to get a moodboard done this month.