(In)Effective Policing

The party roll into town. An important thing to know is the laws and customs of such a place, whether this be to help out or to start working around the system...

Determine the budget of the force by either having it appropriate for the settlement, or rolling below.

D6	Budget
1	Destitute – Probably volunteer force or militia. Improvised weapons and no armour.
2	Poor – Few, poorly equipped watchmen. Leather amour, shields and spears.
3	Bearable – About what you’d expect for a settlement of this size, average equipment. Mostly leather, some chain. Shields, spears with the occasional side-arm.
4	Decent Funding – A decently sized, well equipped force. Chain shirts, pole arms and side-weapons. Slings, some bows. What you’d expect for a settlement of this size.
5	Great Funding – A notably large and well equipped force. Chain shirts, pole arms, shield and short sword. Crossbows for those guarding walls.
6	Incredible Funding – Full chain-mail for most, variety of pole arms, swords, maces with shields. Many crossbow-men on duty at any given time.

How corrupt is this force?

D8	Corruption
1	No corruption what-so-ever. This force is entirely given to upholding their laws and justice.
2	A tiny percentage of the force could be bribed for minor crimes. No large scale corruption.
3	Some minor, low-level corruption occurs. Locals could get away with middling crimes, outsides would have to pay quite the bribe to the right watchman.
4-6	Low-level corruption to the squad level. Sergeants could be convinced to look the other way for crimes which will not damage the populace. Most basic watchmen are open to bribes. Captains and the such believe firmly in the writ of the law.
7	Bribes are likely accepted for crimes less serious than murder, rape and arson. Whilst most of the captains are solid, a significant minority of the upper leadership is corrupt, and in the pocket of an interested party/parties.
8	Corruption is rampant. Honest watchmen are few and far between. The watch is effectively a joke, as is the law. Criminals are only brought in when they are incredibly obvious and/or dangerous – all other arrests are because one of the groups paying the watch want it to be so.

Who’s paying the watch off? Roll however many times seem appropriate.

D6	Entity
1	A Thieves guild, criminal gang or similar group.
2	The local nobility.
3	The local craftsman guilds.
4	A single or collection of religious establishment(s).
5	A single individual/ group of individuals with incredible wealth but no hereditary power.
6	A foreign power.

Oddities, quirks and strangeness. Roll as many times as you like

D20	Thing
1	A watchman will never permit skin-to-skin contact with the guilty.
2	The watch do not carry weapons – they only wrestle and fist-fight criminals. The money saved is spent training and armouring the watchmen.
3	The vast majority of the watch is made up of individuals too old to work. Young men are never of a rank above sergeant and invariably suffer discipline problems from the old folk.
4	The watch refuses to operate at night, pointing out the terrible beasts of the dark will deal with criminals for them. Crime rates at night are oddly low.
5	The watch only operates at night, saying a criminal in broad daylight will only get themselves caught. A skeleton crew runs the watch headquarters at day to accept criminals the populace in general catch.
6	Conviction of criminals require precisely 3 witnesses. Only women and children count. Far more women in the force than usual.
7	Watch is led by a team of settled-down adventurers, each establishing a branch of the guard – the Fighting-Men, a Spy network, the Holy Judges and a Magical Investigation wing.
8	Entire watch is made up of die-hard Justice-God worshippers. Very serious.
9	Every watchmen is required to carry a lit lantern, regardless of time or weather.
10	The entire watch uses only blunt weapons.
11	The entire watch uses the most thoroughly unpleasant weapons possible, whilst staying practical.
12	Watchmen are assigned 24 hour shifts with no sleep allowed.
13	Almost all of the watchmen are mercenaries who decided to settle down here.
14	No-one knows who is actually leading the watch, orders are simply pushed through the crack under the door.
15	Every watchman is accompanied by a dog, without fail.
16	The entire watch is made up of ex-criminals who have reneged their old ways.
17	The watch is composed of slaves which private owners must donate for a week at a time.
18	The watch avoid the trading and mercantile districts, citing that such businesses should pay for their own protection.
19	Every watch member has served previously as a watchmen in a different settlement.
20	Every watch member wears an identical full-face mask. All uniforms are identical.