A underlying reason for a game help

[SteampengMK-1]

Hello there, Steampeng MK.1 here.

After looking around the net, I finally, with the help of a few internet users, found the problem with my setting.

It was REASON for the game. WHY the PC were running away from a massive crime mob.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[Varyon]

There are plenty of possibilities. The MacGuffin is a tried-and-true one - the PC's have some important thing that the syndicate would rather have (or destroy) and that the PC's need for themselves. A prototype superweapon, some crucial evidence that can destroy (or at least diminish) the syndicate, whatever. Note you can easily have the MacGuffin be a person rather than a thing - the damsel in distress is a classic.

(One of) the characters killed, insulted, or ruined the plan of someone rather high up in the syndicate. This may have been on purpose or by accident - and it needn't be one of the PC's at all, in the case of mistaken identity.

Someone(s) in the syndicate randomly picks the PC's to be the victims of a crime. This might be an initiation, a robbery, or a bit of the ultraviolence on account of boredom. Whatever it is, the PC's manage to survive, which can easily turn the situation into either of the above.

[johndallman]

The Some Like It Hot variation - the characters were witnesses to some major crime, and can't rely on the authorities to protect them. Hiding out in drag is optional, but may be entertaining. For the GM.

[Anaraxes]

- The PCs were mob members that betrayed the organization.
- The PCs are the remnants of a rival mob on the losing side of the last mob war.
- The PCs were lawmen, but got turned out of the law (rightly or wrongly) and now can't rely on them for protection. They're on their own.

You can also invert any of these -- e.g., the characters didn't witness the crime, but nevertheless the mob thinks they did. It can be hard for the PCs to prove a negative.

Originally Posted by Varyon

The MacGuffin... some important thing ... that the PC's need for themselves. A prototype superweapon, some crucial evidence that can destroy (or at least diminish) the syndicate,

Strictly speaking, a MacGuffin does not affect the plot, and could in fact be replaced by any other object the characters would find valuable. The Maltese Falcon doesn't actually _do_ anything. It just is. Sometimes MacGuffins don't even show up after they get the story moving.

[Dead Monky]

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time works too.

In my current campaign, for example, I arranged for the characters to simply blunder into trouble through no fault of their own. They stumbled into the middle of a coup plot (not that they knew that at first) and stuck together for mutual survival as they were hunted down and eventually driven out of the city.