[Lex_BR]

Originally Posted by Aneirin

It sounds like a good story, however, you would need to PC's to be on board with it.

We´ve estabilished from experience over long period of time that our games usually work best when they give me a setting or general feel (in this cade, modern, guns and mellee) and i hand out different options for character templates for them to choose with pre-set motivations and subplots.

Originally Posted by Aneirin

Plus...the group dynamic could very easily break apart if the main PC doesn't do as you want. maybe he decides to form a bond of friendship and trust a triad PC

I would not mind that at all. In fact, the most interesting thing about the initial premisse from my point of view is that i dont know how it´s going to turn out.

As the relationship between the undercover cop develops with his new family he may and probably will become conflicted about his mission.. especially if i add a few scenes where he gets to meet the family of his liutenant for example or find out about a few corrupt policemen and dirty details about his old friends.. There is also always the allure of money and luxury that the players will have access to as they rise the criminal underground ladder..
if we manage to pull it off right it may turn out almost like an rpg social experiment. i know my players very very well but i honestly dont know what they would do.

Originally Posted by Aneirin

My advice, the setting sounds good, gritty hong kong undeworld is soemthing I haven't seen much of and does lend itself towards a cinematic feel. Have you discussed with your players what they would like? Would they prefer cinematic or gritty realism, do they want magic?

My players are great actors, but not the best writers lets say..
We´ve learned from experience that campaigns where we let each come up with his own "do what you want within the setting" character never add up to more than two or three sessions. what we usually do is they tell me tidbids about what they want and like, for example, this time it was : "Let´s do a modern campaign, i feel like playing with guns and a bit of tech."

i would actually love it if they were more involved in the planning so that i wouldnt have to come up with so much about the characters and plot, but alas, it´s not the case. the redeeming quality is that they really are great actors, i just try and hand them a very open role and they´ll do wonders with it and we end up having lots of fun.

We are friends and have been playing together for well over a decade now so i know their tastes quite well.. The idea for the undercover cop was actually specially tailored to one of them because in real life he thinks of himself as a "champion of justice and honor" with an intense sense of duty sort of guy and it would be incredibly interesting to see how far he would go and what his final decision would be.

Originally Posted by Aneirin

Tell the PC's what the setting is, and let them build up their characters. You can tell the that the campaign is focused on triads and they should build gangster characters, and see what they build.

we would end up with an honest cop with no interesting background or flavor, a killer clown on the loose with an appetite for ponies and a talking alligator.. *sigh* like i said, great actors, terrible writers..