Monday Mashup #1: Greyhawk and CSI

So this is an experiment.

I like genre-mashing. I also like drawing on the tropes of Western media to give genres a new spin. I also think the Game WISH is the bee’s knees.

Thus, I’m kicking out Monday Mashup as a writing exercise. The format is pretty simple: I’ll toss out a roleplaying game/setting and a piece of pop culture, and you write up a brief rendition of a possible campaign that incorporates ‘em both in whatever unhealthy form you prefer. If people dig it, I’ll keep going, and if not, I will continue to chortle about my weird ideas in privacy.

This week: the forensic scientists of CSI meet Greyhawk. Go!

For me, the interesting thing about CSI is not so much the forensics as it is the depiction of meticulous oddities among the rather cowboyish world of the Las Vegas Police department. Let’s work with that.

The PCs are a special squad of the City of Greyhawk’s Praefecture of Magisterial Enforcement. Recently, due to the humanoid incursions into the Wild Coast during the Greyhawk Wars, the City of Greyhawk has been exerting more influence in that corner of the world. The PCs are part of that influence.

They’ve been sent down south to the fairly anarchic Safeton as an example of the benefits provided by enlightened government. The locals are resentful, but the team is dedicated. Their mission: solve crimes and provide investigative services for local government.

I think there’d be plenty of potential plots, even including the occasional dungeon crawl (“Man, this is not our primary mission.” “Yeah, but they said the bottom of this place has some important documents.”) You probably want the PCs to be mostly lawful types with a scholarly bent. Could even be a fun con run if you modelled the pregens after CSI characters; I think they’re embedded strongly enough into pop culture.