Adventurers for Hire

Dr. Bargle recently posted a scenario for starting a campaign: the characters have started "The Respectful Companye of Gentlemen Adventurers".  Now, never mind that I find the in-character use of game terminology, like "Adventurers" rather un-immersive, I do like the idea of starting the game in a more focused scenario.  i.e. instead of the players being  a diverse band with differing goals.  So here's a

List of game scenarios I'd like to play:

• The characters form a small unit of the City Watch/Police in a large, often lawless city
• The characters are a gang of career criminals in a large metropolis
• The characters are special forces or scouts for a large army, being assigned different missions
• The characters are deserters of a large army, now far from home in hostile territory
• The characters have won a government bid to map an area of unknown territory
• The characters are vigilantes/resistance fighters
• The characters run a private (paranormal?) investigators agency

What really makes these scenarios interesting to me is how they effect player goals.  For a standard DnD game, the goal seems to default towards accumulating XP/gold/items.  Now there's nothing wrong with this sort of Free-Enterprise motivation.  But sometimes it's nice to have a game where a different goal is the primary one, such as:

• survival
• getting home
• exploration
• pulling-off a great caper
• becoming a VIP
• solving a mystery
• defeating a powerful enemy
• growing a successful business