How to Design Better Urban Adventures

[bento]

I need help designing better urban adventures. Recently I've run my group through two different "in-town" adventures.

I provided my players with a specific goal. I set up all the important NPCs, wrote up histories (if necessary) and relationships to each other and the kinds of information they could provide. I had a map with important locations marked. I had a general timeline of when certain activities would take place amongst the NPCs to keep things moving.

In both cases my players ran around getting in trouble, forgetting the goal, and ignoring important NPCs. The first adventure I ended up railroading to get them to the big fight, and we're at the mid-way point of the second adventure.

The players have expressed some frustration at this kind of play. They feel like the game is going nowhere. They have difficulties in knowing what to do with NPC encounters. One constantly Bluffs to BS with NPCs, several times provoking a fight. Others collect information but don't share with the group so everyone can be on the same page.

Is this a matter of educating my players in how to do better NPC encounters? Is there something I can do with my plans to get them more involved while staying on track?

I'd like to hear some of your success stories and tips.

Thanks.

 

[diaglo]

don't force it. if you try too hard it comes off as forced. your players will pick up on that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

First off, expect your players to get off the track. They ALWAYS do. So if there's stuff you want to have happen, instead of forcing players to comply, have NPCs do it on their own. Lay out a timeline where NPCs will do certain things, unless foiled. The PCs have to get involved if they don't like where it's going (once they figure out what's going on). Give them a sufficient hook to care and the rest will take care of itself. Just expect the journey to be far different between those milestones than you might have imagined.

 

[Janx]

throw in a few foils. NPCs who will reveal info, if the PCs fail to figure it out. The foil should show up, when it's almost, too late. But it should instigate more action.

Examples:
PCs investigating homeless people disappearing. They get nowwhere

Deem that by midnight, the BBEG will have all the homeless people he needs to perform the evil ritual in the center of town, in the sewer. Have NPC X that the party knows show up at 11:30PM to breathlessly tell the PCs that he saw some dudes grab a homeless guy, and he followed them. He doesn't think he was followed on the way back (he's wrong). Attack the party with some bad mooks. One of the mooks will mention the ceremony (like hurry up and finish them so we can make it to the ceremony).

That ought to be enough to get things rolling in the action department. Go watch a bunch of PI shows. Angel, Magnum PI, anything. A ton of crimes get solved by lucky breaks, not just questioning the right guy.

Use the lucky breaks to get the game rolling again.

 

[carpedavid]

First some general advice for NPC-heavy games:

1. Things happen without the PCs interacting. You should know what the NPCs are doing, when they're planning on doing them, and why. This allows you to do the following:

a. If the PCs don't get involved, interesting (probably bad) things happen. If the PCs haven't picked up on the hook, or just don't care enough about the hook, then the consequences of their inaction can serve as a hook into the next adventure.

b. If the PCs do get involved, but do things you don't expect, then knowing what, when, and why will allow you to adjust the NPCs reactions in a realistic way. It'll feel to the players like the NPCs are reacting, and not just reading from a script.

2. Make the next course of action easy to figure out. Take a lesson from computer and console RPGs here. There's nothing more frustrating than walking around trying to figure out what you're supposed to do.

a. Gather Information checks and the like should provide concrete and useful information - not something the PCs need to puzzle out.

b. Remember that every important NPC has an enemy, and is capable of conducting Gather Information checks themselves. If they find out that a group of adventurers is poking around looking to foil their enemies' plots, they may give the PCs all the information they need.

In your case, I'd suggest the following: don't railroad. If the PCs are given the opportunity to get involved and don't, they should see the consequences of their actions. They'll get involved more next time. When the Good Cleric hires the PCs to keep the Bad Wizard from summoning the Evil Demon, and they spend all of their time getting into bar fights, let the Evil Demon be summoned.

Also - it somewhat sounds like they view all NPC encounters like combat encounters - they're out to "win." This might be due to lack of experience from your players, or it might be due to how you present the encounters. If they're always trying to squeeze every bit of info they can find out of every NPC, they might see all encounters as adversarial.

More infomation might be helpful. What exactly is the constantly Bluffing PC trying to accomplish? When you say they don't share information - is that between players or between characters?

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

throw in a few foils. NPCs who will reveal info, if the PCs fail to figure it out. The foil should show up, when it's almost, too late. But it should instigate more action.

Examples:
PCs investigating homeless people disappearing. They get nowwhere

Deem that by midnight, the BBEG will have all the homeless people he needs to perform the evil ritual in the center of town, in the sewer. Have NPC X that the party knows show up at 11:30PM to breathlessly tell the PCs that he saw some dudes grab a homeless guy, and he followed them. He doesn't think he was followed on the way back (he's wrong). Attack the party with some bad mooks. One of the mooks will mention the ceremony (like hurry up and finish them so we can make it to the ceremony).

That ought to be enough to get things rolling in the action department. Go watch a bunch of PI shows. Angel, Magnum PI, anything. A ton of crimes get solved by lucky breaks, not just questioning the right guy.

Use the lucky breaks to get the game rolling again.

I actually used this hook, though with children being taken from a street festival. Everything else in it is nearly identical! The players loved that night's game, and to this day still reference "The Dark Harvest" whenever talk of fall festivals in real life come up.

 

[Festivus]

I was just laying out my own city adventure for the first time... EN World comes to the rescue again with ideas!

The first thing I did was write out the primary antagonist and other important supporting cast members, including their background, motive, and standings in the community.

Next, what I did was made a timeline, and placed what the various NPCs were doing at any given point on the timeline. They all have their motives and suspicions of others in regards to the keystone event (a fire in an orphanage). There are other events that happen before, during and after this keystone event, and it's up to the players to decide how things will flow. If they fail to pickup on the plot right away, other things will happen to guide them back to it hopefully (like more fires, bodies dug up at the cemetary, etc).

At this point, I am just designing out what I hope to be the climactic conclusion where the plot is fully exposed to the players. I had found a website for these sorts of stories which I found useful:

http://www.figma.com/howto/rkemp/rk_mystwriting_01.htm

 

[howandwhy99]

Wow, what an excellent thread. This is all great information. I think it serves for any type of adventure.

My thinking is your players are suffering from a lack of team unity (teamwork) and motivation. Getting motivated can be simple with the full world revealing itself as they traipse around it. The tougher trickier part is encouraging them to share info with each other. Left without challenges I think players can begin to act like cats and end up going in every direction seperately.

My advice: GO RIGHT AT THEM!
Bring the challenges to their doorstep and give them some weighty responsibility as well. This is far better done at the beginning when laying the tone, the first feeling of the campaign. Veterans may not need to be set on their heels at start, but placing the responsibility for the campaign (the fun, the objectives, the group motivations, etc.) squarely on the Players shoulders is essential. They are in charge. The can do as they wish. Their PCs are the heroes of the game. They have great opportunities, however: if they choose not to involve themselves, bad things can occur. The trick is to not have too many grand and dire situations lest the players become reactive instead of proactive.

I believe D&D is a learning game (game mastery is often vaunted). DMing can be like teaching: the first day is essential to lay the groundwork and consistency and stability are needed throughout. But instead of imparting knowledge a DM is more of an enabler. The players test their skills against greater and greater challenges with almost no boundary to what those challenges can be. They get to think and act like heroes and the game rewards them (gold, xp, etc.). All this without risking life or limb. Of course, the phsyical rewards are not real either, so... (hence I don't play every day)

[/rambling]

 

[bento]

My thinking is your players are suffering from a lack of team unity (teamwork) and motivation. Getting motivated can be simple with the full world revealing itself as they traipse around it. The tougher trickier part is encouraging them to share info with each other. Left without challenges I think players can begin to act like cats and end up going in every direction seperately.

BINGO! After play last week we talked about this being one of the issues. Several players complained that not everyone at the table was working as a team. Even those that profess team spirit didn't take the extra effort in seeking out the other players to share info and make the next plan.

Bring the challenges to their doorstep and give them some weighty responsibility as well. This is far better done at the beginning when laying the tone, the first feeling of the campaign.

We're playing a new setting for most (Oriental Adventures) and this is not your typical kick-in-the-door type of campaign. I had issues of balancing the need for action with something a little more thoughtful. Maybe I expected too much too soon?

Veterans may not need to be set on their heels at start, but placing the responsibility for the campaign (the fun, the objectives, the group motivations, etc.) squarely on the Players shoulders is essential. They are in charge. The can do as they wish. Their PCs are the heroes of the game. They have great opportunities, however: if they choose not to involve themselves, bad things can occur.

We talked about this very thing when they were drawing up characters. I "mandated" they provide a description and several character flags. My goal is to get them personally involved in the game by bringing up their own storylines as we go. More active than passive.

I believe D&D is a learning game (game mastery is often vaunted). DMing can be like teaching: the first day is essential to lay the groundwork and consistency and stability are needed throughout. But instead of imparting knowledge a DM is more of an enabler.

Great philosophy - it's just very difficult figuring out how to organize the lesson plan!

 

[bento]

throw in a few foils. NPCs who will reveal info, if the PCs fail to figure it out. The foil should show up, when it's almost, too late. But it should instigate more action.

It's funny - your example is also identical to the climax of the first game I mentioned. These lucky breaks though always seem to have a bit of railroading to them because I always feel like I have to throw them in because the players didn't figure out all the clues.

"You see these three black robed men walking down the dark country road in the direction of the spooky abandoned church I've been telling you about ALL BLOODY DAY!"