The Evil Merchants of Venice

[thedearhunter]

ok, so first off this is not a campaign set in a shakespearean world

but next week im sending my players to a city in my world based on venice. I have a few adventures and canal related skill challenges in mind, but i was wondering if anyone has does anything like this or has advice. This is my first campaign so any help is much appreciated.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The deal is king, merchants move goods and mostly they protect their routes and their contacts. Players provide that information or become tools, they provide information for the merchants. Think about what and who the players know from their adventures, information of increased orc raids or important NPC are vaulable to merchants.

In my game the merchants are the backers for the adventure, they provide transportation and henchmen for the party to their quest. Because the party has had a number of successes, they are now spyed on and even followed by other merchant families.

 

[Gilladian]

Intrigue would be the big thing. Create a chart of the NPCs the pcs might interact with. Know who each NPC likes, dislikes, fears, feels weaker or stronger than, owes a debt to, etc....

Figure out who will need the PCs, and who will dislike them. Maybe that's the SAME person! Will someone see the strangers as easy scapegoats? Or quick muscle?

As far as the physical environment goes, Venice could be described in several ways, depending on the tone you want to set; different areas of the city may have different feels; there could be a region that is bright, loud, vibrant, and rich. Another area can be fetid, wet, moldy, dark and cold. There can be lovely ladies waving from their balconies, and bards serenading them, but at the same time a legless beggar nearby begs for enough coin to feed himself.

Is it Venice that is famous for their stray cat colonies? And how about the islands around the city. Plenty of room for smugglers, evil cults, and wicked sorceries.

 

[DayTripper]

City campaigns are tricky, especially for a first timer, as you can't have everything in the city pre-designed so the PCs are bound to catch you out sooner or later by asking for something you've not thought of - shop, contact, inn name, etc. Be sure to have some reference material ready that can be dropped in any time, e.g.

- list of random names for people, inns etc
- list of descriptive words to cover the names so that you can make each inn, person, etc a little bit more memorable
- make some geomorphs of city streets & areas that can be used for anywhere in the city & dropped in for brawls, random encounters, etc
- similarly acquire some floorplans for inns, shops, temples & other buildings that you can keep in reserve and produce when needed - don't use them unless you need to!
- have notes on how the city works - guards, taxes, quarters, crime & punishment, well known leaders & NPCs - don't go nuts just some notes that will help you explain to the PCs what the city is like, where to go to buy stuff, etc. You don't have to detail everything just some headline stuff that you can build on session-by-session. It will make the city seem a living place.


Keep notes of all these random things you tell the PCs - names, prices, locations etc - they are bound to remember if you don't and catch you out (again! pesky players and their selective memories - can't remember the plot line but can remember how much a bucket of worms cost from John's Angling Shop in Fish Street...)

Finally, be prepared to ad lib even if you've prepped as above the PCs are bound to catch you out. Don't panic. Be ready to make stuff up just document what you say soyou don't forget and contradict yourself later!