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What Makes a Good Urban Adventure?
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<blockquote data-quote="The_Gneech" data-source="post: 7145451" data-attributes="member: 6779"><p>Dungeons are about what you CAN do. Urban environments are about what you're ALLOWED TO do. There's a reason Conan didn't like them much. He punched a judge and had to flee for his life.</p><p></p><p>In an urban environment, you should be navigating opinion, favor, factions and the like rather than making Athletics checks and attack rolls... most of the time.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You need to have a double handful of important and interesting NPCs for the characters to work for, work against, and generally interact with. And the NPCs need to also interact with each other, even if it doesn't happen "on screen." Relationships are what makes cities work. This can be a lot of stuff to keep track of.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The queen is the most powerful person in the realm and she's only CR 1/8.</p><p></p><p>If your players treat an urban environment like a dungeon and you need to actually figure out how to buff the opposition, your party is actually made up of outlaws rather than heroes and will be treated as such. Shops will lock their doors and windows rather than do business with them, they'll be hunted and hounded by the city watch, bounty hunters, the militia, and more if they continue to be a menace. If they're a big enough problem, other parties of high-level adventurers will be hired to defeat them. (Not to mention lawfully-aligned gods turning their back on clerics/paladins, and so forth.)</p><p></p><p>High level PCs are like superheroes– if they don't behave, they can get away with it for a while, but eventually there will be a reckoning.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Any adventure site that's isolated and full of monsters can be a dungeon. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> Check out Paizo's "Gallery of Evil" for instance. Sewers, prisons, magical laboratories, underground crypts, unearthed ruins all make good urban dungeons.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Gallery of Evil</em>, as I mentioned, is a good one.</p><p></p><p>Any or all of the 2E <em>Lankhmar</em> materials, as well as the 2E <em>Book of Thieves</em> are great references for an urban campaign. A lot of the Eberron stuff set in Sharn is very good as well.</p><p></p><p>-The Gneech <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite6" alt=":cool:" title="Cool :cool:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cool:" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The_Gneech, post: 7145451, member: 6779"] Dungeons are about what you CAN do. Urban environments are about what you're ALLOWED TO do. There's a reason Conan didn't like them much. He punched a judge and had to flee for his life. In an urban environment, you should be navigating opinion, favor, factions and the like rather than making Athletics checks and attack rolls... most of the time. You need to have a double handful of important and interesting NPCs for the characters to work for, work against, and generally interact with. And the NPCs need to also interact with each other, even if it doesn't happen "on screen." Relationships are what makes cities work. This can be a lot of stuff to keep track of. The queen is the most powerful person in the realm and she's only CR 1/8. If your players treat an urban environment like a dungeon and you need to actually figure out how to buff the opposition, your party is actually made up of outlaws rather than heroes and will be treated as such. Shops will lock their doors and windows rather than do business with them, they'll be hunted and hounded by the city watch, bounty hunters, the militia, and more if they continue to be a menace. If they're a big enough problem, other parties of high-level adventurers will be hired to defeat them. (Not to mention lawfully-aligned gods turning their back on clerics/paladins, and so forth.) High level PCs are like superheroes– if they don't behave, they can get away with it for a while, but eventually there will be a reckoning. Any adventure site that's isolated and full of monsters can be a dungeon. :) Check out Paizo's "Gallery of Evil" for instance. Sewers, prisons, magical laboratories, underground crypts, unearthed ruins all make good urban dungeons. [I]Gallery of Evil[/I], as I mentioned, is a good one. Any or all of the 2E [I]Lankhmar[/I] materials, as well as the 2E [I]Book of Thieves[/I] are great references for an urban campaign. A lot of the Eberron stuff set in Sharn is very good as well. -The Gneech :cool: [/QUOTE]
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