A City Campaign

[the Jester]

It's an old thread, but this details an urban adventure that I ran.

 

[Ruined]

Not everyone will have access to this, but Monte Cook has a great section in the Ptolus DM's Companion about Urban adventures. Lots of good information based on his experiences.

The best piece of info I gained from that is to realize how parties will spend their resources differently in a city as opposed to within a dungeon. Urban adventures tend to have lots of small investigations which lead to one big battle for the day. This can be tricky to deal with when a mage can bring their entire spell selection to bear instead of conserving for the next two or three fights down the road. It also can take away from classes without expendable abilities like fighters, who don't run out of juice (save for hit points).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Consider the Bruce Lee film Game of Death.

In it, he must fight his way UP through several guardians before reaching the final room. (Each level has a symbology, but that's not important here.)

Essentially its a dungeon in reverse.

So, just take a dungeon idea you have, flip it upside down, and set it in a wealthy merchant's fortified mansion.

Or a Wizard's Tower...or a mill, or whatever.

Ah! If you can, track down and read the Thieves' World books...or, considering your timeline, the RPG campaign setting. 90% of that series was set in the confines of cities. Even if you don't have much time, though, track down the books. They are collections of short stories, so you should be able to read a couple of them in time to help you out.

 

[Brimshack]

Some detail on the citys. This take place on a island chain. There are a total of 8 citys of various size(still have to figure how big I want them). They are all boom towns also. This is due to the metal and gems being found in the past(not sure how long yet). So I have sea, city and some underground. Should form a nice campaign. It is late and still have yet to read the links. Let you know what I think when I have a chance to read them.

Thanks again for the input.

One thing that occurs to me is you could have fun with a trade route theme. Say the known winds and currents travel Northg to South, but there are rumours of a current that travels South to North, perhaps just a few days East or West. Maybe even a Ship or two have made the trip back in amazing time, but no-one can do so with certainty. Were someone to learn to master the miracle route, he could make a fortune. ...and of course there are lots of forces in the cities set to take advantage of such a discovery and/or steal the secret for themselves.