Best locations for low level adventuring?

[Kzach]

As I was calculating my budget and putting aside money for the new TerraClips sets when they (hopefully) come out in August, it occurred to me that running a campaign entirely set within the city limits (because the TerraClips sets coming out are for Sewers, Streets & Buildings), is an excellent way to start off an adventuring group.

I've sort-of done this before using Greyhawk city (who hasn't?) but never really took advantage of all the possible benefits of city adventuring. To me, the reason why city adventuring is such a good location for low level adventuring is that it provides all the opportunities for great adventures whilst minimising the risk of permanent character death.

A city adventure can create many allies and many enemies for the future, create a home base that can later be threatened (and mean something to the players), provide the PC's with all the resources a low-level party needs, gives the DM an immense amount of control in the form of possibilities and NPC interactions and also allows for many types of adventure from political minefields to dungeon hacks, rescue missions, retrieval missions, thieving, security guarding, etc.

Traditionally I've gone with the small village approach, but more and more I'm leaning towards a good sized city to start the PC's off in and develop them until they can fly on their own.

What do you think is a good location for low level adventuring?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Seaside town/city with an active port.

Everything from foreign merchants to smugglers, naval officers to corsairs.

Cheap taverns and brothels, maritime chapels, hot bench diners, strange foods sold from carts. Drydocks and warehouses, both active and long abandoned. Stonework piers with cannon half sunk used as bollards, wooden wharfs and strange transactions done in the shadows under, when the tide is at ebb.

Accents and languages from a hundred other ports o' call. Rake hells and crimps, pickpockets and confidence men. Pressgangs and constabulary.

Strange cargoes and stranger pets - parrot perches and monkey magnets. Seamonks and Jenny Hannivers. Shadowy things kept in jars. A monkey's foot tied in twine, to be worn around the neck.

Shining brass and barnacled salvage....

Pirate's rock, old bones in rusting cages, grey corpses swinging from a hempen noose.

The Auld Grump

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Hommlet, or perhaps a keep on the borderlands.

Small enough to be self contained, expansive enough to be unknown, limited enough to keep players from getting in too far over their heads.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Port city that is also a learning center, this will allow different classes to meet and work together. Make it a river port, where the players can later up-the river or take to the sea.

Set up a system for the players to have knowledge and contacts within the city. Magic Users, may have a buddy that works in a ingredent shop, a fighter may know someone in the guard. These are NPCs and places but not generated by the DM but by the player, to be used as needed.

Build an event/plot calendar - murder takes place every X days, drugs come into port every X days, protection money is collected every 1st of month, how many ships come into port a day/spring, new classes start at the school of magic, etc. What this does is build a flow and time table, it also brings a city to life. Real life example: what happens when the fleet comes in?

 

[Gilladian]

A very large city can be overwhelming. I used the town of Saltmarsh for several campaign starts; as several people have mentioned, a port leads to many useful adventuring locales and scenarios.

My current location is a bit different - a town of around 1,000 people, it is located on a crossing point where a road and a river come in contact. The loggers use the river to bring their lumber to the towns and cities to the west, while caravans of merchants and other travelers come from the east heading west (and vis-versa). The town itself is pretty much surrounded by a belt of farms and logging activity, but beyond that is wilderness. It isn't big enough to have full-blown sewers, but there are some tunnels and lots of other neat features (nearby ruins, a dungeon, invading humanoid hordes, etc...)

 

[steeldragons]

I've done pretty much all of the above.

Hommlet, Saltmarsh and "the" Keep are all classics and can't really go wrong.

I've done the home brewed town of 1,000 (or so) farming folks.

I've done the port city. Always good for all of the reasons The Auld Grump outlined above. PLUS, my favorite element about port cities is "the information." You have people (and things!) coming in from all over the known world...or at least the known world that this city/kingdom has trading agreements with...you can and will hear tales from all ports of call...tales of adventure and far off treasures and lands...its brilliant as a jump off point to get the party to other areas of the world...if that's what you want.

Or the entirely "in city bounds" thing you propose could work very well also. There really could be no end of plots for the party to pursue within the city...but you must be ready to acknowledge/accept when the party says "we wanna go somewhere else"...it just happens.

Bottomline for the "starting point" of a new group/game...what do the players want? What do you want? Where doth the twain meet? If everyon'es good with staying "in town" their whole career, then great. Or staying within, like a day or two's ride of the city (some plots/leads might have elements that take them outside the walls, afterall).

--SD

 

[Hand of Evil]

Another is a group of towns, this works also for travelling towns (gypsy).

Example would be dwarf holding near a human town which is across the river from an elven forest. Humans act as the bridge between the other two races.

As far as gypsies or other migrate peope, they have a route they follow. This gives a lot of options for players.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Personally I like starting them off on the road, travelling with a small caravan of some sorts. It gives an excuse for monsters to be around, doesn't overwhelm them with a city environment, gives them a home base that they need to protect, and provides some, but not too many consistently-present friendly NPCs for them to interact with, defend, and rescue if necessary.

I tend to vary my start each time though so I can try out different locations. A port town works really well as a lot of others have said. I've also tried out the classic "you all meet in a tavern", and I've started them both in prison and on a small airship on seperate occasions (both of which were useful because it forces them to interact with each other a bit. They can't just leave without meeting the other PCs, which is exactly what one of my players did when I started them in a tavern).

 

[howandwhy99]

Traditionally I've gone with the small village approach, but more and more I'm leaning towards a good sized city to start the PC's off in and develop them until they can fly on their own.

What do you think is a good location for low level adventuring?

I'd say 1st level characters start off in 1st level areas. That's whatever is right for your game.

I like Greyhawk's Old City, but it is definitely an urban game then, at least for awhile. I imagine it as a game of beggars and thieves working their way up from stealing and begging for lead slugs to respectable middle class citizens.

The standard game begins in frontier lands as adventurers, with wilderness travel, upstart small towns and villages, and mystery-laden dungeons where monsters lurk.

I like starting off at sea too. Perhaps as slave rowers in a galley eventually becoming experienced merchantmen or pirate kings.

 

[MortalPlague]

I've been running a 5th level game set in a small city. I picked up the Crime Pays book from Goodman Games, and it's really helped put together a thieves' guild campaign. My players have been working to carve out a niche, while bribing guards and magisters, battling other gangs, and generally creating mischief. Throw in the occasional foray out of town to brave the wilderness, and you've got a pretty good location for adventure.

Oh, and let's not forget the sewers. All kinds of things live in the sewers of a major city!