City adventures - evoking the setting

[RangerWickett]

My current campaign has been taking place primarily in a small village, far from any big cities. Recently I had a session in a city, and the players said they didn't feel the difference, that they didn't get a sense of how crowded a city would be compared to a village.

Now, my last campaign was set in the modern day, and I ran events in New Orleans, Chicago, London, and other large cities. No one had a problem then. Do you think it's just that the group has been in one mindset -- so used to villages that they didn't make the jump to a city easily; or might it be that we've got a clearer image of real-world cities vs. fantasy cities, so it takes more work to evoke a fantasy city?

Of course, I might've just been off my game.

What do you do when you first introduce the PCs to a new city? How do you give them a feel for the place? Do you do it by straightforward descriptions, or by setting scenes in iconic areas? I'm not so much interested in what types of adventures you have as I am in the ways you make the game feel like it's in a city, and how that changes the mood and tone of the adventure.

 

[Drawmack]

When I'm running a wildernes or small village campaign the world pretty much revolves around the PCs. In a village it is easy to part-take of "world" changing events. For example if a band of goblins are raiding the fields that are the grain supply for the entire town, taking care of said goblins will be a world changing event for everyone the PCs come into contact with in the village. The party's reputation may even spread, "Hey so and so saved our village from evil pillaging goblins".

With a city I take a much more fatalistic approach. The city goes on around the PCs and they decide which aspects to interact with. While the party can still create "world" changing events it is going to take months or years of hard work to bring this about. I think the important thing to make them feel like they are in a city is to have the city just go on around them. Maybe your party is trying to reform the prison system and at the same time other major issues could be homelessnes, the slums, high profile thefts, etc. basically make the PCs feel that they are not the be all end all of good guys anymore. Sure you're taking care of the prison system where stealing a loaf of bread gets you locked up for life. But other adventurers are fixing other things about the city. In a city it is very hard to build a name for yourself and also very difficult to affect world changes.

Like I said very much more fatalistic in a city.

 

[Psion]

Now, my last campaign was set in the modern day, and I ran events in New Orleans, Chicago, London, and other large cities. No one had a problem then. Do you think it's just that the group has been in one mindset -- so used to villages that they didn't make the jump to a city easily; or might it be that we've got a clearer image of real-world cities vs. fantasy cities, so it takes more work to evoke a fantasy city?

Could be, but it's hard to say without actually being in your game to experience it.

As for me, I noticed that when I ran second world, my familiarity makes a difference. I can tap my real knowledge of locales, nightlife, seedy hotels and get that feel across. My font of ancient city sights is less complete.

What do you do when you first introduce the PCs to a new city? How do you give them a feel for the place? Do you do it by straightforward descriptions, or by setting scenes in iconic areas? I'm not so much interested in what types of adventures you have as I am in the ways you make the game feel like it's in a city, and how that changes the mood and tone of the adventure.

I'm about to throw my PCs into Bluffside, so this is a topic I am currently ruminating. I sort of think the first thing to highlight is the different quarters and local segments of society as viewed by the locals, as well as important locals. Then lace interactions with locals with that. So, if a PC arrives at Sordadon in bluffside and is looking to buy magic, they may get a swift talking to about the wizard's city, perhaps with an offhand rumination about how sorcerers best take care. They might bump into an NPC with a black eye, if they ask about it, he might describe how he got into a theological argument at Dine Divine the evening before...

Also a useful tool/observation is what NPCs don't talk about. Again in Sordadin, the well kept, shimmering, doorless lighthouse may seem quite a curiosity... but the NPCs are used to it, so normally don't talk about it unless asked. This is a tool to get players to ask NPCs questions.

Finally, other than specific setting details, there are a few things to keep in mind in general about being in a city. They may be more crowded, which can make a difference in chase scenes and combats (Mearls' Cityworks has some rules covering crowds.)

 

[howandwhy99]

A city is tough to adequately describe as it's like no other adventure locale. It's actually several locales with one name. My players just entered Diamond Lake in the AoW and I was finally able to give the a big description of how the town looked and felt. Below are the homebrew notes in spoilers with a few things removed (so my players can go ahead and read this if they see it).

[sblock]Town – Dirty sprawl of hundreds of buildings next to a muddy lake. Squalor.

Houses – wood and stone built high off rolling hills and embankments. Many run down and a few boarded up. Steps lead up to many buildings 1-2 stories in height. Large, mansion-sized homes ostentatiously designed and decorated intermixed with the smaller ones. Many smaller doors and even windows are built right into the hillsides. (Many more are boarded up in these hillsides). 2 larger hills have large complexes built atop. 1 – an old estate built into a fortress. 2 – a massive sprawling mansion with many haphazard additions.

Roads – main road "The Vein" is cobblestone farther in town, mud on approach. Others are just dirt.
Square – Cobblestoned with tall torch poles around. 2 temples (square and circle), shops, an upscale parlor house called Lazare’s, and a massive building called “The Emporium” (with a line outside)

People – Miners, poor, prostitutes, laborers, garrison soldiers, beggars, gambling on the street corner.

Lake – Bordering the town to the East. Muddy and polluted. Warehouses made into cheap housing. A few ramshackle houses along it. 3 piers jut out with the remains of some run down fishing boats and barges (most don’t look like they have moved in years).

Smelting house – large stone 2 story building made of stone towers clustered next to each other. No windows and fenced in. Along lake with the slag running off into it. 1 front tower connected to a building corner has a sign above the door (Benazel’s). 2 larger barn doors in center front are closed.

Cemetery – on hill to north is a cemetery fenced in with a small house outside. 2 fences, one encircles a mostly filled in area with some mausoleum. Other area is more spread out. Newer.

Mines – 3 mines in town. N, S, W. They are fenced in with offices inside the fences.

Town Laws – in a Handout (not included)

HISTORY – (cut)

Encounter List - for wandering encounters (cut)

And afterwords I have a site list with numbers for each important location in town. The few included above are immediately noticeable as unique. Site lists for a city could be by quarter: A1-A20, B1-B20, etc.
[/sblock]

What I would do for a city is a separate write up on each quarter and a master view for those approaching (with the surrounding metro area having its' own write up).

I find having a little intro to each Big Area can really help convey the scene. Think of it as a single dungeon room, but wherein many other locations can be found and interacted with. (e.g. a castle which again has many rooms).

 

[Monkey King]

A city is tough to adequately describe as it's like no other adventure locale. It's actually several locales with one name.

Must be something in the water; there's Cityscape, city adventures, Ptolus, and just a lot of city stuff lately.

And I'm guilty as well; I wrote up a guide to designing city adventures for the patrons over at Open Design. I disagree with HowandWhy99: I think city's shouldn't be treated as locales first (that's more useful for sites) but as a sequence of characters. People make the city

To put it another way: what matters is not which tavern you visit, but who is there when you go.

 

[Just_Hal]

I'm about to throw my PCs into Bluffside, so this is a topic I am currently ruminating. I sort of think the first thing to highlight is the different quarters and local segments of society as viewed by the locals, as well as important locals. Then lace interactions with locals with that. So, if a PC arrives at Sordadon in bluffside and is looking to buy magic, they may get a swift talking to about the wizard's city, perhaps with an offhand rumination about how sorcerers best take care. They might bump into an NPC with a black eye, if they ask about it, he might describe how he got into a theological argument at Dine Divine the evening before...

Also a useful tool/observation is what NPCs don't talk about. Again in Sordadin, the well kept, shimmering, doorless lighthouse may seem quite a curiosity... but the NPCs are used to it, so normally don't talk about it unless asked. This is a tool to get players to ask NPCs questions.

Finally, other than specific setting details, there are a few things to keep in mind in general about being in a city. They may be more crowded, which can make a difference in chase scenes and combats (Mearls' Cityworks has some rules covering crowds.)

Makes an old man smile, thanks Psion, nice to see people are still using this!

 

[Gilladian]

In addition to what the others have said, I think it's critical to set the scene at once and then throw in reminders every now and then. For example, a village might have one patrolman or officer of the watch who knows the PCs by name and gives them a "bye" about their armor and weapons, but in a lawful city where such "ironmongery" is worn only by official troops, they may get stopped repeatedly on their way to their Inn and questioned.

The noise, smell, confusion and bustle of a big city should bring all five senses into your description.

 

[Wraith Form]

Thanks, RangerW, for asking this. And thank you to all the replies. (I need this info too. )

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

Crowds.

The problem with starting in villages is that PC's aren't stopped by things. You quite seriously have to limit the PC's movements in some way to make them feel claustrophobic, closed in. My suggestion is to read some Thieves World books.

1. A bad way to do this is through making direction (wisdom, whatever) checks. Failure means 1d2 hours lost.

2. Time. It takes time to walk from one side of a muddy city to another.

3. Things change at night. Night places open. Night people come out. Day people go inside.

4. Darkness. In mid-day, buildings can be in shadow.

5. Crime. Crime really happens in cities, not so much in villages. Organised crime especially. Gambling dens and so on.

6. Again, closed quarters. Don't allow PC's to fight in open ground - make them fight in muddy alleyways which are only 5 feet wide - or less. Block them. Force them to find other ways. Force PC's to go up stairs and down ladders.

7. Open quarters. This shows luxury.

8. Poor/diseased/insane and tradition. Nothing better than having a colony of lepers (or women at early times) shouting "Unclean!" and rushing at the PC's to beg/mug them.

9. Cruelty. Nothing shows city life better than those who live happily feeling superior to those "below" them. Show the class difference, it's quite important. You may for instance have a squad of enforcers beating the poor and throwing them into the wilderness if they can't feed themselves or be a benefit to society.