City Adventures

[Acid_crash]

Has anybody on these boards ever ran a good city adventure, or know of any good advice on running adventures within a city?

I do decently well with wilderness adventures, and it's not too hard to run dungeon adventures, but cities themselves have always been a little beyond my capacity...and I want to get better.

If anybody is willing to help I thank you ahead of time.

The source of this is the City of Towers, Sharn in Eberron. I will eventually have the party go to Xen'drik to search some ruins, but for their first two or three adventures I want to really set up this city as their future base of opperations (these after I run The Lost forge in the back of the book).

 

[Alnag]

Well, I run a game of city campaign, but it is my own idea and what´s worse it is not in English. The story is this: On far islands is mostly pirate and necromancer's harbour, where live the worst of the people. Players have to have some good reasons why to travel there and on these ideas are based the adventures which happened in the city, catacombs and area around it.

One of the players killed his father, high nobleman of ancient empire and is hunted by Emperor's guard. Another left army, because of religious vision. Another is member of the hated race and the last one is imperial paladin on secret mission. The best adventures are written by players themselves.

 

[Big Jake]

I'm a fledgling city adventure DM myself. I've been running the Adventure Path adventures from Dungeon Magazine, and it has city encounters here and there. My experiences with Cauldron have led me to want to do more city stuff.

First, I recommend City Works by Mike Mearls, part of the Legends & Lairs line of Fantasy Flight Games. It is a great book with lots of information on city adventuring.

Next, you might enjoy reading Thieves' Quarter by JD Wiker and Christopher West by the Game Mechanics. It has a lot of great locations and NPCs that you could throw into any city campaign.

I've been meaning to read the Ptolus entries by Monte Cook (on montecook.com), but I haven't gotten around to it. He's been running a city campaign for the past several years, and we could probably learn a thing or two about it by reading through them.

As for my tips, make sure you know the basic city laws for your city, and make sure the players all know them, as well (are weapons/armor allowed, etc.). In some cities, you can be hanged for killing another person. If this is so, make sure your players know, so they can subdue miscreants and turn them over to the authorities (or let them go so they are owed a favor). Throwing in "salvage taxes" is one way to get to your players as well. Any time a store purchases goods from adventurers, they file with the city, and the city levies taxes. I usually levy a 10% tax, more if the players get cheeky with the tax assessors, or less if they can prove that they donate 10% to a church or something charitable.

If you have a player that really wants to be a druid, make sure they understand the extent that they will be in the city vice the wilderness. Our druid does really well in the city, and only calls an animal companion when she knows we will be out of the city at all. A lot of the druid spells do great in the city (quench, for one), and the druid can do as well as other spell casters.

The players will have more time to use things like Diplomacy or Intimidate to get through situations. I have adopted the following house rule to deal with situations:

When a player attempts to Intimidate an npc, the npc is allowed a will save. The DC of the will save is the result of the intimidate check. I do the same thing for quick diplomacy solving. The long way of diplomacy solving is opposed diplomacy checks. I encourage (mandate) that my players talk their way through thier intimidate and diplomacy checks, and give them bonuses to their roll based on the strength of thier arguments.

City works also gives ideas about part-time work in the city that the players can do: hire out as a master-at-arms and train new recruits at a temple or city guard; work as body guards for a local merchant, and others.

Some encounters you can use in a city adventure might be: a summoned creature escapes confinement and is rampaging (this could be especially bad if it is a fire elemental); the town guard may hire on a group of adventurers to deal with those pesky crocodiles in the sewer (IMC, the city guard is paid to handle simple city disturbances. They are not an elite trained squad build to handle "adventure" type situations. Hence, they hire out to adventureing groups, and even keep an adventurers register.)

It should be fun for the characters to develop relationships with some of the NPCs... who is their contact in the city guard, theives' guild, nobility, and merchant guild? It's great to bring in the key NPCs that they all know... and sometimes hate. But hating a person you can't kill is just as fun as the relationships they will enjoy.

And be receptive to the goals of the players. When the realize that they will devote parts of thier lives to the city, they may wish to take a bigger part in the city itself. So far, I have a ranger/fighter that took the vow of poverty, and runs a soup kitchen in the poor part of the city; the rogue started a smuggling operation via the water ways under the city (her cohort is an aquatic dwarf); the wizard started a wizarding guild (no sorcerors allowed!); the paladin started worship to Heironeous, previously unavialable.

I give them xp for their efforts, of course. And a lot of it is done "out of game." They are able to write up a letter of their activities as they want it to work out, then we are able to sit down and work it into the dynamics of the city and my campaign.

I've gotta run now, but I will also keep an eye on this thread as I hope others can give some great info.

 

[Fenes]

I usually run city adventures, since I prefer social interaction and intrigue to wilderness dangers or dungeon crawling.

IMHO, a city is defined by the people in it. I would concentrate on building memorable NPCs with goals, running plots and adversaries. That way, the actions of the PCs will have consequences. Trip a noble on the street, so that his new cloak gets dirty, and his attempt to woo a lady may fail, and he will carry a grudge. Save a young couple from muggers, and you may have foiled a ploy from the evil uncle to create a rift between two families. Stop a thief, and you may threaten to expose the corrupt city guard, who may start a plot to get rid of the evidence. Support one merchant, and another may dislike you for it. Then add local color and customs to it, make the people come alive. Add passions, and pastimes to NPCs. Grander plots and background - maybe the city has a hereditary rival, and every year two ships meet for a race. Maybe the ruler of the city came to power after a coup, and some nobles are still yearning for the rightful monarch.

When you have that web of relations, add the adventure plot. That can be basic - some item gets stolen, PCs pursue or gather information - and let the PCs get tangled up in the plots while they solve the first adventure - and make enemies and allies.

Remember that unlike dungeons or wilderness, a city offers many ressources, and different dangers and opportunities. The Law will be a constant factor to take into consideration - PCs can't usually just run amok with their weapons. They won't have to deal with camping and watches, but may have to deal with onlookers and witnesses. People may frown upon PCs walking around armored, and the PCs may have to deal with social problems as well as the local catacomb undeads.

Main point is, for me, to make the players feel they are affecting the city, and that the city changes around them. Let them meet people they know again, and again, and show how they change. That destitute noble they helped may turn out to gain the favor of the king, and shower them with gratitude later, splendid in his new estate, or that rich corrupt merchant may end up on the run, driven underground when the party exposed his actions, and now there is a new merchant council in power, battling the emerging thieves' guild led by the merchant, with people commenting upon it in daily life.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Let your players pick locations they know of I use CHR mod, I then let the players tell me what kind of place it is and even draw out a floor plan. I then will pick and area on the map and ask the player to point to the place, I then mark it. This becomes a landmark, when traveling in the city I use it.

Landmarks - the market place, the keep, the bell tower, etc...use them.

The news - look to national and local news and apply the stories to your game. If there is a house fire place it into your game, the running of people the city fire marshall trying to put it out, the burned out husk of the building.
Same with murder, it is the talk of taverns, wife kills husband... You can even use some for plot ideas.

Map - while you don't need detailed maps, you do want them, create wards/zones/districts.

NPCs - don't overwork yourself, city guard is a city guard, they have the same stats, same for tavern keepers and street thugs.

Descriptions - think about noise, the street condintions, the people and how they look as you move from ward to ward and from day into night. Use index cards listing out the words for each zone.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The Grey Citadel by Necromancer Games is one of the few examples I've seen of doing a city adventure right.

Mainly city adventurers require lots of personality, not only of the people, but of the city itself. A bland, boring city that is the same as every other city, will not make itself memorable.

Good encounters, locals to investigate and the occassioanl bit of strangeness make a city stand out.

Flowcharts are one of the easier ways to control where the party goes. These are excellent tools for determining if the party gets information, how they navigate streets or sewers.

 

[smetzger]

Has anybody on these boards ever ran a good city adventure, or know of any good advice on running adventures within a city?

The best one I have run is Death in Freeport.

Here are my observations about city vs wilderness or dungeon adventuring...
1) The map really isn't all that important. You just need to know the general direction things are in, how long it takes to get someplace, and what places surround the destination.

2) City works great for low level games and games wih limited healing. Its much more believable for the PCs to hold up in their rooms for a couple of days than in the dungeon.

 

[Hand of Evil]

oh, I noticed you are setting your adventure in Sharn, I think I saw where that city was to be published by WotC laster this year. You MAY want to re-locate your city so you do not have any conflicts with the book when it comes out.

 

[diaglo]

try this one from Henry:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14646&stc=1&thumb=1

 

[ghettognome]

We switch off every other week or so between a city campaign and a dungeon campaign. The only real solid advice I could give is, keep the players interested and involved. In a city adventure the encounters are much different, and if you character is designed specifically for a city campaign like our characters are, combat is something you seriously want to avoid since you won't be as good at it.