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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 5819209" data-attributes="member: 2205"><a href="http://darkheritage.blogspot.com/2010/03/cityscape.html" target="_blank">It's not bad</a>, but personally I found it kinda banal and obvious, most of the time.  It had some neat-o city maps, at least.I tend to prefer running urban intrigue games.  In fact, I greatly prefer them to dungeoncrawls.  A lot of what I do is kinda intuitive rather than the product of much forethought, so I'll try and see if I can shake some specific advice out of my head.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Read some mainstream thrillers. One of the best models for an urban game is mainstream thrillers.  Spy thrillers, crime novels, mysteries.  Robert Ludlum, Robert Patterson, John Le Carre, etc.  See how those stories are structured, what kinds of action scenes are normal, and adapt them.  Give some thought to shadowy organizations behind the scenes who secretly (or not so secretly) pull the strings.  And then "fantasy" it up a bit. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Embrace the idea of people as antagonists.  Urban campaigns tend to focus less on monsters and more on NPC antagonists.  Thugs, assassins, crooked constables, etc.  And what monsters there are tend to be more subtle.  Not much in the way of rampaging owlbears in the city, but a medusa or vampire crime lord or crooked politician, on the other hand, can go a long way.  Ghouls in the sewer system makes more sense than otyughs in the streets. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Consequences! In many games of D&D, the PCs are wandering killers, and it's assumed that whatever they do is heroic and necessary and right.  They're the PCs, right?  In urban campaigns, this isn't always so clear cut.  You can't cut down Fergus the Ostler because he detected evil unless you want to face down a murder charge.  Of course, that doesn't mean that skullduggery and violence can't be very common.  Most of my cities tend to be "wretched hives of scum and villainy" where a few dead bodies in the harbor or alleys every morning is to be expected.  But even that comes with consequences.  What if the thug you killed was only the first wave of enforcers looking to expand a protection racket over your neighborhood?  The mob's not likely to take kindly to you offing their agents so callously. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Alternate reward systems. Because "dungeoncrawling" in the city feels kind of forced and awkward--and may come with breaking and entry and larceny charges as well--you might want to think about alternate means of putting treasure and XP in the PCs hands. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have plenty of material handy.  There's a lot of good city products out there.  I tend to immerse myself in all of them before running an urban game, and then because it all blends together, I borrow anything that I remember from any source and use it.  Although not comprehensive, I have books on Sharn, Freeport, Five Fingers, Absalom, Katapesh, Korvasa and more, and I usually at least skim if not re-read all those named books before running. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have plenty of charts handy.  You can never detail a city the way you would a smaller area.  You don't label very many individual buildings, and you have to accept that the PCs are likely to encounter places and people that you never planned for or prepared for.  Have some charts handy so you can generate NPC names, tavern names, or other places of business or important and/or interesting people smoothly and seamlessly, and so quickly that your players never realize that you didn't already have them prepared. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't worry too much about where things are.  At most, pay attention to districts or neighborhoods; it's unusual that it matters exactly where anything is beyond that level of detail. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Take advantage of the environment.  In combats, take into account the stuff around a city.  Carts, passers-by, balconies, signs, barrels of apples, wagons full of manure... make the combat more interesting than just "I move ten feet and attack with my sword."  There's all kinds of interesting things in the city that can and should be integrated into combat. Fights on rain-slicked and slanting rooftops, narrow, tight alleys packed with non-combatants who are running around screaming, or gathering in a circle and placing bets and throwing fruit, NPCs that jump on a passing carriage when the fights looks bad and make quick getaways--there's so many interesting things that can happen in a city setting combat encounter.  Think of a few and try to make at least every other combat have some kind of flavorful oomph thrown in besides just your basic tactical grid. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Consider other types of action scenes besides combat.  In particular, chase scenes.  Pelting down the street after a spy or thief, racing two carriages back and forth through winding alleys, etc.  It's a staple of action movies and has been a notorious and glaring miss inthe rules of most editions of D&D, but they're especially fun in a city setting, IMO.  There's just so much more going on in urban chase scenes then you can have when running through some farmer's field or the woods.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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