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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 5489" data-attributes="member: 812">Good points, PurplePCEater.I would add to that the importance of PEOPLE, not PLACES.The crucial thing in city adventures is not usually where the party goes but who they meet and what they find out. And just as a good dungeon has lots of rooms and secret doors and so on, a good city has lots of shady characters, secret relationships and desperate folks.The short version of all this is: You need LOTS of NPCs. Lots and lots and lots. Make a big list of names -- tavernkeepers and bishops and dukes and merchants and gladiators -- whatever your city includes. This accomplishes two things. First, it gives you a quick resource when you find yourself improvising (and I guarantee you'll find yourself improvising) -- when the players want to know the name of a rich merchant or a crooked city guard, you'll have a name ready to go and it lends a feeling of completeness to your campaign. Second, just making up that list will start to generate ideas for things to happen. As you're jotting down names, some of them will jump out at you, giving you ideas as to what this person is up to or who they might be connected to. Follow those ideas -- don't worry if they don't tie into "your" plot -- a city should be full of people who all have their own agendas, agendas that may not have anything to do with the PCs' -- yet.Do some thinking about who the party has to talk to or encounter, and how those encounters are likely to take place -- seductive banter, aggression and threats or enthusiastic greetings? Think of where those encounters might take place and how they might turn out, but as PurplePCEater noted, don't feel you have to have the PCs in a particular spot at a particular time.If you want them to get asked for help by a winsome chambermaid, you may think that encounter has to take place at the inn where they're staying. But what if they decide not to stay at an inn? No problem -- they run into her in the street, or at a tavern. The story is more important than the set-up you created.People, people, people. That's what you need. A great campaign is always powered by great characters, and city adventures are often where you find your best NPCs.Have fun!</blockquote>

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