How do you DM a fully detailed city like Cillamar?

[SiderisAnon]

So not like a dungeon with 1000 doors. But the reason you don't care about what's going on in East Dovedale is because it's physically too far away for you to affect it or hear about it. To make the city like that, I need to put some metaphorical "distance" between building C-3 on the east side and tower F-4 on the west side. I could have super crowded streets, traffic stops, and random encounters to slightly discourage people from gallivanting all over my tiny world map.

Actually, you don't have to worry about the PCs gallivanting all over town and seeing what's going on unless the PCs really are spending time gallivanting all over town to see what's going on.

It sounds circular, but bear with me.

I live in a city now, modern day. The only reason I know when stuff goes on in the SE part of the city is if I read it in the newspaper or see it on the TV news. The PCs don't have papers or the internet or television. All they have is professional rumormongers and word on the street.

Now, if your players are like some of mine, they keep a pool of money to pay to the rumormongers for all the local happenings (like buying a newspaper subscription, but probably more expensive), and they spend a little time in the bars buying drinks and listening to what's going on. (At least in a home base city.) If your players are like most players, they completely ignore all of that except when they're looking for specific information and then they tunnel vision in on that.

So, would the PCs know that two warehouses burned in a fire yesterday on the docks? Yes, because everyone is talking about it and if they're leaving the house they can't avoid the gossip. (Or if they have servants who might be overheard in the kitchen.) Would the PCs know that a new thieves guild is moving in and muscling in on businesses? Would they know that Baron Soandso got a dancing girl pregnant? Would they know that dogs are disappearing from the slums and people are hearing noises in the sewers? Probably not... at least until you drop it in their lap as an adventure hook.


Face it, even with modern communications, how much do you yourself know about the events on the other side of town unless you decide to go research them in the news?

 

[PeelSeel2]

I am currently running Whiterock. Based on the character classes and races, the players and I sketched out a very brief background for each character. In running a campaign, I like giving every character a mini quest or goal of why their character is out and about and what brought them to Cillimar.

The strife between the Warland refugees and the Noble populace is a rich with background possibilities.

The strife between the Nobles and The Government of Cillimar is good too for story. I have pegged the root cause of this as Cillimars sudden growth with the gold discovered around Cillimar, and Cillimar itself getting the concessions of these mines from the King instead of the Local Nobles. Add a new open immigration policy of the Kingdom (all the Warland refugees), the influx of population, cheap labor, and the power it represents, you get an old guard (some of the powerful nobles) that are really feeling disaffected and Jealous of the power that the merchants, guilds, and city government have suddenly got.

I have 10 Players. Four I gave 'warland refugee backgrounds' in one way or another. Mind you, what you see is what you get. This is the background of the character going into the campaign, brief and open-ended to build on later as the game develops.

Here are two sample backgrounds:

One is a street thief working the Kings Gate area. Her parents got taken by slavers on the way to Cillimar 1 year ago, and she was the only one who escaped. She found a family in the Thieves Guild of Cillimar. She has a burning hatred of slavers.

In the first dungeon level (2nd level in game) the party found the accounting books of the Duegar Accountant. They learned her parents and friends had been sold from that.

Another Character came from a noble house in the warlands, whose entire family was murdered one night long ago. He was spirited away as the attack happened by one of the servants. He remembers a couple of faces from that night and a symbol. The servant raised him and trained him as his own, teaching him skills no servant should know. The servant eventually dies, and the character goes to Cillimar because he has information that the organization that killed his family might be operating in Cillimar.

I had no idea about the organization that killed his family, nor the servants background. Some of that has started filling in. The organization that killed his parents was a group of assassins known as The Creed, and in researching them he has found out that they may have had a hand in the starting the strife that is now the Warlands.

The characters in the dungeon have 'cleared' the slavers, The Orc slave buyers, the Whiterock Orcs, and are starting on the Troglodyte level. They made a trip down to the watery level with the Duergar, and with information provided by Lady Talbusk of the temple of Justica, found and cleared the Sundered Scale hide-out.

I started small with Cillimar. I have only brought the NPC's in as I have needed. I did not want to 'overwhelm' myself with all of them. If I could not remember one, I just made one up and have used it.

I have tried giving them good reasons for going to Whiterock (one of the Characters, a Dwarf, Great Great Grandfather was part of the Deep Earth Mining interest that mysteriously dissappeared in Whiterock. He considers Whiterock his by hereditary rights, since the DeepEarth mining interest was the last to 'own' Whiterock). So far it has been really Fun. I started small, and have kept the plot manageable. The players also come up with great stuff to add to the backgrounds and adventures by their actions.

The first adventure was nothing more than the party Ranger (native of the farmlands around Cillimar) had contacted each party member to hire them for hunting some Goblins. He had scouted out a new nest of Goblins that had moved into the area. Because Cillimar cannot afford a standing army right now, they have gone to bounties for enemies of the state. Goblins and Orcs are basically 2gp per head. That is basically a hard days wage around the area. It creates a great market, helps cull the vile humanoids that infest the southeast of Cillimar.

From that adventure, a farmer southwest of Cillimar approached them and complained about strange howls and gutteral language being heard from the swamp to the east of his farm. The party investigated and found a small slaving ring run by a jailer in Cillimar (later on, through investigation, they found was associated with the Undertaker). They also found out their where slavers in Whiterock, which for various character backgrounds they felt they had to investigate...

Start small, keep it manageable, and only bring those NPC's in who help advance your groups story.

 

[Maggan]

I just did a search for Cillamar and was blown away by the post below. "None the Wiser" has done some 3D modeling in a city based off of Cilimar. So while it might not be a perfect fit, I'm betting you can use some of the images as handouts and your players will never be the wiser.

Oh my goodness. That rekindles my desire to do the same thing for Altdorf, for WFRP.

Impressive.

/M

 

[Noumenon]

PeelSeel, I'm surprised and happy to hear that someone else is doing Castle Whiterock this year. If you find any more useful resources (like this owlbear skeleton art), I'd be much obliged if you posted them.

I like how you tied your PCs into the castle history and surrounding land, especially the dwarf miners. That inspires an idea in me: I can choose which NPCs to focus on by telling each player, "Tell me an NPC you have a relationship with." They'll say 'a potion seller' or 'a weaponsmith' and I'll be like (flip, flip, flip) "You know Arajal the Pawn!"

I've also decided to start them all with "You just got out of the Gaol. Tell me your crime and whether you're guilty." Then their fellow releasees will offer them a choice between trying to sneak back into town or being persuaded to go toward Whiterock by a slaver in disguise. My idea is this way they'll have to earn the right to be seen in town and be welcome at the Slumbering Drake, which is for adventurers, not criminals. And we'll get to the first combat faster, which is always a good thing.

 

[Filcher]

I've also decided to start them all with "You just got out of the Gaol. Tell me your crime and whether you're guilty." Then their fellow releasees will offer them a choice between trying to sneak back into town or being persuaded to go toward Whiterock by a slaver in disguise. My idea is this way they'll have to earn the right to be seen in town and be welcome at the Slumbering Drake, which is for adventurers, not criminals. And we'll get to the first combat faster, which is always a good thing.

Oh that's 10 kinds of fun.

 

[Noumenon]

That inspires an idea in me: I can choose which NPCs to focus on by telling each player, "Tell me an NPC you have a relationship with." They'll say 'a potion seller' or 'a weaponsmith' and I'll be like (flip, flip, flip) "You know Arajal the Pawn!"

I did this, and now the ranger brings fresh game for Cookie, the battlemage worked her way through battle college in Tarinos One-Thumb's bar, and the paladin who requested a secret girlfriend from royalty is going to be caught in a love triangle between Knight Commander Celan Malenoh and Lady Brigid.

I'm not sure how to use these "contacts," though. Should I strive to make hooks that necessitate getting help from these contacts, or should I assume they'll visit the contacts and let the contacts deliver the hooks? The first way seems more dramatic -- right from the beginning of the scene the party will know what their goal is. The least dramatic thing would be if they just split up right away and go chat with their contacts separately, so that's probably what they'll do.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've run a number of games in Ptolus, which may well be the biggest RPG city published ever, in terms of page count. (If not, it's in the top 3.)

Instead of having players explore it like a city -- and who does that in real life? -- I just tell them "it's a large city, very cosmopolitan. If there's something you're interested in, ask me if it's plausible or ask an NPC on the street."

After players get comfortable with the setting, they plunge in and know they can find, say, a gnomish pastry shop or a halfling musical instrument shop or whatever. And then, just like in real life, they either learn where things are located or they ask for directions. And when they ask for directions, they're interacting with NPCs, and soon, the whole place is alive.

 

[Noumenon]

Instead of having players explore it like a city -- and who does that in real life?

Did you mean to say, "explore it like a dungeon"?

After players get comfortable with the setting, they plunge in and know they can find, say, a gnomish pastry shop or a halfling musical instrument shop or whatever. And then, just like in real life, they either learn where things are located or they ask for directions. And when they ask for directions, they're interacting with NPCs, and soon, the whole place is alive.

I sure hope it works this way for me. I took Filcher's player map link and wrote down where everything is, so if they ask "where's an armor shop", I know. But I really like the idea of making them ask NPCs for directions. Ask the lantern watch or the guy in a hooded brown cloak where to go for a drink?