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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Noumenon" data-source="post: 5131936" data-attributes="member: 70102">The home base city near Castle Whiterock is a cut above anything I've run, even in other Goodman Games modules.  It's easy to run a town by shuffling different NPCs into the slots "innkeeper," "healer," "merchant," "mayor."  But Cillamar seems to have every other building occupied by a detailed NPC with factional ties, adventure hooks, and a unique twist.  So how do I run a city like that?In your average city, there's no way the party will find something like Cillamar's Gaol or cartography shop unless I drop it down right in front of them.  It's not their fault -- there's no map, the only things that exist are what I describe and they ask for.  In this city, am I supposed to let them wander?  That seems like dropping them in a dungeon with 1000 open doors and no way to pick.Here are some options I've thought of:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Let the players wander where the spirit moves them.  Look up each street and house they enter in the Gazetteer and describe it to them.  Put the poster map up on the wall behind me and put a piece of blue sticky tack anywhere they've explored in detail.  Hope they decide to do things in the order "five encounters at Castle Whiterock, two adventures in town" instead of just ignoring one.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have the town level up with the PCs.  Start them in the warrens with those adventure hooks, have them win contacts and approval until they can move to the Common Quarter, and so on.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">One thing about this is I don't necessarily want to read every NPC's bio and keep them all in mind from day 1 of the adventure.  So maybe I should just pick one or two to be the "roleplaying monster of the week."  I suppose I could even plan a scene-based adventure using Cillamar's citizenry as a "monster manual," like this: "This week, you're going to need to get horses.  (scene) <Detailed NPC 1> won't help, but suggests you join a caravan. (scene) In the merchant's quarter, <Detailed NPCs 2&3> tell you about the Lord's coach and four (scene), that <Detailed NPC 3>might let you borrow if you flatter her..."</li> </ul>I'm not quite even sure what role Cillamar is supposed to play in the campaign.  I always thought "megadungeon" meant you basically stay in the dungeon from level one to level fifteen, but you could probably spend half your time in Cillamar, getting way ahead on the level curve for the dungeon proper.  (Would be fun to get so powerful in Cillamar you just started a new character to explore the rest of Whiterock.)Finally, one specific question, are PCs returning to Cillamar with treasure required to declare at the King's Gate like merchants and pay tax (Gazetteer 12-13), and is this practice supposed to be pushing them to become smugglers and experience some of the seedier side of the city?Another question, if you DMed Castle Whiterock, did you start your PCs in Cillamar with investigation about where to find slavers, or right on the way to the castle?  I'm not sure it's an auspicious beginning to a campaign just to say "You meet in a tavern," even if it is an interesting one like the Slumbering Drake.  Well, it could be -- if you wanted to signal that your campaign was going to be one with lots of roleplaying, detailed NPCs, and a bustling town environment.  That's what Cillamar seems to be set up for and I'm not sure how it fits in with the dungeon crawl campaign I was kind of expecting.</blockquote>

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