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General Tabletop Discussion
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How do you run Town Exploration in your games.
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8557853" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>What's the narrative purpose of the town? Is it just a pit stop? There's not much to explore, I'll likely just sum it up with the rest of the narration of a journey. There may be points when we get into details for one reason or another, mostly because I want to establish the mood or setting. </p><p></p><p>Most of my campaigns are urban based, I just find them more interesting. Exploring a city is twofold. First, there's the general look and feel of the city. Is the city surrounded by forest? Buildings are timber, likely with wooden shingles. Middle of the desert? Adobe, brick or stone walls with tile or slate roofs. Shoddy and rundown or prosperous? Perhaps it was once prosperous but now the paint is fading? These kind of things can tell you things visually. Add in a general feel of the populace. Are they happy and cheerful, greeting each other on the street? Are the streets bustling or nearly empty as people peer from behind shutters before they slam them shut when they notice you looking? What are the people dressed like?</p><p></p><p>Then it's a question of discovery, finding out specifics and details. I will often break larger cities (more than a few hundred is historically a city) up into districts, each with common threads but different feel. Base the NPCs, businesses and attitudes you'll find in the different districts. I'll also have a pre-generated list of names for businesses of various kinds and NPCs. Part of the fun of being in an urban adventure is that there are so many possibilities. </p><p></p><p>You can also have just about any kind of monster in a city that you can hit anywhere else. You probably aren't going to encounter an orcish army, but PCs don't really interact with armies. On the other hand if you want an encounter with a dragon, maybe the dragon is threatening to attack the city if it doesn't receive it's tithe or the guy running the apothecary is a polymorphed dragon. The options are nearly endless.</p><p></p><p>So that's how I handle it. Sometimes towns are just where you stop for supplies and a place to eat. Sometimes they're the focus of the campaign because for me urban encounters are far more interesting than going to yet another set of ruins kicking in doors.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 8557853, member: 6801845"] What's the narrative purpose of the town? Is it just a pit stop? There's not much to explore, I'll likely just sum it up with the rest of the narration of a journey. There may be points when we get into details for one reason or another, mostly because I want to establish the mood or setting. Most of my campaigns are urban based, I just find them more interesting. Exploring a city is twofold. First, there's the general look and feel of the city. Is the city surrounded by forest? Buildings are timber, likely with wooden shingles. Middle of the desert? Adobe, brick or stone walls with tile or slate roofs. Shoddy and rundown or prosperous? Perhaps it was once prosperous but now the paint is fading? These kind of things can tell you things visually. Add in a general feel of the populace. Are they happy and cheerful, greeting each other on the street? Are the streets bustling or nearly empty as people peer from behind shutters before they slam them shut when they notice you looking? What are the people dressed like? Then it's a question of discovery, finding out specifics and details. I will often break larger cities (more than a few hundred is historically a city) up into districts, each with common threads but different feel. Base the NPCs, businesses and attitudes you'll find in the different districts. I'll also have a pre-generated list of names for businesses of various kinds and NPCs. Part of the fun of being in an urban adventure is that there are so many possibilities. You can also have just about any kind of monster in a city that you can hit anywhere else. You probably aren't going to encounter an orcish army, but PCs don't really interact with armies. On the other hand if you want an encounter with a dragon, maybe the dragon is threatening to attack the city if it doesn't receive it's tithe or the guy running the apothecary is a polymorphed dragon. The options are nearly endless. So that's how I handle it. Sometimes towns are just where you stop for supplies and a place to eat. Sometimes they're the focus of the campaign because for me urban encounters are far more interesting than going to yet another set of ruins kicking in doors. [/QUOTE]
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