Sounds both absolute and dismissive to me.
D&D 5E How do you use cities in your campaigns?
Sounds both absolute and dismissive to me.
iserith
Magic Wordsmith
How you choose to receive what I wrote about my own preference is up to you. You can choose to see it as my preference which does not apply to your own experience or you can choose to be offended by it for reasons that boggle the mind.
You will also note in the section that you just now quoted that I say "Towns and cities can have the effect of bogging down gameplay..." not will or must or any sort of absolute statement.
I'll admit to misreading so as to omit the "can" (apologies) but I'll stand by my description of your tone, which is not necessarily (and in this case, even rereading, doesn't feel like) a reader-side error.
iserith
Magic Wordsmith
Another way to interpret what I wrote is that, if your game involves the sorts of things I called out in my initial post, then I wouldn't enjoy playing in your game. If your game doesn't involve those sorts of things, then I may or may not enjoy playing in your game, depending on what you do instead.
None of which actually matters since I don't and probably will never play in your game anyway.
It's not really any different than saying that a hex crawl can result in wandering aimlessly around the wilderness, spending too much time worrying about scrounging for food, cooking dinner and painting beautiful sunsets. Or that a dungeon crawl can result in sitting tediously in a bunch of empty rooms exploring every square inch of every room and corridor for traps and secret doors.
Different tables and different groups. The goal in all three cases is to have the story achieve enough velocity to break free of the tedium. Which type a group prefers is entirely up to the group in question.
Different tables and different groups. The goal in all three cases is to have the story achieve enough velocity to break free of the tedium. Which type a group prefers is entirely up to the group in question.
None of which actually matters since I don't and probably will never play in your game anyway.
You are almost certainly correct about that, and vice versa. Kinda a shame, as I think I'd find your games ... interesting, if not my platonic ideal.
iserith
Magic Wordsmith
Agreed. I find cities in particular can be a quagmire, particularly if the DM heavily relies on their use because they're comparatively easier to prep than a stocked adventure location like a dungeon or hexcrawl. I observe a lot of games on Discord and via Twitch. A ton of them fall into this mode of play. I certainly have long ago, too. So it's a thing and something I try to avoid chiefly by having civilization be where the adventure isn't with some exception as noted. This creates an incentive to be proactive and get out of Dodge and back to where the adventure is.
Isn't your preference here (in re cities) probably at least in part a reflection of your apparent preference for completely-prepped/stocked locations?
I really like the aesthetics of urban play, but I have found D&D to be rather under stocked with rules and mechanics to make it easy. Which is to say I understand your reluctance - getting out of dodge and back to the action is a fine way to play. I tinker with systems and hacks not just because it's a fun hobby, but also to try and relieve some of the issues the D&D can have when played in an urban setting because I like to run urban campaigns as much as I do.
Maybe it's my players (or me), but I haven't found the mechanics too badly lacking. I understand the impulse to tinker (I do it some, myself) but I don't think I've done a lot of tinkering to make cities work better. I'd have to consult with one or more of my players who's done some DMing for a more objective say.
