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*TTRPGs General
Keeping urban campaigns simple
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4667389" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>You do it the same way you do a wilderness setting.</p><p></p><p>Start with a general map of the area which contains relatively little detail. Mark the major fortifications, the presence of rivers or streams, the major roads, and label the major districts of the city.</p><p></p><p>Set an adventure in this area, precisely describing the areas specific to the adventure and setting them in locations which are sensible according to the general layout, but leaving it deliberately vague how to get from one well described area to another. Handwave as much as possible the details of the journeys between the places of interest, noting only that the PC's pass through certain quarters.</p><p></p><p>If you like, you may place random encounters to provide color and depth, but don't let these drag down the story. It's particularly cool when the random beggar from Adventure #1, Scene #2 ends up having a major role in Adventure #4, Scene #1 but unless you have a definate plan don't go out of your way to introduce random NPC's that have nothing to do with the story at present. </p><p></p><p>If the PC's plan to go somewhere you haven't planned for, don't go overboard with the details - the PC's probably don't care about them much at present - but make careful note of what you've improved at the end of the session so as to make this new landmark and the NPC's you've created a permenent feature.</p><p></p><p>As you continue to adventure in one location, the map will become less and less abstract and more and more detailed. Eventually, there will come a point where so much detail has been added that it is a worthwhile excercise to fill in the whole of the map with greater detail. This doesn't mean however that now that you have the detail you'll want to flood the PC's with descriptions of every passing stranger, every building, and every road.</p><p></p><p>In general, whenever you are worried about how to prep an adventure, remember that every adventure no matter its structure can be thought of as a simple dungeon. Suppose you have an adventure that is event based. This is only a map showing the connections between events. The events are rooms and the PC's choices are the corridors between these events. Instead of heavily detailing locations, spend time heavily detailing who is present at the event and what they want at this stage of the adventure. Similarly, a wilderness adventure is simply a map of zones which are linked to each other by directions of travel. Going 'north' from this room moves you into this room, whereas going 'south' moves you into another. Relatively complicated wilderness areas can be created from just 12 or so zones. Imagine example an island survival adventure where shelter, water, tool, and food sources are in disparate parts of the island and are separated by hazard zones where difficulties are to be faced.</p><p></p><p>Beyond that, I would suggest for an urban adventure particularly that you pay special attention to preparing calendars, background events, and weather in advance. Rather than detailing every passing stranger as a way to add color and depth, mention only those major events - the wedding of some town leaders daughter, the parade by the masonry guild because this is the holy day of their patron deity, the fact that on this day is a fair and the town is crowded with buyers and sellers from the entire surrounding region, that in the afternoon there is a severe storm, and so forth. At first, these events will simply play in the background, but eventually, as the PC's rise in prominance they'll become more and more part of the life of city - invited to parties, asked to be in parades, sought out by merchants seeking to borrow money, summoned to advise on matters of state, and so forth.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 4667389, member: 4937"] You do it the same way you do a wilderness setting. Start with a general map of the area which contains relatively little detail. Mark the major fortifications, the presence of rivers or streams, the major roads, and label the major districts of the city. Set an adventure in this area, precisely describing the areas specific to the adventure and setting them in locations which are sensible according to the general layout, but leaving it deliberately vague how to get from one well described area to another. Handwave as much as possible the details of the journeys between the places of interest, noting only that the PC's pass through certain quarters. If you like, you may place random encounters to provide color and depth, but don't let these drag down the story. It's particularly cool when the random beggar from Adventure #1, Scene #2 ends up having a major role in Adventure #4, Scene #1 but unless you have a definate plan don't go out of your way to introduce random NPC's that have nothing to do with the story at present. If the PC's plan to go somewhere you haven't planned for, don't go overboard with the details - the PC's probably don't care about them much at present - but make careful note of what you've improved at the end of the session so as to make this new landmark and the NPC's you've created a permenent feature. As you continue to adventure in one location, the map will become less and less abstract and more and more detailed. Eventually, there will come a point where so much detail has been added that it is a worthwhile excercise to fill in the whole of the map with greater detail. This doesn't mean however that now that you have the detail you'll want to flood the PC's with descriptions of every passing stranger, every building, and every road. In general, whenever you are worried about how to prep an adventure, remember that every adventure no matter its structure can be thought of as a simple dungeon. Suppose you have an adventure that is event based. This is only a map showing the connections between events. The events are rooms and the PC's choices are the corridors between these events. Instead of heavily detailing locations, spend time heavily detailing who is present at the event and what they want at this stage of the adventure. Similarly, a wilderness adventure is simply a map of zones which are linked to each other by directions of travel. Going 'north' from this room moves you into this room, whereas going 'south' moves you into another. Relatively complicated wilderness areas can be created from just 12 or so zones. Imagine example an island survival adventure where shelter, water, tool, and food sources are in disparate parts of the island and are separated by hazard zones where difficulties are to be faced. Beyond that, I would suggest for an urban adventure particularly that you pay special attention to preparing calendars, background events, and weather in advance. Rather than detailing every passing stranger as a way to add color and depth, mention only those major events - the wedding of some town leaders daughter, the parade by the masonry guild because this is the holy day of their patron deity, the fact that on this day is a fair and the town is crowded with buyers and sellers from the entire surrounding region, that in the afternoon there is a severe storm, and so forth. At first, these events will simply play in the background, but eventually, as the PC's rise in prominance they'll become more and more part of the life of city - invited to parties, asked to be in parades, sought out by merchants seeking to borrow money, summoned to advise on matters of state, and so forth. [/QUOTE]
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