D&D General Not enjoying the urban adventure I'm running

[billd91]

The next time they call the cops on someone, have that cop be corrupt and friends with that person.

Or even if the cop they speak to isn't corrupt, how secure is your average fantasy city guard organization? As far as information goes, it probably leaks like a sieve. Someone is on the payroll for every criminal organization or BBEG worth his salt in that city. I guarantee it.

 

[S'mon]

I find this a strange problem. On much of the planet, right now, a bunch of 'adventurers' running to the local police are more likely to get themselves arrested than to see the police go deal with the local criminal cartel on their behalf. For one thing, the police don't want to die, and even if they can outgun the cartel right now, the criminals likely know where they live and can get revenge on their families.

I suggest that if the PCs try going to the city watch, the watchman they meet takes them aside and explains a few facts of life. Or if a PC is city watch, she ought to know already.

 

[robus]

Or even if the cop they speak to isn't corrupt, how secure is your average fantasy city guard organization? As far as information goes, it probably leaks like a sieve. Someone is on the payroll for every criminal organization or BBEG worth his salt in that city. I guarantee it.

Yep, they gave up on their attempt to infiltrate the lair with backup. I’ll have the cops get leaned on by the villains and when they try and enlist them again, they’ll get the “case-closed” brush off, and perhaps some awkward questions about some things they’ve gotten up to prior to this.

 

[robus]

Thanks everyone, this has been very helpful and encouraging. But I’m definitely going to avoid this kind of thing in the future though as it really doesn’t scratch my adventuring itch. I want the thrill of fantastic discovery and grand adventure. This too small scale for my taste.

 

[jgsugden]

D&D is an RPG - a role playing game. Characters play a role in a story. The game works best when the story is at the best it can be.

Your problem here is that the story gets pretty dull when they turn to the city guard for everything.

You can counter that in several ways, some of which have been suggested before, such as corrupt guardsmen. That is one of several options where the enemies they face already have considered the presence of the guard and established a counterapproach that shields them from that risk. You can also have the bandits so well hidden that the guard have trouble finding them, or have the guard be scared to engage the bandits directly.

One key of an urban adventure, IME, is to make sure that the forces of law do not have enough resources. If they do, that city is usually not a great place to adventure because the authorities are the solution to almost all problems. That is a problem with the Dragon Heist module - Waterdeep is so advanced and has so many invested powerful NPCs that there is almost no reason for a responsible party not to just turn over every clue they find and let someone more competent handle the problem.

 

[Krachek]

Make them learn about the city and the various power level.
A city is somehow much more dangerous than a dungeon of a given level, because a city may a a wide variety of npc and certain of very high level.
at level 3, players should know that their character are still in the minor league.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

There's a lot of good advice here, and I guess I'm so used to TV and so on, that I would automatically have gone with the City Guard being too busy/corrupt to help.

However, one thing I might say is, if you've got these powerful villains, and weak PCs, but who are getting captured and stuff, you might want to consider if you need to encourage a sneakier approach by modeling, perhaps introducing a vigilante who wants to work with the PCs - have him model the behaviour you want from them successfully for an adventure or two, get the players liking him, then have him get murdered or die heroically covering their retreat or something.

 

[tetrasodium]

The next time they call the cops on someone, have that cop be corrupt and friends with that person.

The Gentlemen Bastards series of books does a great job of showing how a thieve's guild type thing could exist in a stable society with credible law enforcement without judge dred type murder& mayhem. Why the heck would the city guards do anything about the thieves in town thatcontribute a sizable sum of their wages as long as they are not breaking the secret peace & robbing/killing nobles or people with the sort of political clout that could make the lives of city guards difficult?

 

[Bacon Bits]

Usually when I have the guards show up, they're not interested In talking. They're going to draw their cudgels and knock everyone who is capable of defending themselves senseless who doesn't immediately surrender. Then they arrest everyone and throw them in lockup for a few days, after disarming them. And when you get let out you'll be lucky if you get everything back while only losing a bunch of your gold. If you do it again, you're likely to be thrown out of town and told to never come back. If you come back and they catch you again, they're probably going to brand you or execute you.

The city guards are not interested in truth or justice. They don't care if you're harmed or if you didn't start it. To the guards the PCs are just another group of armed troublemakers. They're interested in keeping the peace and stopping unrest. They're not your friends. They're not on your side. They're loyal to who pays them, to each other, and to their own families.

And those are the Lawful Good ones.

 

[Flamestrike]

I was worried about this before it started and it's actually worse than I feared. My worry was that, with an entire town of NPCs to pester, the PCs would be constantly talking to anyone and everyone making planning for an upcoming session quite hard. The worse part is that they (reasonably) keep expecting the powers that be to sort out their problems. In the most recent session, one of the party got taken prisoner by the local gang and after discussing possible options amongst themselves they went with going to the city guard to help them recover their comrade. Absolutely reasonable and, of course, no self-respecting city guard person is going to ignore a cry for help (and it doesn't help that one of the PCs was a member of the city watch, so has contacts). But they're doing it a lot and it's a bit frustrating.

Now I certainly didn't help myself by having them going up against a gang that is much more powerful than them (they're level 3) but instead of trying the softly, softly, sneaky, sneaky approach they went running to the guard for backup (again entirely reasonably to choose that option, but it turns them into bystanders). Amusing anecdote, they tried this a couple of sessions ago when they discovered the identity of a villain (and left a mess in the process) and then while they were off rounding up the constabulary, the villain returned discovered that their lair had been ransacked and made their escape, and is now plotting their revenge... I thought that might have learned them...)

So (and I realize I'm opening myself up to a lot of criticism here) what, if anything, can I do about this? And is this the norm for urban adventures where NPC aid is around pretty much every corner?

Think on your feet man.

Have the Guard deputise them and send THEM in, and the adventure is back on track.