D&D 5E Phandelver and Red Larch....I'm rethinking my approach to towns

[ExploderWizard]

The important thing about towns is to identify what your players like about them and tailor the play of the town to what they will enjoy.

I ran one group in Phandalin and they were not particularly motivated to wander around town and talk to people. Seeing that, a run in with the redbrands happened fairly quickly. They followed the leads to the hideout and explored the place. Glassstaff ran away (the party rested a bit too much). The party tracked him to the Sleeping Giant where he was meeting up with the last bunch of his men in preparation for leaving town. The party launched an all out assault on the Sleeping Giant, taking out Glassstaff and the rest of his men.

After such an awesome display of heroism right in town, I had various townsfolk approach the PCs with their problems and present all the adventure hooks. Who better to solve all their issues than the heroes of Phandalin?

So based on this groups style, I brought the adventure hooks to them. Find out what clicks for your group and go with it.

 

[Bawylie]

You want to first determine the purpose of your town.

If it's a "Safe Space" between actual adventuring, Iserith's approach is dead-on Right. Use it as a springboard.

But if the town is an adventure site, you have to do these things like you would any dungeon.

Here's the intro to Batman: The Animated Series. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wAG_7Ky4FY4

In the first 4 seconds, it establishes everything you need to know about Gotham as an Adventure Site. The police zeppelins, the skyscraper skyline, the overcast dark atmosphere, and the shady characters.

Then in the next 5 or 6 seconds there's a big change, a hook, when the bank explodes.

And then we get to the meat of the adventure - chase scene, combat, resolution, and for good measure a little snippet at the end illustrating the theme as Batman stands all Dark Knight-y over Gotham.

So basically, take the approach to town that best serves your purpose. If you're running some adventure time, make darn sure you structure the game play as an adventure. Pay attention to the way you set your scenes! And if you're running some exposition, laying hooks, or world building, do so in the most informative, yet brief, way possible so that you escort your players to their next major decision point.

Gassing up the bat mobile and changing capes while chatting with Alfred and Robin isn't adventure. Might be necessary, but it's best handled quickly so we can get back out there an Batman.

 

[Creamsteak]

My experience with Red Larch and Phandalin runs similar to yours... but I think it's partially the way the towns are presented and the (in my opinion) slightly weak main plot thread.

An example of towns I've ran that seemed to work better... Sharn and (wherever you started Rise of the Rune Lords?). I think Sharn worked well for me because it felt like a civilization on a dungeon. It was adventure. And Rise of the Rune Lords had an event-driven start.

This thread does raise some interesting questions though. I will have to think about what would make a good town.

 

[77IM]

I found Phandalin and Red Larch to be pretty much opposites in terms of towns.

Phandalin has interesting NPCs, who want things from the party, and who the party wants things from. I got really good milage out of the head of the mining guild, the mayor, and the guy rescued from goblins. The party has a reason to talk to several NPCs as soon as they arrive. The town's problems are obvious and can be solved via direct action.

In Red Larch all the NPCs are boring. The PCs have basically no reason to talk to them and nothing they want from them. The NPCs just want to be left alone (except for a couple people who will give the PCs 50gp to do a minor side quest). The town's problems are unclear; the PCs are likely to kill the cultists in the dungeon before they even realize that those guys have been murdering travelers.

If I were giving any advice for building and running towns, I would say: Focus on QUALITY of NPCs, not quantity. 3-4 really interesting touchstone NPCs is better than 20 ordinary NPCs. Make an NPC interesting by giving them an outlandish personality, by giving them something the PCs want (especially if it's something they want repeatedly, like a shopkeeper, priest, wizard, or innkeeper), and by making sure they want something from the PCs. Ideally, the things the NPCs want are all in conflict and the PCs have to choose between them or find a way to satisfy everyone -- which the PCs care about because the NPCs have something the PCs want.

 

[Schmoe]

Ask yourself 3 questions:

1. What is the character of the town? This answer colors how you present any interactions in the town.

2. Why are the PCs in the town? This answer determines where to spend your time describing things, and how much time to spend on it.

3. What do you want the PCs to get from the town? This answer determines what you need to work in while you are handling #2.

So if the PCs are just passing through a town on a long journey, and you don't have any hooks to drop on them, you might only spend enough time to give a couple descriptions and let them rest up and restock. If the PCs are just passing through, but you had a hook you wanted to drop on them, then you'd take the time to describe the mysterious stranger who drops the coin purse on the table. On the other hand, if the PCs are in town because they are trying to unmask the villain behind a plot against the crown, then you'd better be prepared to spend a lot of time in town with various NPCs.

Here's another piece of advice that I learned the hard way. Every group is different, of course, but I've often found that as DM you need to gently steer the group a little bit more when they are in town. Instead of dungeon walls, the group has NPC interactions to show them the way, and the information you convey in those interactions is crucial for guiding them to the next part of the adventure. My experiments with going completely "sandbox" in a town ended up with everyone in the group working at a mundane job (washing dishes and such), or a "hex-crawl" through town. I never want to do a hex-crawl through town ever again.

 

[Beleriphon]

I try to handle the way Fallout 3 handles towns and NPCs (at least in general, they are different mediums after all). Moira in Megaton isn't a fun character because she can sell you stuff, she's a fun character because she comes up with inventive ways to kill you via quests in the name of "research".