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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 6657595" data-attributes="member: 413">I've always found town/city settings to be the most difficult to DM.  I'm not very good at improvising interesting/memorable NPCs and my players (and I) often lose track of who is important and who isn't.  In my current group I have a couple of players that just want to get a hook to the next exciting adventure and one player that wants to scour every potential location for every clue and every hook available.  Then I have two players in the middle that enjoy some investigating and will go along with whatever but after our last session agreed we need a different approach.In our last session the party finally made it to Red Larch after infiltrating Rivergard Keep and leaving peacefully (then killing Grimjaw later as he hunted) and sacking Sacred Stone Monestary and freeing the captives.  I ran Red Larch as an exploration...they walked into town and I began describing places and people they met.  Their plan at the time they entered the town was to go back to Sacred Stone Monestary and descend the steps in the mines...(6th level party...might be amusing for me...).  Part of the problem I'm sure is that the hooks in Red Larch are all geared toward the start of the adventure, not the middle.   Within 3 or 4 buildings one player had pretty much checked out and another was openly saying "screw this, I'm tired, I'm going to the Inn!".  Once they were done, they had a total of 5 hooks:  Feathergale Spire, Lance Rock, Rivergard Keep, go back to Sacred Stone Monestary or investigate the "Fire Witch" at the Nettlebee Ranch.  The most bored player remarked "that's about 4 hooks too many."  I don't agree with that necessarily...as a group we chose PotA because of it's sandbox nature.  But I do agree it's a mistake for me to allow them to be overwhelmed with choices.  Often as a player I have found myself wanting to say to the DM "just tell us where we're supposed to go already!"As a player, I have to admit, I hate exploring towns looking for hooks to adventures and such.  I want to spend time adventuring.  If it is an adventure set in a city that's fine.  Exploring cities/towns is one of my least favorite parts of CRPGs too.  I'd like towns to be a series of menus that allow you to accomplish your between adventure business and a few cut scenes that give you the information you need (with some options and RP) that lead to the information you need.So...I think I'm taking a different approach to towns.When the players get to a town, describe the obviously public available information about the town...the kind of stuff they would be able to find just by asking a couple people on the streets:  Inns, taverns, major shops, known important NPCs etc.  Then give the players their obvious options of what they want to do.  Things like the following:- Find an Inn,- Visit a Tavern for a meal and a drink- Buy/Sell gear or prepare for next expedition- Look for rumors/info regarding X- Or something else...Depending on what they decide we'll make some skill checks and describe the scene if it is interest and RP it out.  Pre-session I can create a few "events" that can or will happen to be played as cut scenes as opportunities to introduce or emphasize specific hooks.  My goal would be to reduce town time to an hour or so of table time rather than an entire session.  How do other folks handle towns?</blockquote>

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