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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Schmoe" data-source="post: 6709551" data-attributes="member: 913">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.</blockquote>

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