I'm going to try something new, an urban adventure. I'm planning a few adventures set in a small, overcrowded port city called Anvil City that's experienced four days of unusually heavy rain. All of the background is figured out, but I honestly don't know how to run an adventure outside of a dungeon. I'll break it down in a few questions:
1) How do I pace it? I want a continuous flow of action, but not necessarily fighting inch for inch up a street.
2) How do I guide them to different places while allowing flexibility?
3) What could they run into in a city? Muggers are boring.
4) How do encounters work? I don't want to have to worry about large amounts of bystanders, guards, etc.
5) Tips on intrigue, plot twists? My group is not a big role-playing group, and I want to get them to be more involved, guessing what's next.
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Some (a lot of) background:
The crude sewers and gutters have overflowed, mixing with the rainwater that flows down the streets like a digusting river. The port has been closed three days, and tensions are flaring, especially on the Waterfront. Desperate gangs of half-orc dockworkers denied pay or food are clashing with authority and each other. The illicit Fishbone District is swarming with stranded, claustrophobic and drunken sailors. Prices in the bazaar have skyrocketed due to the lax regulations against price gougers who take advantage of the situation. Mercenaries from the Mercantile Guild try desperately to keep order alongside weary, poorly-equipped city watchmen. The count is calling for elite adventurers to stop the storm before the city is washed away or burned down. Who will rise to the challenge and be the hero of an entire nation?
Unfortunately, not my players. They're all level 2, not ready to face a mad wizard experimenting with electricity and forbidden magic.
But there's plenty of trouble inside the city itself. In addition to the unrest, tribes of kobolds have been forced from their homes in the sewer. Until ten years ago, kobolds owned the sewers, claiming that they were part of ancestral caverns that had been settled centuries before Anvil City was built. In return for keeping the sewers clean and free of monsters, they were allowed to live undisturbed. The previous count was not keen on kobolds, however, and offered the leaders of the tribes gold and chartered businesses in exchange for the sewers. Many accepted, and the sewers were turned over to city authority. Kobolds who resisted were killed, and the rest were forced to pay tribute to the city and abide by surface rules. After a series of brief, unsucessful insurrections, they submitted.
Now that they've been forced from their homes, they seek revenge against their former leaders who sold them out for comfortable surface lives. Already, two bodies of kobolds have been found. Luko, an unscrupulous pawn shop owner, was found hanging and mutilated in his ransacked store. More missed was the generous fish seller Kaalik, who was drowned in a flooded alley in plain sight by a gang of shrieking kobolds.
It just so happens that the players are hunkered in an inn owned by Azik-takt, a former chief who is worried he'll be next. In return for a good sum of gold, he wants the party to keep him safe and track down the killers.
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So far I have a bar fight where hired half-orc thugs come in and try to kill Azik-takt. After that, nothing. I need some ideas, because I don't want to waste all this background on nothing. I'll keep you guys updated on everything as time goes on. Peace!
