Techniques for running a predominately urban campaign

[Mallus]

Then, have some names of taverns – a few high end ones, a few regular ones, and a few dives.

Bars are good!

Here are some from my CITY campaign, written in the style of an in-setting travel guide (the sad thing is, this wasn't even a player handout, this is from the notes I was writing for myself).
_________________________________________


--excerpted from ”A Rough Guide to CITY”, CITY Life Press, Gallina:CITY, Monopolis Standard Year 294

Cafe Limbo, 117 South Spider St. (at Limbo Plaza), Saltbend, Eris:CITY
A large, partially open-air bar and restaurant made from a hodgepodge of different building materials in Eris's trendy Saltbend District, near the Grand Canal. The Cafe was opened by a wealthy priest of the Dreamer Out of Time and reputedly came to him in a vision. Famed for its coffee, small plates, availability of drugs, and collection of exquisitely-crafted board games, which include chess, non-Euclidean chess, and go.

The Nance and Prattle, 2201 Blvd. of the Blameless, Mid-Tier, Eris:CITY
A charming 3-story wood and wattle tavern in Eris's historic Mid-Tier District. The unofficial headquarters of the Order of the Lovesworn, the heartbroken knights doomed never to know true love again who devote themselves to reuniting lost lovers. Any night of the week you'll find the enormous --but enormously fashionable-- Master of the Lovesworn, Thum Gussett, holding court surrounded by some of the most attractive young men in CITY. Lord Gussett is a virtual treasure-trove of gossip, humor, and heartache.

Swift Tongue on Salt, 669 Opal St. (in Little Wu Plaza), Little Ajakhan, Narayan:CITY
A rough-and-tumble bar known for its exclusively male clientele, where artists, dockworkers, exotic Ajakhani sailors and scholars from the University meet and mingle in smoky anonymity. The Lord of the Lovesworn, Thum Gussett, is said to be an occasional visitor.

Stiltjackets 99 Quai Central, Quaiside, Narayan:CITY
Even though its sits over 500 paces back from the harbor on solid flagstones, the puzzling Stiltjackets was built up on 15ft poles by its famously greedy (and hydrophobic) owner Palomar Guise. Stiltjackets is known for its casino and as a nightspot, where "everyone sees you enter but no-one sees you leave". Stiltjackets requires formal attire, and does not offer a full menu.

The Room Rouge, 2525 Opium Way, Redlights, Narayan:CITY
A bar and dinner-theatre venue in a rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood. The Room Rouge, despite its frequent --and frequently good-- dramatic performances, remains a little taste of the old Red Light District, seeing as its the headquarters for a group of brutal-yet-dandyish thieves known as the Room Rouge Players, led by the gentleman and stone-cold killer, Jack Fancy, Esquire.

 

[jonesy]

How about this for an interesting subversion to the usual ways of using the authorities:

Make them ruthlessly efficient. Make them so good at their jobs that if the PC's ever go to them for anything they won't leave a thing for the PC's. No loot, no exp, no glory, no credit.

Or even, divide the authorities into a major body, which is overworked, understaffed, out of resources; and a special taskforce you can use when you want to subvert this, cops who really pwn everything.

Edit:
"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We were already aware of the situation, and our men were already en route to the location. I except the situation is over by now."

 

[Insight]

Cityscape, a supplement co-written by our own Mouseferatu, is an excellent source book for urban games in any system. Though written for D&D 3.5, you can easily ignore the rules related stuff and use the copious advice and ideas within to run an urban game.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Cityscape-Dungeons-Dragons-Roleplaying-Supplement/dp/0786939397]Amazon[/ame]

WOTC Product Spotlight
dandwiki.com

 

[NewJeffCT]

How about this for an interesting subversion to the usual ways of using the authorities:

Make them ruthlessly efficient. Make them so good at their jobs that if the PC's ever go to them for anything they won't leave a thing for the PC's. No loot, no exp, no glory, no credit.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise.
Surprise & fear... our chief weapons are surprise and fear... and, a ruthless efficiency.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldlyTjXk9A"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldlyTjXk9A[/ame]

Sorry, couldn't resist - it's actually a good idea.

 

[Umbran]

1. How to stop the PCs from going to the authorities for everything?
...
But I want the focus to be on the PCs, so I was brain storming and came up with either a) it's a city without authorities (lawless), b) the PCs are the law, or c) the threats the PCs deal with are so 'extraordinary" that the regular authorities would be in over their heads and would be certain death for them, but the PCs have some special abilities that make them better suited to investigate.

Any experiences with using any of those? Or other possibilities?

Another possibility: d) The authorities... don't have authority!

As an example - I'm running a Deadlands game, and the party's currently hanging out in Dodge City, Kansas. One of the lawmen in town is an icon of competent lawmen: Wyatt Earp. How do we have the party not running to Earp on a constant basis?

Simple - Earp's jurisdiction is limited. He's a deputy Marshal in town. His authority doesn't extend much outside of town proper, and is limited to enforcing the laws of the town. The town government is actively trying to remain neutral with respect to the Union and Confederates.

So, intrigue and espionage, even when it represents a clear and present danger to people, is not in Earp's jurisdiction. Until someone ends up dead, or some other local ordinance is broken, his hands are tied.

2. Details, Details, Details -- my brain will fry trying to keep track of names, personalities, locations, and their relative positions to one another, and so on.

Short of extensive note-taking and maps, anyone have any other suggestions that have worked for them?

Here's a note: for urban campaigns, maps are not all they're cracked up to be. Humans make mental maps, but they aren't complete - they typically are built out of the individual locations the person is interested in, and the ways to get between them. Know the major locations, and how you'd get from A to B to C, and leave the rest unspecified until you need it.

For example, I ran a game set in NYC, and I didn't use a detailed street map - I based off a subway map, as that was the best way to get around.

3. Mass NPC conversations.

You have a bit of time, and a few uninvolved friends? Write up a script, and record the conversations you want the party to hear on your computer, radio-play style!

4. I am not a good spontaneous speaker for NPCs. With so many NPCs and so many possibilities of who and what the PCs can discuss, I'll have a hard time coming up with responses on the fly to PC questions/conversations. And, the people I tend to game with are generally better improvisational (sp?) speakers than I am.

I guess this is just a skill i need to work on myself.

The secret is to learn that you don't need to know what the NPCs are going to say in response to a question, but to know what the NPCs want to talk about. Before you detail an NPCs stats, detail their current situation, motivations, and goals. Conversation falls out of that.

5. Spatial considerations - combat areas simply need to be larger than is convenient. In a dense urban area, I'd imagine the interiors are smaller, leading to either really cramped combat areas, or insides that are bigger than the outside, or every building just has some basement/underground type area as a default standard.

Yes, urban areas are cramped. That's the way it is. I have generally avoided the urge to try to make that not true. The space is what it is, and if you want to fight, you have to deal with it.

I've found this usually leads to both the PCs and NPCs holding off fights until they can pick the ground on which it is fought. Less, even, for the ground, as the fact that in urban areas there are witnesses, and judicial systems.

6. Prisoners - when it's monsters it's easier to say kill the enemy in combat. when it's humanoids, it is more likely to result in the players (via the PCs) having drawn out discussions in every combat as to whether to kill or take prisoners. And while I can appreciate the role-play aspect of it, if the party doesn't have a general consensus it will just turn into a conversation that gets repeated way too often for my liking...

This is an artifact of the fact that we so focus on the action scenes, but not that the party spends huge amounts of time together not fighting for their lives. If it were that important to them, after the third time it came up after a fight, someone would bring it up in a slow moment after dinner in camp. Ask them to come to some mutual understanding on that basis.

 

[The Shaman]

You can describe the marvelous architecture until you're blue in the face, but the truth is, players can't talk to a flying buttress.

Stone tell.

So, actually, they really can.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Great thread!

I love city based adventures for precisely the reasons that many are a bit afraid of them-because they are so open to possibilities and provide the greatest number of opportunities for players to suprise me.

Lets take a look at the issues at hand:

1) The Authorities

Running to the cops seems like it would be a bigger problem than it really is. A lawless city without any enforcement wouldn't stay together as a city for very long and a super effective police force doesn't leave much room for adventurers to operate. The trick is to find the middle ground. A combination of a bit of corruption, a little incompetence, and a healthy portion of overworking and understaffing should do the job.

Besides, cops got better things to do than get killed.

2) Details

The amount of detail required seems unobtainable. The secret is that is absolutely true so don't go mad trying to prepare for everything. No matter how much effort goes into preparing detail the players will find a way to go beyond what you have ready.

I used to worry about not having every bit terrain mapped out and every NPC detailed but I got over it. There are some basics needed:

- an overall design of the city and the immediate land outside. Not every little corner needs detail but you should have an idea of what districts are where in relation to each other and the overall tone and feel for each part. For example, noting that the waterfront district is composed largely of warehouses, cheap taverns, houses of ill repute, and pawnshops.

- Notes on the major npcs/ individuals of influence. Be familliar with the big shots and power players in town, what resources they have, and where they spend their time.

The most important concern is consistency. You can create shops, NPC's, and other details on the fly just remember to jot down the details for when the PC's revisit the npc/location.

Another thing to remember that helps bring your city to life is change. People are born, die, move, get promoted, fall from grace, shops and houses burn down (or are torn down), new construction happens, etc. Most of this stuff happens all over the world but there is lot of it going on in a relatively small area in a city based campaign. Introducing people and places then having some of the above events happen randomly to some of them makes the city feel more like a living entity.

3) Mass Conversations

Summarize when possible when no one is speaking to the PC's. A running conversation with yourself gets strange. An npc making a general announcement or a speech not directly to the players can work fine as can the occasional snippet of actual conversation should the PC's want to eavesdrop on someone.

4) Spontaneous Speaking

This just requires practice. It helps to have tools & notes handy that aid in the creation of instant npc's (name lists, occupations, personality traits). Once you have an idea of how to create personalities on the fly it becomes a matter of practice to start roleplaying them quickly. If you enjoy doing voices for npc's then go for it, otherwise just speak normally.

5) Combat Space

One side effect of a city campaign is that there may be less combat. Much of the unique feel of city adventuring will be lost if the city is treated like a large above ground dungeon. Having to fight in tight quarters sometimes is part of the challenge of city adventure.

6) Prisoners

In a typical city campaign the PC's will come into conflict with people more often than monsters. There are of course plenty of opportunities for life or death combat (monsters in the sewers, crazed cultists in secret evil temples beneath warehouses, etc.) but also chances for conflict with less than death on the line due to the fact that events are taking place in a relatively civilized place with dire consequences for committing mass murder. The vast majority of people will certainly choose surrender rather than death in a setting such as a city where there is the law to offer at least some protection.

The need to keep certain activities discreet for both PC's and NPC's brings a level of social restraint in the interest of self preservation to the campaign that is largely missing from dungeon/wilderness settings. You can do the kinds of things that are difficult if not impossible to do in less refined settings such as having an antagonist show up in very public places to mock the PC's. This makes catching them red-handed, or someplace more secluded that much more satisfying.

 

[Barastrondo]

Lots of fantastic discussion already. I'll just add a few more "me toos" and maybe a few specializations on the techniques that have worked for me.

1. How to stop the PCs from going to the authorities for everything?

Frequently the authorities may be corrupt or unreliable, obviously. I had recent success with the PCs finding that some of the authorities were corrupt, but others weren't -- but they didn't have easy proof. They were still interested in the welfare of the city, but couldn't trust any random guard patrol to be in the pockets of the corrupt element instead of straight-arrows.

Also, some of the NPCs that the PCs are tied to may be in sensitive positions that the PCs don't want dragged out into the daylight. These needn't be criminal, mind: maybe a cousin is being blackmailed, and the PCs would rather help keep that cousin's secret instead of drawing it out in the courts. Maybe revealing the demonic dungeon under the favorite tavern would get the tavern closed. PCs may simply be a tidier solution.

2. Details, Details, Details -- my brain will fry trying to keep track of names, personalities, locations, and their relative positions to one another, and so on.

One of the things that really helped me get a handle on city adventures was the idea of giving districts personality. That made it easier to organize details, and it also meant that the players had extra mnemonic hooks: they don't have to remember the street address or the exact tavern name, but they might remember "Let's go back down to that Dockside dive in the back alleys" or "Let's meet in the plaza with the mermaid fountain." I don't map out cities to an exacting level of detail, personally; I just try to get enough of an overview of where the wards are that the players feel comfortable, name a few significant streets, and that's enough to get started.

3. Mass NPC conversations. In a major urban environment there will eventually be points where lots of NPCs are gathered and discussing things (i.e. The PCs walking into a merchant council and overhear them talking about their latest problem that is blocking trade, etc). But I feel awkward when I'm acting out 2 or more NPCs talking to each other because it turns the players into an audience rather than participants.

Tricky one. Usually I try to summarize it in a fairly distinctive way: the PCs overhear not one merchant talking about the problem, but one throwing a blustery Brian Blessed tantrum about the problem while others try to talk him down. This can encourage PCs to get involved in the conversation themselves, because they like interacting with standout personalities.

4. I am not a good spontaneous speaker for NPCs. With so many NPCs and so many possibilities of who and what the PCs can discuss, I'll have a hard time coming up with responses on the fly to PC questions/conversations. And, the people I tend to game with are generally better improvisational (sp?) speakers than I am.

I guess this is just a skill i need to work on myself.

It's tricky, and practice is really the best medicine for it. It may help to "cast" NPCs in your head ahead of time. To use the above example, I find it easier to improv with a Brian Blessed-type because it's easier for me to think in terms of "What would Brian Blessed say or do right now?"

5. Spatial considerations - combat areas simply need to be larger than is convenient. In a dense urban area, I'd imagine the interiors are smaller, leading to either really cramped combat areas, or insides that are bigger than the outside, or every building just has some basement/underground type area as a default standard.

Perhaps think in terms of a combat area spilling across multiple rooms; a fight in a shantytown should encompass several huts, or a battle in a house should involve every room on the floor and perhaps multiple floors at once. Also, extensive underground is pretty easy to rationalize in a D&D game; lots of settlements are built on the ruins of those who came before. It may not be super-innovative to have a city built atop a dwarven ruin that has lots of underground and basements for every house, but it certainly is gameable.

6. Prisoners - when it's monsters it's easier to say kill the enemy in combat. when it's humanoids, it is more likely to result in the players (via the PCs) having drawn out discussions in every combat as to whether to kill or take prisoners.

Generally my players tend to comport themselves differently depending who they're fighting. A vicious, fanatical cult: they never have the conversation. Wererats? Strike to kill. Bullies and bravos? They may leave them unconscious and groaning, with a warning not to let it happen again. But it's hard to give advice for this one, as it's more dependent on player chemistry than on what you can yourself do.

All that said, maybe I should just avoid having such a strong city-based campaign since I know it is a weak point for me. And instead stick with what I can do better (and leave the cities for side-treks rather than the main focal setting) ? Anyway, just brainstorming at this point.

Honestly, you should do what you feel will make a good game. But that said, I used to be in the exact same position you were, blocked by many of the same problems. Now I enjoy running urban adventures; confronting the problems face-on and looking at ways to solve them was a great process, and it was great not having to be nervous about urban adventure any more. If you give it a try, good luck -- it may pay off with fantastic dividends!

 

[Barastrondo]

Besides, cops got better things to do than get killed.

Glad to see mine isn't the only group that quotes this sage bit of wisdom all the time.

 

[Dedekind]

Monte Cook's "Ptolus" campaign setting might be a good resource. I think it has a section dealing with a lot of the issues you are discussing. It is one heck of a ptome.