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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 5396730" data-attributes="member: 3887">I've been playing in and running primarily-urban campaigns for the last 6-7 years. I'm apparently somewhat stuck on the idea of cosmopolitan fantasy cities. If you want some examples, if not necessarily advice, check out the "Chronicles of Burne" story hour in my .sig. If nothing else, it's funny, and the action is mostly urban.You can always make the authorities corrupt, incompetent, craven, or some winning combination thereof. Or just make them the principle antagonists. In my World of CITY campaign, the PC's quickly became the protectors of an immigrant ghetto, a place where the authorities simply didn't care about the populace, or were on the take from the people exploiting them, or were exploiting them themselves.  The city is having manpower issues. The Guard's spread very thin and the PC's are the only ones who can respond in a timely fashion.Both are fine ideas. Note taking is helpful, but a full street-level maps are completely unnecessary. The trick is to create a small, manageable number of memorable and vividly-described places. These "become" the city to the players. Plus, you can always add more as needed.Note this is how actual people actually experience cities. I live in Philadelphia. My Philadelphia isn't the whole of the map, it's the handful of locations I go to frequently. Then avoid trying to act these scenes out. Summarize. No, trust me, summarize. Or run smack dab into what my old writing professor would have called the Mimetic Fallacy.Work on this. The secret is, good cities are made of good NPC's. 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. Players need to be able to interact with the game environment, and the best, and easiest way to provide this is give 'em NPC's to chat up. Try a glass of wine --but not too much-- before the session. This is true. My advice, stage combats in big structures, like a warehouse by the docks or a public square, and for other interiors, just fudge the dimensions. Trust me, no one's going to notice some implausible square footage in your buildings. I'd let it evolve on it's own. More interesting that way. One thing I'd do is make granting mercy, ransoming, letting foes live, etc. into a viable choice. No, no, go for it! City-based D&D can be a blast (as can working on the weak areas in your DM'ing).</blockquote>

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