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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kitsune9" data-source="post: 5402361" data-attributes="member: 18507">Actually, I'd like to offer some other tips and opinions if I may on running an urban campaign.1. Never start the adventure in a tavernTaverns are such a common trope for every adventure. How many of our adventures begin with, "You all are sitting in a tavern drinking, what do you do?" There are several things you can do to kick off each adventure:a. Start the adventure in the middle of a scene. For example, start the adventure with the PC's in the middle of the night in a graveyard where they took a job to capture or deal with graverobbers. However, the adventure that will unfold is not really about dealing with the graverobbers, but the PC's encountering something else that leads to your urban adventure. Now your players may balk at being railroaded into the graverobbing job, but that's simply an opening scene. How many of us have watched a fantasy movie where the hero starts off as a guard for a caravan or some kind of low job only for the opening scene to get the hero to do something "bigger"? Same approach here.b. If your players will really give you crap about the middle of the scene, then simply have the action come to them when they are not expecting. The opening scenes are at the market, at night on the way to a tavern, the PC's receiving a note to pick up a package in a warehouse at night. My personal example is that I started my current campaign with the PC's in a jail cell where they were sentenced to death; however the duchess offered them a chance of a pardon in exchange for their services. 2. Start out small with your city and then slowly expand as you progress. In my earlier post, I stated that come up with only six locations that represented who rules the city, two powers in the city, and three useful contacts that can be used in everyday situations (like a merchant). Keep looping your player characters back to these locations so that 99% of their needs is taken care of. As your campaign progresses, you'll slowly expand by adding a new contact, a new power of the city, a hidden guild, etc. Some of these guys will be one-shots, others will recur for a couple of adventures, and some will show up for the rest of the remaining campaign. 3. Mitigate your players' attempt the use the NPCs to get free stuff, aid, etc. Your players are going to run to the authorities when they discover the bad guys' lair instead of exploring it themselves. Your players are going to tell the LG priest that they need to get all the free healing potions, spells, holy water, etc. because the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Your players are going to tell the innkeeper that they just saved the city (maybe rightly so), so they are entitled to free room and board and drinks. This happens. You can mitigate this by providing support, but "supplies are limited". The priest tells the PC's that another group of adventures clean out his stock on holy water and that he's currently making potions for a third group of adventures. The PC's need to get in line. When your PC's do strongarm your NPC's into providing aid (for free), take that out of potential treasure that you'll reward later. Another way is that "what goes around comes around". The PC's went to the priest for aid and got away with a dozen healing potions. After the adventure is over, the PC's encounter that priest who knows they were successful in their adventure and the treasure they hauled. He'll ask the PC's to assist him in providing funds for him to help him assist the poor and diseased (which equals the amount of the healing potions they got away with for free). If the PC's balk, they've burned that bridge with the temple and other allied-aligned faiths will hear how cheap the PC's are. The PC's will also find out that the church has powerful allies in terms of nobles, guilds, etc. who may pay a visit to the PC's to "help out". This kind of aid can be applied to merchants (we need these thunderstones!), nobles (we need money for supplies!), authorities (we need backup!), and so on.Another way is that for every real adventuring group out there, there are three con artists out there who slap on some armor, carry a weapon, and impersonate heroes. The priests, nobles, guilds, etc. have been conned before. They won't be so stupid a second or third time. So when the PC's come to them for aid, they better have some strong evidence for anyone to lend them assistance.4. Mitigate the spinning of wheels. When I write an urban adventure, I have a flow chart. To avoid railroading, I make the flowchart where each scene can loop to other scenes so the players have a choice as to where they can go next. I'll have maybe one true red herring, because I know the PC's will create more than necessary. The last thing I want the players to do is go to a starting location and just "have them figure it out". A lot of players approach problems very differently. If there is a murder investigation, one player is going to want to talk to random people as witnesses, another is going to search for tracks, another is going to the tavern to go drink, another is going to the authorities to help with the investigation, and another will just hang out and do nothing. When you create the scene, create the clues that the PC's will have clear choices to do X, Y, or Z, and if the PC's want to go "off-map", get those done as quickly as possible so you can get the PC's back to the action.5. Get mundane crap done as quickly as possible. If you're the kind of DM who loves to roleplay out a shopping experience and your players like it, go for it, but if you want to get the adventure going, then all mundane / non-sequential aspects of the adventure should get hand-waived as quickly as possible. One of the biggest things that I always saw in my campaigns is that when the PC's get into town, they split up and do their own thing. They don't even role play out of how to get in touch with each other until the next adventure. One player wants to go a tavern to go drinking, another to an inn, another to a temple, another to the market, and so on. Have fun and happy gaming!</blockquote>

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