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<blockquote data-quote="Gizzard" data-source="post: 817348" data-attributes="member: 527">Running a City has been very different for me than running a dungeon.&nbsp; As the poster above mentions, the party is much more prone to split up into mini-parties and go out on their own.&nbsp; This is almost impossible to stop, and certainly makes matching the EL of any planned encounters a bit dicier.&nbsp; We've had one (pathetic) fatality which was due to the Cleric being otherwise occupied while the rest of the party stumbled into the Boss Monster.&nbsp; Running a Freeport-style &quot;evil beneath the city&quot; adventure can clean up some of this; although the party never seems to *all* go into the sewers at the same time at least they are reluctant to go in by themselves on a whim.&nbsp;&nbsp; I think whats more important from a DMing point of view is that the under-city runs a lot like a traditional dungeon crawl, which is IMHO a good change of pace.&nbsp; As far as NPCs go, I wrote a short C program that randomly generates 3 attributes to add some depth to the people that the party meets.&nbsp; Its certainly done some stuff I never expected - a Cult member who is just described as &quot;female&quot; in the module ended up being &quot;wizened, make-up'd &amp; hard-hearted&quot;.&nbsp; The party spends a bunch of time discussing whether to kill her or torture her for information expecting just a generic &quot;Cultist&quot; - then they yank off her Cult-mask and find some crazy old woman crying great tracks in her overdone mascara.&nbsp; Anyway, this sort of detail gives the DM some direction to take the character.The points about law-and-order are also well taken.&nbsp; In a Freeport-style city you have a City Guard, Thieves Guilds, mercenary groups and private guards hired by wealthy people.&nbsp; There are a lot of power-factions to cross!&nbsp; I'm not sure what the best path is - I've been letting the players run rampant, but they've used the opportunity to aggravate some powerful people in the city.&nbsp; I dont think we'd have had as much fun in some sort of lawful city where weapons have to be checked at the gates, but theres a balance to be struck between &quot;fun&quot; and &quot;trouble&quot;.&nbsp; ;-)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Gizzard, post: 817348, member: 527"] Running a City has been very different for me than running a dungeon. As the poster above mentions, the party is much more prone to split up into mini-parties and go out on their own. This is almost impossible to stop, and certainly makes matching the EL of any planned encounters a bit dicier. We've had one (pathetic) fatality which was due to the Cleric being otherwise occupied while the rest of the party stumbled into the Boss Monster. Running a Freeport-style "evil beneath the city" adventure can clean up some of this; although the party never seems to *all* go into the sewers at the same time at least they are reluctant to go in by themselves on a whim. I think whats more important from a DMing point of view is that the under-city runs a lot like a traditional dungeon crawl, which is IMHO a good change of pace. As far as NPCs go, I wrote a short C program that randomly generates 3 attributes to add some depth to the people that the party meets. Its certainly done some stuff I never expected - a Cult member who is just described as "female" in the module ended up being "wizened, make-up'd & hard-hearted". The party spends a bunch of time discussing whether to kill her or torture her for information expecting just a generic "Cultist" - then they yank off her Cult-mask and find some crazy old woman crying great tracks in her overdone mascara. Anyway, this sort of detail gives the DM some direction to take the character. The points about law-and-order are also well taken. In a Freeport-style city you have a City Guard, Thieves Guilds, mercenary groups and private guards hired by wealthy people. There are a lot of power-factions to cross! I'm not sure what the best path is - I've been letting the players run rampant, but they've used the opportunity to aggravate some powerful people in the city. I dont think we'd have had as much fun in some sort of lawful city where weapons have to be checked at the gates, but theres a balance to be struck between "fun" and "trouble". ;-) [/QUOTE]

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