Urban Adventuring

[Retreater]

I've noticed some situations with my group regarding city adventures.

The main problem is split party situations. Last week, for example, we had the adventure go in 4 different directions (with only 5 players in attendance). Now, it would have been easy enough to handwave some of the activities and briefly describe the occurences (which I did with several of the characters' actions), but others it wasn't so easy. Like the rogue who downed a potion of invisibility and undertook a daring prison break rescue operation akin to getting Leia out of the Death Star.

Now while the rogue was getting attacked, trying to search through this complex, etc., the rest of the players could do nothing else but sit around with their characters drinking at the tavern ... and there's at least a little resentment amongst the players. I would try to go back to the other characters, but there was nothing else going on. So for about an hour and a half, I focused on the player of the rogue.

Situations like this tend to arise every time I run a city adventure. Players get bored, which usually prompts the players to do something reckless and (as I see it) out of character just to get the action going. Characters swear fealty to three or four different organizations, and they seldom seem to work together, even when I attempt to weave their goals together. The players get annoyed with the other players ... who aren't going along with their plans, and it seems that the group has just too many options available.

So I'm thinking about taking the group out of the city for a while and putting them in an environment where they MUST work together or be destroyed ... a dungeon or the wilderness. I want to limit their options a little more so I have an idea what to prepare for the next session - now it's just sort of a grab bag. Even if I put plot hooks in to investigate a location and tell the players away from the table that's where the adventure is, they still don't go there ... or maybe one of them will go there.

So what are your thoughts? Should I ditch the urban campaign? Should I hit the party (or individual characters as it is) with some difficult encounters that will encourage them to not travel alone? Should I kill off some characters and make all new party members come from the same organization, with prefabricated character backgrounds?

I do alternate with another DM. Both of us have been running urban-based campaigns for about the past 9 months or so. Maybe it's time for a change?

If so, what kind of change do you think would be good? Through the characters into a large dungeon crawl where their options are limited and they have to play nice together?

Retreater

 

[Nightfall]

Try looking at Cityscapes for reasons to get them to work together more often.

 

[Raloc]

I'd say throw some encounters which are geared towards parties at them. If they're alone...so be it. Maybe they'll learn after the first character gets it. Roll a die to find out who's first.

 

[Nightfall]

Raloc,

True, or they could encounter an invasion of zombies aka Dawn of the Dead.

 

[Raloc]

Hehe, my players were getting tired of this war thread I was doing, and they'd just fought an army of ogres with some irregulars. They went to another city to find it encamped (they managed to sneak in) by another ogre army. Groans all around since they didn't want to fight another such battle. So, the next session I had them go out with a group of elites to destroy the ogre mage command. As they left the city, it was overrun from beneath by an horde of blood ghouls (which are contagious from bite or claw and blood) which spilled over the walls and tore up the ogres as well, before the PCs could strike. Eventually they tracked down an ogre mage that had been infected but mysteriously retained the ability to cast spells (and was overcoming the bloodlust of the ghoulplague).

On the topic of PCs not working together though, one PC that IGly abandoned the party in the middle of climactic battle returned recently and has been causing fights with his IG cousin (the Red Wizard char is an enchanter and has been casting on his cousin, suggestion etc.). So, to force them to work together, I'm throwing them up against some harder challenges than they've been doing lately (going to put up against them an illithid and a voidmind hobgoblin barb2 guard). I think it will work well, since the RW's goal isn't to harm the party (and he likes showing off his ability to use compulsion magics). Maybe the illithid will get him though. My situation is somewhat different though given the problems arise primarily from the characters being mostly evil and having in game reasons not to be cordial.

 

[Nightfall]

Ral,

Interesting. I was thinking more like a mass disease that also causes problems socially, ie turns people into crazed cannibals. That kind of thing. But your war thread was a good idea.

 

[Clavis]

One way of handling parties that split up is to let the remaining players run the unimportant NPCs and monsters while you focus on narration and adjudication. Encourage the players running the NPCs and monsters to realy ham it up and create colorful personalities. This keeps everyone role playing, lets players have the thrill of being the bad guys, and also allows players to play characters that would never work as party members. The characters created can become an ongoing part of the campaign (i.e. when the party is in the the city of Augalis, Bob always plays the part of Heredius, the lisping blacksmith).

Every group I've done this with loved it. No more players turning on the TV while one of the PCs visits the brothel alone! Even the powergamers will love it when you let them actually play a Balor in a game.

 

[kensanata]

The players get annoyed with the other players ... who aren't going along with their plans, and it seems that the group has just too many options available.

Usually what I do is I avoid designing situations where lone missions work at all.

Examples:

• Mage wants to research something at the library. Either it's really simple and some communication or knowledge skill rolls end the scene, or there's an obvious subplot to follow where the researcher will require help (because bodyguards are required, usually).
• The thief sneaking into the castle will need magic support to cross the river, climb the walls of the tower, etc. Once inside (where the other characters cannot help him), I design it such that there's just one or two rooms to play through. No single-player explorations necessary. If the thief decides to go a sneaking, I'll make sure that there are a dozen guards on duty on the next floor, and they're not in the mood for drinking and gambling.
• Friend of interest group X goes to speak with them while the others wait. I usually treat this like a research mission: A few words, a few dice cast, and it's over. Anything else will require the help of the party: Escorting prisoners, fighting enemies, oaths all party members must swear, etc.
• If a short encounter starts to stretch, I let the player know out-of-character that we should hurry this along, sometimes asking the player what it is that he is hoping to find out, and if I like what I hear, I'll just go: "Ok, that's exactly what is happening, and after two hours more or less you find yourself on the way back to the guesthouse..."

Basically I think it's my responsibility as a DM to make sure there's little reward for lone missions. Lone missions in my game are either too dangerous or very short.

 

[hexgrid]

I think this is completely a meta-game issue. If you've got a group of players playing at the same time, fun cannot be had if they aren't mostly doing the same thing at the same time, verisimilitude be damned. Single character scenarios should be banned outright, unless you're willing to do some one-on-one sessions.

If this concept doesn't work in-game for the characters, then new characters are needed.

 

[painandgreed]

I usually let it flow and it usually goes ok so long as everybody gets their time. Switching back and forth if more than one person is involved in something and just rushing through those who are if not. Usually, I take the acting player out of the room anyway (so the others have no idea what is happening) and it gives them time to talk and joke so they get it out of their system by time it's their turn, but my games are as much social gatherings as a game.