Urban Adventuring

[philreed]

FFG's Cityworks is actually a pretty good companion to the D&D city book. There's very little overlap and Cityworks has a few inventive tools (city event templates, are great).

 

[Whimsical]

Run a thieves' game. Everyone is part of the thieves' guild. They do missions for the guild, they get good at it, they discover some interesting secrets, a paranoid superior frames the pcs and has them assasinated. PCs are on the run, PCs start rival thieves' guild, etc.

 

[arscott]

"Don't split the party" is a mantra for dungeons. It's perfectly fine to split the party in a city environment, and that sort of thing happens quite often in the Dark•Matter game I run.

I find it helps to think of splitting the party the same way I think about combats. And there are a few parallels to focus on:

First, make sure everyone has something that they can do. In combat, the other characters don't wait around for the fighter to battle the monster. Instead, they each have different ways of dealing with the challenge that the monster poses. The same should be true out of combat: The rogue might be sneaking into the palace dungeon at the same time that the wizard is researching those mystic runes at the library, while the cleric and the fighter stand watch outside the museum that contains the artifact.

Second, make sure to change your focus frequently. In a combat, you go around the table quickly. Each character resolves just one or two actions, and then you move on to the next. Do the same thing with a split party. As soon as the rogue sneaks past the front gate into the palace, then cut to the wizard. As soon as the wizard has found out that the runes are ancient draconic, cut to the cleric and fighter. As soon as the cleric and fighter are satisfied that the man in the blue cloak isn't a threat, switch back to the rogue.

It sounds like you were dealing with the Point-of-View switch fine, but that only the rogue was taking advantage of his screen time. If this is because there wasn't anything else that the party could do, then work on providing a broader number of ways that the characters can progress the adventure. (And remember that Red Herrings are okay, as long as they're entertaining diversions).

But if your characters sat around because that's what they wanted to do, then that's not your problem. If a character in a combat just delays every round and never takes any actions, then it's not the GM's fault if the player is getting bored. The same is true outside of combat.

Edit: I just had an Idea. Try using combat terminology. When someone says "I stay in the bar and drink", say "okay, you're delaying." before moving on to the next player. That will help the player realize that he's wasting his time and his chance to act, and that might spur him into doing something.

 

[Phlebas]

• 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..."

I run city based campaign, and have used almost all of those in the course of the campaign so far (including the old classic "It looks dark and dangerous, almost the kind of place you'd want the rest of the group before you set foot inside...")

If PC's want to plot or do private stuff, sort it out by e-mail outside of the game night and then you should have less problems in game