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What Makes a Good Urban Adventure?
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<blockquote data-quote="GlassJaw" data-source="post: 7145727" data-attributes="member: 22103"><p>I love urban campaigns...but they cab be difficult to run. As others have mentioned, a true urban campaign isn't simply "dungeons in the city". The city needs to be a major player in the mood and feel of the campaign, which becomes both a blessing and a curse.</p><p></p><p>As someone who has thought a lot about and run urban games, my advice is this: paint in broad strokes and embrace improvisation. Role-playing and improvisation are job requirements for a DM when running an urban game. You simply cannot flesh out every NPC and every storefront.</p><p></p><p>What I do is focus on the high-level description and "essence" of the city. I like to be extremely vivid with sites, sounds and smells as the players travel around the city. Then I pick a few locations and flesh them out in detail to serve as the players' "home base". Familiarity with locations and NPCs will give the players a sense that the city is home.</p><p></p><p>I've also found that the traditional "kill monsters and take their stuff" adventurer motivation don't work as well in urban campaigns. The players need new motivations, and preferably, the primary motivation early on is survival. The city itself needs to be a threat. I tend to fall back on my Thief and Shadowrun upbringing. Cut back on treasure. Cut back on magic. Make the players savor their first gold piece. Enforce lifestyle expenses.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GlassJaw, post: 7145727, member: 22103"] I love urban campaigns...but they cab be difficult to run. As others have mentioned, a true urban campaign isn't simply "dungeons in the city". The city needs to be a major player in the mood and feel of the campaign, which becomes both a blessing and a curse. As someone who has thought a lot about and run urban games, my advice is this: paint in broad strokes and embrace improvisation. Role-playing and improvisation are job requirements for a DM when running an urban game. You simply cannot flesh out every NPC and every storefront. What I do is focus on the high-level description and "essence" of the city. I like to be extremely vivid with sites, sounds and smells as the players travel around the city. Then I pick a few locations and flesh them out in detail to serve as the players' "home base". Familiarity with locations and NPCs will give the players a sense that the city is home. I've also found that the traditional "kill monsters and take their stuff" adventurer motivation don't work as well in urban campaigns. The players need new motivations, and preferably, the primary motivation early on is survival. The city itself needs to be a threat. I tend to fall back on my Thief and Shadowrun upbringing. Cut back on treasure. Cut back on magic. Make the players savor their first gold piece. Enforce lifestyle expenses. [/QUOTE]
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