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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What Makes a Good Urban Adventure?
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<blockquote data-quote="THEMNGMNT" data-source="post: 7145819" data-attributes="member: 6809274"><p>I'm not convinced that urban adventures mean the players can go anywhere and do anything. After all, the same is technically true in a dungeon or wilderness adventure. But the players (hopefully) have a clear understanding that the adventure is in the dungeon, which is why they stay in the dungeon. Similarly, in a city, I would hope and expect that the players follow the thread of the adventure. This can even be explicit--in Monte Cook's original Ptolus campaign, he and the players had a metagame agreement that they would never leave the city.</p><p></p><p>Two of my favorite urban adventures are Expeditions to the Ruins of Greyhawk and Monte Cook's The Banewarrens. Both are dungeon delves with extensive action in the city. I think both provide great examples of how to balance freedom with structure.</p><p></p><p>If you have all freedom and no structure, it's not really an urban adventure. It's an urban hexcrawl. Which is something entirely different.</p><p></p><p>For DMs, I think it's important to give yourself a set of tools that help with creating consistency in urban adventures. Otherwise, you're endlessly improv-ing. For example, a city that is strongly thematic (like Sharn or Menzobarranzan) is one way to create consistency. Another is to utilize factions and allies. For example, if a player is a member of a merchant's guild or thieves' guild or the Harpers or whatnot, let them use those connections all across the city. So you don't have to create NPCs from scratch--you can give them a common background or shared goal. This is one area where 13th Age's icon relationships can be a great inspiration.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="THEMNGMNT, post: 7145819, member: 6809274"] I'm not convinced that urban adventures mean the players can go anywhere and do anything. After all, the same is technically true in a dungeon or wilderness adventure. But the players (hopefully) have a clear understanding that the adventure is in the dungeon, which is why they stay in the dungeon. Similarly, in a city, I would hope and expect that the players follow the thread of the adventure. This can even be explicit--in Monte Cook's original Ptolus campaign, he and the players had a metagame agreement that they would never leave the city. Two of my favorite urban adventures are Expeditions to the Ruins of Greyhawk and Monte Cook's The Banewarrens. Both are dungeon delves with extensive action in the city. I think both provide great examples of how to balance freedom with structure. If you have all freedom and no structure, it's not really an urban adventure. It's an urban hexcrawl. Which is something entirely different. For DMs, I think it's important to give yourself a set of tools that help with creating consistency in urban adventures. Otherwise, you're endlessly improv-ing. For example, a city that is strongly thematic (like Sharn or Menzobarranzan) is one way to create consistency. Another is to utilize factions and allies. For example, if a player is a member of a merchant's guild or thieves' guild or the Harpers or whatnot, let them use those connections all across the city. So you don't have to create NPCs from scratch--you can give them a common background or shared goal. This is one area where 13th Age's icon relationships can be a great inspiration. [/QUOTE]
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