city based adventures? [Archive] - Wizards Community

city based adventures? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
MergedLoki
04-01-08, 02:54 AM Alrite, a lil bit of background here.
Been playing DnD for years now but just picked up Eberron and for the next set of characters my groups gonna make, well... it'll be on Eberron.
Gonna be starting in Sharn, and since it's such a huge multi-layered city I thought it'd be a good oppurtunity to use the cityscape book (had it for a month or so now, never read it in detail n just skimmed through it).
My main problem is i cant think of some decent city-based adventurers.
i've got a basic dungeon crawl style one planned out that takes place in the citys older ruined levels/sewers etc.

so ok long story short if i could get some suggestions for urban adventures (also one pc realllly wants to play a changling rogue so i figure that'll have more impact within a city than in a forest or dungeon. after all if you're fighting ogres, that ogre doesn't care WHAT you look like it just wants to bash your head in).

and i wouldn't mind trying my hand @ a mystery style adventure, except, well i suck at planning em (as in im drawing a total blank).
ok i know it was a long post, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Dash Branaghan
04-01-08, 06:26 AM Murders are great, especially if there is another changling rogue who happened to make himself look exactly like one of the PCs...NPC Paladin along for the ride ensures the party behaves and that the accused PC can come along to clear his name.

There is always work around the city too depending on the nature of the PCs. They can be hired goons or they can be the A-Team vs. the Hired Goons.

Maybe the rogue character wants to start his own crime syndicate and must compete with the current one.

Perhaps there are jobs within the town to clean out a rat infestation in the sewers that are spreading disease (dire rats and were-rats in tandem).

Hire the PCs to steal an item they believe is stolen, only to find out that it is a piece needed by a secret cult to summon some Demon, so now they have to infiltrate the cult (think Call of Cthulhu).

Give the PCs jobs as spies between the noble houses.

Have one of the PCs inherit a business (who knows why? Long lost relative, kind hearted person with no family the PC was kind to? whatever) and they must now run it - all sorts of problems pop up there including a corrupt police system (potentially) or crimes.

Gang wars...nuff said.

Blade Runner - have the PCs as specially hired agents to kill "replicants" (or some other race that is illegal in your version of Sharn) - say, maybe make it Changelings. The PCs have to hunt them down and retire them because maybe your version of Sharn was once infested with Changlings/Dopplegangers and, once purged, the city has outlawed them. Gives your changling something to do and something to watch for...gotta be careful with those abilities.

Hope that inspires to some degree.
razilen
04-01-08, 06:55 AM some cult made a statue for the government the is an exact duplicit of what he was wherein before he diapered an night only to find it is really the leader petrified

um... mass plauge hits town
JohnLynch
04-01-08, 08:34 AM The idea of a city-only adventure and Dash's ideas are great. I'm stealing them :D

Also I'd recommend having at least a Feywild city in the same location (perhaps even built around the same time because the people who built the two were quiet close. Or one is built on the ruins of another city/lookout post). The Feywild city doesn't have to be inhabited, but it does let you "cheat" and have two cities in the one location if you want even more variety ;) It also let's you have more plot ideas as the two people in the two cities are quite different after a falling out happened long ago, and have mostly forgotten each other. If your PCs keep the way hidden, then all sorts of good trade deals can happen as people slip through. If they tell everyone of the portal, conflict could once again arise between the two.
kelcimer
04-02-08, 03:04 PM I love doing city based adventures. I do wilderness adventures and the occasional dungeon, but I keep coming back to city adventures. I've done city adventures with 5 or 6 players, but it generally tends be easier with 3 or 4 players.

A fair amount of my adventures stem from politics, either between cities or between nobles. When given the chance about half of my PCs have tried to start businesses of one sort or another. Sometimes the business is mundane like a quarry business and sometimes they form something of a mercenary group willing to take on a variety of tasks. One player got a loan from a prominent NPC to start a business and had to work off the loan.

City Adventures are great if you as a DM love using NPCs. Cities live and die on the accumulated strength of their NPCs. Each adventure you have in the city you will invariable introduce more and more NPCs. This is a good thing. You will get repeated use out of a great deal of them. Actually the city itself could be said to be an NPC whose character sheet is an accumulation of NPCs, locations, and politics you develop.

With city adventures you are much more likely to have those sessions where there is little or no combat, but this by no means have to be a rule. At the end of one campaign I held a "Game of Masks" that was essentially several of those big ball parties that the players usually crash. I was very pleasently surprised to find that it made sense for 20 of my already established NPCs to be there. The first 2/3rds of the session was just the players socializing with NPCs.

You will also find that players are much more likely to split up and pursue different agendas while in a city. This is a good thing and to be encouraged. It is a common occurrence in game for me to either banish most of the players to the living room while dealing with what one player is doing or to take that player off into another room. This makes has the additional value of giving players time to chat off topic without slowing down the game and making them more focused when they get back to the table.

I've found it works very well to have a primary city that is really well developed and assorted other cities that serve different purposes. The politics of these secondary cities tend to be simpler and more characterized. They are less developed in terms of NPCs and plots, because they are specialized for certain types of adventures, to be nexuses for certain types of plots. My main city is Ravens Bluff (Used the City of Ravens Bluff campaign accessory as my starting point). My secondary cities are Yhaunn (the small Sembian City which is gateway for sembian intrigues) and Calaunt (rival Vast city-state), Westgate (assorted intrigues that don't care about the Bluff or Sembia), Tantras (the "me-too" kinda black hole city), Yalron (which is the city where PCs are free to misbehave and otherwise burn down the city with little or no consequence), and Khazvern (underdark trade city ruled by a dragon and dominated by drow).
HerbalTea
04-02-08, 03:17 PM Some large building near the middle of the city has been taken over by a dark cult who managed to teleport in/get in unnoticed. Some civilians have been taken hostage by them and it is up to your party to infiltrate the building and rescue the hostages.

The demands of the cult can be up to you, the way the party infiltrate can also be up to you, either from the sewers, or some weak point the cult has overlooked.
lastknightleft
04-02-08, 04:33 PM You could always take the shortcut way out and buy the Shackled City Campain Book. My group is four sessions into it and so far having a blast, we will see where it goes from there.
Malcaor
04-02-08, 05:31 PM I just ran a mytery adventure in Sharn. If you would like, PM me, and I will send you an email with the adventure.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MergedLoki 04-01-08, 02:54 AM	Alrite, a lil bit of background here. Been playing DnD for years now but just picked up Eberron and for the next set of characters my groups gonna make, well... it'll be on Eberron. Gonna be starting in Sharn, and since it's such a huge multi-layered city I thought it'd be a good oppurtunity to use the cityscape book (had it for a month or so now, never read it in detail n just skimmed through it). My main problem is i cant think of some decent city-based adventurers. i've got a basic dungeon crawl style one planned out that takes place in the citys older ruined levels/sewers etc. so ok long story short if i could get some suggestions for urban adventures (also one pc realllly wants to play a changling rogue so i figure that'll have more impact within a city than in a forest or dungeon. after all if you're fighting ogres, that ogre doesn't care WHAT you look like it just wants to bash your head in). and i wouldn't mind trying my hand @ a mystery style adventure, except, well i suck at planning em (as in im drawing a total blank). ok i know it was a long post, any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Dash Branaghan 04-01-08, 06:26 AM	Murders are great, especially if there is another changling rogue who happened to make himself look exactly like one of the PCs...NPC Paladin along for the ride ensures the party behaves and that the accused PC can come along to clear his name. There is always work around the city too depending on the nature of the PCs. They can be hired goons or they can be the A-Team vs. the Hired Goons. Maybe the rogue character wants to start his own crime syndicate and must compete with the current one. Perhaps there are jobs within the town to clean out a rat infestation in the sewers that are spreading disease (dire rats and were-rats in tandem). Hire the PCs to steal an item they believe is stolen, only to find out that it is a piece needed by a secret cult to summon some Demon, so now they have to infiltrate the cult (think Call of Cthulhu). Give the PCs jobs as spies between the noble houses. Have one of the PCs inherit a business (who knows why? Long lost relative, kind hearted person with no family the PC was kind to? whatever) and they must now run it - all sorts of problems pop up there including a corrupt police system (potentially) or crimes. Gang wars...nuff said. Blade Runner - have the PCs as specially hired agents to kill "replicants" (or some other race that is illegal in your version of Sharn) - say, maybe make it Changelings. The PCs have to hunt them down and retire them because maybe your version of Sharn was once infested with Changlings/Dopplegangers and, once purged, the city has outlawed them. Gives your changling something to do and something to watch for...gotta be careful with those abilities. Hope that inspires to some degree.
razilen 04-01-08, 06:55 AM	some cult made a statue for the government the is an exact duplicit of what he was wherein before he diapered an night only to find it is really the leader petrified um... mass plauge hits town
JohnLynch 04-01-08, 08:34 AM	The idea of a city-only adventure and Dash's ideas are great. I'm stealing them :D Also I'd recommend having at least a Feywild city in the same location (perhaps even built around the same time because the people who built the two were quiet close. Or one is built on the ruins of another city/lookout post). The Feywild city doesn't have to be inhabited, but it does let you "cheat" and have two cities in the one location if you want even more variety ;) It also let's you have more plot ideas as the two people in the two cities are quite different after a falling out happened long ago, and have mostly forgotten each other. If your PCs keep the way hidden, then all sorts of good trade deals can happen as people slip through. If they tell everyone of the portal, conflict could once again arise between the two.
kelcimer 04-02-08, 03:04 PM	I love doing city based adventures. I do wilderness adventures and the occasional dungeon, but I keep coming back to city adventures. I've done city adventures with 5 or 6 players, but it generally tends be easier with 3 or 4 players. A fair amount of my adventures stem from politics, either between cities or between nobles. When given the chance about half of my PCs have tried to start businesses of one sort or another. Sometimes the business is mundane like a quarry business and sometimes they form something of a mercenary group willing to take on a variety of tasks. One player got a loan from a prominent NPC to start a business and had to work off the loan. City Adventures are great if you as a DM love using NPCs. Cities live and die on the accumulated strength of their NPCs. Each adventure you have in the city you will invariable introduce more and more NPCs. This is a good thing. You will get repeated use out of a great deal of them. Actually the city itself could be said to be an NPC whose character sheet is an accumulation of NPCs, locations, and politics you develop. With city adventures you are much more likely to have those sessions where there is little or no combat, but this by no means have to be a rule. At the end of one campaign I held a "Game of Masks" that was essentially several of those big ball parties that the players usually crash. I was very pleasently surprised to find that it made sense for 20 of my already established NPCs to be there. The first 2/3rds of the session was just the players socializing with NPCs. You will also find that players are much more likely to split up and pursue different agendas while in a city. This is a good thing and to be encouraged. It is a common occurrence in game for me to either banish most of the players to the living room while dealing with what one player is doing or to take that player off into another room. This makes has the additional value of giving players time to chat off topic without slowing down the game and making them more focused when they get back to the table. I've found it works very well to have a primary city that is really well developed and assorted other cities that serve different purposes. The politics of these secondary cities tend to be simpler and more characterized. They are less developed in terms of NPCs and plots, because they are specialized for certain types of adventures, to be nexuses for certain types of plots. My main city is Ravens Bluff (Used the City of Ravens Bluff campaign accessory as my starting point). My secondary cities are Yhaunn (the small Sembian City which is gateway for sembian intrigues) and Calaunt (rival Vast city-state), Westgate (assorted intrigues that don't care about the Bluff or Sembia), Tantras (the "me-too" kinda black hole city), Yalron (which is the city where PCs are free to misbehave and otherwise burn down the city with little or no consequence), and Khazvern (underdark trade city ruled by a dragon and dominated by drow).
HerbalTea 04-02-08, 03:17 PM	Some large building near the middle of the city has been taken over by a dark cult who managed to teleport in/get in unnoticed. Some civilians have been taken hostage by them and it is up to your party to infiltrate the building and rescue the hostages. The demands of the cult can be up to you, the way the party infiltrate can also be up to you, either from the sewers, or some weak point the cult has overlooked.
lastknightleft 04-02-08, 04:33 PM	You could always take the shortcut way out and buy the Shackled City Campain Book. My group is four sessions into it and so far having a blast, we will see where it goes from there.
Malcaor 04-02-08, 05:31 PM	I just ran a mytery adventure in Sharn. If you would like, PM me, and I will send you an email with the adventure.