Adventuring in cities [Archive] - Wizards Community

Adventuring in cities [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
cacheek
04-10-07, 01:56 PM Anybody have advice on creating/adventuring in cities? Where can I get maps for villages, towns, and cities?
swallowyersoul
04-10-07, 01:59 PM check the following books

a magical medieval city (expeditious retreat press)

citiscape (wizards of the coast)

ptolus (malhavoc press)

citiworks (fantasy flight press)
swallowyersoul
04-10-07, 01:59 PM for maps, use google earth and find a third world city. then draw a map from that basic plan.
GoriceXII
04-10-07, 02:03 PM I looked online for city maps and stuff too but found it a hard search. My recommendation is to look at your used bookstores and gaming stores for boxed sets that have maps. You need to get some idea of where your game is set and what kinds of environments the city will have. You can also outright buy boxed sets or books for almost any kind of D&D setting for cities that will save you a lot of work.

As for adventures: you are probably going to have stuff based on intrigue, thievery, investigation, and so on in cities.

Examples of ones so far in mine:

1. Looking for rare items. Requires meeting various npcs, searching through the city.

2. Investigation: whether searching for clues about a murder, finding a missing person or whatever this can be a fun city adventure.

3. Siege: the city is under attack, the pcs must help defend it by various means.

4. Plague: a strange sickness sweeps the city. This is partly an investigation idea.

5. intrigue: this is where you can do fun three Musketeers type stuff.
Man in the Funny Hat
04-11-07, 10:42 AM Anybody have advice on creating/adventuring in cities? Where can I get maps for villages, towns, and cities?Some excellent city maps can be found in Profantasy's map libarary at http://www.profantasy.com/library/default.asp
The viewer for the CC2 files is free. Free viewer for the CC3 files is very soon to arrive.

I have a few cities/villages in CC2 maps at http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/cc2/cc2.htm
_Jayne_Cobb_
04-11-07, 10:56 AM One simple method is to take a map of an existing city, rotate or flip it, jot in a few key locations and call it a day. I do this quite a bit and it works great. The number of times my players have RPed in their own home town and not even known it is beyond remembrance. ;)

Many DMs, even quite good ones, seem to have difficulty running city-based games. When considering a city-based game there is one piece of advice I can give. It came to me as an epiphany one day when contemplating why city-based games seemed so problematic: think of a city as simply a dungeon without a roof.

A city, like a dungeon, is a series of connected locations containing a variety of dangers, challenges, monsters, traps and rewards. Granted those that one encounters in a city are likely to be different than those of a dungeon - most of the real monsters in a city look just like you and me - but the central idea holds true. Every DM with whom I have shared this very simple peice of advice has found the task far simpler thereafter, to the betterment of their games.

The flipside, of course, which has helped many a DM make his dungeon setting more dimensional, is to think of a dungeon as a city with a roof. A good dungeon setting, one that enhances verisimilitude rather than a Gygaxian "monster zoo," has its own power groups, safe zones, places to take food and rest, traps and pitfalls, etc.. In such a setting good players can, if they so choose, form alliances and gather allies (and enemies) in much the same manner as they would in a traditional urban setting rather than just killing everything that moves and taking their stuff.
Frugal
04-11-07, 11:33 AM The big thing to watch out for is that a city can make for extremely open-ended game play. That can be good or bad depending on your DM style. Just don't be surprised if you're players just start going off and doing their own thing, which can be a great way to make things interesting and create adventure opportunities.

As for maps, as has already been stated, real world maps can be great. I'd tend to favour older medieval type cities rather than newer more modern ones. Older cities tend to grow up organically and have more winding streets whereas newer cities tend to be more laid out on grid patterns.
Ozzymandias
04-11-07, 12:25 PM I agree with Frugal, and indeed with the other posters, in pretty much everything. My own two copper is:

1) By flexible. In a city, there are more opportunities to wander, so let the players wander. Remember that you control the flow of information, though, so if you don't give them anything to work with beyond the adventure you planned, they'll have to come back to that eventually.

2) Don't overdo the 'railroading' bit. Some players like the sense of freedom that they get when wandering a city, so consider two or three, or even four, potential adventures when starting a new plot line. Even better, give them the option of more than one, and once they've chosen something to follow up on, find a way to bring in the plot of another adventure. Do this once or twice and the players will feel that they city is alive around them.

3) Don't let the city become stale. Things change. I run a city-based game, wherein, in a previous session, a different group of PCs were responsible for the destruction of an important building. Now, the current group of PCs will have the option of visiting that location while it's being rebuilt. A city is a living organism, more so than a dungeon, so throw in the occasional wrench to make things feel alive.

4) For adventures, I use Dungeon magazine. Just about every issue has one adventure, if not two, that can be adapted to a city location (either by design or with a bit of shoe-horning). Another option is to use adventure databases. There are some websites that provide home-brewed races, classes, rules, adventures, etc. I'll have to look around to see if I can find a link for you.

Hope these suggestions help.
Frugal
04-11-07, 12:40 PM The freeform thing can be a lot of fun with the right group. I remember a few sessions with my group's "light" campaign (the one we played when everyone couldn't make it, continuity was less of an issue and we were generally a little sillier). We'd gotten into town after completing an adventure, we had a lot of gear to sell off and such. Along with that some background stuff happened and we started picking up on it. I think we had a whole session where I was roleplaying a romantic interest with the half-elf lady I'd met at the bar our first night in town while the evil halfling sorcerer being played by one of the other characters was off setting up loan sharking schemes, hiring muscle (to collect on the loans) and buying drugs to start a drug dealing operation. Now sadly the campaign fizzled out but there was a lot of potential there. All of our characters were off pursuing side interests and such but we were having a fun time doing it. If the DM wanted to reel us in a bit he could have easily plotted some developments related to those schemes. Suppose that the local thieves guild took offence to the halfling's criminal activities, they see him associating with the party and incorrectly assume that we're in on the deal so they kidnap the half-elf that my character is dating as a way to get to us, woo instant adventure. Or maybe some of the hafling's loans go unpaid and his hired muscle isn't up to it, maybe he ropes the party into collecting for him. And that's just based off of what could happen from the side interests, let alone anything else that might happen in the city while we're there.
Imatash
04-11-07, 02:28 PM We played a campaign based on Thieves World. It was great as we were constantly on the run joining with underground movements and rebellions while eventually becoming united with the lawful government by the end.

Imatash

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
cacheek 04-10-07, 01:56 PM	Anybody have advice on creating/adventuring in cities? Where can I get maps for villages, towns, and cities?
swallowyersoul 04-10-07, 01:59 PM	check the following books a magical medieval city (expeditious retreat press) citiscape (wizards of the coast) ptolus (malhavoc press) citiworks (fantasy flight press)
swallowyersoul 04-10-07, 01:59 PM	for maps, use google earth and find a third world city. then draw a map from that basic plan.
GoriceXII 04-10-07, 02:03 PM	I looked online for city maps and stuff too but found it a hard search. My recommendation is to look at your used bookstores and gaming stores for boxed sets that have maps. You need to get some idea of where your game is set and what kinds of environments the city will have. You can also outright buy boxed sets or books for almost any kind of D&D setting for cities that will save you a lot of work. As for adventures: you are probably going to have stuff based on intrigue, thievery, investigation, and so on in cities. Examples of ones so far in mine: 1. Looking for rare items. Requires meeting various npcs, searching through the city. 2. Investigation: whether searching for clues about a murder, finding a missing person or whatever this can be a fun city adventure. 3. Siege: the city is under attack, the pcs must help defend it by various means. 4. Plague: a strange sickness sweeps the city. This is partly an investigation idea. 5. intrigue: this is where you can do fun three Musketeers type stuff.
Man in the Funny Hat 04-11-07, 10:42 AM	Anybody have advice on creating/adventuring in cities? Where can I get maps for villages, towns, and cities?Some excellent city maps can be found in Profantasy's map libarary at http://www.profantasy.com/library/default.asp The viewer for the CC2 files is free. Free viewer for the CC3 files is very soon to arrive. I have a few cities/villages in CC2 maps at http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/cc2/cc2.htm
_Jayne_Cobb_ 04-11-07, 10:56 AM	One simple method is to take a map of an existing city, rotate or flip it, jot in a few key locations and call it a day. I do this quite a bit and it works great. The number of times my players have RPed in their own home town and not even known it is beyond remembrance. ;) Many DMs, even quite good ones, seem to have difficulty running city-based games. When considering a city-based game there is one piece of advice I can give. It came to me as an epiphany one day when contemplating why city-based games seemed so problematic: think of a city as simply a dungeon without a roof. A city, like a dungeon, is a series of connected locations containing a variety of dangers, challenges, monsters, traps and rewards. Granted those that one encounters in a city are likely to be different than those of a dungeon - most of the real monsters in a city look just like you and me - but the central idea holds true. Every DM with whom I have shared this very simple peice of advice has found the task far simpler thereafter, to the betterment of their games. The flipside, of course, which has helped many a DM make his dungeon setting more dimensional, is to think of a dungeon as a city with a roof. A good dungeon setting, one that enhances verisimilitude rather than a Gygaxian "monster zoo," has its own power groups, safe zones, places to take food and rest, traps and pitfalls, etc.. In such a setting good players can, if they so choose, form alliances and gather allies (and enemies) in much the same manner as they would in a traditional urban setting rather than just killing everything that moves and taking their stuff.
Frugal 04-11-07, 11:33 AM	The big thing to watch out for is that a city can make for extremely open-ended game play. That can be good or bad depending on your DM style. Just don't be surprised if you're players just start going off and doing their own thing, which can be a great way to make things interesting and create adventure opportunities. As for maps, as has already been stated, real world maps can be great. I'd tend to favour older medieval type cities rather than newer more modern ones. Older cities tend to grow up organically and have more winding streets whereas newer cities tend to be more laid out on grid patterns.
Ozzymandias 04-11-07, 12:25 PM	I agree with Frugal, and indeed with the other posters, in pretty much everything. My own two copper is: 1) By flexible. In a city, there are more opportunities to wander, so let the players wander. Remember that you control the flow of information, though, so if you don't give them anything to work with beyond the adventure you planned, they'll have to come back to that eventually. 2) Don't overdo the 'railroading' bit. Some players like the sense of freedom that they get when wandering a city, so consider two or three, or even four, potential adventures when starting a new plot line. Even better, give them the option of more than one, and once they've chosen something to follow up on, find a way to bring in the plot of another adventure. Do this once or twice and the players will feel that they city is alive around them. 3) Don't let the city become stale. Things change. I run a city-based game, wherein, in a previous session, a different group of PCs were responsible for the destruction of an important building. Now, the current group of PCs will have the option of visiting that location while it's being rebuilt. A city is a living organism, more so than a dungeon, so throw in the occasional wrench to make things feel alive. 4) For adventures, I use Dungeon magazine. Just about every issue has one adventure, if not two, that can be adapted to a city location (either by design or with a bit of shoe-horning). Another option is to use adventure databases. There are some websites that provide home-brewed races, classes, rules, adventures, etc. I'll have to look around to see if I can find a link for you. Hope these suggestions help.
Frugal 04-11-07, 12:40 PM	The freeform thing can be a lot of fun with the right group. I remember a few sessions with my group's "light" campaign (the one we played when everyone couldn't make it, continuity was less of an issue and we were generally a little sillier). We'd gotten into town after completing an adventure, we had a lot of gear to sell off and such. Along with that some background stuff happened and we started picking up on it. I think we had a whole session where I was roleplaying a romantic interest with the half-elf lady I'd met at the bar our first night in town while the evil halfling sorcerer being played by one of the other characters was off setting up loan sharking schemes, hiring muscle (to collect on the loans) and buying drugs to start a drug dealing operation. Now sadly the campaign fizzled out but there was a lot of potential there. All of our characters were off pursuing side interests and such but we were having a fun time doing it. If the DM wanted to reel us in a bit he could have easily plotted some developments related to those schemes. Suppose that the local thieves guild took offence to the halfling's criminal activities, they see him associating with the party and incorrectly assume that we're in on the deal so they kidnap the half-elf that my character is dating as a way to get to us, woo instant adventure. Or maybe some of the hafling's loans go unpaid and his hired muscle isn't up to it, maybe he ropes the party into collecting for him. And that's just based off of what could happen from the side interests, let alone anything else that might happen in the city while we're there.
Imatash 04-11-07, 02:28 PM	We played a campaign based on Thieves World. It was great as we were constantly on the run joining with underground movements and rebellions while eventually becoming united with the lawful government by the end. Imatash