What have YOU always wanted to see in an urban game?

[UrsielHauke]

I am running an urban Pathfinder game in the near future, modified slightly to accommodate a steampunk setting. I have an almost-totally mapped and fleshed-out city, a few plot hooks, and an over-arcing storyline but am a little stuck in the smaller plots, especially for the first half of the campaign, before the city is invaded. In hopes of inspiration, I am asking for suggestions of what people have wanted to or have seen in urban campaigns. Thanks

[Leon]

A giant rambling almost gone back to nature park that is home to a Urban Druid or circle of druids

[beyond reality]

A fence or information broker who is a giant, talking toad who smokes a pipe. Don't ask why.

[Vknight]

Check out Evil is as Evil Does (http://geekspective.com/category/main/geekspective-presents/evil-is-as-evil-does/page/2/) its a well done evil urban campaign. The party knows there's more to the world but feel fine within the confines of the city. That means make the city not to large but not to small.

Urban games need guilds bounty hunters, assassins, thieving beggars etc.
Secrets behind closed doors some the party may come across others may stay lost to them. After all they may never explore beyond one or two districts

[Ravens_cry]

Please, please don't make it a dungeon crawl in peoples basements. A city campaign to me is about intrigue, whether high level political manoeuvring or two rival gangs jockeying for control of the streets, deal brokering, back stabs and sly negotiations, role play is key. After all, you are in a city, and open violence that disturbs citizens is going to be frowned upon and acted upon. SO you either find a way to keep it quiet, a 'quest' in itself, or you restrict your violence to words and deals. And that means role play. It's also a perfect place for a sandbox. Like Grand Theft Auto and similar video games have shown, there is a lot to explore in a city, lots of secrets.

[dsmiles]

Roof-top chases, and high action. I love roof-top chases.

[HappyBlanket]

Seconding roof-top chases. Jumping and climbing on walls, running on rooftops, sliding down the rafters, skating on cords, and tumbling through glass panes. High fantasy parkour and the most complicated maps you've ever made (you'll want to go 3d).

[Zerter]

Just some random suggestions based on the urban setting our group plays:

Every inn is named [insert color here] dragon, hinting that there's a big corporation behind all of them. The Red Dragon, The Gray Dragon, The Purple Dragon, The Pink Dragon etc. It gives a big city feel because it reminds you of generic brands like McDonalds etc.

If you kill a bunch of people they leave family behind and you can't just move on to the next location. Usually this is not a problem, but sometimes they seek revenge. Also, once the party killed an entire underground tribe of drows only to discover they created about 35 orphans, they took care of them and eventually build a orphanage (it's a recurring joke the drow kids try to pickpocket the party every chance they have only to be forgiven, they're also activally being trained to become assasins and rogues despite efforts by party members to educate them otherwise. We also make racist jokes about it, having the drow kids say they're not trusted because they're black and everyone pretty much just comes out and confirms that's 100% true).

We have a big park where a lot of the nature stuff takes place, it's also where several giants live, they're all scared to death of gnomes.

What I like personally is having to deal with Undeads, Evil Outsiders and Dragons etc. as established members of a city. What kind of ground rules (if any) exist to ensure they can do so peacefully, but that really depends on what kind of city you're building.

Other than that, you're gonna want to work out law enforcement, laws and the way the city is governed. Like has been mentioned, urban settings make for great political intrigue campaigns.

[UrsielHauke]

Seconding roof-top chases. Jumping and climbing on walls, running on rooftops, sliding down the rafters, skating on cords, and tumbling through glass panes. High fantasy parkour and the most complicated maps you've ever made (you'll want to go 3d).

Do you know of any software or anything to build 3d maps?

[HappyBlanket]

Do you know of any software or anything to build 3d maps?I do, as a matter of fact.

Lego.

[UrsielHauke]

I do, as a matter of fact.

Lego.

I APPROVE. Especially considering I have enough legos to actually do that. :smallbiggrin:

[SamBurke]

Seconding roof-top chases. Jumping and climbing on walls, running on rooftops, sliding down the rafters, skating on cords, and tumbling through glass panes. High fantasy parkour and the most complicated maps you've ever made (you'll want to go 3d).

Definitely.

Also, Machine Guns. Gangs are not gangs without machine guns of Magic Missile. (Each bullet fires seperately, but all count as one attack, thus a 5CL MM Rifle would fire five times per normal attack, but at 1d4+1). GUNS. (Artificers may help.)

[RandomNPC]

The magic missile guns... that's an auto hit on each one... three guys holding up a store when the party walks in are almost sure to scare them.

I approve.

[UrsielHauke]

Yeah, I have magic missile guns. They're called WANDS.

Oh, and I do have guns, It's a steampunk-esque game and I'm using the gun rules from Ultimate Combat. Same for Airships, etc.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Roof-top chases, and high action. I love roof-top chases.


Seconding roof-top chases. Jumping and climbing on walls, running on rooftops, sliding down the rafters, skating on cords, and tumbling through glass panes. High fantasy parkour and the most complicated maps you've ever made (you'll want to go 3d).

Because the Sly Cooper and Assassin's Creed series are awesome. :smallcool: I've played all three Sly Cooper games, am saving up for a PS3 so I can get the 4th one when it comes out, and can't wait to be able to play M rated games so I can play AC (I think I'll skip the first one and go straight to AC2, since I've heard that the first one doesn't really have much to do with the story).

[SamBurke]

Awesome. Because no steampunk game is complete without chain guns. In fact, one campaign I'm developing will have plenty of Apaches... Yes, the helicopter. Think about it.

Also, wands are less stylin' than a gun, and you're going to want it Permanent'd. (CL x Spell Level x 2k should do it... That means you're paying 2k for each attack per turn. Pretty fair scaling, I'd say.)

Also: this was my 1000th post.

[HappyBlanket]

I was thinking Mirror's Edge, actually, but Sly Cooper and Assassin's Creed certainly pull it off :)

Machine guns that use wands instead of ammo clips/magazines. You flick open the top and lock a wand in... I'm not entirely certain if that gives any sort of practical benefit whatsoever, but WAND GUNS.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I was thinking Mirror's Edge, actually, but Sly Cooper and Assassin's Creed certainly pull it off :)

I'm starting to see a theme other than rooftops here...

[leakingpen]

Starvation. I like seeing an urban game where the characters have a hard time scrounging enough food to eat, the dm telling them about rumbling bellies and aches, some lost of ability if starving. Finally scoring some food, and seeing some kids even worse off than you, and seeing if the players share or not, knowing that if they do, they will STILL not be at 100 percent the next time they get in a fight.

[Morithias]

Guilds. Businesses. The whole thing that seperates "urban" from non-urban is the fact you won't find an inn in the middle of nowhere. Bump up the CR's too, cause the party can sleep and reheal at almost anytime. Give the mooks better equipment. Masterwork stuff isn't that expensive.

[Realms of Chaos]

Well, there's one thing that I've always wanted to see...

In place of having sewers act as a giant, disgusting maze under the city, I'm picturing an alternate design including high-speed sleuces filled with multiple cut-off valves, waterfalls leading to basins/reservoirs, whirlpools over filtration centers, and other such elements that turn a sewer run into a high-speed, decently cinematic locale.

While I doubt it's practical for the citizens, I wouldn't worry too much about that in a steampunk setting.