Starting and urban/city campaign.

[Squirrel_Dude]

I have a basic grasp on the core parts/enemies of a good urban campaign (large city, large underground, stuff behind corners, persistent npcs and villains, some mystery, etc). There are plenty of well designed cities and NPCs already out there, so really a DM doesn't have to create everything from scratch, and it's can be a good break from a standard adventure. I've just been thinking on how to run a urban campaign, but I can't get past one thing: how do you start the game?

More clearly: How do a start the game without players simply deciding that it would be better if they just left the city instead of staying there? I'd even like to hear some stock/cliche starts to an urban campaign (other than a bar fire).

[ArcturusV]

Yojimbo. Starting/participating in/profitting from a Gang War. Which basically can only be done in an urban setting. A thief in your party might love such a storyline. But a Gang War also supports other styles of characters instead of just having a party of Rogues.

[Alefiend]

Fafhrd and Grey Mouser. Have two or more characters meet while trying to steal the same item/rob the same courier. If that's too criminal, have them meet while trying to stop a robbery.

My group just started an urban campaign. One character runs a bakery where another decided to grab breakfast, and my character (new to the city) stopped there for a bite on the way to a rooming house. A fourth character is a member of one of the local Mafia-analogue families. Then demons showed up. :smalltongue:

[rot42]

Hired by one noble to spy on / steal from / plant evidence against another. Give them a couple missions straight to get them comfortable with the setting, then one that emphasizes just how readily expendable their employer considers them.

As a variation on the above: hired to rescue an evil fire breathing princess to give the quest giver a pretext to declare martial law. The first few sessions are a fairly standard sneaky heroic quest, then the PCs are thrown into running for their lives, trying to clear their names, prevent the princess from wreaking havoc on the city, and somehow in between it all playing politics to take down the would-be dictator.

Anointed during the local homologue to Mardi Gras as the eyes'n'ears/vessels/avatars of the city's patron deity - instantly recognizable and liked by a fair portion of the populace but forbidden to leave the city limits on pain of pain. The Champion's Crown legendary location (Complete Scoundrel 143) could be refluffed. PCs are forced to band together when rival cults / invasive religions start engaging them in sword-based proselytizing.

[Zombimode]

I have a basic grasp on the core parts/enemies of a good urban campaign (large city, large underground, stuff behind corners, persistent npcs and villains, some mystery, etc). There are plenty of well designed cities and NPCs already out there, so really a DM doesn't have to create everything from scratch, and it's can be a good break from a standard adventure. I've just been thinking on how to run a urban campaign, but I can't get past one thing: how do you start the game?

More clearly: How do a start the game without players simply deciding that it would be better if they just left the city instead of staying there? I'd even like to hear some stock/cliche starts to an urban campaign (other than a bar fire).

Heh :smallsmile: Currently I'm in the middle of the preparations for an urban adventure and I'm in a very similar position: I want to start there.

Starting a campaign is never an easy task, but I agree that an urban adventure will pose even more difficulties.

Here is what I'm currently planning:
I'm writing a small set of "character motivations", predefined tasks and goals a character has and thus forming a motivation to come and stay in the city. They are to a varying degree left vague, so the player has the freedom to flesh it out to his/her tastes.
They also are a good hook to start and guide your entire adventure.

My ideas currently:

In search of a loved one Someone close to the character (or someone the character has sworn to protect) vanished in the city and the character sets out to find and rescue the person.

Hunting an artifact of power It is said to be in the possession of (a guild or other organization). The character wants to find it, either by joining the organization, or, if this wont work, steal it.

Finding a cult cell Rumors say that a cult of sinister reputation has established itself in the city. the character was ordered to make an investigation, and if the rumors are true, eradicate it.


Maybe you could make something similar :smallsmile:

[Kelb_Panthera]

It's a bit ham-fisted, but you can force them to stay in the city in a couple plausible ways.

The most obvious of these is the city being on lock-down because of some outside threat. This has the noteable drawback of perhaps tempting the PC's into trying to eliminate the danger outside the walls rather than deal with the campaign you've devised within. This can be headed off by making arrangements so that they're either implicated in the danger, requiring them to be furtive with the authorities and careful about revealing who they are to anyone, or otherwise made undesireables by the seat of power so that if they do go up against the outside threat they go it alone and with only the spoils of battle for compensation.

Inclement weather can make travelling through the wilderness somewhere between nightmarish and impossible and in certain parts of the world there are whole seasons where severe weather is somewhere between very frequent and nearly constant. You could force them to stay in the city that way. It'll cast a gloomy atmosphere around the whole campaign though. Good for horror campaigns and campaigns that have the PC's remaining in-doors most of the time.

Isolation can work. Set the city that the campaign is set in on a sub-arctic island in the dead of winter, ice-flows making sea travel impossible, or in a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains whose passes are currently impassible because of winter snow choking them off. The latter will have certain parts of the city seeming veritable ghost-towns during this time of year, with all the usual merchants and travelers of the busy season currently absent.

There are two alternatives you have as a DM to forcing them to stay in the city, as I've just described.

1)Make a compelling plot that speaks to them in a such a manner that they don't want to leave. This can be difficult.

2) Tell them from go that you want to run an urban campaign and simply ask them to stay in the city unless they really can't see any alternative to leaving.

[ArcturusV]

Well, and the third option:

Make it clear that they get what they want by staying in the city.

What this is depends on the characters of course. It's one of the reasons I get backgrounds from characters where I can and try to get players to develop more background than "I am an Adventurer seeking adventure and fortune". If their goals are something like "Find the guy who killed my master"... BAM! The master killer (Or a clue to the Master Killer) is in the city. You're not FORCING them to stay there. But they have incentive to stay there.

Of course you don't have to tie it to background. If you got a Druid lets say... I pick Druid here because it's usually the one class that DEMANDS a Wilderness setting more than any other. It's not talked about in the books as much as it's talked about in previous editions (2nd Edition it said right in the class description "Will not pursue any quests that do not have to do with Nature, Preserving Nature, etc"). This mindset seems to have crept along. And it's undoubtedly a Wilderness based class in it's abilities, spells, etc.

But you know the sort of stuff a Druid wants. Even if they won't give a background that provides non-mechanical reasons, there's things that any Druid wants like various items that relate to Wild Shaping. Bam "Duke Fatass the Disagreeable has a rare and powerful magical amulet that is said to have belonged to a druidic order that died out." Just having that as a rumor around town is going to make a Druid who normally wouldn't be interested in an Urban campaign go "hmm... shiny... I must have..." and will stick around the Urban campaign just so they can try to get it. Maybe even launch off side quests to get it right away. And I LOVE Sidequests!

And this feels less like railroading to players. Or like they're getting punished because they wanted to play a Druid, or a Cleric of a Nature God, or something and they're stuck in a city. Gives them something to do, and to focus on and gets them excited to lurk around the city until they get that carrot.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

When I ran my (epic) Urban Campaign, I had my players all hired by the same group and told to meet at a particular city. They worked as Assassin/Mercenaries, and were given a level of responsibility and power within the city limits.


They were being paid to sort out whatever problems the locals were having
They were told they'd be free from pursuit by the city guards (pending whether or not the party could flee the scene in time), among other perks
There was a pretty shady mystery from the get go that interested them
They were promised individualized quests
It was hinted that leaving the city permanently would result in the collapse of Space-Time (TPK :smalltongue:)
The God of Death Himself would owe them a solid


Promise them the world (or failing that, gits and shiggles) for cooperating, and Death From Above if they don't.

Edit:
If you got a Druid lets say... I pick Druid here because it's usually the one class that DEMANDS a Wilderness setting more than any other. It's not talked about in the books as much as it's talked about in previous editions (2nd Edition it said right in the class description "Will not pursue any quests that do not have to do with Nature, Preserving Nature, etc"). This mindset seems to have crept along. And it's undoubtedly a Wilderness based class in it's abilities, spells, etc.

Funnily enough, we had a Druid for our game. He operated as a pyromaniac-tank whose only reason for being in a city was because nature lacked advanced medicine for his comatose sister. Guy became the BBEG at the campaign's conclusion. Good times.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Well, and the third option:

Make it clear that they get what they want by staying in the city.

What this is depends on the characters of course. It's one of the reasons I get backgrounds from characters where I can and try to get players to develop more background than "I am an Adventurer seeking adventure and fortune". If their goals are something like "Find the guy who killed my master"... BAM! The master killer (Or a clue to the Master Killer) is in the city. You're not FORCING them to stay there. But they have incentive to stay there.

Of course you don't have to tie it to background. If you got a Druid lets say... I pick Druid here because it's usually the one class that DEMANDS a Wilderness setting more than any other. It's not talked about in the books as much as it's talked about in previous editions (2nd Edition it said right in the class description "Will not pursue any quests that do not have to do with Nature, Preserving Nature, etc"). This mindset seems to have crept along. And it's undoubtedly a Wilderness based class in it's abilities, spells, etc.

But you know the sort of stuff a Druid wants. Even if they won't give a background that provides non-mechanical reasons, there's things that any Druid wants like various items that relate to Wild Shaping. Bam "Duke Fatass the Disagreeable has a rare and powerful magical amulet that is said to have belonged to a druidic order that died out." Just having that as a rumor around town is going to make a Druid who normally wouldn't be interested in an Urban campaign go "hmm... shiny... I must have..." and will stick around the Urban campaign just so they can try to get it. Maybe even launch off side quests to get it right away. And I LOVE Sidequests!

And this feels less like railroading to players. Or like they're getting punished because they wanted to play a Druid, or a Cleric of a Nature God, or something and they're stuck in a city. Gives them something to do, and to focus on and gets them excited to lurk around the city until they get that carrot.

This is simply a more drawn out way of describing the two alternatives I closed my post with.

[Krobar]

I started a city campaign once with a poker tournament. We started the session with the PCs arriving in town, and entering the tournament. Then we played poker for a couple hours (I was dealer), and then over the remainder of that session and several others the PCs had to find out Who Stole Their Prize Money.

[DMVerdandi]

Well, you could have them all be followers of a certain person using the leadership feat. Perhaps a syndicate or guild within the city, and have them do missions, or have a certain larger goal that they all aim towards achieving.

Nothing wrong with starting them all off on the same team.
Have them write up backstories, and include the last year as being under the same team. They don't have to be complete strangers.

Also, look up complete scoundrel/cityscape for urban inspiration. Everone doesn't have to be a rogue to be street-smart. In fact, no one does.