Making an urban campaign while using the MM and Woodland classes.

[heavyfuel]

Basically, I have this idea floating around for a while now of having my group's next adventure happen all inside a single city. Besides occasional stroll around the immediate vicinity, there's no leaving the city. Since we always play 3.5, this wouldn't normally be an issue, because we're pretty tired of fighting the same monsters we've already fought in a previous campaign and banning some woodland classes (Druid, Ranger, Barbarian for example) or using Urban Variants wouldn't be a big deal.

But since the advent of 5e, we've been meaning to start playing it instead. Problem is, my original idea pretty much becomes unfeasible as I'd really like to make them fight creatures from the Monster Manual, and wouldn't like to scrap three of the major classes.

Any ideas on how to make this world work? My intent is to have a high-ish magic campaign, if it matters at all.

Also, while I've read all of the rules on the PHB (still reading the DMG), I haven't read all classes/backgrounds/spells/etc. So please don't assume I know these things.

[randomodo]

A few points, to make. First, what makes a class "urban" or "rural" is one of two things: fluff, and mechanics. Modifying the fluff is easy; modifying the mechanics takes some work.

- Barbarian isn't inherently a woodland/wilderness class; it's a skill-set. Barbarian is a case in which there really isn't a class mechanic issue that makes it intrinsically woodland. Even the rural barbarian fluff is more of a stereotype than actual fluff. You can just as easily (as many threads here have discussed) think of rage as samurai battle focus, or something to that effect. The barbarian, at root, is a low-armor martial character with an anger-management problem. Anything primitive or primal about the class is simply fluff. Of the three classes, barbarian is the easiest to use in an urban campaign.

- Druid and ranger's favored terrain class feature presents a challenge. You could count "urban" as terrain, but that would give a pretty much "always on" bonus to those classes. One option would be to subdivide the urban landscape into different terrain types - slum, waterfront, market, etc, and let the player pick one of those. I'm not 100% convinced that's a good option, but it may work.

- Thematically, it's been eons since I played Shadowrun, but I recall they had a "street shaman" archetype that was in essence an urban druid. You could work off that for inspiriation.

Sounds like an interesting idea of a campaign, and I wish you the best of luck with it.

[heavyfuel]

A few points, to make. First, what makes a class "urban" or "rural" is one of two things: fluff, and mechanics. Modifying the fluff is easy; modifying the mechanics takes some work.

- Druid and ranger's favored terrain class feature presents a challenge. You could count "urban" as terrain, but that would give a pretty much "always on" bonus to those classes. One option would be to subdivide the urban landscape into different terrain types - slum, waterfront, market, etc, and let the player pick one of those. I'm not 100% convinced that's a good option, but it may work.

- Thematically, it's been eons since I played Shadowrun, but I recall they had a "street shaman" archetype that was in essence an urban druid. You could work off that for inspiriation.

Ok, so just changing fluff is pretty much what I had in mind, at least when it comes to classes.

The Favored terrain change seems pretty good. I really like it... Thanks! But how would you go about the Druid's Wild Shape. Seems odd that a guy with little to none connection to nature can shape change into a bear. How would this be fluffed?

Can you elaborate on Shadowrun? I have never played pre-made campaigns, only 3.5 FR for a day or two, so my knowledge on settings is almost non-existant

Also, any ideas on how have monsters inside the city, at least on a semi-regular basis?

[Sindeloke]

Ok, so just changing fluff is pretty much what I had in mind, at least when it comes to classes.

The Favored terrain change seems pretty good. I really like it... Thanks! But how would you go about the Druid's Wild Shape. Seems odd that a guy with little to none connection to nature can shape change into a bear. How would this be fluffed?

Maybe make him an alchemist with transformative elixirs that give him monstrous abilities. He's not turning into a bear, he's just getting huge and shaggy and his hands are developing huge claws, all Hyde-like.


Also, any ideas on how have monsters inside the city, at least on a semi-regular basis?

Summons, exotic pets belonging to the nobility, trained warbeasts, other alchemist-druids... Undead are pretty easy to make urban (vamps especially, but a graveyard in the bounds of a city could be a large adventure site). A high enough tech level gives you sewers full of werereats and dire crocodiles or even young black dragons. Gargoyles can hang out on rooftops and demons and fey can masquerade as nobles or serve as their advisers.

[D.U.P.A.]

Cities are full of cats, dogs, horses, oxen, at some places elephants and beasts like lions for arena fights. So animals aren't tied to wilderness, it just narrows the choice.

[Darksidebro]

Ok, so just changing fluff is pretty much what I had in mind, at least when it comes to classes.

The Favored terrain change seems pretty good. I really like it... Thanks! But how would you go about the Druid's Wild Shape. Seems odd that a guy with little to none connection to nature can shape change into a bear. How would this be fluffed?

Can you elaborate on Shadowrun? I have never played pre-made campaigns, only 3.5 FR for a day or two, so my knowledge on settings is almost non-existant

Also, any ideas on how have monsters inside the city, at least on a semi-regular basis?

In 3.5 there was an Urban Druid Variant that allowed the Druid to transform into Tiny, small, and medium insects instead of beasts. Fits thematically for Urban Enviroments. Where there's a mass of people, there's insects. A Druid turning into a tiny Centipede to slip through cracks in the walls of buildings pleases my mind's eye very much.

[heavyfuel]

Cities are full of cats, dogs, horses, oxen, at some places elephants and beasts like lions for arena fights. So animals aren't tied to wilderness, it just narrows the choice.


In 3.5 there was an Urban Druid Variant that allowed the Druid to transform into Tiny, small, and medium insects instead of beasts. Fits thematically for Urban Enviroments. Where there's a mass of people, there's insects. A Druid turning into a tiny Centipede to slip through cracks in the walls of buildings pleases my mind's eye very much.

I probably should have mentioned it in the OP, but I'm really trying to stick to the books at least mechanics wise, and not homebrew as I want to experience 5e as it is before making any changes to it.

In regards to what DUPA said, I didn't really want to have to narrow the choices, because as I said, I want to first try 5e as a whole

[archaeo]

It's easy enough to handle things like this; strip out the fluff and provide entirely new meaning for statistics. A Druid doesn't have to "Wild Shape" if instead, it's fluffed as a cybernetic class that allows you to transform via nanomachines into some kind of robot. Bear stats, call it "roboknight," whatever. Barbarians could be the users of a very strong drug that turns them into frenzied killing machines, Rangers could have "favored neighborhoods" instead of bland terrain, etc. It'd take some finesse at times, but it's just an exercise in find and replace, to some extent, and you have whatever flavor you need from the base rules.


I probably should have mentioned it in the OP, but I'm really trying to stick to the books at least mechanics wise, and not homebrew as I want to experience 5e as it is before making any changes to it.

If this is true, you really might try to change your story idea. For example, why shouldn't this city have enormous parklands, or water features, or uninhabited wilderness regions? Make it a giant city, make it the high-magic metropolis that includes the whole world in itself. If you're going to do high fantasy, you may as well go big.

If you "want to experience 5e as it is," however, you might try playing a more "generic" game before you get started on your fantasy heartbreaker. Personally, I'd be loathe to try running a passion-project adventure without getting a sense of the system in play, to try and get an idea of how my story and the mechanics would meet. Maybe for your first outing in the system, if you're "running it by the book," so to speak, you may as well run the kind of campaign setting that just allows the defaults of the system to remain in play.

edited to add: Monsters in the city shouldn't be impossible to do. Is it a city under siege by monsters? Is some rogue element unleashing them in the town? Is there a portal to some other world someplace, attended by some obnoxious lich? Is the city just so gigantic that it encompasses stretches of wild territory? Is the city maybe built above a huge valley filled with monsters, who sometimes find a way up? Is the city at war with someplace else, or with itself?

Lots of ways to get monsters into a city.

[Beleriphon]

If you have any kind of wilderness area around the town/city there's not reason that a druid or ranger can't work within the confines of a city environment. If you think of a druid more a nature priest that helps the farmers grow crops safely and take care of the wilderness then it makes sense that they'd interact with towns and cities at least to some degree. Rangers more so even, sure they're at their best in trackless wilderness, but they also defend the edges of civilization and have to have some kind of interaction with people, so again there's no reason the couldn't work within a town and nothing about a ranger's abilities inherently prevent it from working in a more urban environment.

[Human Paragon 3]

You could add a massive park to the center of the city, like Central Park in NYC, which is many square miles and has a lake, forests, streams, etc. You can make it into a druid grove where druids preserve nature in the heart of the city, and anyone can go to relax and rejuvenate. They can also offer healing and so on for donations.

Even if you don't adventure in the grove, this would explain the role of the druid in the city and her abilities.

[mephnick]

I consider the immediate surrounding area part of the city as much as the city itself. Even city focused adventures generally let you outside the walls a little bit. There's farms, barracks and hunting grounds that are still considered part of the community. The city I live in is known more for it's coastline and forests than it is for the city itself. I see no reason why a nature-themed character would be totally out of place in a city campaign. Also I think your adventure will suffer for lack of leaving the city at all. Getting a sense of the surrounding area is important to understanding the life of the city.

[JoeJ]

1) Put the city on a seacoast. Underwater can easily be wilderness, even if you're just a few hundred yards offshore. Extra points if the location is also at a river mouth where you can easily justify having a large area of undeveloped wetlands. Both land circle druids and rangers can take "coast" or "swamp" as their terrain of choice, so they don't have to feel out of place.

2) The city is sitting on top of a huge necropolis that was sealed off (mostly) centuries ago after diggers broke into... something. City officials try to keep it closed off, but monsters occasionally creep through. Rangers and land circle druids can take "underdark" as their chosen terrain, so again they'll work fine.

[AmbientRaven]

My campaign is primarily single city focused.

It is set in a coastal city, known for adventurers at the out skirts of civilization. The city is built on Dwarven ruins built on Elven ruins

So lots of options for out of city adventurers, ruin adventurers, sea adventurers and city stuff.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Ravens_Bluff
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/The_Vast