Combat Encounters in a city-bound campaign? New DM!

[Rebecca-47]

Hey everyone!

{EDITED}

I've been playing Tabletop RPGs for over five years years now, and I've finally decided to try DMing a game. For now it's basically a one-shot adventure, but I wouldn't mind continuing it if I can. So far I've got a short little story planned, and four players in waiting: two veterans, and two newbies (one of whom might be a bit shy for roleplay). It's a proper mix of classes.

My biggest concern right now is placing combat encounters.

The story takes place in a small kingdom and is so far set up to be more roleplay/recon-heavy than combat-heavy until the "boss battle" at the very end. That being said, I want my fighters (one and a half barbarians) to be able to have fun all the way through the campaign...

Story details:
The story's setup is pretty basic--you arrive at the kingdom upon the suggestion of a lord who thinks you could be of use there, but doesn't want to involve himself directly in the politics of another land. Everything seems pretty normal on the inside, but the people are a bit jittery. When night falls, the Royally-enforced curfew comes to your attention, and you learn that this is the one weekend of the month when The Dragon comes down from the mountains...
The players first instinct, I'd imagine, would be to hunt down the dragon and kill it, but the King has outlawed anyone so much as approaching the dragon. He has been paying off farmers for their stolen sheep and damaged property, (or, alternately, has been buying livestock off of farmers with the express intention of appeasing the dragon,) and he reasons that the kingdom is safe under the curfew law. However, some other strange laws have been popping up in the magical community, and there are rumours going around about midnight kidnappings and opportunistic bandits. What they know for sure is that Something is being hidden from the populace, and the wizards at the University are very upset. To top it off, a desperate townsperson will find them in their search for information and beg them to defeat the dragon and save his daughter, who he is convinced was stolen by it.
Throughout this, hopefully, the party will try to learn more, before inevitably confronting either the King (risking arrest) or the dragon (risking perhaps a bit more). The mystery will culminate with them discovering and hopefully defeating the final boss.

Do you have any advice for me? At the moment, the only necessary combat encounters are all at the very end. How can I balance combat and roleplay in a civilized setting while still keeping it all relevant to the players/story? I have a couple potential sidequests in mind, like facing bandits or navigating the University, but these seem easily avoidable. I'm worried my players will avoid them and rush into the boss battle if I don't put up a few unavoidable hurdles for them to leap over--I'm just not sure where to put them in a way that ensures players will have to deal with them.
Basically I'm worried that it'll all end too quickly, or that the more combat-oriented characters won't have anything to do until the very end!

And a secondary question--this campaign starts at level 5, so I wanted to give the players a reward from their party's hypothetical previous adventures. What's an appropriate reward to get them caught up? I was thinking just gold, but maybe magic items/weapons might be better? I'm not terribly savvy with the 5e gold system, nor the magic items.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

I would say be very cautious about giving magic weapons and armor. The difference between a level 1 and a level 20 character is only four points of proficiency bonus, so a +1 weapon or +1 full plate is actually a fairly sizeable boost. Magic items that provide utility abilities are good rewards especially to parties that lack those abilities.

As far as combat encounters, I think your precis outlines three possibilities: street thugs or robbers, devotees of a secret society or cult, representatives of the king. Additionally, the whatever Something-with-a-capital-S is hidden has nonhuman agents of its own that protect the secret.

So: intrigue is best handled out of combat. That's fine. Create time pressure on the characters, so their nights are spent traveling and doing rather than resting. At night, they have to dodge the enforcement of the curfew, and there are parts of the city that are dangerous where, naturally, they will be forced to go.

The simplest way to stop the party from rushing through the adventure to fight the boss is to make the obstacles center around discovering who or what the boss is. Maybe defeating the dragon is only the first step, and the larger villain is still in the shadows...

[DMThac0]

What QuickLyRaiNbow outlined is good for creating the confines of an RP-centric game. Using the cufew, town guards, bandits, thugs, and other creepy crawlies to set the tone and make hunting down info difficult.

My advice comes from a different direction: I feel you're too vague (at least with what you've given us) in the details of the town's troubles.

King: Why is he so adverse to hunting down the dragon? Why did he set the curfew? What is his motivation for not trying to stop the bandits and thugs? These are some of questions that the veteran players will ask. You'll need to bullet point the key factors in why/what/how the king works/thinks/acts so that you can make your improv that much easier when the players ask questions you don't expect.

Dragon: Why is it attacking? Why is it off limits? What type of dragon is it? How close to the town is the lair? Is it evil or is it just hungry? Can I turn it into a mount if I ask really nice? Again, give some bullet points as to the dragon's motivation, purpose and goals. It'll help make interaction and story flow better.

Thugs/Bandits: What is their goal? Where is their hide out? Who is their boss? Are they organized or are they just pockets of resistance? Is it more political than material? Is it because of the king/dragon dynamic or is there something else driving them? Do they need to be stopped, parleyed with, or allied with?

What is the ultimate goal of the players? What are your obstacles in resolving this goal? What is the win state and how will you show that? What is the failure state, because failing is an option?

If you can bullet point out the major pieces of the puzzle then you'll be able to come up with the minor acts of your story quickly and on the fly.
Example:
Gnomish Illusionist Siblings need help returning to their home after expulsion

Met in starting town robbing merchants
Meet again trying to gain favor with their home

Invention goes awry-the party and the siblings solve the problem gaining favor
or They fail and the siblings are blamed for the incident and exiled

[Xihirli]

A farmer contacts your heroes. He lost a dozen sheep and has not yet been compensated. The heroes approach the appropriate official and he informs them that the payment was sent out and that the farmer is lying. Further digging will reveal that a noble has been skimming payments off of the king’s Compensation plans and secreting away royal funds to hire a private army and eventually dethrone the king. As the heroes get closer and closer to the information, they draw more and more attention from the noble’s allies. In order to kill the heroes, the noble and his/her allies hire some street thugs at first to make it look like a common robbery-turned-murder but when that doesn’t work they send their well-trained soldiers. That gives you scaling enemies with the PC’s levels.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Agree with all of that, Therverian. And I think the million-dollar questions are "what is the secret? how is it related to the king and the dragon? what forces have interests in keeping it hidden?".

[Rebecca-47]

I would say be very cautious about giving magic weapons and armor. The difference between a level 1 and a level 20 character is only four points of proficiency bonus, so a +1 weapon or +1 full plate is actually a fairly sizeable boost. Magic items that provide utility abilities are good rewards especially to parties that lack those abilities.

As far as combat encounters, I think your precis outlines three possibilities: street thugs or robbers, devotees of a secret society or cult, representatives of the king. Additionally, the whatever Something-with-a-capital-S is hidden has nonhuman agents of its own that protect the secret.

So: intrigue is best handled out of combat. That's fine. Create time pressure on the characters, so their nights are spent traveling and doing rather than resting. At night, they have to dodge the enforcement of the curfew, and there are parts of the city that are dangerous where, naturally, they will be forced to go.

The simplest way to stop the party from rushing through the adventure to fight the boss is to make the obstacles center around discovering who or what the boss is. Maybe defeating the dragon is only the first step, and the larger villain is still in the shadows...


Utility abilities, like spell scrolls? Or more everyday items?
What you said about the larger villain is basically spot-on. I'm just worried that after they discover said villain, (upon the defeat of the dragon,) they'll need to attack him immediately or else he'll probably just escape beyond their reach. This means that the two important battles will happen back-to-back :/ I guess I have to put a few more obstacles in between the party and the dragon to balance it out, I'm just not sure how. So far the plan is...

arrive in town -> Discover curfew -> Learn about dragon and related problems -> (stop bandits) -> (Visit University?) -> Sneak to tower -> Disable Sentry -> Encounter Dragon -> Boss.
As you can see, the only really necessary bits of combat are all at the end. I could insert some MacGuffins somewhere to force them to move around a bit more, but I'm stuck on what those could be, in a city.

I'll read up on some monsters and see if anything sparks an idea.

[Rebecca-47]

Agree with all of that, Therverian. And I think the million-dollar questions are "what is the secret? how is it related to the king and the dragon? what forces have interests in keeping it hidden?".

In a nutshell: The king and a few select members of his court are trying to guard and study the dragon. They are trying to solve their own mystery without stirring the public. Both the king and the BBEG have reason to keep this secret.

[Rebecca-47]

A farmer contacts your heroes. He lost a dozen sheep and has not yet been compensated. The heroes approach the appropriate official and he informs them that the payment was sent out and that the farmer is lying. Further digging will reveal that a noble has been skimming payments off of the king’s Compensation plans and secreting away royal funds to hire a private army and eventually dethrone the king. As the heroes get closer and closer to the information, they draw more and more attention from the noble’s allies. In order to kill the heroes, the noble and his/her allies hire some street thugs at first to make it look like a common robbery-turned-murder but when that doesn’t work they send their well-trained soldiers. That gives you scaling enemies with the PC’s levels.

This is good, but perhaps too far removed from the central story. I'll keep it in mind, though. :)

[ProseBeforeHos]

Cutthroats attack them in an alleyway looking to loot their equipment (if these thugs were bold enough to attack armed adventurers they must be pretty strong).

A brawl breaks out in a tavern where the party is taking a break. They can end the encounter easily if they use their weapons, but that might end with them in a dungeon. Smart players will fight with their fists (or whatever they can improvise). Monks take the spotlight.

Some monsters infest the sewers, and sometimes attack people at night. There's a reward for clearing them out. Twist: the "monster" are being used as a cover for a group of smugglers using the sewers to move contraband good through the city. There may be no monsters at all, or the monsters are their trained "pets".

Fearing the adventurers, either the dragon or someone who doesn't want the dragon harmed, hires an assassin to attack the party. They must survive the initial attack, and then chase the skilled assassin across rooftops (get some use out of that athletics skill).

Corrupt guards try and shake the party down for their more valuable goods (magical gear and weapons/armor). These guards are clearly abusing their authority, so the players can lay into them with abandon. They may even get praise from the less corrupt parts of city watch.



That's all I got! Nice plot ideas though, hope it all turns out OK.

[Raphite1]

It sounds like your players will be doing a good bit of wandering around and talking to people in order to unravel the mystery; maybe some people won’t be willing or able to talk until the PCs solve a combat encounter for them?

Examples:
- The PCs learn that a nearby farmer has useful info, but her land is being terrorized by a bulette that needs to be slain before she can help.
- The elderly herbalist in town knows a key piece of the puzzle, but he needs to replenish his herb stocks and is too old to easily trek into the woods to find them. He’ll give the PCs info if they bring him the herbs, which sets up some wilderness combat encounters and allows PCs a chance to use skills like survival, etc.
- The local thieves’ guild may be willing to assist the PCs, but only if the PCs eradicate the insane lizardfolk shaman and his cultist followers who have been hanging out in the sewers, causing trouble for the thieves who use the sewers as secret travel lanes. The PCs may be able to talk the shaman into leaving, or may have to fight him.

[ElChad]

My post will address suggestions around the curfew and how it can be used to encourage people not to go straight to the final boss. There will be a lot of maybes and questions and supposing to give you ideas, rather than dictate what you should do.

Curfew :

The curfew adds an interesting dynamic for the adventure; limiting mobility forces the players to get creative on how they wish to traverse the city at night. If you are going with using a curfew and putting a spotlight on it, then you should make it so that breaking it multiple times is necessary to complete the adventure.
Will they sneak alleyway to alleyway? Will they traverse the sewers below the city? Are the sewers locked? Are they guarded? Do monsters dwell below the streets? Are there secret ramshackle tunnels between two buildings several blocks away? Will they bribe certain guards for "escorts" or information on patrols to be able to simply tip toe around the guards? Are there sections of the city separated by walls? If so, how do they get past them? Maybe some places are straight up inaccessible by night and the party must camp out by day.

What's the punishment of breaking the curfew? A night in jail might not be so bad, but an interrogation by the captain of the guards may be too risky, especially if the party finds out early that the captain of the guards is corrupted and is involved in whatever conspiracy is going on. What's the punishment for fighting the guards? Maybe that'll make them wanted fugitives and make it extremely difficult to circumvent the city at all during the day.

The curfew would act as the replacement of the "You walk for three weeks and face X monsters" style that prefaces most external adventures. Depending on how the party proceeds, and which path they take, you can provide them with the appropriate level of balance. You may even encourage an emphasis on stealth and encourage the classic 'plate mail tank' style of fighter to stash his armor for now. Or even give his armor an enchantment that negates the stealth penalty.

How this can be expanded is that make certain parts of the city straight up inaccessible to the party. The party would not be able to go straight to the boss, because the boss is just not accessible by any means. Maybe there's a noble district which keeps any riffraff (the party) out, unless they have a signet. Maybe there's a man who refuses to leave his house in that district that has a tome on his person that is a clue to get to the end? How would they get into the Noble District? Well you could go through quests to gain Nobility for the party, or they can find a man who can smuggle them in, but require a short Chain of Deals.

In short, take full advantage of the curfew, and you can definitely get a few sessions and main storyline quests surrounding the circumvention of it.