Backalley Brawl [Any Edition]

[Lappy9000]

So I've decided to start an upcoming campaign with a potential mugging that is planned to bring the PC's together, yet I'm strapped for ideas. The fight is just a bunch of human rogues and one potential villain, at levels 1 and 3 respectively. The villain is gonna try to flee if the PC's mop the floor with the mook thieves (quite likely). The PC's are also level 1 and the fight will take place (or at least begin) in a dark alley in a crowded metropolitan city.

The problem is that I've got a block on ways to make the fight more interesting without a lot of clean up (like falling into an underground labyrinth, big monsters/spells causing lots of collateral damage, etc.). Basically, I'm looking for a way to spice up a stand alone brawl.

Any idea works, I'm certainly not against the crazy

[arguskos]

Have the baddies use the environment to their advantage. Use trash and stuff as cover, climb walls and use ranged weapons, that sorta thing. If it goes ill for the baddies, have one flee into the street, making a big commotion and drawing lots of attention (possibly officials). That'll spice things up some.

[wykydtron]

Take it to the rooftops. Have someone raining arrows down, or all of them. Or just the villain.

[Lappy9000]

Have the baddies use the environment to their advantage. Use trash and stuff as cover, climb walls and use ranged weapons, that sorta thing. If it goes ill for the baddies, have one flee into the street, making a big commotion and drawing lots of attention (possibly officials). That'll spice things up some.

Ah-hah! Perfect! Thank you

Take it to the rooftops. Have someone raining arrows down, or all of them. Or just the villain.

Equally wonderful suggestion!

[arguskos]

Oh, another one: the baddies could flank them, ie. the party is traveling through the alley, when muggers block off each exit, and slowly converge on their position.

Mean tricks like throwing sand/dirt at the PCs eyes, hiding in trash with a knife to spring out from like an evil jack-in-the-box, and using alchemical items (if those exist, of course) for distractions/attacks/disablers are all par for the course.

Oh! Don't forget to have the bruisers of the baddies use bull rushes and whatnot to set up attacks and flanks. I mean, Dude A tumbles behind the player and Dude B bull rushes the player past Dude A, giving an attack of opportunity (and possibly a sneak attack), that's sorta what low-level group tactics look like in cities.

[Forevernade]

At night time have a medium level Urban Druid appear and disappear randomly in crowds, and then when they go to talk to him have the crowd thicken so they cant catch up as he walks away from them through the crowd like it is open air.

Make things really real by describing minor wounds, small gut wounds can look pretty brutal when they bleed, even if they aren't lethal.

If they are trying to steal stuff, have them still try to steal stuff mid-battle by making actions like Steal while flanked and running off with their stuff, cutting bags off their backs and grabbing them and running off. If they outnumber the PCs this should be pretty easy. Disable/flank, steal, run. They don't even have to fight.