DM looking for some city creation/plot creation advice.

[sabayn]

I am taking over a campaign (D&D 5e, high fantasy) and I have a general idea of plot that I am going to use, and several sub plots. I am currently creating a city for it to take off and thankfully, I'll be able to place the city in their path no matter where they go. I was wondering if there was a generator that I could use somewhere by die rolls to or something of the like. As for plot, I think I can string a story together pretty easily as it is something that will naturally build upon itself (I think.)

The plot of the city is going to involve a drug that is on the market that causes suggestibility in NPCs. I am unsure how to introduce to the group is little hard. Because if they are exposed to it, I don't want them to be overtly aware of it. I think it might be a bad idea to do that because they might see it as me taking control of their characters. However I had an idea of exposing them to a farmer who lost his daughter to the drug. I kinda picture him marching down the road with a pitchfork.

I guess what I am looking for is advice on how to implement the story in an effective manner.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

You could have them stumble across a street crime in progress. A daylight burglary is going down, with a (drugged) Dwarf trying to haul a grand piano down the street. When arrested (he actually doesn't want to fight, particularly if someone asks him to surrender) he will only say that "[someone] told me to do it. So I did it."

[daremetoidareyo]

The lower classes refuse to pick up trash, mob steps in and begins doing it for a price. People want the old trashmen back.

A necromancer sneaks a bunch of real undead in during a holiday festival of souls.

The "firemen" are low level thugs that charge businesses cash not to set their business on fire. They also put out real fires too. New mob boss ups the protection money amount. Business owner looking for furtive solutions. During the showdown with the leader, A real fire breaks out.

Local constable is killed. PCs need to find out who. While also filling in the role, lots of petty requests by the population. This is a great way to get pcs of any alignment to meet with any of these other suggestions.

Prominent men start disappearing. They are in a brothel downtown, wrapped in silk caccoons, full of the eggs of a few shapechanging blackwidow women. Only clue comes from intimidating these mens squires, underlings or former favorite sexworkers or whatever. (good low level adventure)

Dopplegangers kill the prince...and replace him.

Aerial invasion.

Ground invasion by halflings cavalry, wielding slings and stonespears riding trained rust monsters supported by a small group of wizards armed with wands of grease and wands of mirror image.

PCs are hired by a stranger to break into a tower to write a specific spell into a powerful mage's spellbook. The stranger is abyssal. The wizard is prophesized to be instrumental in the blood war against the devils, The spell is a powerful devilbane type of spell. Stranger doesn't care if PCs succeed, he just wants the spell distributed across the world. They never get paid and never see the commissioning demon again. When they go to collect, they find another 2-3 groups of adventurers/mercenaries looking for the same hiring guy. They were paid to do the same thing to two other well known wizards.

Nearby war pushes a ****ton of refugees into the city. Mercenaries are being hired by the government to lead 1/2 of them across a dangerous mountain pass to another city that can handle some of the overflow.

Pollution. Alchemist, blacksmith, wizard lab mess up the air. PCs hired to intervene (silence the complainers or kill the offender)

Shortages. A vital crop failed this year due to ____. Now the city has a weird reaction to it.

[sabayn]

*Snip*

I really like several of those. The prominent men one I am gonna use, though changed. The men are being trafficked into slavery, by a man who has a cursed item that causes gender reversal. So people aren't finding them because of the change. I am also gonna use the necro one when I work in a festival. It is a really creative idea. I might open the local guard idea.

[Milodiah]

I might open the local guard idea.

The campaign I'm running actually started off with the PCs being members of the City Watch, it's really fun. It's also a great way to advance people through the first few levels without going into the condescending Baby's First Adventure type stuff, as well as keep variety in the game. Sure, my guys fought goblins and spiders. But they also subdued a traumatized halfling barbarian, investigated a robbery, saved people from a burning building, stood down a riot, and even pulled gate duty Papers, Please style...I deliberately lulled them into a rut in order to try slipping a poison smuggler past them. It was great.

[Valefor Rathan]

I was wondering if there was a generator that I could use somewhere by die rolls to or something of the like.

So I found this http://citygen.crystalballsoft.com/

Also, I think my work productivity just plummeted...

EDIT/ADD -

The below website was mentioned in another thread (don't remember which or by who but THANKS!) and the generators on the right hand side of the page are awesome (when you select AD&D as the game).

http://www.wizardawn.com/rpg/

[Zale]

I've personally used generators from ChaoticShiny for making cities/taverns/etc.

[Milodiah]

If we're going to swap generator sites, I personally use donjon.