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City Crawls - a thread
City adventures are wonderful, but in some ways I think theyre a lot harder to pull off than locations in the wild. The reason comes down to information overload. Whats useful? What dont the players or gm need? Lets dig in!
City adventures are wonderful, but in some ways I think theyre a lot harder to pull off than locations in the wild. The reason comes down to information overload. Whats useful? What dont the players or gm need? Lets dig in!
I find that when you ask for directions in real life theres 3 types of responses:
1) Directional
2) Contextual
3) Referential
Directional
“Go 3 blocks and turn right on Forbes”
Contextual
“Keep going until you see a pizza joint then turn right”
Referential
“Look it up”
1) Directional
2) Contextual
3) Referential
Directional
“Go 3 blocks and turn right on Forbes”
Contextual
“Keep going until you see a pizza joint then turn right”
Referential
“Look it up”
Directional navigation is great in dungeons because they have clear borders and boundaries. Every room matters.
“You hear the slow drip of water from the room to your left. You smell something burning down the stairs on your right. The corridor forward bends around a corner”.
“You hear the slow drip of water from the room to your left. You smell something burning down the stairs on your right. The corridor forward bends around a corner”.
But in a city adventure most buildings dont matter. Most streets dont matter. What matters is how long it takes to get to a place, what an area is like, and for faction play what organization is important around there. City crawls are best when contextual.
Consider from a gm perspective. They arent going to answer what every building on a block is any more than theyll answer how many stones are in the floor of a dungeon room. What matters is what stands out at a quick glance. How busy is it? How clean? How are people dressed?
The second thing you need is to be able to answer player questions and requests. They need a new weapon. Who is the best local blacksmith? Whats the place called? Who runs it?
What you need to run a city are 3 things. Npcs, shops, and factions all tied to neighborhoods.
What you need to run a city are 3 things. Npcs, shops, and factions all tied to neighborhoods.
What I like when running a city is a core framework mapped out. Some of the most important locations set for reference. On top of that neighborhood lines (or districts if you want larger scale). Average time or range(d4 hrs, d100 min etc) to travel between them.
In each neighborhood a list of important organizations or factions. Important npcs and their faction affiliation. A list of random encounters for traveling to add flavor and texture to the city.
