I love using small towns because of their great for tons of useless, silly rumors and gossip. Everyone knows everyone else in a small town, and if you can find the local busy-bodies, you'll have no shortage of juicy tea!
It’s especially great if you’re the kind of GM that likes to mess with your players and cause them to chase red herrings. Speaking from experience here - Frank
Bottom up building is my favorite because it allows for more creativity from everyone. For example, I once built a small town that had a "juice bar" instead of a tavern. Originally it was going to be an inn, but session zero I learned that one of my players was gonna RP as a very distracted alchemist. I needed something for this character to do. After all, the town is too small to need a potions master.. unless.. So I ask the player to use their expertise to help the local guy to start his tavern. He's just got a few chairs and tables made out of crates.. it's still very grass roots vibes. But he has no idea what to serve. He asks for help coming up with ingredients and stuff. Player rolls great on finding stuff, but mid on the drink. So we decided he couldn't figure out how to make the wine alcoholic. It's just juice. The party tries to cover up the failure with a con, acting as false customers. It works though and draws in business, so this alchemist started checking back every time he was in town. So now I have some unplanned medieval jamba juice bard running around in some random places.. all because of bottom up improv.
I always advocate for bottom up World building purely because of return on investment. I built a whole campaign setting for a group when I first started running D&D 8 years ago. But now I have a wife, a kid, dogs, and two jobs. I don't have time to spend a dozen hours drawing maps, writing NPC backstories and plot hooks. But most groups fall apart within 2 months, that's a lot of wasted time. Nowadays, I play games like Chasing Adventure and Scum and Villainy where characters basically create their own plot hooks with their contacts and affiliations.
IMO when working from a small town you need to figure out the following Who is the local person in charge? Who runs each of the shops? Who runs the local religious establishment? Who is in charge of the larger region that this town is in? Who is the bad guy that'll do the thing that starts the game? From there you can answer questions like what shops are in this town and why or what gods are worshipped here. More importantly you can try to figure out a secret everyone is keeping about their own personal lives that ideally connects them to someone else, this way every NPC has something the players can learn about further on down the line, which is basically character growth. This can easily be scaled to a city by just asking the same questions about a single district within the city You want your starter town to feel like a soap opera as with that kind of setup it becomes very easy for the players to get tangled up in the same web as everyone else. Cults are perfect for this as "Is secretly a cultist" or "knows their husband is secretly a cultist" or even "is secretly trying to stop the cult" can be great secrets for NPCs to keep and the super secret cult base is a great adventure location for the players to find and explore
Next campaign I am gonna try having the plot revolve around a small town (10 or so important buildings) and a adventurer's guild the players are trying to establish and run. The players will be from out of town and most of the quests will revolve around the area around the small town and give hints to the local area's past.
I'm just starting this after running a 1-3 campaign that was very straight forward( to learn how to DM). Building a guild is what I have always wanted to do so I'm being careful not to force that on my players but they like the idea of starting off with an easy common goal, Get gold and pay off guild dues.
These are such great formulas and ideas! I forgot how easy it could be to start a campaign like this. Our campaigns have been so big and epic for so long.
New to this channel Good conversations. Aleady got my mind in motion with ideas!. My immediate mind picture: That second tower that was similar to the one in the starting town, the antenna on top of the roof 150 ft above ground starts to vibrate, then a smell of ozone spreads through the air.. And boom(!) a chain of lightening strikes FROM the tip of the antenna in the direction of the town you just came from... a horrendous thunderbolt hits your ears... and then surroundings go silent... And this is where we´ll end for the night...
One of my favourite scenarios is for WHFRP 1st ed, "The Witch-Hunter Cometh". The players are all villagers in a small town who's priest of sigmar was just murdered, and church are sending an agent in case of chaos taint, and to burn the village and everyone in it on the off chance it might be there. The PCs are two in game days to either find out what actually happened or pin the blame on a patsy and how the Witch Hunter doesn'tr burn them all. The PCs know, or think they know, each other, with all the biases that comes with. Paranoid, good times flow.
Just don't forget that the smaller the starting the settlement is, the more problems you might have with the party makeup. Say the group is made up mostly of Dwarves. If that is their home town, there should be an adequate number of dwarves living there, maybe it's even a settlement where the most prople living there are dwarves. That should change the look of your starting settlement. Just like Bree had two windows at the city gate, one to look at human visitors, another for hobbits. And for the stranger from 'elsewhere' approach, the character would still have to be able to reach the settlement without gaining much experience. Say the group gains 3 levels just reaching the next town or city, how did that character make it there alive? Though a starting town other than human would be an interesting change of pace.
Nice video with some interesting points and suggestions... but it felt like a not-so-subtle advertisement for Mercer and his style of play. Not everything in D&D has to be Mercer-like.
I love using small towns because of their great for tons of useless, silly rumors and gossip. Everyone knows everyone else in a small town, and if you can find the local busy-bodies, you'll have no shortage of juicy tea!
It’s especially great if you’re the kind of GM that likes to mess with your players and cause them to chase red herrings. Speaking from experience here - Frank
Bottom up building is my favorite because it allows for more creativity from everyone.
For example, I once built a small town that had a "juice bar" instead of a tavern. Originally it was going to be an inn, but session zero I learned that one of my players was gonna RP as a very distracted alchemist.
I needed something for this character to do. After all, the town is too small to need a potions master.. unless..
So I ask the player to use their expertise to help the local guy to start his tavern. He's just got a few chairs and tables made out of crates.. it's still very grass roots vibes.
But he has no idea what to serve. He asks for help coming up with ingredients and stuff. Player rolls great on finding stuff, but mid on the drink.
So we decided he couldn't figure out how to make the wine alcoholic. It's just juice. The party tries to cover up the failure with a con, acting as false customers.
It works though and draws in business, so this alchemist started checking back every time he was in town.
So now I have some unplanned medieval jamba juice bard running around in some random places.. all because of bottom up improv.
This is giving webdm vibes and I love it! Please keep up the podcast guys!
Thanks! I really enjoyed watching them and they are definitely an inspiration! - Frank
I came for the topic, I stayed for the banter.
@@bradybowen3131 glad you’re enjoying it! - Charles
I always advocate for bottom up World building purely because of return on investment. I built a whole campaign setting for a group when I first started running D&D 8 years ago. But now I have a wife, a kid, dogs, and two jobs. I don't have time to spend a dozen hours drawing maps, writing NPC backstories and plot hooks. But most groups fall apart within 2 months, that's a lot of wasted time. Nowadays, I play games like Chasing Adventure and Scum and Villainy where characters basically create their own plot hooks with their contacts and affiliations.
IMO when working from a small town you need to figure out the following
Who is the local person in charge?
Who runs each of the shops?
Who runs the local religious establishment?
Who is in charge of the larger region that this town is in?
Who is the bad guy that'll do the thing that starts the game?
From there you can answer questions like what shops are in this town and why or what gods are worshipped here. More importantly you can try to figure out a secret everyone is keeping about their own personal lives that ideally connects them to someone else, this way every NPC has something the players can learn about further on down the line, which is basically character growth. This can easily be scaled to a city by just asking the same questions about a single district within the city
You want your starter town to feel like a soap opera as with that kind of setup it becomes very easy for the players to get tangled up in the same web as everyone else. Cults are perfect for this as "Is secretly a cultist" or "knows their husband is secretly a cultist" or even "is secretly trying to stop the cult" can be great secrets for NPCs to keep and the super secret cult base is a great adventure location for the players to find and explore
Next campaign I am gonna try having the plot revolve around a small town (10 or so important buildings) and a adventurer's guild the players are trying to establish and run. The players will be from out of town and most of the quests will revolve around the area around the small town and give hints to the local area's past.
I'm just starting this after running a 1-3 campaign that was very straight forward( to learn how to DM). Building a guild is what I have always wanted to do so I'm being careful not to force that on my players but they like the idea of starting off with an easy common goal, Get gold and pay off guild dues.
These are such great formulas and ideas! I forgot how easy it could be to start a campaign like this. Our campaigns have been so big and epic for so long.
New to this channel Good conversations. Aleady got my mind in motion with ideas!.
My immediate mind picture:
That second tower that was similar to the one in the starting town, the antenna on top of the roof 150 ft above ground starts to vibrate, then a smell of ozone spreads through the air.. And boom(!) a chain of lightening strikes FROM the tip of the antenna in the direction of the town you just came from... a horrendous thunderbolt hits your ears... and then surroundings go silent... And this is where we´ll end for the night...
Glad we could inspire you! - Frank
Lovely map on your thumbnail
One of my favourite scenarios is for WHFRP 1st ed, "The Witch-Hunter Cometh". The players are all villagers in a small town who's priest of sigmar was just murdered, and church are sending an agent in case of chaos taint, and to burn the village and everyone in it on the off chance it might be there. The PCs are two in game days to either find out what actually happened or pin the blame on a patsy and how the Witch Hunter doesn'tr burn them all. The PCs know, or think they know, each other, with all the biases that comes with. Paranoid, good times flow.
Been wanting to try WHFRP and this scenarios sounds pretty fun
Great tips! Good luck on hitting 1k🎉
@@creativeplayandpodcastnetwork Thank you! - Charles
Just don't forget that the smaller the starting the settlement is, the more problems you might have with the party makeup.
Say the group is made up mostly of Dwarves. If that is their home town, there should be an adequate number of dwarves living there, maybe it's even a settlement where the most prople living there are dwarves. That should change the look of your starting settlement. Just like Bree had two windows at the city gate, one to look at human visitors, another for hobbits.
And for the stranger from 'elsewhere' approach, the character would still have to be able to reach the settlement without gaining much experience. Say the group gains 3 levels just reaching the next town or city, how did that character make it there alive?
Though a starting town other than human would be an interesting change of pace.
Very helpful advice. Subscribed!
@@demiurgentcare thanks! I’m glad you’re enjoying the content! - Charles
Dope! Currently running a campaign set in Neverwinter! 😊.
I like the shure mics, at least it sounds good 👍
@@pisacenere shure mics are great quality imho. - Charles
What a gem. I agree with another commenter, WebDM vibes.
Some good advice. I think I always start too large
We are also familiar with that problem
It's so easy to do that, and starting too large has sadly burnt out many people including myself
Oh, Sleeper!
I would give a player with an Oh, Sleeper shirt an extra Hero Point that session :D
@@LazarusXavier 🤘🤘love me some Oh, Sleeper! - Charles
Children of fire album got me on board.
@@Ryhanos I’ve been a fan since “When I Am God” and they are from my home state of Texas! - Charles
Great stuff!
is the town in the thumbnail made in a map making program ?
Nice video with some interesting points and suggestions... but it felt like a not-so-subtle advertisement for Mercer and his style of play. Not everything in D&D has to be Mercer-like.