One of the things that I did was tailoring the random encounters to move the story forward. Its never just a random mugging, or a chance encounter. Its always got some significance (not always picked up by the players).
Make the city a point crawl! And I agree, limit the options. Players may go off course or want to explore an unplanned area, but that's okay - just add it to the point crawl. And I agree - give them a tasty hook to chase. If they are focused on an adventure hook, usually they don't go down every street and ask a hundred random npcs their life story (haha - usually).
I tend to have around 5-6 districts and just focus on what’s most notable in few blocks of each. Then I write a loose 10-25 points of interest around the city and a list of d6 encounters that could happen along the way. I actually draw the city as a hex crawl and then plant a point crawl on top of it. 99% of the time players stick to the point crawl but if they go off path you have some general idea of what’s around.
Two cities oriented publications you might want to check out some day: 1] Cities of Harn. Harn is a system neutral ttrpg setting. There are several cities scattered around the Isle of Harn. Harn is simply great, and the original Cities Of Harn was my gateway drug into that world, way back in 83/84. 2] DCC RPG Lankmar. Excellent setting: seedy, smoky, sultry. The Land of 10,000 Smells. Lol. Perfect setting for a bunch of ne'erdowells who want to wallow in the criminal side of life.
You do not need to flesh out the entire city, just the general area. If the players are visiting, then they might be in the merchant district or perhaps in the docks section. Just make business names fit the district, silver swan feels like the merchant district while the skiff fits more into the docks area. That is my tip, names that fit the district. Also, ask the players where they want to go when they get off the road, are they looking forward to a warm bed and some ale or do they want to go shopping. This can really help you focus on building only what you need.
My added spin on that is to make sure the names are evocative, easy to remember and easy to infer what they mean. The merchant's guild might be called "The Golden Coin" and not "Herbert and Sons". though I guess that's more of a tip for more general campaign naming, not city specific. Even if it's not particularly historical, you want your players to remember and not go "who are they again?" when the name comes up 5 sessions from now.
@@litis5151 I totally agree. And having good evocative names allows you as the DM as well as the players to associate the name of the place with what it serves.
exactly, i split my cities in districts and put locations within those, not exact locations just interesting places within district, maybe a street name, but don't worry about how they related across the distract.
OK, I love this video - it is very helpful. Here is something I have been doing that has helped me and will be made better by using what you have discussed. I make a list of shops that u know are useful and then I sort them according to size (village, town, city). I also mark down things that I know my PC’s want/need as well as what I as the DM need to run the campaign and what is needed in the campaign. I don’t always flush out all the shopkeepers in advance, I do have a good idea of them. There are usually a few that are fully flushed out. I also let my players decide about shops by asking me if there is a shop that has …
If you have ever played SimCity or Civilization, think about the things those games employ to influence your city design. Neighborhoods next to industrial zones tend to be slums; places with views tend to be high-end, high traffic areas (that aren't prone to traffic jams) help commercial districts, that sort of thing. Also, just think of your own hometown, observe the way things are, and try to think about why they are the way they are.
I like to create an “NPC” sheet for each district that the players interact with to record important events/changes in those places. I also find an NPC/Organization social web helpful. It allows me to connect plots across the city rather than conceptualizing things geographically.
One of the biggest problems I have with fantasy cities is that they are too large, leading to some of the issues DM's have running them. London in 1500 had a population of about 50k and was the capital of England. Most people at this point lived within the walled city, but the surrounding countryside was quite domesticated. By 1700 it was 500k and capital of a globe spanning empire, with few residents living within the city walls. Rome was much the same, but hit around 1 million residents at the peak of the Roman Empire. Personally I keep national capitals at 20k to 50k, with non-capital major cities capped at about 10k residents, large cities at 5k and small cities at 2k. I usually cap villages at 500, with the vast majority well under 100 residents. To me keeping control of the population of cities and villages has helped to keep my game manageable over the last 4+ decades.
One thing I like for cities is having Volo's Guide to Waterdeep (2e digest-sized book) handy. Regardless of what city or town your party is in... Forgotten Realms or not... it is great for snatching a quick inn/shop/tavern/etc... from to drop into where they want to check out. That book is chock full of locations and ideas... and even lots of hooks you can build from, if you want. An old book from an old edition, but still very useful... and reprints are cheap. Fun trivia tidbit about the cover art for the book... it features a portrait of Clyde Caldwell (old-school classic D&D artist). I guess he is meant to be Volo? heh
I prep travel brochures. It's a double sided piece of paper with all the relevant amenities and a short description of the city and a short description of the leader. Then the players just tell me what they want to explore and we roll with it. Edit: I do use chat gpt to fill in my creative gaps.
For the first session in the city it can center on getting lodging and initial information about the city, which is an opportunity to dangle plot hooks and see what the players bite on. But BEFORE they enter the city have the city guards interview them and ask the character to state their business in town. You the GM get a chance to RP with each character and find out from the player themselves why they think they are there. You may choose to dangle different plot hooks than what the players say, but you KNOW some that should be winners.
If you’re worried they ‘don’t know what to do’ when it’s their turn, have them hear the guards asking the people ahead of them and those answers. “You can hear the group ahead of you talking about how they will be glad to sleep in a bed and see X the next day.” Or “the shifty looking character ahead of you says he’s looking for someone interested in a rare object he is selling.”
Excellent video, as always. Now, I could be remembering wrong - it's been so long since I've read through it - but doesn't the 3/3.5 edition DMG have some interesting stuff to say about cities? Or am I romanticizing about how good that book was, since I was just a youngin when I played that edition?
I tend of run cites as point crawls without the limits on where you can go point-to-point. You’ll probably want an inn, one shop and one temple/wizard’s guild at least, and any locations that are adventure-important
Nice video Mike! What are your thoughts on just straight up asking the players, "Where would your characters like to go in the city?" My players just got to the city and I had them duck immediately into the tavern as I hadn't fleshed out the city yet. They got arrested and will likely be released, so I wanted to have ideas where they could go.
Personally I like this approach. Outside of surprises and things players couldn't guess, just ask directly You can also do some guesswork on top of it, but having their input always helps
There's one (1) rule in D&D 5e relating directly to cities. Characters with the Urchin background can move twice as quickly in cities. One would be forgiven for thinking cities don't really play a role in D&D.
Rich Burlew (author of the Order of the Stick webcomic) used to have this walkthrough for creating a D&D campaign setting on his site, and it started with "What are the basic assumptions of D&D?" I'll always remember "You have three out of twelve classes focused on wilderness settings, so it must be important to the game." Cities--not so much.
One of the things that I did was tailoring the random encounters to move the story forward. Its never just a random mugging, or a chance encounter. Its always got some significance (not always picked up by the players).
I'm so glad to hear even the best struggle with this
Agree. I appreciate his use of the word “paralyzing”. That’s how I feel just thinking about GM-ing a role playing game
Make the city a point crawl! And I agree, limit the options. Players may go off course or want to explore an unplanned area, but that's okay - just add it to the point crawl. And I agree - give them a tasty hook to chase. If they are focused on an adventure hook, usually they don't go down every street and ask a hundred random npcs their life story (haha - usually).
I tend to have around 5-6 districts and just focus on what’s most notable in few blocks of each. Then I write a loose 10-25 points of interest around the city and a list of d6 encounters that could happen along the way.
I actually draw the city as a hex crawl and then plant a point crawl on top of it. 99% of the time players stick to the point crawl but if they go off path you have some general idea of what’s around.
Two cities oriented publications you might want to check out some day:
1] Cities of Harn. Harn is a system neutral ttrpg setting. There are several cities scattered around the Isle of Harn. Harn is simply great, and the original Cities Of Harn was my gateway drug into that world, way back in 83/84.
2] DCC RPG Lankmar. Excellent setting: seedy, smoky, sultry. The Land of 10,000 Smells. Lol. Perfect setting for a bunch of ne'erdowells who want to wallow in the criminal side of life.
You do not need to flesh out the entire city, just the general area. If the players are visiting, then they might be in the merchant district or perhaps in the docks section. Just make business names fit the district, silver swan feels like the merchant district while the skiff fits more into the docks area. That is my tip, names that fit the district. Also, ask the players where they want to go when they get off the road, are they looking forward to a warm bed and some ale or do they want to go shopping. This can really help you focus on building only what you need.
My added spin on that is to make sure the names are evocative, easy to remember and easy to infer what they mean. The merchant's guild might be called "The Golden Coin" and not "Herbert and Sons". though I guess that's more of a tip for more general campaign naming, not city specific. Even if it's not particularly historical, you want your players to remember and not go "who are they again?" when the name comes up 5 sessions from now.
@@litis5151 I totally agree. And having good evocative names allows you as the DM as well as the players to associate the name of the place with what it serves.
This is pretty much a fundamental understanding for D&D settings: start small and expand as they develop.
exactly, i split my cities in districts and put locations within those, not exact locations just interesting places within district, maybe a street name, but don't worry about how they related across the distract.
OK, I love this video - it is very helpful. Here is something I have been doing that has helped me and will be made better by using what you have discussed. I make a list of shops that u know are useful and then I sort them according to size (village, town, city). I also mark down things that I know my PC’s want/need as well as what I as the DM need to run the campaign and what is needed in the campaign.
I don’t always flush out all the shopkeepers in advance, I do have a good idea of them. There are usually a few that are fully flushed out. I also let my players decide about shops by asking me if there is a shop that has …
Waterdeep city encounters is awesome, busy rewriting it for my ptolus campaign
If you have ever played SimCity or Civilization, think about the things those games employ to influence your city design. Neighborhoods next to industrial zones tend to be slums; places with views tend to be high-end, high traffic areas (that aren't prone to traffic jams) help commercial districts, that sort of thing. Also, just think of your own hometown, observe the way things are, and try to think about why they are the way they are.
I like to create an “NPC” sheet for each district that the players interact with to record important events/changes in those places. I also find an NPC/Organization social web helpful. It allows me to connect plots across the city rather than conceptualizing things geographically.
One of the biggest problems I have with fantasy cities is that they are too large, leading to some of the issues DM's have running them.
London in 1500 had a population of about 50k and was the capital of England. Most people at this point lived within the walled city, but the surrounding countryside was quite domesticated. By 1700 it was 500k and capital of a globe spanning empire, with few residents living within the city walls.
Rome was much the same, but hit around 1 million residents at the peak of the Roman Empire.
Personally I keep national capitals at 20k to 50k, with non-capital major cities capped at about 10k residents, large cities at 5k and small cities at 2k. I usually cap villages at 500, with the vast majority well under 100 residents.
To me keeping control of the population of cities and villages has helped to keep my game manageable over the last 4+ decades.
One thing I like for cities is having Volo's Guide to Waterdeep (2e digest-sized book) handy. Regardless of what city or town your party is in... Forgotten Realms or not... it is great for snatching a quick inn/shop/tavern/etc... from to drop into where they want to check out. That book is chock full of locations and ideas... and even lots of hooks you can build from, if you want. An old book from an old edition, but still very useful... and reprints are cheap.
Fun trivia tidbit about the cover art for the book... it features a portrait of Clyde Caldwell (old-school classic D&D artist). I guess he is meant to be Volo? heh
Great ideas. Thanks for for keeping it simple but effective. Appreciate the video.
I prep travel brochures. It's a double sided piece of paper with all the relevant amenities and a short description of the city and a short description of the leader. Then the players just tell me what they want to explore and we roll with it.
Edit: I do use chat gpt to fill in my creative gaps.
For the first session in the city it can center on getting lodging and initial information about the city, which is an opportunity to dangle plot hooks and see what the players bite on. But BEFORE they enter the city have the city guards interview them and ask the character to state their business in town. You the GM get a chance to RP with each character and find out from the player themselves why they think they are there. You may choose to dangle different plot hooks than what the players say, but you KNOW some that should be winners.
If you’re worried they ‘don’t know what to do’ when it’s their turn, have them hear the guards asking the people ahead of them and those answers.
“You can hear the group ahead of you talking about how they will be glad to sleep in a bed and see X the next day.” Or “the shifty looking character ahead of you says he’s looking for someone interested in a rare object he is selling.”
Excellent video, as always.
Now, I could be remembering wrong - it's been so long since I've read through it - but doesn't the 3/3.5 edition DMG have some interesting stuff to say about cities? Or am I romanticizing about how good that book was, since I was just a youngin when I played that edition?
Organic towns by headless hydra press is quite nice.
I tend of run cites as point crawls without the limits on where you can go point-to-point. You’ll probably want an inn, one shop and one temple/wizard’s guild at least, and any locations that are adventure-important
Nice video Mike! What are your thoughts on just straight up asking the players, "Where would your characters like to go in the city?"
My players just got to the city and I had them duck immediately into the tavern as I hadn't fleshed out the city yet. They got arrested and will likely be released, so I wanted to have ideas where they could go.
Personally I like this approach. Outside of surprises and things players couldn't guess, just ask directly
You can also do some guesswork on top of it, but having their input always helps
What’s wrong with asking your players between sessions where they want to go in the city or planning to go and prep that
There's one (1) rule in D&D 5e relating directly to cities. Characters with the Urchin background can move twice as quickly in cities.
One would be forgiven for thinking cities don't really play a role in D&D.
Rich Burlew (author of the Order of the Stick webcomic) used to have this walkthrough for creating a D&D campaign setting on his site, and it started with "What are the basic assumptions of D&D?" I'll always remember "You have three out of twelve classes focused on wilderness settings, so it must be important to the game." Cities--not so much.