Three Secrets to Running Cities in D&D

[@larrydotson2625]

Town guards can be a great tool for DM'S to regulate a party IN GAME the idea a a major city with no police force is unlikely so they are constant looming threat to unruly players that won't ever be questioned.

[@soren3569]

Another tip to running cities: Most of them have a kind of personality, almost like a character unto themselves. The process of becoming a city entails a shared history of the region. This can flavor encounters in the city itself, and should certainly influence descriptive text. A city with high natural defenses augmented by a wall might have a very insular feel to it, where the PCs have to spend a lot of effort to become settled, but once they are accepted by the locals, they find doors suddenly opening for them--and when in conflict with outsiders, the locals are more likely to have their back. Meanwhile, a bustling port and trade center may have a very commercial tone to almost every transaction; if you have gold, you are welcome almost everywhere, right from the start. But at the same time, that cuts both ways--residents will cheerfully sell you out, or even accept contracts against you (not necessarily lethal).

[@ChristnThms]

100% agree. Great tips that I've been using for years. I'll add a couple from my own experiences- 1. You don't need to detail most of a city. I promise you that most people don't know the cities they've actually lived in very well. You only need details for areas you'll spend significant time in. 2. One of the opportunities offered in larger population centers is the use of rumors as quest hooks. Instead of clumsily giving clues directly from an obvious NPC, have your rumors be overhead while moving through the city. I generally have a list of 20 or so tidbits to overhear, that I break into 3 categories: useless, referential, and direct. By randomly selecting them, you'll get some repetition and that's OK. But more importantly, news of the situation you want the group to look into will be scattered about the city in a very organic feeling way, regardless of what else the party is doing.

[@Arkylie]

You're making me want to dive into Fallen London again and get a better feel for how rumors can work. I remember that game having some intriguing mechanics involving gathered social data.

[@macndcheeks]

This gives me a little more confidence regarding cities. Party loves doing things with down time with games, bartering, and finding dark dungeons. Good advice, Fumbl!

[@fumblaround]

Cities can be a lot of fun for players and DMs. It can be a bit more seat of your pants, but as long as everyone is having a good time, you're doing great!

[@jamesrizza2640]

I divide my city into districts and give them names like Cheapside, harbor district, academic, etc. Then I give them district information that differs such as City Guard Reaction Time, Pickpocket table based on average wealth for a given district and a Encounter table for both day and night cycles. I further set up each district like a hex crawl where the more a player looks and stays, the more likely they will find something they haven't seen or noticed before. These usually include 3 or 5 room [room used loosely here], adventures. This does take some time to setup my city took about a week to make and then another three for the hex crawl part of it. The advantage is that I can run this city for years of gameplay if the players want to. thanks for sharing your ideas.

[@GwynInRealLife]

super smart!

[@fumblaround]

Thank you. And thanks for sharing your ideas, especially City Guard Reaction Time. I can see this as both their response time and their reaction to "adventurers" in a given part of the city

[@jamesrizza2640]

@@fumblaround I wish I could take credit for the guard reaction times thing, I think I found that in grewhawk adventures decades ago. Most of the ideas I have shown you I have stolen from other more talented DM's than me. I tend to be Romanesque in that if I see a good idea I steal it and use it for my own campaign. [That's why I watch youtube afterall, lol.] As for those guards you can modifiy them to have slower reaction times in less desirable places and higher level in more influential districts. I am working on my weather tables now. Thanks again for your ideas too.

[@mrnixon2287]

nice! good practical tips. i run an urban centered campaign and have done so for 3 decades. agree a city is way more interesting than a dungeon or wilderness. factions, guilds, city guards, crime-lords, plots to overthrow the ruler, underground cults, spies, assassins, street gangs, con-men, sailors, muggers, sewers, mysterious priests, smugglers, prison breaks, crime-ridden districts... etc etc. I use Sanctuary Thieves World which is a city campaign with unlimited adventure hooks and unlimited potential for NPC social encounters. Hard to find now but highly recommended. Id buy a second copy of the Thieves World boxed set if i came across it for a good price, its that good.

[@fumblaround]

Wow. Thieves World / Sanctuary. Haven't heard that mentioned in a while. I'll have to pull out some of my old books. And yes, it had a great flavor well suited for RPG campaigns. I vaguely recall the Box set, but don't recall who put it out?

[@mrnixon2287]

@@fumblaround Chaosium

[@jamesrizza2640]

I never had the sanctuary thieves world book or guide. I will have to scrounge the internet and see if I can find anything on it. For myself, I have used the greyhawk gem of the flaness, grewhawk people, feuds and factions The citybook from blade. The one advantage of being a old DM is that I have a bunch of resources from the 80's. I have to agree with you, there are a ton of things you can do as both player and DM in a city. Thanks for sharing about the thieves world, I will definitely keep my eye open for it.

[@ismirdochegal4804]

"I like big Cities and I can not lie!" Waterdeep: "Hold my Skullport." Sigil: "Hold my Portals" Ravnica: "Hold my Guilds"

[@jeevesosiris]

Great thoughts. I totally agree. I have my group based in Haven (Dragonlance setting) and have redesigned the map to add some more dangerous and unique locations. I have also fleshed out Tarsis where they will be headed next.

[@fumblaround]

Nice, I have two groups currently in Palanthas, with one heading toward Kalaman in the immediate future. Tarsis is a city I've always wanted to use in a campaign

[@jeevesosiris]

@@fumblaround I kinda changed Tarsis quite a bit... wanted to give it a different culture so have really leaned into giving it a "middle eastern feel" just to separate it from some of the other big cities.

[@fumblaround]

Awesome. I love hearing how people tweak a city, town, region to make it their own. And Tarsis does deserve its own special flavor

[@Wilbehr]

Something ive started doing is letting my players come up with a few of the locations or rumors of the town and then i flesh them out. Helps us all feel like we're making the story together.

[@fumblaround]

Great idea. Like you said, they get to contribute and you get to know the areas that really interest them! I’m stealing this for my games

[@Ex925er]

I rum my game like a gritty crime drama. The fighters are in the role of Inquisitors working for the city guard captain. The wizards are employed as "Scribes" recruited from their guild to record significant events. Rogues are "Purveyors" of specialty items to the 9 affluent Houses. Of course the clerics are assigned to the sheriff's office as coroners, experts on causes of death and identification of diseases. They collect bodies and have records on births, deaths and marriages. The Almshouse is the emergency room and the orphanage is a great source of mischeif and intrigue. Sending the team out on missions drives the surface activity while I maintain the background factioins in response. There will be consequences - always. Not coupling the campaign or story to a player allows them to miss a session and the campaign goes unaffected. So it might be viewed as a sequence of one-shots, except that those who play every session are more aware of the underflow and its protagonists.

[@fumblaround]

Sounds well thought out. I like hearing about cities being used as more than just rest and restock.

[@bryanchin88]

Hey this is great advice, and I appreciate your straightforward and brief format. You get to the meat, give some examples, and then get out. This is very effective short form content, and I'm glad you're making it.

[@biffstrong1079]

Like the thoughts. Generally speaking I start with regions and a few ideas for each. I try to start with a rumour table that can be picked up through social interaction. Depending what thread the players tug at decides what I'll build for them, within a general framework.

[@fumblaround]

That's certainly a great approach and one I use many times. for my recent big city game, I ran a series of low level one shots, each with implications for larger campaigns. Based on their feedback, some were dropped, others are more important. Others still happening in the background with other groups picking up the "work"

[@biffstrong1079]

@@fumblaround I think my first attempt at a city adventure was done 40-50 years ago and we built a lot of locations in a city. The players avoided the city like the plague wandering the wilderness and basically playing the adventure while never entering the city. It reminded me a little of keep on the borderland and secret of bone hill where the barons castles and castellans quarters were detailed at some level but the party never got there. A lot of unutilized material. I wish I still had the material I generated for that first city adventure because I had a lot of locations I could slot into a city now. But I try not to prebuild too much now and the stuff I do make I try to insert at a logical point if possible.

[@dilana7036]

Just recently started dm-ing and this has definitely given me ideas for my cities. Thank you!

[@fumblaround]

Glad you liked it. Welcome to this side of the screen, or no screen, whatever works for you

[@sleepinggiant4062]

Good stuff! Don't try to plan out every building in the entire city. Have a few key locations and NPCs. Handwave the rest. Caution the players about the local laws and who is in charge. They should not ruffle feathers in town, that could get very dangerous. Don't save the party often. Let the chips fall where they may. There are other options besides killing them.

[@TheGreatDudist]

This video got recommended to me, and it really is a breath of fresh air. It's a practical bit of DM advice that is actually helpful. I'm going to check out more of your stuff and hope to find more like this. I'm tired of the usual "here's another tier-list" DND channel stuff.

[@pilk1258]

Great video, thanks!

[@fumblaround]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jriggan]

Solid

[@blindstrike2557]

Thx for the tips!

[@BlueberryPancakes-o8r]

This was really helpful! I've been looking at these videos all day and this one was both helpful and non-judgmental (like it just gave tips instead of criticizing some viewpoints) and I really liked it! Do you have any tips on how to come up with good NPCs?

[@yourseatatthetable]

Some of my best campaigns revolved around urban settings.

[@fumblaround]

Thanks. I love cities, with the occasional wilderness excursion

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

Definitely worth a re watch next city I build

[@fumblaround]

Thanks!

[@amjthe_paleosquare9399]

My party's still midway through our first campaign about fetching gold from a dungeon, but I'm already planning city for them to visit either later on this campaign, or in a new one. It also helped me create the world where our campaign will happen. I'll go check, but do you have any videos on mind flayers?

[@fumblaround]

I don't have anything specifically on Mind Flayers. I know there are a few good channels that specify in D&D creature lore and one or more of them certainly would have done videos. What I typically do is looks for a couple of videos and take the best of each when looking to integrate a creature heavily into my campaign

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

@@fumblaroundthe puppet masters!

[@whiskeyvictor5703]

Time to roll on the Random Harlot table! 😆

[@KekoaSkills]

Great Video (I subscribed) 😁

[@fumblaround]

Thanks!

[@Darth_Harvey]

Great video!

[@fumblaround]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@danieltallent4243]

I would of liked to hear specifically how you were able to save the party

[@NQWG]

3:44 Deus, not Do

[@fumblaround]

Thank you, I listened up for the correct pronunciation. I don't be making that mistake again

[@jrpipik]

DAY-oos

[@Arkylie]

@@fumblaround Yeah, my first reaction was "oh, he's never heard the term spoken before" and then "hang on, theatre kid? how did he not hear it spoken, or is he from a dialect that says it differently?" and then I looked it up and while Merriam-Webster has some variations, they all start with "DEY-us" (I learned it "DEY-oos"). Liked the tips, though! Also a reminder that if I want to cut down on social encounters as a GM I'm gonna have to design a world where cities just aren't a thing 😅 that or stick the players on a deserted island for half the campaign.

[@lordcobalt1]

It is not Due Es Machina. That may or may not be latin. It is Deus (Day-ooze) Machina.

[@Enfors]

The latin is "Deus ex machina", and it's pronounced "dö ex mackina". It means "God from machine," and refers to mechanical "acts of god" in theatres.

[@Cenitopius]

@@Enfors I think it's pronounced more like "day-us eks mah-kin-ah", with the two-syllable "day-us". Sometimes it's pronounced more like "day-oos" but I think that's more strained than almost any natural English speaker actually says it if they use it day-to-day. I'm basing this on having heard a bunch of people say it and having looked it up a few times (including just now)

[@Disgruntled_Dave]

This guy reminds me of Kyle Gass, but in the beginning of the movie when he still has the long, lustrous hair. "They calls me KG-SoloMan-5000. And I aims to keep it that way! This place is tapped; I'm outta here. . ."

[@stonemorris5356]

I understood that reference.