So I have my players leaving old little Hommlet and heading Greyhawk to taste a bit of the wicked city life. And I'm looking for a good and exciting module/campaign/adventure path located in a fantasy city... preferably the BEST, for any game or system. Currently I'm taking notes on TSR's Falcon Trilogy for pimping it, but surely there must be something better.
So, what are the best urban adventure for you?
Aah, was hoping to see more comments on this.
Okay, i have one
- there are two drugdealers in town, but because of the one being a pimp aswell, he has far more money than the other one. There will soon be arriving a cart with new goods and good drugs to an extreemly low price - the pimp will probably buy everything, and the other drugdealer wouldn't be able to catch up with him. Therefore he needs some assasin to kill the pimp, but it needs to look like a natural death.
I hope someone comments on 2e's Lankhmar (of Grey Mouser fame) because I've been eyeing it myself to see how capable it is in handling this.
edit: Oh, I should answer the question some. For me, I'd say L5R Ryoko Owari: City of Lies. Basically it's a major Scorpion clan city that thrives on entertainment and vice. The locales are generally fleshed out and the NPCs have a public and private face. They also then throw in a few adventures with factions and secrets. Once you have a social framework and a district map everything else sorta falls into place as a GM tool when you try to put in your own hooks and stuff.
I remember being impressed with one of Mongoose's Conan d20 RPG supplements. Was it Shadizar? Or was it Tarantis? Can't for the life of me remember.
Also a fan of B5 The Veiled Society.
'Power Behind the Throne' is the best urban adventure for any game or system.
Although it can break down if you have a lot of players.
Vornheim is pretty awesome for urban adventures in general.
Monte Cook's Ptolus is widely regarded as a great city campaign, though I haven't read it personally.
I recommend you look up some of the Eberron novels from WotC. Many of them are "fantasy noire".
Quote from: Opaopajr;590277edit: Oh, I should answer the question some. For me, I'd say L5R Ryoko Owari: City of Lies.
Oooh! Good choice!
One of my disappointments as a GM is that the campaign I was running which combined the Freeport Trilogy with
City of Lies ended ignominiously before it ever began (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/599/roleplaying-games/tales-from-the-table-bumbling-in-freeport).
I'll also toss Monte Cook's
Night of Dissolution onto the pile as a short adventure path. In a similar vein, there are a lot of really good
Call of Cthulhu adventures that you can easily adapt into a fantasy milieu.
My main live group (there are 2) has been pretty much doing an urban campaign for over 9 real years. They did go out on one major adventuring outside of town, but the bulk of the sessions (say 80-85 sessions) have been spent in the environs of Igbar (http://celtricia.pbworks.com/w/page/14955656/Igbar%2C%20Capital%20of%20Trabler).
This city has been in heavy use by my PCs since 1984, so it has a lot of detail and history. But the adventure path/mid sized story arc I put them on was based on the TPK of the last Igbarian group, which stupidly awoke and ancient Vampyre in the nearby, humanoid (http://celtricia.pbworks.com/w/page/44901947/Ogrillite%20Races)-infested Wibble Hills. This Vampyre (some 500 years old) quickly took over the Firehazer tribe of said hills, and started dabbling in the ancient Anginarian Necromancy, which multiplies the necormantic forces of an area...and our setting is very undead/necromantic heavy already.
Shriving (http://celtricia.pbworks.com/w/page/22871895/Migration%20of%20the%20Spirit) the dead is very important due to the difficulty that most spirits having getting off the material plane.
So, undead were multiplying at a rapid rate, which placed the PCs for about 5 years of game time in a hurry-up in-town mode, trying to first make sense of the many loose but sometimes interconnected plots and negotiating the guilds and old families of Igbar while boneyards and crypts were erupting a bit at a time. Then, once they started to solve bits of it, the raced to discover where the undead servants of the Vampyre had hidden Anginarian Necromantic nodes of Necromantic power, and destroy them, while finding that one of the scions of one of the wealthiest families was actually in leagure with the Vampyre....
maybe that is worth some ideas.
The "Paths of the Damned" series of adventures for WFRP 2e. Really excellent in play.
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Quote from: RPGPundit;590628The "Paths of the Damned" series of adventures for WFRP 2e. Really excellent in play.
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Was one of those where the johnny-come-lately foreigner merchant was betrayed and murdered by the jovial town fathers, jealous of his business acumen? Those were very good urban adventures, if someone asked me what WH was all about, I'd point them there.
City State of the Invicible Overlord - everyone who used it had different interpretations, but its hard to beat some of the crazy crap you'd encounter if you followed the descriptions (original 1st edition JG version, don't know about the rest).
barnacus: city in peril. (http://rpggeek.com/rpgissuearticle/35928/barnacus-city-in-peril)
Shadows over Bogenhafen (if Bogenhafen is big enough to be called a city)and Power Behind the Throne for Warhammer Fantasy RP are both superb. The later in particular would be my choice for best urban adventure ever written.
Quote from: RPGPundit;590628The "Paths of the Damned" series of adventures for WFRP 2e. Really excellent in play.
I agree. They get some flak by 1e grognards who just read through them, but they played really well.
Terror in Talabheim was also excellent.
Quote from: The Traveller;590645Was one of those where the johnny-come-lately foreigner merchant was betrayed and murdered by the jovial town fathers, jealous of his business acumen? Those were very good urban adventures, if someone asked me what WH was all about, I'd point them there.
That might be Dead Ringer, which is a fantastic free WFRP adventure. However, it is set more in a village than a town.
Pavis and Big Rubble - a great city with a "above ground" dungeon by its side.
What else one could ask for ? ;)
Quote from: Skywalker;590920I agree. They get some flak by 1e grognards who just read through them, but they played really well.
Terror in Talabheim was also excellent.
I found that one a lot more complicated to run than the others.
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