Greetings!

Long ago, I embraced a foundation point of making my urban cities dangerous and dynamic. I remember frying my Player's minds with an overload of mental and emotional "Cocaine." The city streets are often a constant buzz of activity, depravity, and opportunity. Couples having fights and romantic quarrels in the tavern, sly assassins striking from the shadows. Hardened, ruthless gangs roaming about the streets and plazas. The urban cemeteries? Oh yes. Full of Ghouls, and evil Vampires. Even when toning the supernatural down a notch or two, there are evil, bearded gravediggers, and strange "Death Cultists" that are involved with everything from cemetery orgies to human sacrifices, to Pagan magic. Graverobbing, wicked physicians and alchemists, yes, there is a ready supply of them.

Whores are everywhere. Some of them are crazy, obsessive, jealous, petty, and violent. Even the tavern bar girls and strumpets. Them too. The nice girl that sells you dog food at the Dry Goods Emporium? Yeah, that's right. She is the soul of perfection, joy, and light--as long as you, her boyfriend, stays on the straight and narrow. FAFO. Stick this girl with some BS, and you unleash a bunny-boiling harridan that will soon make your life hell. Drug dealers, pimps, thugs, ruffians and criminals of every flavour. Even the watch, the Urban Police Forces. Yes, they have some very *interesting* members amongst their ranks. Cigar-chomping killers that are highly organized and come down on criminals like a fanatical death squad. You are on their good side? Many things involving life in the urban environment can be very sweet and smooth. Get on their bad side, well, yeah. Sucks to be you, brother. There are alligators that swim in the city's moats and canals for a reason.

Just going down the street, older MILFS would empty chamber pots onto people trapped within the hordes pressing along below with routine frequency. Likewise, some areas of the city have busted sewer tunnels, and flooded drains. Getting ran the fuck over on the street by a speeding coach is always a potential. Being splashed and soaked with sewer water is a common occurrence. Oh, yes, then there are the Nobles, and their entourages of bodyguards and hangers-on. Male or female, a youngish, arrogant, entitled noble can always be an interesting encounter. Guilds are active, vibrant, and often loud. Members often gather to hold public meetings, hold protest marches, or pronounce a new strike against a particular business. Urban riots are a thing to be aware of.

There are Demagogues and race hustlers, grifters and charlatans of every stripe, marching, screaming, protesting something. It is always something. I use a random subject table to quickly roll so as to determine what they are angry about. Strange cults often infiltrate or serve within such organizations, and are always eager for opportunities to kill, capture, or terrorize their enemies or religious or political opponents, in particular. Robberies, muggings, pickpockets, and other con-men and hustlers are frequent dangers. Hustlers and grifters hang out on corners, eager to entice passing citizens with fantastic offerings of shiny goods--or sharing with them some sordid story, or a tantalizing scheme or "Business Opportunity." Of course, within the marble palaces and tapestried halls of beautiful hotels there are many business professionals, visionary thinkers, and entrepreneurs offering seminars and services to the masses around them, as well as selling their books, which provide their secret system for building wealth, and building the "Life YOU deserve!"

Urban fires breaking out and killing thousands in searing blazes are always a possibility. There are often demagogues calling for revolution, and overthrowing "The System" Riots and harsh crackdowns typically follow, featuring public executions by hanging. Sometimes, there are groups or teams of ruthless Witch Hunters that provide public sermons, exhorting the public against darkness and wickedness, and burning evil witches alive at the stake. The subterranean sewers are dark labyrinths, with everything from hungry Rat men to Ghouls, Vampires, dark Cultists, to bands of savage troglodytes lurking in the shadows, always eager to drag the surface dwellers into an orgy of blood and teeth.

Brothels, gambling dens, casinos, Gladiator Arenas, are all often encountered. Nightclubs and dance halls. Opportunity and danger and grifting are at every turn, brimming with potential.

After a few days of narrowly escaping the urban city with their lives and sanity intact--I've had groups plead, "Can we get out into the wilderness and find some subterranean dungeon? A Dungeon will likely be safer than staying here in the City from Hell."

They definitely enjoyed the high-octane urban environment, as it was something like they had never encountered before. It fried their minds!

I play with the encounter dials, based on timing and individual city--but the lessons also strengthened my approach and philosophy in making Urban City Environments "Dangerous and Dynamic." Cities can be full of constant danger, opportunity, adventure, and mind-blowing action and fun, day and night, 24/7. Nighttime is when cities *really* come alive! I keep cities intense and crazy whether day or night. Players soon are eager for the pleasant dangers of the wilderness and the dungeon. *Laughing* City adventures are also often very dynamic, and complex, and often "Morally Gray" with multiple parties, multiple, complex motivations, and typically a suite of consequences that are both good and bad. It kind of stands in contrast to the wilderness and dungeon, where "sides" and situations are generally more predictable, and less complicated. I tend to narratively and mechanically lean on that distinction so as to highlight just a bit of a contrast that remains strong in the players' minds and perception.

How do you organize and develop your urban adventures? Do you like using Random Tables? I think it is such fun to maintain a strong, urban environment that is dynamic and crazy, so that whether the group wants to just stay a night in the city, a few days, or much longer--I have at my fingertips a system that is robust and strong and can provide endless adventures and possibilities.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Cities are overpopulated megadungeons with markets and tourists, change my mind. 

Sounds like London and New York in the 19th century. But instead of gladiatorial combat, you have prizefighting and rat-baiting. Plus, opium and cocaine are perfectly legal and you can buy them at your local pharmacy. No need for pesky drug dealers. A "gentler time" indeed! 

It all sounds lovely but in my experience, if you give the players too many distractions they get distracted.

Quote from: Opaopajr on October 09, 2023, 01:27:07 AM
Cities are overpopulated megadungeons with markets and tourists, change my mind. 

Greetings!

*Laughing* Yeah, Opaopajr! I approached the Urban Format with a similar framework. I don't want the urban cities to be boring, or for the Players to always assume they are like some kind of giant, sleepy Pinata that they are always comfortable and safe in.

Now, they know very well that giant, urban cities can be very dangerous, with some providing a quick ticket to their doom if they are not careful, and prepared.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Rhymer88 on October 09, 2023, 04:21:04 AM
Sounds like London and New York in the 19th century. But instead of gladiatorial combat, you have prizefighting and rat-baiting. Plus, opium and cocaine are perfectly legal and you can buy them at your local pharmacy. No need for pesky drug dealers. A "gentler time" indeed!

Greetings!

So true! Make the cities places full of filth, corruption, and danger!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: David Johansen on October 09, 2023, 09:39:27 PM
It all sounds lovely but in my experience, if you give the players too many distractions they get distracted.

That's a really good point.  If you want the adventure to be about exploring a dungeon, then you shouldn't provide too many time consuming events in the city.  On the other hand if you want the adventure to be the city then knock yourself out.

Quote from: SHARK on October 09, 2023, 01:04:47 AM
How do you organize and develop your urban adventures? Do you like using Random Tables? I think it is such fun to maintain a strong, urban environment that is dynamic and crazy, so that whether the group wants to just stay a night in the city, a few days, or much longer--I have at my fingertips a system that is robust and strong and can provide endless adventures and possibilities.

I look to R. Talsorian Games' book Night City as a blueprint on how to do cities for RPGs.  IMO it's one of the best source books ever written for any RPG. 
https://talsorianstore.com/collections/cyberpunk/products/night-city
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/589/night-city

The challenge for anyone running a city is that a city is by design a place where a whole lot of people are in one location engaging in a lot of different activities.  To run one right, you have to look at doing a game city similarly to building a clock, you have a lot of moving parts that all effect each other.  Fortunately, as a GM, you don't have to flesh out every cog tooth.

When I am doing a city I build it up with the following things in mind: infrastructure, economic activities, political activities, population and demographics, urban geography, and the relationship with it's neighboring area and place in the country.  Once I start filling out a few of these blanks, a city kind of stitches itself together for me.  There's a lot of work in recording everything in prep for running it but the creative part kind of takes care of itself after a few key things are put in place.

I love cities as an adventure location.  There are all kinds of adventure to have in an urban setting.

Sounds a lot like where I grew up.  Thugs and whores everywhere, drugs, even crazy cultists who performed strange rituals in cemetaries and parks.  The local constabulary are just ball busters who are on the take. 

Shark's cityscapes work well for any gaming genre, medieval, cyberpunk, far future, Superhero, hell even the espionage eras of the 60's and 70's.

Therewas agame suppliment from Chaosium called Thieve's World based on the collaborative fantasy setting of the same name.  I often reference for urban adventures it as it is very much like what Shark described.  Crime and grime everywhere.

As far as monsters go you have rat packs, stray (sometimes rabid) dogs, junkies, diseased bums, gangs, muggers, psycho killers, and even the occasional exotic animal escaping captivity.  I remember there being pihranas in the lake at a nearby park...no joke, pihranas.   

Quote from: SHARK on October 09, 2023, 01:04:47 AM
How do you organize and develop your urban adventures? Do you like using Random Tables? I think it is such fun to maintain a strong, urban environment that is dynamic and crazy, so that whether the group wants to just stay a night in the city, a few days, or much longer--I have at my fingertips a system that is robust and strong and can provide endless adventures and possibilities.

I recently wrapped up several sessions of urban play in my campaign.

However, my version was very different. In my case, it was in the capital of the good-aligned empire that the PCs are loyal to. This was more like Knights of the Round Table having intrigue in Camelot, rather than Conan carousing in a den of iniquity.

The adventures were focused on tracking down a cell of a cult that the PCs were fighting. However, the cult was secretly placed in the midst of noble houses, that the PCs didn't want to piss off - so there was a bunch of intrigue, politics, and family drama (since one of the PCs is of noble blood whose family is in the city). The city was when I introduced having a party sheet of "Allies", "Enemies", and "Contacts" on the table so they could keep track of those more easily.

Nothing wrong with random encounters in a dirty, dangerous city - but this wasn't it.

I've enjoyed random encounters for a bit of color. However, in some past games, random wilderness and city encounters have strained my credibility by just how weird and dangerous a city is. If a city is so dangerous that it is dangerous for armed, seasoned professionals just to walk around - then how does business in the city even function for normal folk? I think it's more the case that dangerous folk might target the PCs because they are strangers who have come into town, possibly with a lot of cash.

Quote from: BadApple on October 10, 2023, 01:10:07 PM

Quote from: SHARK on October 09, 2023, 01:04:47 AM
How do you organize and develop your urban adventures? Do you like using Random Tables? I think it is such fun to maintain a strong, urban environment that is dynamic and crazy, so that whether the group wants to just stay a night in the city, a few days, or much longer--I have at my fingertips a system that is robust and strong and can provide endless adventures and possibilities.

I look to R. Talsorian Games' book Night City as a blueprint on how to do cities for RPGs.  IMO it's one of the best source books ever written for any RPG. 
https://talsorianstore.com/collections/cyberpunk/products/night-city
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/589/night-city

The challenge for anyone running a city is that a city is by design a place where a whole lot of people are in one location engaging in a lot of different activities.  To run one right, you have to look at doing a game city similarly to building a clock, you have a lot of moving parts that all effect each other.  Fortunately, as a GM, you don't have to flesh out every cog tooth.

When I am doing a city I build it up with the following things in mind: infrastructure, economic activities, political activities, population and demographics, urban geography, and the relationship with it's neighboring area and place in the country.  Once I start filling out a few of these blanks, a city kind of stitches itself together for me.  There's a lot of work in recording everything in prep for running it but the creative part kind of takes care of itself after a few key things are put in place.

I love cities as an adventure location.  There are all kinds of adventure to have in an urban setting.

Greetings!

Oh yeah! That's right, BadApple! I love cities as adventure locations too. In my campaign, it took some lead-in work, but once I established a core group of accessible resources, I now have at my fingertips an easily customizable system from which I can respond with virtually any city that the Players might seek to visit. Cities can easily--well, it does take some work--to be made into an endless, challenging, and entertaining environment.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on October 10, 2023, 05:20:24 PM
Sounds a lot like where I grew up.  Thugs and whores everywhere, drugs, even crazy cultists who performed strange rituals in cemetaries and parks.  The local constabulary are just ball busters who are on the take. 

Shark's cityscapes work well for any gaming genre, medieval, cyberpunk, far future, Superhero, hell even the espionage eras of the 60's and 70's.

Therewas agame suppliment from Chaosium called Thieve's World based on the collaborative fantasy setting of the same name.  I often reference for urban adventures it as it is very much like what Shark described.  Crime and grime everywhere.

As far as monsters go you have rat packs, stray (sometimes rabid) dogs, junkies, diseased bums, gangs, muggers, psycho killers, and even the occasional exotic animal escaping captivity.  I remember there being pihranas in the lake at a nearby park...no joke, pihranas.

Greetings!

PIRANHAS!!!

Nice, Svenhelgrim!

I also think that establishing such a urban system can be adapted and tweaked, to reflect the different cultures and conditions of each different city type. That way, not all cities are the same, and yet, by doing some work, the DM can develop a strong system for urban adventures that is fun, robust, and flexible. There was a time, way back when, running adventures in urban settings was like, a non-starter. There were relatively few resources for it, and often not much discussion about urban adventures.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Thanks for making a campaign city out of my home state!  (NJ)

Quote from: SHARK on October 09, 2023, 01:04:47 AM
How do you organize and develop your urban adventures? Do you like using Random Tables?

I try to make cities distinct, based in part on a few broad-strokes criteria:

- form of government
- primary and secondary inhabitants, including size of population with demographics by race/class/sex/etc. vs. the norm (Amazons run Hardby in Greyhawk, for example)
- economic base:  natural/magical resources, trade routes, imports/exports
- enemies, allies, and trading partners
- specific PC resources used in play:  what temples, sages, guilds, etc. are in this town vs. the home town, including NPC trainers
- unique features:  canals in Venice, opera house in Sydney, etc.

Flavor-wise, I love your sense of immediacy and decadent, omnipresent danger!:  it fits right in with my design sensibilities for the drowic slave market city I've been working on the past few years

My favorite city-focused RPG resources:
- Cities from Midkemia Press (later reprinted by Chaosium, and modified and included in the Thieves World boxed set)
- Matt Finch's City Encounters
- Gabor Lux's Nocturnal Tables, and his settlements from Echoes from Fomalhaut contain many city/settlement adventures: http://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/
- DMG city encounter tables (and D3 too!)

City setting books:
- Lankhmar City of Adventure (TSR)
- Thieves World (Chaosium, boxed set and Thieves World Companion booklet; FASA also published four TW adventures, including the rare Blue Camel at https://web.archive.org/web/20071013122156/http://www.thievesworld.info/roleplay/bluecamel.htm)
- The Free City of Haven (plus supplements, by Gamelords; various Thieves Guild materials would also fit in nicely; see http://diffworlds.com/gamelords_thieves_guild.htm and http://diffworlds.com/haven.htm)
- Tulan, Carse, Towns of the Outlands (Mikdemia Press but Cities, Tulan, and Carse were also reprinted by Chaosium)
- Bard's Gate (Necromancer Games)
- Marienburg and Warharmmer City (Games Workshop)
FR1 Waterdeep
- Citybook series (Blade/Flying Buffalo)
- "Barnacus: City in Peril" (Dragon Magazine #80; pairs up nicely with "Can Seapoint be Saved?" too)
- Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins (WotC; using Denis Tetreault's map from the Living Greyhawk Journal #2 at http://melkot.com/locations/cogh/cogh.html)
- Pavis and Big Rubble (Chaosium)
- Irillian (White Dwarf 42-47)
- Tarracina Port (by Kent Krumvieda/Dreamborn at http://www.dreamborn.com/p_tport.html; also has two modules set in the city)

Allan.

Quote from: Cathode Ray on October 12, 2023, 08:40:49 AM
Thanks for making a campaign city out of my home state!  (NJ)

North Jersey?

Allan.