Hello, new DM here running LMoP with a group of new players. We’re quite a few sessions into the campaign now, and my group is really itching to explore Neverwinter because it is a close large city.
I am a bit worried about running a session in the city. As a group, we all love using maps and battle maps, and my players love exploring shops and anywhere interesting.
How can I go about preparing myself to run an interesting session inside a large city?
Maybe have some sort of crime or sinister going on, and have your players solve it, with elements from other parts of the game, like puzzles influcing the city, or any crisis you set up.
First I'd create a long list of merchants so they could visit lots of shops without you saying, "this shop is like the other shop", too many times. Then flesh out some details about what they sell and the personality of the shopkeeper. Of course, the shops with the agreeable shopkeepers will be the ones they come back to unless you give them a reason to deal with the ill-mannered ones.
Second, I'd create a list of guilds, and flesh out the details for these guilds. Who is the boss? How many members do they have? Is business good/bad?
Third, I would come up with a list of temples and dietys supported in the big city. Are any of these aligned with the clerics, druids, warlocks, paladins in the party? Flesh out the leader and the number of lower level practitioners in each one.
Fourth, flesh out the government. How is the city run? Is it a country (City-State) unto itself? If not, which other provinces are allied with this city? Which other cities? Is this the most powerful governmental center in the nation? OK, so that is the big picture, but now what about the local situation? They have a ruler, but what about the other governmental institutions? They likely have a town guard (like a police force) but do they also have a military garrison? Are they the same thing? Is there a Sheriff that operates independently of the town guard as a member of the court system? Is there a District Court, a criminal court and/or a circuit court? How does that work? Or does everything have to go to the governor/mayor/magistrate? Is there a library? Is there a granary? Is there an armory? A barracks? Some other sort of government warehouse? Is there something like a town council?
That covers the government. The only other thing you might need is an economy in the system. I assume the principle economy will be farming followed by "ranching". There will be some measure of timber / lumbering but maybe not locally. Is there a need for quarrying stone and is there a mason's guild? There will be blacksmiths supporting these basic industries, and there may be a blacksmith supporting the army/palace. So you know where they get their food but where do they get their water? Does it need to be rationed?
All these NP-characters need a place to live so pick out which neighborhood they live in. I don't think you need to pick out which house. And then pick out the taverns and flesh out the details in there. Who frequents this tavern? What hours/days are they likely to be there? Do some taverns cater to a non-human crowd? Is there a tavern that doesn't like to see adventurers? Is there a tavern favored by the guards, or the militia? Where is the best gossip found? Where is the best entertainment found? And which of the characters you outlined above might share a recommendation to go to this or that tavern, and why? And what about the inns?
Finally, is there a special magical resource found in this city? An alchemist's shop for special potions? A shop to purchase scrolls? A wizard that is willing to discuss his craft with younger wizards? A particular shop where magical weapons and armor might be sold?
If you're ready for these questions from the party, you're pretty darn ready.
You could create the entire town/government/ and many NPCs OR... consider this.
Based on what your players are interested in, direct them to a few of those places -- that's a much small subsection than the whole town. Create a few situations based off of that, and by create I mean determine NPC motivations. Those NPCs could direct the PCs to an area, or just give information that helps lead the players to an area.
TLDR: designing a large town is tough. Start small, with a few NPCs, but you control what info they may have and provide and use that to help focus the party in a direction. so instead of prepping a whole city, maybe you prep a much smaller portion...
As a crude example, suppose the backstory of one of the PCs is that they are an apprentice brewer. Perhaps they go to Neverwinter and talk to some of the established brewers, one then mentions rats infesting his cellar... and this could then lead to dealing with wererats in tunnels. the brewer could also mention other issues, such as minor nobles disappearing and this leads the party to a "mystery" style adventure.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
I would prep a list of about a dozen NPC names. You can give them a gender and a race if you like, but leave a lot of the description open so you can assign them on the fly to shopkeepers, or other NPCs the characters may run into in town.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Not all those who wander are lost"
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Hello, new DM here running LMoP with a group of new players. We’re quite a few sessions into the campaign now, and my group is really itching to explore Neverwinter because it is a close large city.
I am a bit worried about running a session in the city. As a group, we all love using maps and battle maps, and my players love exploring shops and anywhere interesting.
How can I go about preparing myself to run an interesting session inside a large city?
thanks in advance!
Maybe have some sort of crime or sinister going on, and have your players solve it, with elements from other parts of the game, like puzzles influcing the city, or any crisis you set up.
heheh get rickrolled xdddddd
First I'd create a long list of merchants so they could visit lots of shops without you saying, "this shop is like the other shop", too many times. Then flesh out some details about what they sell and the personality of the shopkeeper. Of course, the shops with the agreeable shopkeepers will be the ones they come back to unless you give them a reason to deal with the ill-mannered ones.
Second, I'd create a list of guilds, and flesh out the details for these guilds. Who is the boss? How many members do they have? Is business good/bad?
Third, I would come up with a list of temples and dietys supported in the big city. Are any of these aligned with the clerics, druids, warlocks, paladins in the party? Flesh out the leader and the number of lower level practitioners in each one.
Fourth, flesh out the government. How is the city run? Is it a country (City-State) unto itself? If not, which other provinces are allied with this city? Which other cities? Is this the most powerful governmental center in the nation? OK, so that is the big picture, but now what about the local situation? They have a ruler, but what about the other governmental institutions? They likely have a town guard (like a police force) but do they also have a military garrison? Are they the same thing? Is there a Sheriff that operates independently of the town guard as a member of the court system? Is there a District Court, a criminal court and/or a circuit court? How does that work? Or does everything have to go to the governor/mayor/magistrate? Is there a library? Is there a granary? Is there an armory? A barracks? Some other sort of government warehouse? Is there something like a town council?
That covers the government. The only other thing you might need is an economy in the system. I assume the principle economy will be farming followed by "ranching". There will be some measure of timber / lumbering but maybe not locally. Is there a need for quarrying stone and is there a mason's guild? There will be blacksmiths supporting these basic industries, and there may be a blacksmith supporting the army/palace. So you know where they get their food but where do they get their water? Does it need to be rationed?
All these NP-characters need a place to live so pick out which neighborhood they live in. I don't think you need to pick out which house. And then pick out the taverns and flesh out the details in there. Who frequents this tavern? What hours/days are they likely to be there? Do some taverns cater to a non-human crowd? Is there a tavern that doesn't like to see adventurers? Is there a tavern favored by the guards, or the militia? Where is the best gossip found? Where is the best entertainment found? And which of the characters you outlined above might share a recommendation to go to this or that tavern, and why? And what about the inns?
Finally, is there a special magical resource found in this city? An alchemist's shop for special potions? A shop to purchase scrolls? A wizard that is willing to discuss his craft with younger wizards? A particular shop where magical weapons and armor might be sold?
If you're ready for these questions from the party, you're pretty darn ready.
There is no one answer to this question :)
You could create the entire town/government/ and many NPCs OR... consider this.
Based on what your players are interested in, direct them to a few of those places -- that's a much small subsection than the whole town. Create a few situations based off of that, and by create I mean determine NPC motivations. Those NPCs could direct the PCs to an area, or just give information that helps lead the players to an area.
TLDR: designing a large town is tough. Start small, with a few NPCs, but you control what info they may have and provide and use that to help focus the party in a direction. so instead of prepping a whole city, maybe you prep a much smaller portion...
As a crude example, suppose the backstory of one of the PCs is that they are an apprentice brewer. Perhaps they go to Neverwinter and talk to some of the established brewers, one then mentions rats infesting his cellar... and this could then lead to dealing with wererats in tunnels. the brewer could also mention other issues, such as minor nobles disappearing and this leads the party to a "mystery" style adventure.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
I would prep a list of about a dozen NPC names. You can give them a gender and a race if you like, but leave a lot of the description open so you can assign them on the fly to shopkeepers, or other NPCs the characters may run into in town.
"Not all those who wander are lost"