Setup: Working on running the Ghost of Saltmarsh as a part of a grand homebrew campaign and I wanted to get a general input on handling how the reveal of locations should/could be handled.
During the game, the players will arrive in Saltmarsh and-- eventually-- use the 'Haunted' Mansion as a base of operations. So what I'm weighing is give the players a write-up of all the locations they need to know about and wave my hand saying you've explored the city and this is what you found and learned about the locations and its people. The second option is to make the players explore the city in-game and what they find about the city is equal to the effort they put into it.
Question: When it comes to new cities/towns/hamlets/villages/hovels how do you handle revealing locations to the players?
This might not be helpful, but I’ll usually do one of the two methods you describe.
I let the plans for what’s happening guide me. If it’s a small town that’s little more than a rest stop, I’ll hand wave it — you find the inn, you buy supplies, the night passes uneventfully and you leave in the morning. But when coming to a new city, where they are going to be spending some time, I make them work for it. For one, exploration is one of the game’s pillars, and I don’t want to remove that, city exploration can be just as interesting as wilderness or dungeon exploration. Just like when irl you move to a new place, there’s some fun in discovering your new corner bar. For two, in the course of bumming around town, they may meet NPCs and make friends or enemies I didn’t expect. And, of course, they’ll often latch onto something I’d thought of as a minor detail, but the way they talk about it is much cooler than what I’d thought of, so I change my plans a bit.
If it’s a really big city, I may let them know about a famous neighborhood or landmark, like how even people who have never been to New York know there’s a place in it called Times Square or in Paris, there’s the Eiffel Tower and so on. That doesn’t mean they know where in town it is, necessarily, just that it exists, and they may find it if they look or ask around.
This might not be helpful, but I’ll usually do one of the two methods you describe.
I let the plans for what’s happening guide me. If it’s a small town that’s little more than a rest stop, I’ll hand wave it — you find the inn, you buy supplies, the night passes uneventfully and you leave in the morning. But when coming to a new city, where they are going to be spending some time, I make them work for it. For one, exploration is one of the game’s pillars, and I don’t want to remove that, city exploration can be just as interesting as wilderness or dungeon exploration. Just like when irl you move to a new place, there’s some fun in discovering your new corner bar. For two, in the course of bumming around town, they may meet NPCs and make friends or enemies I didn’t expect. And, of course, they’ll often latch onto something I’d thought of as a minor detail, but the way they talk about it is much cooler than what I’d thought of, so I change my plans a bit.
If it’s a really big city, I may let them know about a famous neighborhood or landmark, like how even people who have never been to New York know there’s a place in it called Times Square or in Paris, there’s the Eiffel Tower and so on. That doesn’t mean they know where in town it is, necessarily, just that it exists, and they may find it if they look or ask around.
What you said makes good sense and I appreciate the feedback. Saltmarsh has close to 30 defined locations so there is a lot of exploration for them to do. The only issue I ran into is that in a previous game where I was hoping for them to discover a city they hunkered down. What I have been thinking since my original post is there is an NPC the party is supposed to meet which I could use to give the party an abbreviated tour of the city and only hitting up some of the locations that adventurers would be interested in and then giving players the freedom to explore on their own thereafter. As the game progresses I could always give the map of the city to the players as they spend more time in the city, or at least using some downtime activities.
When I ran the Saltmarsh exploration session I did two things.
1. I gave the players the map with all the points of interest numbered but not labeled. The players then spent a session saying "I want to go to #15, what's that?" and then I'd give them the run down. Things got to happen very organically and they interacted with the locals at their own pace. The players really seemed to enjoy being able to explore on their own.
2. I didn't give them any prior knowledge about the city history or politics. Instead when they asked what #4 was, I told them it was a library. They decided to go there and I let them roll history checks as they browsed the books. They each got a check, and if it was successful they got to ask three questions about the region and I answered truthfully.
Question: When it comes to new cities/towns/hamlets/villages/hovels how do you handle revealing locations to the players?
For me it varies from session to session and group to group (though I try to be relatively consistent). In general I like showing an overhead map with numbers but not labels. In your case, how important do you want Saltmarsh to be? If you need to provide a "push" you can add an inciting incident as the characters arrive in town. Last time I ran this I had a bunch of folks gathered around a makeshift gallows on one of the grassy areas.
A person was about to be condemmened as a "witch", but you can do whatever is appropriate in your game (I was exploring themes related to "who are the real villains" in that game). The characters then chose how to interact, did they just let this happen, did they intervene, did they cause a pause, or now do they have some sense as to questions to ask around town regarding the political situation as well as how dangerous the town/area are.
Hope some of that helps!
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"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!"
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Setup: Working on running the Ghost of Saltmarsh as a part of a grand homebrew campaign and I wanted to get a general input on handling how the reveal of locations should/could be handled.
During the game, the players will arrive in Saltmarsh and-- eventually-- use the 'Haunted' Mansion as a base of operations. So what I'm weighing is give the players a write-up of all the locations they need to know about and wave my hand saying you've explored the city and this is what you found and learned about the locations and its people. The second option is to make the players explore the city in-game and what they find about the city is equal to the effort they put into it.
Question: When it comes to new cities/towns/hamlets/villages/hovels how do you handle revealing locations to the players?
This might not be helpful, but I’ll usually do one of the two methods you describe.
I let the plans for what’s happening guide me. If it’s a small town that’s little more than a rest stop, I’ll hand wave it — you find the inn, you buy supplies, the night passes uneventfully and you leave in the morning.
But when coming to a new city, where they are going to be spending some time, I make them work for it. For one, exploration is one of the game’s pillars, and I don’t want to remove that, city exploration can be just as interesting as wilderness or dungeon exploration. Just like when irl you move to a new place, there’s some fun in discovering your new corner bar. For two, in the course of bumming around town, they may meet NPCs and make friends or enemies I didn’t expect. And, of course, they’ll often latch onto something I’d thought of as a minor detail, but the way they talk about it is much cooler than what I’d thought of, so I change my plans a bit.
If it’s a really big city, I may let them know about a famous neighborhood or landmark, like how even people who have never been to New York know there’s a place in it called Times Square or in Paris, there’s the Eiffel Tower and so on. That doesn’t mean they know where in town it is, necessarily, just that it exists, and they may find it if they look or ask around.
What you said makes good sense and I appreciate the feedback. Saltmarsh has close to 30 defined locations so there is a lot of exploration for them to do. The only issue I ran into is that in a previous game where I was hoping for them to discover a city they hunkered down. What I have been thinking since my original post is there is an NPC the party is supposed to meet which I could use to give the party an abbreviated tour of the city and only hitting up some of the locations that adventurers would be interested in and then giving players the freedom to explore on their own thereafter. As the game progresses I could always give the map of the city to the players as they spend more time in the city, or at least using some downtime activities.
When I ran the Saltmarsh exploration session I did two things.
1. I gave the players the map with all the points of interest numbered but not labeled. The players then spent a session saying "I want to go to #15, what's that?" and then I'd give them the run down. Things got to happen very organically and they interacted with the locals at their own pace. The players really seemed to enjoy being able to explore on their own.
2. I didn't give them any prior knowledge about the city history or politics. Instead when they asked what #4 was, I told them it was a library. They decided to go there and I let them roll history checks as they browsed the books. They each got a check, and if it was successful they got to ask three questions about the region and I answered truthfully.
Question: When it comes to new cities/towns/hamlets/villages/hovels how do you handle revealing locations to the players?
For me it varies from session to session and group to group (though I try to be relatively consistent). In general I like showing an overhead map with numbers but not labels. In your case, how important do you want Saltmarsh to be? If you need to provide a "push" you can add an inciting incident as the characters arrive in town. Last time I ran this I had a bunch of folks gathered around a makeshift gallows on one of the grassy areas.
A person was about to be condemmened as a "witch", but you can do whatever is appropriate in your game (I was exploring themes related to "who are the real villains" in that game). The characters then chose how to interact, did they just let this happen, did they intervene, did they cause a pause, or now do they have some sense as to questions to ask around town regarding the political situation as well as how dangerous the town/area are.
Hope some of that helps!
"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!"