I'm building a homebrew world for a game that I've been running for a month and a half, and so far things are going really well (though it does feel a LOT like I'm laying out the train tracks while it slowly rolls forwards). It's a very low-magic urban adventure, and thus all the opponents they've encounters so far (and for the next few weeks at least) have been other humans, and I was looking for ideas on how to spice things up with a more meaningful variety mechanically.
There are two main rival gangs in the city that occupy different quarters of the city, and I was wanting to give them different flavour, other than simply describing what they wear. So far I've gotten the hang of the homebrew tools here for making tougher guards, so I'm hoping to crowd source some ideas for what mechanics based differences might make encounters with these gangs feel unique. It is a very low-magic setting, but I was thinking the rare spell casters that exist in this world could cast schools of magic unique to each group.. but not every fight will have a mage, so I'm a bit stuck.
I'm much more interested in looking for help with encounters, to be honest. I can make up lore on the spot pretty readily. Like maybe one of the gangs is more about extortion while the other are smugglers, or something like that. But I'd like it so the players feel when they enter 'the Old Quarter' they're going to expect a different type of fight from a random encounter to that in some other part of the city.
They have a rogue in the party, who has demonstrated their abilities: both gangs come (not at same time) and ask for them to join. They can side with a gang, or just fight.
A rat (mages familiar) follows them round, pretending to like them. The wizard is looking through its eyes, trying to suss out if they have any magic items that are useful, and to be stolen.
These are just some ideas. I can do some more if you want (and I can think of them).
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
As a matter of Lore, it was common when cities and countries were conquered that the new city would have multiple ethnic groups. It became a common practice for the conquerors to divide the city into wards or sectors using the ethnicity of the group as the name for that area, such as "The Greek Quarter." Naturally many traditions observed by that ethnicity would be permitted as they had no bearing on the administration of the city and helped to stabilize the situation. Young men (gangs) would naturally attempt to exert some influence to protect their communities. Now the thing that the DM should know is this social-administrative structure was a ploy by the conqueror to control the city with less effort. If a city were split in even thirds between say a human conqueror, an half-orc populace and a dwarven populace, the humans would only need to secure the cooperation of one of the other two factions to maintain legitimate authority without having to resort to overt tyranny. So if that helps provide some color to support your ideas for factions and gangs then I think it will help provide a cohesive story.
Other factions will include religious, economic (guilds), ethnic, tiered (upper class, second class, lower class, serfs), government aligned, regional, subversive (external government), thieves, outsiders (travelers-visitors-adventurers), rural vs. urban and so on.
All of these things are excellent story elements, even if you don't build a plot on them. They are the background noise that makes your cities, towns and cultures come alive. I believe it was Matt Colville that pointed out that War (conflict) is the normal state of affairs and it is only through the diligent efforts of leaders that peace reigns. The purpose of the town guard is not to terrorize the populace but to ensure that folks recognize they must resolve their disputes in a peaceful manner. If they step outside the bounds of the civil code, they get hauled in and punished for disrupting the peace.
I hope some of this provides you inspiration and enjoyment for your group. Good luck.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
This is all pretty good stuff for adding in some flavour when they encounter each gang. I like the idea of excessively observant rats foreboding a combat encounter with one of the gangs which uses them as spies. I think ultimately the difference I'll go with is one gang will all be able to cast a light array of low level spells, and the other gang will be tougher or more heavily armoured.
Thanks for offering some world building context too, MusicScout. It's nice to mix in a bit more structure than just saying 'these guys occupy Old Quarter, and the others are in South Quarter'.
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I'm building a homebrew world for a game that I've been running for a month and a half, and so far things are going really well (though it does feel a LOT like I'm laying out the train tracks while it slowly rolls forwards). It's a very low-magic urban adventure, and thus all the opponents they've encounters so far (and for the next few weeks at least) have been other humans, and I was looking for ideas on how to spice things up with a more meaningful variety mechanically.
There are two main rival gangs in the city that occupy different quarters of the city, and I was wanting to give them different flavour, other than simply describing what they wear. So far I've gotten the hang of the homebrew tools here for making tougher guards, so I'm hoping to crowd source some ideas for what mechanics based differences might make encounters with these gangs feel unique. It is a very low-magic setting, but I was thinking the rare spell casters that exist in this world could cast schools of magic unique to each group.. but not every fight will have a mage, so I'm a bit stuck.
Thanks for any ideas!
Are you asking about the actual encounters etc or the actual lore/story for the gangs?
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
I'm much more interested in looking for help with encounters, to be honest. I can make up lore on the spot pretty readily. Like maybe one of the gangs is more about extortion while the other are smugglers, or something like that. But I'd like it so the players feel when they enter 'the Old Quarter' they're going to expect a different type of fight from a random encounter to that in some other part of the city.
They have a rogue in the party, who has demonstrated their abilities: both gangs come (not at same time) and ask for them to join. They can side with a gang, or just fight.
A rat (mages familiar) follows them round, pretending to like them. The wizard is looking through its eyes, trying to suss out if they have any magic items that are useful, and to be stolen.
These are just some ideas. I can do some more if you want (and I can think of them).
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
As a matter of Lore, it was common when cities and countries were conquered that the new city would have multiple ethnic groups. It became a common practice for the conquerors to divide the city into wards or sectors using the ethnicity of the group as the name for that area, such as "The Greek Quarter." Naturally many traditions observed by that ethnicity would be permitted as they had no bearing on the administration of the city and helped to stabilize the situation. Young men (gangs) would naturally attempt to exert some influence to protect their communities. Now the thing that the DM should know is this social-administrative structure was a ploy by the conqueror to control the city with less effort. If a city were split in even thirds between say a human conqueror, an half-orc populace and a dwarven populace, the humans would only need to secure the cooperation of one of the other two factions to maintain legitimate authority without having to resort to overt tyranny. So if that helps provide some color to support your ideas for factions and gangs then I think it will help provide a cohesive story.
Other factions will include religious, economic (guilds), ethnic, tiered (upper class, second class, lower class, serfs), government aligned, regional, subversive (external government), thieves, outsiders (travelers-visitors-adventurers), rural vs. urban and so on.
All of these things are excellent story elements, even if you don't build a plot on them. They are the background noise that makes your cities, towns and cultures come alive. I believe it was Matt Colville that pointed out that War (conflict) is the normal state of affairs and it is only through the diligent efforts of leaders that peace reigns. The purpose of the town guard is not to terrorize the populace but to ensure that folks recognize they must resolve their disputes in a peaceful manner. If they step outside the bounds of the civil code, they get hauled in and punished for disrupting the peace.
I hope some of this provides you inspiration and enjoyment for your group. Good luck.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
This is all pretty good stuff for adding in some flavour when they encounter each gang. I like the idea of excessively observant rats foreboding a combat encounter with one of the gangs which uses them as spies. I think ultimately the difference I'll go with is one gang will all be able to cast a light array of low level spells, and the other gang will be tougher or more heavily armoured.
Thanks for offering some world building context too, MusicScout. It's nice to mix in a bit more structure than just saying 'these guys occupy Old Quarter, and the others are in South Quarter'.