Some of the more useful stuff I heard: 1:00 What do they need? -- Inn, Tavern, Smithy, General Shop, Church -- more choices for bigger places 2:13 Unique/interesting features for each place: Village 0-1, Town 1-2, City 2-5 (e.g., port city, different type of government, special library); create a mood 3:40 Build little by little instead of all at once;small amount of details at first 9:44 You can start with what you need and work backwards; or you can start with the history and move forward so that the historical development of the city makes sense... 16:10 Demographics: where do the rich, poor and merchant class reside? 19:35 Let the players do what they like and go along with it -- provide them the space to do it. (E.g., if they like having a baker, then provide them a bakery.)
When my kid had her second Christmas I spent so much of my time thinking about what the perfect gift would be for her. I finally got the gift wrapped it in extra special paper a beautiful ribbon and bow then I went to my knees under the tree and placed in the perfect spot. Christmas came I grabbed the pristine present and handed it to her. She apprehensively pulled a tiny piece realized in a fit of joy how paper works and out came the plastic prize. She then proceeded to play with the box for hours and never took a second look at the toy. Stories are our gift to people, carefully planned and picked but dang it, they just find the box more interesting sometimes!
Some of my best characters were created like this. Yeah, I'm proud of the main NPC I spent all this time making, but one of the best was originally just generic blacksmith #3. who was then harold, whose voice and personality they liked. then he has a daughter who'd love that kitten they rescued, and of course he knows their struggle, he was an adventurer before his kid! Until eventually he used to be some level-17 adventurer who travelled solo until a town got raised by bandits while he was killing thier manticore problem and he adopted the only surviving child hiding in a closet and settled back down like a true hero. Now they've managed to convince him to help them on the last quest, though I'll have him holding others off while they do the actual final battle. but they'll see him holding off waves of minions while they battle the final boss, so they can truly feel like this boss is powerful with armies at his command even though they're still just fighting him. Nothing gets a party invested like a character they chose to devote thier game time to, THEY made that character, I just helped.
Citybuilding 101 (taken from history of human settlements, a 101-level urban planning class): 1) water runs downhill in predictable channels 2) people need water, and prefer to settle near it 3) people also need food and shelter, so anyplace that has an abundance of water, food, and building materials is going to be settled first. If it is strategic and easily defended, it will likely become a large and important place very quickly. 4) consider transportation. Settlements also tend to grow at important travel hubs (convergences of rivers, fords, below mountain passes, etc). 5) things tend to be located as near as possible to base needs assuming that rapid transit is not available. Fishmongers will set up near docks. Leatherworks will set up near the edges of town where the pastures are. All of these areas will likely be a mix of residential and commercial uses, as without rapid transit people will have to live reasonably near where they work. Anything not tied to a base need will exist anywhere- bakeries and markets, for example. Civic buildings will either be centrally located or located in the most defensible spot of the city - and military/LE presence will tend to concentrate in those areas too. 6) if cities can't expand out, they will expand up. If they can expand out, they will invariably create a bullseye effect with the older cities and walls in the middle and the newer expansions and walls outside of that. 7) any great disaster will be evident in the city's form. A large fire, an earthquake, a catastrophic storm or flood- all of these will leave a mark on the city's design and function. A visitor to the city will be able to see where these things occurred, even if what happened isn't immediately evident (for example, an area of new construction surrounded by markedly older buildings might mark where a fire ravaged parts of the city and was rebuilt). 8) geopolitical and societal norms will dictate who lives where. Any demographic who is undesirable will be pushed to the fringes - both in society and physically. The privileged, in contrast, will live in the areas which are most conveniently located or otherwise desirable. The poor almost always live in the most undesirable parts of town (flood-prone areas, etc). Of course, that all assumes that the fantasy world is more or less like the real world. In a world where water doesn't flow reliably downhill through paths of least resistance, things may be very different indeed. Not to mention, how would something like high magic affect the city? In a city confined to a narrow valley in high-magic world, there might be floating islands of city above that. Or, a city with a high population of dwarves or gnomes may instead expand down, not up!
I love building settlements & cities for D&D, although I usually end up only spending time on their creation if the settlement will act as a hub for the players. The one tip I have is if you've played Dwarf Fortress or most medieval RTS games, I would firmly suggest that you'd look to those for inspiration to construct your city. Constructing a city logically, with different features & buildings necessitated by the inhabitants is one of the funnest bits of prep work for me. I look at what would allow a settlement to flourish in the first place. Maybe it was built around a keep built upon a very steep escarpment that gave the colonists a strategic advantage, or maybe it is a Dwarven tunnel city built around a large aquifer to support underground farming and their foundries & forges? Then I would need to create services or buildings that would make life sustainable and flourish in these settlements. Tanneries, forges, farms, perhaps a large garrison barracks adjoining every barbican or tower for defense. Nothing is more satisfying that being able to say comfortably and confidently answer players who ask "what do I see?"
I am sooooo glad I came across your channel. You guys ROCK! A wealth of ideas and info. Thanks for doing what you're doing for the community. Always looking forward to the next video.
Love your videos. My game (elementary school kids) had taken a similar NPC twist. They have been given accommodation in the castle to do work for the queen. But they always ask to interact with the queens assistant because they like the figurine I used for her better than the queen.
I love city interaction as anything can happen and a whole new quest arc can form just from the players exploring the towns & cities of the world :P A great video as ever
My approach is to use randomized spreadsheets to create lots of combinatorially unique, procedurally generated content and then cherry pick the good results later. For city design, I have a pretty simple list of districts which I use to generate an abstract grid map and the connections between districts. I also have a simple NPC generator that provides names, descriptions, locations, allies, and enemies. These two sheets together give me a basic framework for a city and the people in it. The next thing I could use is either a basic mission generator or an adlibs-style interesting feature generator.
Thank you guys much for these videos, haven't played since 2nd edition, and just started playing again, you guys and a few others got me back into the hobby. Many thanks
Excellent video. I am viewing this after having recently completed my own video on cities and I love your style of open, living cities that are created much on the fly.
That idea about pulling little contributions from the players and then re-injecting them into the scene == excellent. It's actually in the rules of "DayTrippers" (in the GM's Guide).
I'm rather new to DMing. I've really only recently started because I have some friends who want to try D&D, and I'm the only one with enough experience to attempt it. I really love writing plot, and drawing maps, and creating NPCs, but without a doubt the hardest thing for me has been building cities and towns. It's difficult to create realistic civilizations and fill them. This video is a great help and you guys have given me some great ideas for my game. Thanks a ton!
One thing I'm doing for my current campaign is plundering old city and village maps from d&d and pathfinder modules and from the Cartographer's Guild. I use the locations presented in the legend for inspiration, and sometimes add more using GIMP.
I'm currently building a world for my first game as a DM and these tips have been really handy! I'm currently working on the starting village, all it has at the moment is the tavern/inn, a butchery/bakery, the stables and a blacksmith. there are a few houses dotted around, i was going to have a lot more than this but if i make what i currently have mapped out as just 'the center of town' then that leaves me room to expand in any direction the players want, and i don't have to map those places at all.
i begin with what the town *does not* have. perhaps the library didnt survive the fire. maybe there is no true town guard because the theives guild owns them now. this is often more interesting then what it does have to offer.
I just got done building a city, I start out with the basics I think..... 1) Where do the people get their water/food? River, Stream, Well, etc. 2) Where are adventures going to stay? Inn? Camp? 3) What does this city make it's gold? Mine? Trade threw Agriculture? Wood? 4) How many people live here? 5) what threats are present, if any, within their walls? Then I work on a simple map, noting the answers to my question.
As a personal quirk, I almost always include (at least) one of the following in my campaigns, it's mostly just a joke to myself, but if I were to have a player play in more than one of my games, they might also notice it. Bella's Baubles (junk shop - aka shop of DM fiat) An inn run/owned by a half troll Some generic eccentric craftsman (crazy gnomish woodcarver, surly blacksmith, etc)
No there is something to be said for that. It means there will be a handful of things well fleshed out when you start your campaigns. -Nerdarchist Dave
I have it made somewhat easy and somewhat hard on myself to build my city. I play in the World of Darkness, which is basically the real world with a few changes (more like the movies and more conspiracies, also low fantasy elements) so i just plain took the city of berlin, which gave me a bunch of very accurate maps and a lot of interesting places. The part that is a bit harder is to decide what exactly is happening where, and where i have to make divergences from the real world. The second part to city building is that i want to have a whole lot of named NPCs which have their own goals and opinions and friendships and enemies and so on and have the story just emerge from the interactions between those NPCs and disturbances the players make. Technically my city could run without players but that would be kind of boring for me to run. But exactly this feeling, that without them things would still be happening and some of the awesome stuff would still go down is what makes the city feel alive for the players. As small fish between a bunch of powerful vampires they want to capitalize on every opening and as they become bigger players they want to play to surpass their peers (and make things happen in the city). noone has made it to the top yet (and it would need another 3 years at least for them to manage that xD) but then they would have to maintain that position ^^ The system kind of works, but i (as a storyteller/GM) get kind of frustrated when the density of named characters is too low in a certain area and I just have to tell my players " you cant find any way to contact the liege of that part of the city, noone will give you their adress or number and no you can not call in favors to go and talk to them" ... because i WANT there to be stuff happening and at least one vampire living in every of berlins 318 postal codes and i want every of the about 50 regions to have their own named liege who has a complete sheet and goals and affiliations and so on and i want all of the lieges that the players interact with to have a right hand man/woman and so on xD canonically the city has about 2000 vampires with most of them being outlawed because of overcrowding and the ever increasing number of vampire hunters and the slowly crumbling masquerade... so in the end i will need about 300-400 NPCs... which is a bit of work, after one year of playing there are around 30 named and sheeted npcs and around 30 more encountered ones who have gotten names yes i know the project is insane. I am insane. I like it. So do my players, for the most part. (some left because of sandbox, because of PVP and because of my world being so damn gloomy ... i dont think of it as a horror rpg, but it is about fucking vampires. once things start to get too sparkly and friendly i have failed^^)
+Maric i usually tend to build them when they are necessary, for example when a new character is made in an area where i have no "ruling" vampire i would ask myself who would have this guy as an underling and what would they try to accomplish with that. I also have the secret underground battle between the fourth reich and the black rose (from the official berlin sourcebook... and this is the least stupid thing in there) so i have details of what other traits someone might or might not have depending on whether or not they are member of one of these groups... so i can do it once or twice on demand but having to do it 300 times exhausts my creativity xD
Dan Pit I think it's the best way to do it. Make a few notes about interesting points and NPCs. The rest will hash itself out during the game.-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy i agree and once again you all have my thanks i just got back into being a DM after a long time of not playing and yall's channel has been an inspiration and a couple of times a game saver
Dan Pit Dude you have no idea how awesome that is to hear. We start this thing thinking it could be fun but never imagined the responses we'd get from people. Thanks for hanging out with us. -Nerdarchist Dave
Hey guys, I've been loving these videos like crazy and watching them before I start any new adventures for my campaign. I was wondering though, could you guys maybe make a video on how to handle different types of politics for a D&D game. What are some tips to making a more political intrigue game. Josh
You might also consider how different terrain for your city will affect the interactions. For example, a sizable city in a crater where the center of government, wealthy districts, etc are in the center and the poorer areas are up on the edges, everyone can look down on the most wealthy. Those wealthy and politically powerful individuals may act more humbly and with more consideration of the poor, since all eyes are always on them and all the plumbing tends to flow down to the most wealthy area. Nobles will pay attention to sanitation pretty quickly if their negligence lands on their front lawn fairly quickly. Alternatively, a city where the wealthiest are higher up a mountain face may feel superior, haughty, or even uncaring of the standard of living of the poor.
Built a city on the back of a dragon... yeah it's a big ass dragon... dragon is also still alive and awake... he uses a deactivated warforged body and magic to project his senses and control the warforged so he can walk around and interact with the citizens of his city. Wonder what people would think when he needs to use his dragon body to defend his city XD
"Honestly, my opinion as the DM nothing should be important to you." -- quote from Nerdarchist Dave. I like this. It's the transcendental, buddhist principle of non-attachment applied to RPG. Maybe DMs should meditate before they arbitrate the game.
I love the information you pump out about 5e and would love get it to a game with you guys....If you'll ever have a opening for any games I would love to join up.
I have a little GM 911 for you guys. I have been trying to encourage creative play and have pursued this partially by following the always say yes rule. long story short I now have one player who ties a torch to his battle axe before entering any dark place. other players are starting to follow these minds of repetitive use of something that was creative to start with and I want to know how to curb this kind of behavior through some kind of in-game mechanics instead of just putting my foot down and saying "you can't do that"
Well for the torch have random areas where water flows over the players extinguishing the torch, and making it unable to relight until it dries. Use geography, and environment to alter situations.
I’ve had a magic Knick knack (bag of holding, ring of speed + 5 etc.) shop owner who had no backstory become someone who crafted a sphere of anilation. After sending them to the negative material plane cause they kept talking to him.
Here is a alternate idea almost all dnd is monarchy , what about all governments found in civilization Sid Meier like communism, fanaticism , would make for a very different feel to the game,.
antwan1357 Yes it would especially as the city expresses the control mechanisms for said government. Stepping outside of the feudal monarchy can make for some interesting role playing
Thanks for doing my question guys, and yes, I like the way you mapped it out. I'd really like to build a campaign where I can focus on the story and the city aspect rather than the city or town just being a place where you come back to sell items after a quest or where you go to the inn to look for a quest. I like your points about knowing why the village is there (mining, etc). I suppose that it is my fault if players aren't interested in the city, I just need to give it a pulse. Love the Voltron shirt! You guys are great. Thanks again.
Honestly it isn't that aren't interested in adventuring in the city it's that they don't know that's where the adventure is. Have a guy grab a pouch and start running they will chase him I guarantee. From here there are dozens of ways to spring forward into an adventure. This is just one of hundred ways to start your adventure. -Nerdarchist Dave
I have a little GM 911 for you guys. I have been trying to encourage creative play and have pursued this partially by following the always say yes rule. long story short I now have one player who ties a torch to his battle axe before entering any dark place. other players are starting to follow these minds of repetitive use of something that was creative to start with and I want to know how to curb this kind of behavior through some kind of in-game mechanics instead of just putting my foot down and saying "you can't do that"
+Gilliam Logan Just let the torch go out on a strong hit. Suddenly he is in the dark. Tying a torch to a weapon works fine while you are just walking, but if you hit something with it, it could fall of or go out. For the other players doing similar things, get creative. I don't have a general solution for something like that, but I am sure you can come up with stuff (If Nerdarchy doesn't answer you ;) )
Gilliam Logan Like the other guy said, fighting with it like that would certainly cause the torch to go out. You could also have an NPC remark that it's weird. I think you need to distinguish between whether there is really something wrong with them doing that, or if it simply annoys you--are you maybe being inflexible? Another possibility is to require them to have rope or twine to tie the torch on with, and don't let them tie torches to sharp blades (or rather let them, and then tell them that the blade cut the rope and the torch fell. Maybe even have them roll a dex check to avoid damage from the falling torch.
Some of the more useful stuff I heard:
1:00 What do they need? -- Inn, Tavern, Smithy, General Shop, Church -- more choices for bigger places
2:13 Unique/interesting features for each place: Village 0-1, Town 1-2, City 2-5 (e.g., port city, different type of government, special library); create a mood
3:40 Build little by little instead of all at once;small amount of details at first
9:44 You can start with what you need and work backwards; or you can start with the history and move forward so that the historical development of the city makes sense...
16:10 Demographics: where do the rich, poor and merchant class reside?
19:35 Let the players do what they like and go along with it -- provide them the space to do it. (E.g., if they like having a baker, then provide them a bakery.)
Violet Deliriums Thanks for breaking it down for the viewers Nate the Nerdarch
When my kid had her second Christmas I spent so much of my time thinking about what the perfect gift would be for her. I finally got the gift wrapped it in extra special paper a beautiful ribbon and bow then I went to my knees under the tree and placed in the perfect spot. Christmas came I grabbed the pristine present and handed it to her. She apprehensively pulled a tiny piece realized in a fit of joy how paper works and out came the plastic prize. She then proceeded to play with the box for hours and never took a second look at the toy. Stories are our gift to people, carefully planned and picked but dang it, they just find the box more interesting sometimes!
Amen to that. I was wondering where you were going with that. Perfect analogy my friend well done.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nothing in your campaign should be important to your campaign except the player characters....What a great statement...so true.
TheDMsCraft It is about the story they are telling with you.
Nerdarchist Dave
Totally agree
Some of my best characters were created like this. Yeah, I'm proud of the main NPC I spent all this time making, but one of the best was originally just generic blacksmith #3. who was then harold, whose voice and personality they liked. then he has a daughter who'd love that kitten they rescued, and of course he knows their struggle, he was an adventurer before his kid! Until eventually he used to be some level-17 adventurer who travelled solo until a town got raised by bandits while he was killing thier manticore problem and he adopted the only surviving child hiding in a closet and settled back down like a true hero. Now they've managed to convince him to help them on the last quest, though I'll have him holding others off while they do the actual final battle. but they'll see him holding off waves of minions while they battle the final boss, so they can truly feel like this boss is powerful with armies at his command even though they're still just fighting him. Nothing gets a party invested like a character they chose to devote thier game time to, THEY made that character, I just helped.
Awesome stuff. Those are the best NPCs the ones that just kind of grow up on their own, because of the players.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Citybuilding 101 (taken from history of human settlements, a 101-level urban planning class):
1) water runs downhill in predictable channels
2) people need water, and prefer to settle near it
3) people also need food and shelter, so anyplace that has an abundance of water, food, and building materials is going to be settled first. If it is strategic and easily defended, it will likely become a large and important place very quickly.
4) consider transportation. Settlements also tend to grow at important travel hubs (convergences of rivers, fords, below mountain passes, etc).
5) things tend to be located as near as possible to base needs assuming that rapid transit is not available. Fishmongers will set up near docks. Leatherworks will set up near the edges of town where the pastures are. All of these areas will likely be a mix of residential and commercial uses, as without rapid transit people will have to live reasonably near where they work. Anything not tied to a base need will exist anywhere- bakeries and markets, for example. Civic buildings will either be centrally located or located in the most defensible spot of the city - and military/LE presence will tend to concentrate in those areas too.
6) if cities can't expand out, they will expand up. If they can expand out, they will invariably create a bullseye effect with the older cities and walls in the middle and the newer expansions and walls outside of that.
7) any great disaster will be evident in the city's form. A large fire, an earthquake, a catastrophic storm or flood- all of these will leave a mark on the city's design and function. A visitor to the city will be able to see where these things occurred, even if what happened isn't immediately evident (for example, an area of new construction surrounded by markedly older buildings might mark where a fire ravaged parts of the city and was rebuilt).
8) geopolitical and societal norms will dictate who lives where. Any demographic who is undesirable will be pushed to the fringes - both in society and physically. The privileged, in contrast, will live in the areas which are most conveniently located or otherwise desirable. The poor almost always live in the most undesirable parts of town (flood-prone areas, etc).
Of course, that all assumes that the fantasy world is more or less like the real world. In a world where water doesn't flow reliably downhill through paths of least resistance, things may be very different indeed. Not to mention, how would something like high magic affect the city? In a city confined to a narrow valley in high-magic world, there might be floating islands of city above that. Or, a city with a high population of dwarves or gnomes may instead expand down, not up!
Killer GM this is a lot of reading, but fantastic for pre-building cities.
Sorry. I get carried away sometimes with my writing :)
As a massive D1 fan, "Well, what could I do for ya" earned you an immediate thumbs up.
I love building settlements & cities for D&D, although I usually end up only spending time on their creation if the settlement will act as a hub for the players.
The one tip I have is if you've played Dwarf Fortress or most medieval RTS games, I would firmly suggest that you'd look to those for inspiration to construct your city. Constructing a city logically, with different features & buildings necessitated by the inhabitants is one of the funnest bits of prep work for me.
I look at what would allow a settlement to flourish in the first place. Maybe it was built around a keep built upon a very steep escarpment that gave the colonists a strategic advantage, or maybe it is a Dwarven tunnel city built around a large aquifer to support underground farming and their foundries & forges?
Then I would need to create services or buildings that would make life sustainable and flourish in these settlements. Tanneries, forges, farms, perhaps a large garrison barracks adjoining every barbican or tower for defense.
Nothing is more satisfying that being able to say comfortably and confidently answer players who ask "what do I see?"
I am sooooo glad I came across your channel. You guys ROCK! A wealth of ideas and info. Thanks for doing what you're doing for the community. Always looking forward to the next video.
Thanks you very much. We love doing what we do nerding out with nerds all over the globe.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Love your videos. My game (elementary school kids) had taken a similar NPC twist. They have been given accommodation in the castle to do work for the queen. But they always ask to interact with the queens assistant because they like the figurine I used for her better than the queen.
I love city interaction as anything can happen and a whole new quest arc can form just from the players exploring the towns & cities of the world :P A great video as ever
Glad you enjoyed it. Around every corner a new adventure. - Nerdarchist Dave
My approach is to use randomized spreadsheets to create lots of combinatorially unique, procedurally generated content and then cherry pick the good results later. For city design, I have a pretty simple list of districts which I use to generate an abstract grid map and the connections between districts. I also have a simple NPC generator that provides names, descriptions, locations, allies, and enemies. These two sheets together give me a basic framework for a city and the people in it. The next thing I could use is either a basic mission generator or an adlibs-style interesting feature generator.
Thank you guys much for these videos, haven't played since 2nd edition, and just started playing again, you guys and a few others got me back into the hobby. Many thanks
Welcome back to the hobby glad to hear it. Your welcome.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Excellent video. I am viewing this after having recently completed my own video on cities and I love your style of open, living cities that are created much on the fly.
That idea about pulling little contributions from the players and then re-injecting them into the scene == excellent. It's actually in the rules of "DayTrippers" (in the GM's Guide).
I'm rather new to DMing. I've really only recently started because I have some friends who want to try D&D, and I'm the only one with enough experience to attempt it. I really love writing plot, and drawing maps, and creating NPCs, but without a doubt the hardest thing for me has been building cities and towns. It's difficult to create realistic civilizations and fill them. This video is a great help and you guys have given me some great ideas for my game. Thanks a ton!
Your welcome. Happy to be of service.
- Nerdarchist Dave
Good info, guys. As a new DM, I fell over whelmed sometimes about building a world. I like that I can do it a bit at a time. Thank you!
One thing I'm doing for my current campaign is plundering old city and village maps from d&d and pathfinder modules and from the Cartographer's Guild. I use the locations presented in the legend for inspiration, and sometimes add more using GIMP.
That is a great idea. Why do extra work when there is profession that has already done the work.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I'm currently building a world for my first game as a DM and these tips have been really handy!
I'm currently working on the starting village, all it has at the moment is the tavern/inn, a butchery/bakery, the stables and a blacksmith.
there are a few houses dotted around, i was going to have a lot more than this but if i make what i currently have mapped out as just 'the center of town' then that leaves me room to expand in any direction the players want, and i don't have to map those places at all.
i begin with what the town *does not* have. perhaps the library didnt survive the fire. maybe there is no true town guard because the theives guild owns them now. this is often more interesting then what it does have to offer.
I just got done building a city, I start out with the basics I think..... 1) Where do the people get their water/food? River, Stream, Well, etc. 2) Where are adventures going to stay? Inn? Camp? 3) What does this city make it's gold? Mine? Trade threw Agriculture? Wood? 4) How many people live here? 5) what threats are present, if any, within their walls?
Then I work on a simple map, noting the answers to my question.
I've done that route before and there is nothing wrong with it. It is just labor intensive. Thanks for sharing your process.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Thanks! I added a few good ideas for my town/city and things to remember!
thank you!!!! ive been trying to gain more knowledge on this subject!!!!
As a personal quirk, I almost always include (at least) one of the following in my campaigns, it's mostly just a joke to myself, but if I were to have a player play in more than one of my games, they might also notice it.
Bella's Baubles (junk shop - aka shop of DM fiat)
An inn run/owned by a half troll
Some generic eccentric craftsman (crazy gnomish woodcarver, surly blacksmith, etc)
No there is something to be said for that. It means there will be a handful of things well fleshed out when you start your campaigns.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I have it made somewhat easy and somewhat hard on myself to build my city. I play in the World of Darkness, which is basically the real world with a few changes (more like the movies and more conspiracies, also low fantasy elements) so i just plain took the city of berlin, which gave me a bunch of very accurate maps and a lot of interesting places. The part that is a bit harder is to decide what exactly is happening where, and where i have to make divergences from the real world. The second part to city building is that i want to have a whole lot of named NPCs which have their own goals and opinions and friendships and enemies and so on and have the story just emerge from the interactions between those NPCs and disturbances the players make. Technically my city could run without players but that would be kind of boring for me to run. But exactly this feeling, that without them things would still be happening and some of the awesome stuff would still go down is what makes the city feel alive for the players. As small fish between a bunch of powerful vampires they want to capitalize on every opening and as they become bigger players they want to play to surpass their peers (and make things happen in the city). noone has made it to the top yet (and it would need another 3 years at least for them to manage that xD) but then they would have to maintain that position ^^
The system kind of works, but i (as a storyteller/GM) get kind of frustrated when the density of named characters is too low in a certain area and I just have to tell my players " you cant find any way to contact the liege of that part of the city, noone will give you their adress or number and no you can not call in favors to go and talk to them" ... because i WANT there to be stuff happening and at least one vampire living in every of berlins 318 postal codes and i want every of the about 50 regions to have their own named liege who has a complete sheet and goals and affiliations and so on and i want all of the lieges that the players interact with to have a right hand man/woman and so on xD canonically the city has about 2000 vampires with most of them being outlawed because of overcrowding and the ever increasing number of vampire hunters and the slowly crumbling masquerade... so in the end i will need about 300-400 NPCs... which is a bit of work, after one year of playing there are around 30 named and sheeted npcs and around 30 more encountered ones who have gotten names
yes i know the project is insane. I am insane. I like it. So do my players, for the most part. (some left because of sandbox, because of PVP and because of my world being so damn gloomy ... i dont think of it as a horror rpg, but it is about fucking vampires. once things start to get too sparkly and friendly i have failed^^)
+Maric i usually tend to build them when they are necessary, for example when a new character is made in an area where i have no "ruling" vampire i would ask myself who would have this guy as an underling and what would they try to accomplish with that. I also have the secret underground battle between the fourth reich and the black rose (from the official berlin sourcebook... and this is the least stupid thing in there) so i have details of what other traits someone might or might not have depending on whether or not they are member of one of these groups... so i can do it once or twice on demand but having to do it 300 times exhausts my creativity xD
i rarely build cities and towns i just get old maps of existing cities cause im lazy lol they are already laid out and most are labeled
Dan Pit I think it's the best way to do it. Make a few notes about interesting points and NPCs. The rest will hash itself out during the game.-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy i agree and once again you all have my thanks i just got back into being a DM after a long time of not playing and yall's channel has been an inspiration and a couple of times a game saver
Dan Pit
Dude you have no idea how awesome that is to hear. We start this thing thinking it could be fun but never imagined the responses we'd get from people. Thanks for hanging out with us.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Been having the same troubles. That helps a lot
You guys are awesome thanks for the videos
Hey guys, I've been loving these videos like crazy and watching them before I start any new adventures for my campaign. I was wondering though, could you guys maybe make a video on how to handle different types of politics for a D&D game. What are some tips to making a more political intrigue game.
Josh
Glad you are enjoying the videos. We appreciate all requests and they go into the ever growing suggestion box.
-Nerdarchist Dave
You might also consider how different terrain for your city will affect the interactions. For example, a sizable city in a crater where the center of government, wealthy districts, etc are in the center and the poorer areas are up on the edges, everyone can look down on the most wealthy. Those wealthy and politically powerful individuals may act more humbly and with more consideration of the poor, since all eyes are always on them and all the plumbing tends to flow down to the most wealthy area. Nobles will pay attention to sanitation pretty quickly if their negligence lands on their front lawn fairly quickly. Alternatively, a city where the wealthiest are higher up a mountain face may feel superior, haughty, or even uncaring of the standard of living of the poor.
Ted's Griswald is Chilling ;)
Stop you are going to give him a big head.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Built a city on the back of a dragon... yeah it's a big ass dragon... dragon is also still alive and awake... he uses a deactivated warforged body and magic to project his senses and control the warforged so he can walk around and interact with the citizens of his city. Wonder what people would think when he needs to use his dragon body to defend his city XD
Why not lving islands, worlds on a turtles back, or a city on a dragon all fun ideas.
-Nerdarchist Dave
"Honestly, my opinion as the DM nothing should be important to you." -- quote from Nerdarchist Dave.
I like this. It's the transcendental, buddhist principle of non-attachment applied to RPG. Maybe DMs should meditate before they arbitrate the game.
Yup that's me all D&D Buda like ;)
You kind of made my day, thanks.
- Nerdarchist Dave
I love the information you pump out about 5e and would love get it to a game with you guys....If you'll ever have a opening for any games I would love to join up.
Keep your eyes open for Nerdarchy the Newsletter. That's where we'll be announcing games with us. Coming Soon......
- Nerdarchist Dave
I have a little GM 911 for you guys. I have been trying to encourage creative play and have pursued this partially by following the always say yes rule. long story short I now have one player who ties a torch to his battle axe before entering any dark place. other players are starting to follow these minds of repetitive use of something that was creative to start with and I want to know how to curb this kind of behavior through some kind of in-game mechanics instead of just putting my foot down and saying "you can't do that"
Well for the torch have random areas where water flows over the players extinguishing the torch, and making it unable to relight until it dries. Use geography, and environment to alter situations.
Griswald for the win!
Thank you
I’ve had a magic Knick knack (bag of holding, ring of speed + 5 etc.) shop owner who had no backstory become someone who crafted a sphere of anilation. After sending them to the negative material plane cause they kept talking to him.
I hear a Baltimore ascent. are you guys on the east cost
James Morrow they live in Jersey
Damn this didnt show up in my sub box yesterday
Don't blame Google we put out a lot of stuff. Check back daily and there is bound to be a new video or five, lol.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Here is a alternate idea almost all dnd is monarchy , what about all governments found in civilization Sid Meier like communism, fanaticism , would make for a very different feel to the game,.
antwan1357 Yes it would especially as the city expresses the control mechanisms for said government. Stepping outside of the feudal monarchy can make for some interesting role playing
Communism: ah some nice treasure there comrade. The government will decide who gets it good work!
Can you guys throw up some graphics, maps, or charts every once and awhile?
Thanks for doing my question guys, and yes, I like the way you mapped it out. I'd really like to build a campaign where I can focus on the story and the city aspect rather than the city or town just being a place where you come back to sell items after a quest or where you go to the inn to look for a quest.
I like your points about knowing why the village is there (mining, etc). I suppose that it is my fault if players aren't interested in the city, I just need to give it a pulse.
Love the Voltron shirt! You guys are great. Thanks again.
make an adventure happen in the city and they will go there. Your welcome
Honestly it isn't that aren't interested in adventuring in the city it's that they don't know that's where the adventure is. Have a guy grab a pouch and start running they will chase him I guarantee. From here there are dozens of ways to spring forward into an adventure. This is just one of hundred ways to start your adventure.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I have a little GM 911 for you guys. I have been trying to encourage creative play and have pursued this partially by following the always say yes rule. long story short I now have one player who ties a torch to his battle axe before entering any dark place. other players are starting to follow these minds of repetitive use of something that was creative to start with and I want to know how to curb this kind of behavior through some kind of in-game mechanics instead of just putting my foot down and saying "you can't do that"
+Gilliam Logan Just let the torch go out on a strong hit. Suddenly he is in the dark. Tying a torch to a weapon works fine while you are just walking, but if you hit something with it, it could fall of or go out.
For the other players doing similar things, get creative. I don't have a general solution for something like that, but I am sure you can come up with stuff (If Nerdarchy doesn't answer you ;) )
Gilliam Logan Like the other guy said, fighting with it like that would certainly cause the torch to go out. You could also have an NPC remark that it's weird. I think you need to distinguish between whether there is really something wrong with them doing that, or if it simply annoys you--are you maybe being inflexible? Another possibility is to require them to have rope or twine to tie the torch on with, and don't let them tie torches to sharp blades (or rather let them, and then tell them that the blade cut the rope and the torch fell. Maybe even have them roll a dex check to avoid damage from the falling torch.