How to Design City Adventures for D&D & Pathfinder
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2024
- Episode #140. Professor DungeonMaster discusses how cities developed, shares his random city generator, and discusses how to structure city adventures.
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"Fury of the Dragon's Breath" by Peter Crowley
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At last - recognition! Now, come on, son-of-Prof, how can your father, who wears so much beige, stink? I don't think you've thought this through properly.
Lindybeige I’m going to show him this.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Best of luck!
@@lindybeige Two of my favorite pundits on the same page... this is a good day. :)
No one expects the Lindybeige!
lindy! love your vids man!
Well done, once again. I've had a lot of trouble explaining to newer players that, unless you are in a large port city and/or capitol, the locals are going to be suspicious of you because you didn't grow up here. Combine that with being 'adventurers' (read, trouble follows you) and are some odd-ball race and folk give you the cold shoulder pretty quickly.
A comment regarding Sumptuary laws....if a PC/NPC can afford a 10gp hat and a 100gp embroidered tunic, the 2-3sp 'fine' is a pittance to show exactly how wealthy you really are. This is grounded in late-medieval Europe, where the sumptuary laws were flouted with abandon, as it says not only can I afford an ostrich plume, I can afford the fine to wear it every day.
Happens in CA today, with annual smog check & registration fees .... It's cheaper to pay the fine jtgan register a fancy car!
Frances and Joseph Gies have written several books on medieval history, and culture. One item which stands out, in their works, for D&D games, is the Merchants' Fairs: basically wholesaler's bring their mass of goods to cities in a Fair, once per year, to sell them to customers, and retailers. The Fairs travel around the continent, moving goods. They were a huge festival! I put them in my game world, at fixed times, in various locations. PC's plan to visit these cities, during the Fair, because it is full of adventure!
The Fairs are a month-long party... It usually takes the city several months to recover from the Fair: narcotic, highly addictive, wines are sold/traded, and drunk. The churches make bank healing/curing. There are jousting/fighting tournaments, for prizes (money, armor, horses, weapons, etc.). Thieves, and prostitutes, make bank, plying the exuberant crowds. They are a wild time, but they only last one month, per location. Then the Fair vendors, and others, move onto the next location, to do it all over again. The cities welcome it because it brings in huge amounts of cash in taxes, fees, and punishments for those caught doing naughty 's. The churches love it because they charge for healings and curing of diseases, and addictions; they also make converts because of their efforts. It is chaotic, exciting, adventurous, and fun!
It is relatively easy for the DM to come up with interesting, challenging, adventure ideas to seed into a Merchant Fair. There are sooo many possibilities... It will also suck the PC's into the life of the city. Cheers!
Bruce Laue I do this as well!
Great idea
Agree very good series of books they wrote and a must-have for the shelves
Professor, you have been a huge inspiration for me to return to D&D. I haven’t played since the 90’s, and I’m now getting ready to start an epic campaign online. You are a rock star! Keep the great advice coming.
Thanks. Keep posting. Rock stars have more views. If I were a rock star I think I'd be Lou Reed: low record sales but other rock stars dig him.
I was in the same boat 6 years ago when I got back into the game. Professor DM has been a great resource. I’ve watched all of them (I think) he gives great advice on all levels.
City States of the Invincible Overlords got that 80s Metal song title feel to it.
The text also has a metal feel to it.
Yep.
Lol
Thought; a great reward for early players would be getting citizen ship to a city. Maybe without it they pay higher taxes/can't go everywhere. But earning it by helping someone out would be a great hook to open up the space and get them invested in it.
Watch a few BBC show on Life in Medieval London.
New comers get the chance to shovel horse and other animal crap off the streets into carts and dig out drainage ditches for ten months. If you can do the time you gain citizenship and get paid three years worth of income. After wards you can live cheap and kick up your feet for two years or work to make more of a better life for yourself.
Most new comers if they could do the time, with nearly a 70% drop out rate, bought a permit to train at one of the many trade craft guilds.
YES!
Invincible Overlord was an excellent campaign setting. I played back Advanced D&D (called 1e but at least the third set of rules published). Its been awhile but the charts and detail really made the city a thing of itself.
Gotta check it out. Thanks for the comment!
Ancient times: let’s move to the city for safety
Modern times: let’s move out of city for safety
When rats had easier access due to construction methods (bubonic plague), or sewage seeps into the fresh water (cholera), city dwelling in ancient times wasn't necessarily safe, either.
In any era; "safety" is a relative and subjective term.
@@DM_Chromie What does that even mean? Throughout most of history what you would define as a “white person” was a very small minority of the population.
@@mattm4557 Huh? Western world “Whites” populated their own cities for millenia. What you’re referring to is a recent development particularly since 1965 Anno Domini (year of the U.S. Immigration Act which literally opened the U.S. to mass immigration from non-white nations). This “open border” leftist doctrine has since afflicted all remaining Western/European nations. Western and European nations were literally homogenous people and this was for millenia. Isn’t TRUE history grand? Our academia can no longer be trusted.
@@inhocsignovinces1419 I never said “whites” didn’t have their own cities. Only that throughout history what people define as “white” wasn’t this dominant oppressive force across the world. CRT, Post-modernist thinking and revisionist history has crippled an entire generation at this point.
“ title text here”
Don't know how that happened.
I like running city and village adventures. I try to emulate video game RPGs - basically, walk around and gather clues from quirky townspeople, buy or barter for supplies, find hidden goodies, maybe have a confrontation or two. To keep players on the ball, I apply ICRPG-style timers. When the timer goes off, they notice that they're missing supplies (pickpocketed? accidentally dropped it and won't find it again?), or a gang confronts them for a fight, or something bad that might happen in a city or in a village of strangers. I like to keep it nicely structured, so it's one move + one action in a building and/or with an NPC in an "hour" turn time in the game, and the players go one at a time. The action can be talk/search area/mend/shop etc. That's where I use neat things like bird's eye view town maps. Most buildings are considered locked up and "unplayable," so the players focus on node-hopping their mini-figures from one important building or map feature to another. Wherever they land, they can "search" and sometimes they'll find a narrow alley (not marked on the map, because I like to keep maps kind of vague) leading to something interesting or useful. It's as much fun as combat. If a fight breaks out, I lay down cardstock drawings of buildings and features of the fight area on UDT so that the background can be utilized. I'm pleased with how smoothly it works. I play with my wife and kids, and they get a kick out of it.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I do the same with my UDT. Some people want Ultimate City terrain but I don't know what to do with it, other than to draw cobblestones. Cheers!
1:53 warrhammer poster. haven't seen that since 1991. LOVE IT!!
Very informative! Thanks. The innkeeper telling the authorities on the shifty rogue with a grappling hook sounds like a great start to an adventure. I always loved when players did that sort of thing.
Thanks, Art. May all your rolls be 20s!
It's nice to see the d12 getting some love.
Tom Kerruish I use it as the bonus damage for a natural 20 as well. Great die!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1
Ah, some Runehammer ICRPG flavor, nice.
true. from a purely mathematic and fractional angle, d12 is great. can be divided into fourths or thirds or halves.
@@midshipman8654 this is why I use d12 for the mirror image spell
“Thieves World” by Chaosium is also a great resource for city adventures. Based on the Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn
books by Lynn Abbey and Robert Asprin.
It was also multi-system so you could use it with D&D, RuneQuest, Tunnels and Trolls, and even Traveller!
Loved those books!
Seeing your older videos coming up is way cool
That IS a good video. Check out my latest: th-cam.com/video/bLAsnpNP4zw/w-d-xo.html
I've never before imagined such depth in City Adventures... I will never look at them the same way again. This video will be a massive help. Although, I now find myself conditioned to *always* look at a City's roads and streets, to see if they are paved or muddy... it's an OCD thing.
finally, some good old school dm advice. i started with a Dm like you and it's been my personal favourite ever since
Thanks, Bob!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 SEMPI NOTICED ME!
Cities of Hârn is a great resource for what a reality based medieval city can look and feel like.
I can recommend Life in a Medieval City as well... plus there are two others... Life in a Medieval Village and Life in a Medieval Castle... Highly recommended.
Absolutely! Great call.
Our Lady of Perpetual Vengeance. I LOVE it!! There will be one of these in every city going forward.
What the hell, professor... I have been seeking TH-cam help and advice for a good decade to be a better DM and player and today is the first time I have ever seen your channel mentioned anywhere. Finally, pure substance. THANK YOU.
Thanks, Christopher. The GOOD news is I have 130+ videos. Some of them are even good. Enjoy!
Brilliant. One of your top videos ever. Love the quick random city generator especially. As I've often told aspiring DMs, you don't have to map the ENTIRE city and every shop! Just some of the more important locations. "Is this a talking mission, or a killing mission?" :D
Rapidly becoming my go to place for GM advice.
Professor DM is the best!
Thanks!
This is not hyperbole
"LINDYBEIGE!" - seriously though love both you guys - learn something every time. thanks for all the work you put in to make these videos
Inspiration Forge Who DOESN’T love Lindybeige? Great channel.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 yours is also a great channel just recommended it again today this time to my son who is really the big D&D guy in our house
If magic is an abudant ressource in a campaign, it should be a game changer for cities.
In my campaign, there is about one magic user per 300 to 400 residents in a city as a rule of thumb. Resident mages are regulated into guilds, and the mage guild has to provide public service to the city.
They are pretty efficient to stop fires from spreading, for example.
Again, it's a consistently great video. Love the historical context. I limited the no weapons and armor to nothing above light armor and no heavy weapons.
Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser is great stuff 8>D And City-State is one of my fave JG contibutions ever! Helped a great deal during my early years
as GM, I put in the time to create a list of people and businesses for Neverwinter. then I made separate spiral notebooks ( one per player) listing various npcs that their characters knew. the players all hail from this city and have lived there for several decades (elves and dwarves). these are not random npc's. they are the baker or blacksmith or candlemaker. people the character would see either daily or weekly and would know. this means the character is a part of the town and things that happen are important. again, it takes some effort to set this up, but it allows the players and GM to make the town/city a living experience!
I think when you're talking about cities in fantasy RPGs you can't forget to mention Tekumel. I've only played in it a bit, but every city has its own character, and you're expected to stay with members of your clan (or priesthood, if you're a priest), and your actions reflect on that organization. So behaving in a way that's counter to your clan can see you exiled, and without a place to stay (there really aren't inns or public houses).
EOTPT represent!
Regarding Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar, I always thought that Lankhmar reminded me of New York. It was a port city, surrounded by swamplands (Brooklyn, Queens and The Meadowlands are swampy), Lankhmar was connected to the mainland by a causeway that was usually underwater except during low tide so that mimics the heavy traffic that blocks the various bridges to and from the city except during the off hours. NYC, has so many people and districts it is easy to lose yourself and hide. Just my 2cp.
Me too! I lived in NYC and especially in the 1980s, it WAS Lankhmar. Leiber lived in San Fran, though he modeled it on Seville.
In my opinion, Fafhrd & Grey Mouser are must reading for for the D&D player. So many ideas in their stories. I actually like reading fantasy more than playing D&D....esp. Appendix N fantasy,.
@@BTsMusicChannel I am working on a city adventure that involves the rat folk. Plenty of inspiration from Lankhmar.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Lived in Queens NY for 35 years. I drove an ambulance all over NYC. It sure as Hell wasn't Tanelorn.
@@haveswordwilltravel Sounds fun. :D
Man I so often disagree with the choices and opinions you promote, but I still watch every video because it is massively thought-provoking.
Not this time though, this was just flat out great input and an awesome summary of city building. Thanks a lot!!
Great video! I am going to check out your city builder system. Seems much easier. I have used ProFantasy software for almost 20 years now and the City Designer has a random building builder. You just draw a road and it populates buildings on either side of it. Then I go back and fill in details based on the map drawn. However I have had to make up city layouts on the fly and this system seems like a big help. Thank you!
Let me know how it works out!
Have been reading Discworld. All I can think of is Ankh-Morpork.
The free city of Greyhawk approves this video.
Another video that completely revolutionizes and streamlines my dming. Thank you pdm
Wait until you see the follow-up. It’s a random city adventure generator. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Look for it in June. Probably May on Patreon. Cheers!
If anyone is looking for a good resource on cities in D&D, get The City of Greyhawk from DriveThruRPG. It's designed for the Greyhawk setting, but it can easily be used in just about any medieval fantasy D&D campaign, or you can use it as a blueprint for creating your own fantasy metropolis in D&D. It has a much greater deal of verisimilitude to it, and is more believable and logical than the later Forgotten Realms based city supplements Wizards have released, while still containing a great deal of character, factions, and possibilities for plot hooks. Greyhawk was the first major city in D&D history, and the City of Greyhawk boxed set was its first official release, as well as the first full fledged official D&D boxed set centered on a single location. Its contents have aged remarkably well, and it is, in my opinion, the best city supplement ever created for any TTRPG. It's available on DriveThruRPG as a PDF and a print-on-demand book (they condense all the contents into a single tome), and I'd advise getting the PDF+POD bundle so you can print out any maps and sheets/handouts it contains.
Loved the mention of the invincible orverlord... I’ve used that one a lot. Also the “Sanctuary” boxed set is awesome... nothing like having the party navigate the “maze” or swap rumors with Hanse (Shadowspawn). Enjoy the channel! Keep up the good tips and tools!
I have to read that.
Dungeon Craft start with “Thieve’s World”. Read the forward to get a feel of how the anthology came together... Your take on corruption and magic is exemplified by the “Enos Yorl” character. Enjoy!
The Cities of Harn offer excellent medieval cities supplements (by Columbia Games). A series of 7 supplements: City of Aleath, City of Cherafir, City of Coranan, City of Golotha, City of Shiran, ity of Tashal, and City of Thay. They contain history, economy, government, military, religion, maps and many locations.
Really good information for a low fantasy / realistic campaign
You should make the player-characters arrive in whichever district you feel like making them arrive in. They don't want to sit around for forty-five minutes watching you build a random city with your dice.
I hear you. For more urban adventure, check out this video: th-cam.com/video/95zr1mmx4vM/w-d-xo.html
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 LOL. A few weeks ago I drew a funny cartoon of people having funny mishaps because they met a friend of theirs who was doing urban adventure. Real life is more than enough adventure for me thanks.
Praise Issek of the Jug!
That's a deep cut, there. +100xp
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Don't want to sound snooty buuuut:
I'm just glad you're giving info about Lieber. IMO some of the best stuff that really stands up beyond the genre.
I went from reading a bunch of"literary" authors to Lieber holds his own. Lieber really has great prose and a keen eye for post-modern cynicism. His fantasy world are really well put together. His take on fantasy feels "weird" and fresh.
If it wasn't about sword and sorcery and was about conmen in modern times maybe it would have more literary spotlights on it.
About the XP: That's super generous.
I only needed 10xp to reach level 1.
That puts me almost at lv. 3 in DCC!
One of the best episodes yet! I would love to see a part 2 of this video, focused on adventures in cities.
Thank you PDM. Your videos are constantly making me a better dungeon master!
Excited for this one!
Yeah I hope it has alot on city building too 🙂
This is a gold mine of info
So much cool info! One of the things I like about RPGs in general is that you get the chance to enrich your historical knowledge, and put it to use in a creative way. Thank you for the great content 😎
So helpful and objective. Thank you for these precious tips and for the quick format in which you deliver them. You've made the best channel for busy DMs.
Thank you. That means a lot. Keep sharing these vids on the interwebs. Growth is starting to slow. Cheers!
Holy Christ, I was reading the DMG just now and I realized that, in my mind, I was hearing it in your voice.
Cool! I actually hear Gygax, cuz' I met him.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 nice humble brag there Prof.
Great video! 👍
Another resource I would recommend is The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer. It's a very well written snapshot of life in the 14th century, and gives great flavour to any low fantasy RPG.
Incidentally it also contains a list of the top 30 most populated cities in England in 1377. With the exception of London (est, 40,000) none has a population larger than about 10,000. It always makes me chuckle when I see D&D backwater towns with populations much larger than this 😀
Absolutely. It's on the shelf behind my in the video. Great book.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Lovely stuff! Looking forward to your next video. Keep up the good work 😀👍
I love the modelling shown throughout this video.
(9:38) Well done, Lloyd. Now, to restart the video to watch and appreciate it from the beginning.
Fantastic 👏 👏! Your quick city generator sounds like a convenient resource tool which I will have to try. Keep the campaign building videos coming they are super helpful. Thanks for the 📚 recommendations!
I'd also recommend on the WFRP front, Warhammer City: A Complete Guide to Middenheim City of the White Wolf
Fun book. For those not familiar, the Tim Miller piece at 1:42 is the cover art.
I mentioned that in the extended version on Patreon. In a greedy play for cash, GW split Power into two books. Warhammer City is the lesser of the two, IMO. It’s got a great map of Middenheim, but it’s so slim, it isn’t worth the money to me.
Professor. I just realized you have Dril-bu and Dorje casually lying there on a table :). Now it all suddenly make sense!
Vornheim from Lamentatons of the Flame Princess is the best city toolkit that I've ever see.
It’s a very good book. I didn’t mention it because of the allegations against the author.
What a great video as always! So much helpful information about city building! Thank you Professor Dungeon Master!
Enjoyed this a lot. Love hearing how it really was back in the medieval days. The more you think about it, not much has really changed. Great job using Chris DeSilva's build. Huge thumbs up there. Now THAT is a great city build. Cheers!!
Yep. He's a genius.
A giant brick of advice gold!I believe that I may need to watch this video 3 times or so to get everything.
Elegant city solution - well done as always.
2:30 Cities don't ALWAYS have walls, just usually. If the city is located somewhere considered reasonably safe from major outside threats then walls would be seen as just an unnecessary expense. Many cities during times of plenty and safety outgrew their walls and even took down sections to enable better traffic and open up space for commerce, rendering them largely ineffective in the process and little more than relics of a more dangerous time. Then there's cultural reasons, Sparta famously had no walls, any society that puts a great deal of emphasis on its military prowess and dominance may forgo walls as an act of propaganda.
similar comments can be said about rivers... there are cities without a river. Obviously every city needs a sufficient supply of fresh water, but that source does not have to be a river. Mexico City, for example, was founded on an island in a freshwater lake.
As for the concern of how to move cargo... roads are still a thing. Yes, rivers are better than roads but you don't NEED them to move people & goods. And if a city is on a coast of some kind, it doesn't need a river at all. Most striking is probably Atlanta, Georgia... which is near NO navigable bodies of water. It instead grew as a crossroads for trains & airplanes (cue Eberron style alternate magi-tech forms of transport).
And then there are a whole host of cities built NEAR BUT NOT ON RIVERS... eg Milan, or Timbuktu.
There are also reasons for a city developing beyond being a natural crossroads... eg. look up Butte Montana. It's success was entirely due to being a copper mining boom town. Johannesburg South Africa is similar... and not being anywhere reasonably near a river or coastline to boot.
Basically, there are options... not every city needs to have a waterfront, especially specifically a river waterfront. You need to come up with a believable water supply & reason for the city to exist, but neither of those 2 have to involve a river.
Eg: a city on an mountain island in a area with very heavy precipitation.... the city acts as a maritime trading hub, and gets it's water purely from runoff from the mountain. Or a desert city build on an oasis, fed by a massive underground lake, and near a rich supply of gold ore.
Monsters.
IRL there are no monsters, just bandits and armies.
Very interesting Professor ! I'm definitely taking notes
For a long long time I’ve wanted to run a city campaign in a city I had made. I thought it was finished but you’ve added some considerations.
fabulous video, as always. This could be a nice article.
I'm running Waterdeep Dragon Heist now. This video is helpful. Thank you.
Very well done, sir. Excellent video, as always. This was more enlightening than I expected and not for lack of expectations. Caveats well into your other videos, as well.
Thanks. That means a lot. May all your rolls be 20s!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 , sir, thank you and likewise. 🙏🏻
Thank you always a pleasure to watch your content.
Fun video! City adventures can require thoughts about infrastructure, classes, order, and how the city maintains a way of life rather than just being a place for adventurers to run rampant
Yep. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!
Convenient that this is exactly what I needed for game preparation this week!
Cool!
We need to get Professor DM some Deathbringer armour so he can do episodes as him.
I don't think that would work because it would be too much like Seth Skorkowsky's NPC.
Instead, I think we should start sending PDM big D20s so we can watch his collection of them grow on that shelf behind him. Besides, DMs and D20s go together like fish and chips, hotdogs and mustard, and beer and chicken wings.
@@swaghauler8334 He actually tried something like that... it didn't work '-'
@@swaghauler8334 Lol. I did ONE episode where I did impressions of players and got called out for ripping off Seth. Of course, he does it better.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I love Seth!
Great advice to point out the details of a medieval town to my players. I am going to put these tips to good use!
Thank you for commenting and liking the video.
I had a player who hated the fact his character would require not to wear plate armor in a city location.
I compromised by letting him convince and pay a leather smith and a blacksmith to construct a chainmail shirt that hid the chainmail links. It was heavy and didn't rattle as loudly.
So if he needed to sneak around, he would roll a d20 and then roll a d4 to subtract to it. I felt like disadvantage was too severe of a penalty.
Turns out, the player really liked it and essentially developed his character to a tailor but for practicality.
That is a really informative video.
Thanks!
I had lots of fun putting my party of young fighty types in the big city and having them do some undercover missions after arriving and winning the annual tournament. It’s really hard to stay hidden and stealthy wearing the Royal coat of arms on your armour that 3000 people saw you win.
It’s nice to give them that local recognition but it remains important for them to get those reality checks … young men in plate mail should stick out in the crowd even if they don’t have to surrender it!
Thanks for another great video Professor!
I enjoyed this video. Well done.
Great video mate. Thank you
Thanks for another thought provoking video!
This is a stellar crash course that i got a lot from. will incorporate a lot of this into my campaign. i didn't realize till i was half way through that i needed to be taking notes!
Watch it again!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 saved it to rewatch for my next planning session! 👍👍👍
Prof: "Walls help protect against the three big city killers; invasion, fire-"
Me: "and Mongolians"
Prof "-and plague"
Me: "Oh..."
Very informative! Thanks for sharing!
Theres some really cool ideas I've never heard or thought of here very interesting
I'm at work so I'll put on the premier without audio then I'll watch it again later. Thanks for the vid PDM.
Thank you so much for doing that. It REALLY stokes the algorithm.
Really good video.
Good stuff as usual professor.
Thanks PDM. I like learning how to structure any part of a D&D game!
You are welcome!
Awesome guide
This was helpful, even though I’ll be running a Cyberpunk game for new players, elements can still be used.
Gonna start them off in an East coast city for a bit so they get their feet wet. The city building generator will come in handy.
Yes! I should have mentioned that modern cities are pretty much the same.
Even useful for post apoc, running a Gamma World (90"s rules) Star Frontiers mash-up
Great video. A lot to help for DM's to use and create a city. :)
This was very helpful, thank you!
Hell's Kitchen: sounds like a great place for a D&D campaign, don't it? Would have to resist the temptation however of creeping into 19th C fashions; having rival thieves guilds fighting it out in the streets with cleavers and hatchets; and describing NPCs wearing tall cylindrical brimmed hats and handlebar moustaches.
This is a fantastic video. I had to break out a notebook
Thanks
Great video! I just watched it twice.
The Deathbringer bit made my laugh out loud. Subscribed!
Could be your best video yet.
A+
100%
Full marks.
I'll get you an apple.
Thanks for the advice, I am starting a city adventure for my players. All of them a still very new so I want to have many different types of action. I needed some guidance on how to populate the city.
Love that +1 jacket of insight
Great video!
As always good stuff.
concise and informative
Amazing again!