If you've read anything I've posted, you may know I'm 3 months old DM by now. When we started Pathfinder/RPGs/RotRL 3 months ago, I hoarded information and ideas on how to be DM and specially, how to make Burnt Offerings more enjoyable for my players, so they would stick with me on this new hobby of mine.
They just downed Skinsaw Man last friday and now as departure from Sandpoint is closing in, I am going through mixed emotions of joy, burn out, delight and frustration.
I knew this day was coming and I should have prepared, but I've dedicated so much time on working the town and NPCs of Sandpoint, that I'm now at loss with how to make Magnimar have personality while still avoiding to go too much in detail so they don't get sidetracked (too much at least).
So my question is this: What details, events, NPCs and stuff have you, other DMs, given to Magnimar? I've read thru the small article at the back of the anniversary edition, and also read online about the city on monuments.. So I have general idea of the city, but feel frustrated with my lack of ideas for details.
TL;DR: Overworked myself on Sandpoint and now lack the same passion for Magnimar. I guess this is sort of writers block?
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Oh, no; you're not alone. Small towns are easy to give big personalities. Both Sandpoint and Turtleback Ferry grew "larger than life" in my campaign because you could focus on a few key people.
I had all kinds of nightmares with both Magnimar and Absalom just due to sheer size; it's impossible to "plant" NPCs in every building they might come across.
So here's what I did: I got an idea as to the flavor of every district. The Sails is a shopping area. Naos is the "nouveau riche". Etc. So when the party started entering a district, I would describe the flavor of the district, make up a few shops or locations of interest on the fly, and let the PCs choose where they wanted to go. I had a list of random names handy, so when they went in I'd introduce the NPC in charge of that shop, and start working out a "personality" for the shop based on how the PCs interacted with it.
It works out very well, and you end up only having to flesh out perhaps half a dozen places in Magnimar.
We're done with the AP, the party has spent at least a couple months in Magnimar, and they know:
- The Blue Bunyip, an upscale dining establishment and inn
- The temple of Iomedae
- A Shoanti deli I threw in
- The delapidated temple of Sarenrae in Underbridge, that the paladin spent tens of thousands of gold pieces restoring.
Not exactly "overwhelming", eh?
So the danger is trying to prepare too much.
Give the PCs some flavor description of a district, describe what the shops look like, and you'll usually have a PC ask, "Is there an xxx shop?"
Say, "Of course there is," add the NPC, and flesh out that ONE shop.
Worked beautifully for me in both Absalom and Magnimar. And if you think Magnimar is big, try Absalom!
EDIT: I did like having the Guide to Magnimar handy. In both Absalom and Magnimar they hired "tour guides" and I could lay down a map of the city, go through each district, and point out the major landmarks. Know what? They didn't bother with ANY of them, so don't bother memorizing it all. Just, "This is the personality of this district. Is there anything in particular you're looking for here?"
That sounds nice and simple enough. Thanks! Actually inspired me to look more in to each district now that I think them as the faces to flesh and leave the details to happen as they come along.
Went today and got myself the NPC Codex too to ease my mind on the amount of detail I have to prep :)
OK. My utter favorite was Lowcleft. It's the "Vegas Strip" of Magnimar. The party is all post-AP and got a mythic tier as well, so we have a group of 18/1 PCs escorting their favorite Magnimarin NPCs along "the strip".
Rather than making up what was along the strip, I just had one of the players roll percentile dice as they arrived at each building. "The higher, the sleazier."
His 78-90-97 led to some AWESOME roleplay, especially since the 97 was a B&D joint that tried to throw a leash on you the minute you walked in.
The drow paladin was solo at that point and catching up with them after taking a LOOOONG bath. B&D joint trying to leash a drow paladin? Priceless! As the player said, "You know, millenia of genetics said a universal 'No' to that 'stuff'."
AND because she was a paladin they all got to live and keep all their limbs! But barely -- one of my favorite things about my campaign was allowing a drow paladin in the first place, and watching the player do one of the best roleplaying jobs I've ever seen in playing her violent, sadistic, vindictive nature against the tenets of her faith. REALLY awesome to be a part of!
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I've also used Magnimar in my campaign in a different capacity - I sent them there early to convict Lyrie for plotting to destroy one of Magnimar's protected assets. While they were there, I had them investigating her activities in Magnimar before she hired on with Nualia. This gave me a chance to give the PCs a tour of Magnimar, effectively the same way that NobodysHome introduced his PCs to the city. The point of it was to introduce the city to them before they needed to return to Magnimar after visiting The Misgivings, so they weren't learning the city and trying to track down the bad guys at the same time. One thing I ended up doing was foreshadowing how bad Underbridge is - the inquisitor had been looking for a half-orc who killed a Varisian girl and was hiding in Beacon's Point. They were told that even though the Sczarni was looking for him, that he probably hadn't fled to Underbridge - people didn't go there if they could help it.
That, of course, prompted my party's paladin to take a wagon full of foodstuffs into Underbridge. A bit of it actually got to the people it was intended to help. People fought over the majority of it, and an enterprising few began hording it. (I refrained from saying that when he attempted to leave, his wagon was up on cinder blocks.)
I'll echo NobodysHome here. Don't go for specifics, go for the general feel of the place. The Shore is where the common folk live, and the Summit is where the nobility and government reside. The Alabaster District is old money. Naos is the new money. Beacon's Point is the slums, and Rag's End is the worst of it. Don't go to Underbridge. Ordellia has an independent streak. Don't go to Underbridge. Dockway caters to the shipping industry. DON'T GO TO UNDERBRIDGE.
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The third rule is, "Once your players are 15th level, don't set up a back story that makes the barbarian excessively violent in Underbridge..."
EDIT: The worst part about Underbridge? It's in Shattered Star, too, and my kids tried to start a Shattered Star campaign and go to Underbridge. They got mugged and lost half their party to a random encounter.
Needless to say, they quit the campaign and are now having more fun on a deserted isle in Serpent's Skull.
Don't go to Underbridge.
EDIT 2: Yes, I, as a GM, kill kids' PCs if they go to Underbridge. I am a bad man.
Cheers to you all for inspiration! I think I was walking on the edge of Underbridge when I made my first post, but your chant has guided me out of it to the delights of Lowcleft..
Now I already know a couple of groups that are more than happy to find the PCs in Underbridge and got names lines up for some random shopping etc.
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The real reason I say that is to drum that mantra into the party's heads. Then, when you let the homing pigeons loose, and they fly towards Underbridge, they know that things have really gone pear shaped.
"Ooh, homing pigeons! We can use these to track back to his master! Be free! Alright, looks like they're heading north, past Lowcleft and Dockway, and they're lowering...heading into...oh. Oh no."
@NobodysHome: If you don't kill them, they'll never learn. :)
There's more information on Magnimar in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Magnimar City of Monuments book. Also there is a Pathfinder Module: Dawn of the Scarlet Sun that takes place in Magnimar, which may be the source of the Saranrae temple NobodysHome mentioned...
But before you go there, I'd suggest you think about how much you want to invest in Magnimar, considering its role in the AP.
The players only need to go three places in Magnimar:
- Foxglove Estate
- Seven's Sawmill
- Clock Tower
They don't need to go to or do anything else to put an end to the Skinsaw Cult, stop Xanesha and perhaps expose Ironbriar. Those steps alone will stop greed harvesting in Magnimar, set the stage for Lucretia and begin the fight to stop Karzoug.
You can absolutely make it more interesting and deeper than that, but if you have to choose, building depth and character connection to Sandpoint is way more important. The players don't save Magmimar, except perhaps by extension in Chapter 6 but they do need to explicitly save Sandpoint in Chapters 1, 2, 4, and 5.
The players don't even have to meet Magnimar's Lord Mayor - they could just as easily be hired for the mission in Chapter 3 by a proxy of the Lord Mayor visiting them in Sandpoint or even Mayor Deverin acting on Magnimar's behalf.
I'm not saying you shouldn't make "the big city" a fascinating place to visit, just saying the player's time there could be a surgical strike as opposed to a four week sabbatical if that's all you have creative capacity for and it won't harm the AP at all
Cheers for your input Latrecis! A valid point to keep in mind indeed.
What I'm worried about thou, is that they would then experience it only as a series of forced quests, instead of gaming. It also serves as a place for more serious shopping, so even if I just let them "oh you found it!" -find the shops, I still feel like I should make it more than a faceless experieence, after giving face to each and every shop in Sandpoint.