So I'm currently running a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign and I am having difficulties making the city feel like a city. The PC's in my campaign more or less fast travel to whatever location they are going to, which seems to destroy the whole giant metropolitan vibe I feel Korvosa should have. Now I have the Guide to Korvosa so it's not an issue of adding more unique buildings and landmarks to the city, but other ways of adding a feeling of depth and vastness to this rich area without boring my players and making city travel tedious. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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Essentially to make a city feels like a city, usually you need to have people going about their business and reacting to pcs. Either in a favorable way, scared or even just showing some urban scenes like a naked man jumping out of a window while he is being chased around by a cuckold husband.
Sable company, the hippogriff mounted marines of Korvosa literally circle the sky and sometimes assist guards and the likes when there is trouble, don't forget about them.
Don't forget to mention that pseudodragons and imps are often fighting in the sky.
Essentially take details of the cities and expand on them.
Also talk about the food, Korvosa is well known for his high end seafood such as caviar, oysters, reefclaws etc...
The brothels are on the other side of town.
Are there ways to incorporate all this town fluff without making it all seemed forced?
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Are there ways to incorporate all this town fluff without making it all seemed forced?
That mostly comes down to how you deliver it, stopping them and spouting exposition always seems forced and breaks the mood. You want to try and just mention things in passing, consider how long it might take them to get to their destination and throw in a few tidbits. I like the ideas Eltacolibre mentioned. A young noble half dressed fleeing an older man spewing threats, mention in passing a pseudodragon or two wheeling about overhead.
I agree that "role" playing is the key. I find that recurring npcs are great for this. The baker where they get breakfast says hi as they pass, the inn keeper wants to make sure they will pay on time, the guard sergeant wants to know what such heavily armed individuals are in such a hurry to do.
Also random occurrences can give the feel of the city. "Ohh, you went down market street at noon... you can see now that wasn't such a good idea. It is incredibly crowded, you need to find another way if you are in a hurry." Don't always let them just pass over the travel.
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One way is to write up a random table or a series of index cards with various city encounters. Usually not critters for the PCs to fight, but rather social situations that might be delicate, awkward or promising in terms of hints and clues to help with the campaign.
Also, make shops individual, by having them specialize in various items or giving them a set inventory, like using random generator websites like this: http://donjon.bin.sh/pathfinder/magic/shop.html
The random inns are cool too, they give you a snapshot of patrons and so on. Using random generators really saves DM prep time, and you can always edit them as you paste them into Word (or whatever).
Have someone try to make a thievery (sleight of hand) check on a PC. That's a real good way to create some atmosphere, also to introduce an NPC if you need to.
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There's a guy on YouTube called Demonac who posted a video a little while ago about how to make insignificant npcs still feel like people.
The technique he used was, "stereotype but".
If I say, "You see a city guard", you've already formed a mental picture of this person based on your assumptions of what a city guard is. Then I add a mood to them, "The guard is leaning on his spear and looks very bored" or "the guard is very bright and perky and greats you in passing"
That adds another layer to them with hardly any effort on my part. The last bit is the but, and you don't have to use this last bit.
You add one element that's out of the ordinary. Like "The city guard looks at you with bright eyes and smiles, her uniform freshly pressed, shined and spotless."
A quick, easy trick to make an otherwise bland NPC feel more dynamic
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Are there ways to incorporate all this town fluff without making it all seemed forced?
What are your players interested in? Not their characters mind you, but the players. If they aren't particularly engaged and want to handwave then just deliver some exposition. However if the players are trying to be immersive and roleplay the environment think about what they like.
If one player at the table is overly interested in art or culture have them find some grafitti, perhaps as its still being made. Another player might enjoy sports; perhaps there are some kids in the street with a stick and a ball.
Korvosa has seafood, the opera, fell magics and weirdness galore. Have the party get strange looks if they're walking about during tea time. They might forget the custom of beginning haggling by first complimenting the merchant on their pet.
Another great way to add detail is at a meal. Korvosa seems a tad decadent; perhaps their inn doesn't serve a single meal but courses. Said courses are separated by palette cleansers such as gargling with salt water then sweet wine or by the ritualized cleansing of the face and hands with a steamed towel.
Entertainment is yet another way to make a city come alive. Not just places to see shows or meet courtesans though. What city would be complete w/out street performers? In Korvosa perhaps they enact short tragedies or a parade of religious zealots goes by with outlying clergy chastising the weak.
I think though the best thing you can do is be subtle. I feel like that's one of the points of RavenStarver's post. Launching into a 5 paragraph summary of street life is too much. Picking out a few small details though might be just enough to tease a player into engaging.
Playing CotCT? Have you made it to book 2 yet? If you want to make Korvosa seem like a real city, see the Plague and Pestilence section at the back of the book.
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Another suggestion is to fit the "social encounters" suggested above to the area of town. In the seedier parts of Korvosa, have a domestic fight in the street in front of them (Got a Paladin or LG's in the party?) Have someone throw a pot of nightsoil (urine and feces) out of the window, landing on a PC or three. Mention clothing hanging from lines strung across the street from window to window (ESP if you have a climb crazy rogue in the party!) How about an intoxicated person begging for hard earned coin? In better parts of town the Watch will be a lot more attrenive and visible. Or, how about a town crier announcing news of the city, and tidbits useful to the PC's? stREET VENDORS HAWKING THEIR WARES IN LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS WAYS. How about a traffic jam of wagons, carriages, and a dead mule? A boy stealing food and running away. A woman calling for her husband, or asking for directions. Make her charisma high enough and the male members of the party will start falling over themselves.
Have a PC step in horse, cow, human, or dog dung. Does Korvosa require you to check weapons at Watch Towers, or peace-bond them at the gate? Have a dirty mangy dog show up at the Inn door every morning begging for scraps. Is it a sad dog or a spy looking to shadow them to collect information. What about alley cats fighting in the dark recesses of a smelly, cobble stoned alley?
Buy, build, make urban buildings. They can be made cheaply from the cardboard from breakfast cereal boxes and spare bits of flotsam and jetsum. Urban area's are my favorite place to run campaigns and mess with PC's. They are an endless source of fun, confusion, merriment, sadness et al!
How have others presented cities in their campaigns? Has anyone played a campaign with a truly memorable and immersive city setting?
City State of the Invincible Overlord, by the Judges Guild, back in the late 70s. Great stuff. Detailed maps (that I had plastic-coated) along with detailed shop and residence listings, encounter tables and miles more. Set the standard for a well-done city. Never seen its like since.
I believe it can still be DLed as a pdf, probably from RPG Now or similar. Well worth it, if only as an example of good practice.
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I ran a 7 year long campaign out of Thieves World with 15 players. Not to brag, but I had a friend tell a group he was addressing at a Convention that my "Sanctuary Campaign" was the best Role-Playing experience he had ever had. He played the campaign 25 years ago, BTW.
One can still find the campaign setting based upon Robert Lynn Aspirin's idea to showcase talented writers. Each writer got to create their own character within the framework of the city. The assembled short stories were presented in four volumes initially, with three(?) more to follow. Within the last couple of years there have been two additional novels. The city is called "Sanctuary" and it is the hind end of the Rankene Empire (Think medieval Rome), and goes through several rulers, although the original three books are my favorite.
The setting was so rich in flavor, setting, mayhem and outstanding NPC's that it was a natural extension to make it a campaign setting for an RPG. The original box set was by Chaosium in 1979 as I recall but Green Ronin did some 3.5 books which brought the setting to a new audience. I am sure they still have copies (I think it is OOP) but if not try Amazon, if your FLGS does not have them. The 3.5 would be easily adaptable to Pathfinder, or I suspect 5E (although I have never played 5E) I believe the Green Ronin books altered the basic 3.5 magic system to more closely match the TW setting, but you can decide what to add using their guidelines presented in the books.
every time they leave a shop or location describe the current surroundings briefly and which direction they start walking in.
also giving shop owners a personality helps.