Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

According to many literary scholars (and I concur), there are only seven basic plots anyway (Google around and you'll come up with some interesting variations). Rather than worry about coming up with a new one, embrace an existing one and do your very best to do a great job with your particular spin on it.

Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

I highly recommend a "band of thieves" sandbox campaign. The players basically do all the plotting work for you and thank you for it too.

Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

Plus it lets you really develop a single location. Lots of depth.

Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

Hey, why not? You already saw it: it's easy to drop role playing elements into action adventures.

A city, enough detailed in your head or notes, can be comparable to a Dungeon. And then you add a fair amount of social aspects for interacting. There are even "social dungeons", networks of relationships that players can't reach until they "unlock" certain paths (as the acceptance of friendship of a NPC, or this other NPC, which is comparable to choosing between different unknown roads or dungeon doors) for advancing towards a closer emotional contact and relationship with the Voivode which is being magically manipulated for despair of the citizens, and then revealing the manipulator which is acting in the order of his personal life. Then the players fight her or her influence with the Voivode being neutral to them or favorable, instead hostile and with all city's soldiers against the party (that would be the result of a wrong or forced path in the social dungeon), instead only the corrupted bunch of soldiers loyal to the evil wizard or Glamour Girl (GURPS Urban Magics, p. 13). So, the manipulator would be in the "last circle" of the "social network" or labyrinth, as a Boss to fight, with possible minions if the manipulated NPC is still under her influence.

Of course the future GURPS Social Engineering would be very useful here.

I agree.

Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

I was actually going for Kurosawa.

Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

We did an adventure in a city where the PCs were put under close watch by the local justiciars (in our case it was building from character backstory-but you don't need to do that if you don't want to). Then there was an assasination, the inevitable capture of the PCs, escape, and hunt for the real killer with the local constabulary conducting a house-by-house search. We used the chase rules from Action 2, a lot.

Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

And Kurosawa was frequently going for Shakespeare. Ah, the circle of life.

Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

That's a cool idea! Although I wouldn't use it for DF but would run a regular fantasy game.

Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

Im thinking a really big city-state that would yield huge amounts of tribute and cultural prestige if conquered (like the historical Venice, for example). Some invading army plans to soften it up with hired mercenaries and spies trying to covertly stir up revolts, assassinate key figures and sabotage security measures.

Delvers have to chase them through the streets, find their hideouts, expose their secret identities, foil assassinations and so on.

Give the bands distinct personalities and group dynamics, with plenty of opportunities for roleplaying.

Re: [DF] City Adventures
 

Maybe he was going for something more pulpy, like this Dashiell Hammett novel.

arnej