How do you make an urban D&D campaign interesting?

How do you make an urban D&D campaign interesting?

How do you guide your players in a manner that they never even think to venture beyond the city walls?

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Trick them into buying a tavern when they think you actually want them to leave town.

Always incentivize defending resources tied to the city. Always stress the travel distances and time constraints outside. Encourage investment in local resources and power groups. Reward with prestige, reputation and local items. Be generous with furniture.

They're pro-independent city-state rebels.

Ebberon.

Alternatively, Ptolus.

There just is no "beyond the city".

Just make the players clear that their goals lie somewhere in this city. Maybe there is a giant dungeon under the city and people all over the world gather here to try to find the treasures that supposedly lie deep in this ancient caves. Maybe they grew up there and somehow stumbled into a conspiracy that would destroy it, if they don't stop the evil doings of a dark cult. Maybe they team up to overthrow an evil king, that treats his citizens like slaves.

The city never ends. It's cities all the way down.

Make it so there is not much interesting outside the city. Maybe the city is surrounded by miles and miles of tamed farmland. Nothing but boring farmers, cows, chicken and corn.

I

Major city leader is the enemy. Guards at the gates are aware of the party's description. The sewers may be where you're going to earn your living as an adventurer, or may be your back door out, but either way get ready for some serious shit.

Work on building up factions inside the city. Have merchant guilds that want something from the blacksmith guilds, that sort of thing. Add in gangs and corrupt royalty for some extra plot hooks.

You could also have some sort of unrest in the people. Maybe the new prince does shady stuff. There could be religious zealots that are causing problems. Maybe there is something underneath the city that is waking up. Most of this stuff is cliche but it should work.

Why? If you simply want them to stay inside the city, tell the players so.

Anyway: every district should have its distinctive flavour, community, resources and problems. It's almost a mini-nation, with regional difference and "villages".

And the PCs can fuck up the status quo as they can, exactly like they would in a dungeon. Of course, that doesn't mean from the start.

>check out Blades in the Dark

Put the central city in a desert or a swamp.

>Yo dawg, I wanna run a campaign in the hood. Ya got anything like dat?
Don't worry, I gotchu senpai.

mediafire.com/file/5il0skg0ehpax8q/Dungeons_&_Dragons_-_3.5_Cityscape.pdf

>How do you make a...D&D campaign interesting?
Answer this first.

The city is the largest in the area/ on the continent or country.
The local lord/king has died (or if republic a large amount of the ruling council). Various families/factions are attempting to claim the right of authority. The city is on the brink of tearing itself apart. Fighting in the streets between various groups.

go read Vornheim

Set it in Athkatla.

Have fun and read the rules so you can run game as intended instead of shitposting on Veeky Forums dear sir.

Second, make so it's fun for you and the players.

Now to OP's question - you can take dark sun's approach - outside the city is land so horrible you would die if you ventured out at there level.

>Why? If you simply want them to stay inside the city, tell the players so.

This guy right here.
Don't try to restrict them, just be upfront to the players about the fact that you want this to be about the stories and people in the city.

Pointcrawl, lots of points of interest in the city

Check out the Corpathium city generator. It's pretty sick.

You can let them go outside the city, as long as they have no particular reason to want to stay out there.

Like, you probably live in a city, right? If you do you probably don't leave the city often. You probably leave some, but you always come back.

I did an urban druid once.

He was a crotchity old man who tended the massive city park, which was actually an ancient druid grove that the city built around since every time they tried to fuck with the woods and wildlife in the grove, shit wnet south, and everyone viewed it as cursed.

My druid was the last tender of the grove, and would use mice and birds as little information gatherers and would grow ivy and trees throughout the city on walls and in open lots.

The city is vast and filled with all sorts of people, even farmlands within the walls, and outside the city is a wild and dangerous wilderness full of aggressive monsters and murderous and fiercely territorial peoples, with few if any possessions of value. In addition, none of the encounters outside the city yield experience points.

The players accidentally join a street gang. They are now members for life. If they do well they can rise to the top and become top thugs, maybe even "made men" and rule the streets as mob bosses. If they do poorly, they'll get shanked. They'll have to contend with the elven triads, halfing cartels, dwarven mafia, and the local police (who also happen to be corrupt as hell). Not to mention drive by crossbow shootings, gang wars, and drug smuggling.

the twist is that the street gang is actually aligned with one of the good churches in town and does a lot of humanitarian work for the church in the form of outreach programs