It’s a GM thing ;NOTWD; Need Help

[WallyTWest]

(Oct 5th is our next game session)
Question is past the Background Info.
Skip if you don’t have a high Will Save. Its kinda dull.

Background (<--------)

I’m running the Night of the Walking Dead, an old TSR mod I brought up to D20. I’m enjoying myself, My pc’s are enjoying themselves. Heck, the crocodile in the swamp is enjoying himself. (Full Tummy)
Then we hit the town, Marais d’ Tarascon. I switch it up, I say it is a swampy town located at the end of a delta. I treat the town like a Cajon community. Makes the Catacomb searches that more interesting. (Yea… you are bellow sea level… don’t hit the walls, ok?) As a Typical TSR product I am given a list of locations and a town map.
This is my 5th time bringing a group of PC’s through this town. This time the PC’s run to the chapel with their now one legged henchman in tow, hoping to get some decent healing out of that priest.... When we start on Wednesday, it will be time to explore the town.
Now I have shortened the timeline of the mod to just over 2 days. Got some plot going down, got between 0-3 PC’s that are infected with licranthopy (The end fight with the full moon you ask? Yea, it becomes a much cooler an encounter.) Everyone just hit level 2 (Ding!). They keep asking me to GM twice a week. (There hooked, they love Ravenloft)

Problem (<--------)

Question, there is some valuable information in this town. Heck, You can solve the whole thing and have a mound damning of evidence just by talking to a Sweets Shopkeeper, a worried mother and walking down the road to have dinner with some ghouls.
The first 3 times I ran this I kept up the crazy dictator look. I handled each encounter and towns person and role-played them all. Its harsh, something like 14 personalities. (14 accents, 14 voices, 14 histories, 14 role-playing quarks) Many have nothing to say. PC movements where controlled and precise.

It got old.
Fast

The fourth time I ran the mod I gave up and said “Point and Talk!!!” They point at the map and I run about 60 seconds of dialogue and another 30sec-ish of role-play. Instead of a whole night of hunting for obscure clues, my PC’s moved on with plot and still had great time. Literally a fraction of the interaction and the PC’s never knew the difference. Why should I throw out the effort? What is the trade off?

I hate towns.
I am learning to hate PCs.

Question (<--------)

How do you guys handle normal towns and role playing towns in your games? My PC’s always spend so much time fooling around…. and how do you handle the game mechanics? Do you throw them a PHB and say buy what you need, or do you go a little more in depth with item lists? How do you handle the old TSR mod towns if you even bother? Do you turn them into a giant description or do you handle it building by building like a crazy dungeon crawl?

I really want to know what other GM’s do with this necessary element of the AD&D game! Tell me how you handle it! I am almost at a breaking point!

WallyTWest, Concord NH
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[Vorpal Dragon]

I've experienced similar problems in slightly different cases, but what I found was best in the end was to take a top-down approach.

This started with figuring out the overall details of the village. Size, main trade, government, main plot threads et cetera... then think about all the appropriate locations the players will visit, decide roughly what is going on.

How far down you drill depends on how well you can think on your feet. I limit preparation time to help me focus on the main issues. About four hours before the session.

For NPCs I tend to decide at the time what sort of personality to assign, any quirks, and how they feel.

If you want players to focus on something other than the town, try keeping the town quiet with no plots going on and limit NPC conversation to the odd pointless rumor and the weather. They'll buy their equipment, say hello and be off.

For traveling around town, I give a brief description of what is generally going on around the players as they make their way from the blacksmith to the inn. Specific roads and alleys are only dealt with during specific encounters.

Play around with the level of depth and detail until you find something that works for you. If the adventure is not in the town, then throwing the books at the players could be fine, but if it is the adventure, then it is worth having the PCs at least interact a little with the shop keepers - one of them could help the plot. I find that players are not usually too concerned with how things are run as long as it seems logical and it doesn't break the verisimilitude.

I hope that was of some help.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Wow, I thought the town adventure was the best part of the module!

I guess it's a case of different styles, but I love having my pc's wander around town and interact with all the NPC's. I find haggling boring, so I just say "yeah, you find a new short sword at the blacksmith. Player's Handbook price if you want it." But if a player wants to have a 15 minute conversation with said blacksmith about the weather, great! Usually I'll find a way to slip a clue in there to reward the PC for his efforts if I can, even if the module says the blacksmith knows nothing.

But I do like to give out maps of town. I find it makes the town more memorable if they can see the layout. Then when they get back to a particular town, they'r emore likely to say stuff like: Oh, that cloicktower is where the Engineer lives, right? Let's pay him a visit.

It also makes the town exploration less like a dungeon crawl. They can ask a passerby where the nearest inn is and I can show them on the map where they go, and point out anything they pass on the way.


If you and your group want to speed things up and get back to the dungeon, you can always use the gather information skill and just not roleplay it out. (if you're still using 2e, you could just make it a Cha check.)