|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- |
|
|
This book is designed to provide enough
detail about the City of Waterdeep to enable
a long-term campaign to be set therein with
a minimum of "panic work" by any DM, and
yet leave room for every DM to develop
details of the City to suit (and reflect the
vital play of) an individual campaign. The
DM using this book must study the opening
chapter and the chapter on non-player
characters, and to a lesser extent the chapter
on guilds, to gain some feeling of the
"life" and character of Waterdeep. The
chapters of suggested adventures and noble
families are most optional to a DM beginning
play, but every DM should read about
Waterdeep through these pages, noting his
or her own ideas for adventures that spring
to mind, until Waterdeep feels real and
familiar--and then play can begin.
Player characters of all classes may begin
their careers at 0 level in Waterdeep,
although barbarians and assassins must be
visitors, not native Waterdhavians, and may
encounter difficulties in advancing, getting
necessary training, or even operating at all.
Rangers and illusionists will also have limited
scope for development, due to a lack of
a good selection of tutors, and an unappreciative
environment. It is suggested that
cavaliers be newcomers to Waterdeep, not
?native? nobles, or they will have great dominance
over fellow party members, and a
?free ride? over many daily difficulties of
City life that otherwise force players to roleplay
and get involved in life in Waterdeep
(which in turn suggests to, or forces upon,
players additional adventures in the City).
Note that non-cavalier PCs could well be
minor, junior members of one noble family
or other, given difficult or dangerous tasks
by their clan to ?prove themselves.?
In any case, the DM must carefully prepare
the connections, knowledge, and family
background of a cavalier PC (and to a
lesser extent, a PC of any other class who is
a native Waterdhavian). If the cavalier is
from Waterdeep, the DM will have to carefully
determine the extent of influence of
the cavalier?s family (one reason that the
noble families have not been detailed herein
with complete family trees). A suggested
?homeland? for visiting PCs is troubled
Tethyr (far to the south of Waterdeep, on
the west coast of Faerûn), from whence
many people of all classes and abilities have
recently been displaced by civil strife.
The DM must keep track of the living
costs of PCs?where they live, more than
food, will be the biggest expense-and make
sure that players are aware of these costs,
too-often a shortage of cash will force PCs
to seek adventure when they might otherwise
wait for a more opportune moment?
or even (gasp) take honest jobs, to make
ends meet. DMs should carefully inform
PCs of current news and events as they
would learn of them as City inhabitants (and
visitors) would in ?real? life. If they sit back
and do nothing, events will pass them by.
A look at the non-player characters
included in these pages readily shows that
Waterdeep contains people of all ranks of
power. If PCs tend to ?push around? NPCs of
lesser power, the DM should ensure that the
consequences are severe. Use of the ?oops,
that character's not that low in level at all?
table in the FORGOTTEN REALMS? Campaign
Set is recommended. (This table is on
p. 17 of the DM's Sourcebook of the Realms.)
NPCs who like to push PCs around should
show up, too.
As play progresses, DMs must take care to
keep PCs involved with NPCs and adventures
of power levels they can handle, and
yet which challenge them as they adventure.
Ideal AD&D® game play emphasizes
role-playing rather than exceptional character
or magical abilities, and a DM used to
role-playing, or able to encourage it, will
find that character levels are not nearly as
important when PCs are engaged in dealing
with many NPCs in a city, rather than in an
?obstacle course?-like dungeon situation.
AD&D game statistics are largely excluded
from the chapter of adventures so that a
DM can adjust them for mid- or high-level
PCs who come to Waterdeep, or use them
with characters beginning their adventuring
careers there.
In a City, with so many details to keep
track of, it is well-nigh impossible to tell
players beforehand exactly what their characters
know. Over eleven years of play
involving Waterdeep, it seems that the best
and fastest way to handle information problems
is simply for the DM to say, as situations
arise, ?you know such-and-such,? or
?as a Waterdhavian, you recognize the
heraldic arms on the jerkin.? If players feel
they need information, they need only say,
?Player to DM: (query)? instead of speaking
as their characters. DMs uncomfortable
with City play can use Waterdeep as a base
for expeditions into the North, or by ship up
and down the Sword Coast, confident that
the characters and detail are there to return
to. Years of play in the City will build its own
characters, memories, and favorite places,
as though the City is indeed real?and with
vivid play, players and DMs alike can come
to know the imaginary Waterdeep as well or
better than any city one visits or lives in, in
?real life.?
Reduce - Reuse - Recycle