Tips and Resources to Enhance Your Game's Immersion
Ever feel like your TTRPG campaign is getting a little stale? Or do you have some special scenes planned and want to make an impact on your players and make the next session really stand out? Here are some tips and resources to make your city setting feel more alive.
Hustle and Bustle
The first thing that stands out to me about cities are the people: every imaginable variety of person living together, doing… whatever it is that people do when they aren't playing RPGs.
Start with shortlists. Keep a list of pronounceable names you can easily refer to. To this list you could add ancestries, ages, occupations and hobbies (or lack thereof), sexes and genders, voice notes; add as much as you can think of that makes people people, or allow yourself to fill those details in on the fly through context and improvisation when the need arises.
If your mind goes blank the moment you open a spreadsheet to start this task, go to the web instead and look up name, NPC and demographic generators. In fact, anytime you encounter a mental block like that, be assured that someone out there has already done it, and written a blog or program to help you do it, too. |
Consider the pace of life in a city. With places to go, people to see and things to do, many of your NPCs should be busy, with little time for the party unless your players are well established.
All those people are getting together with other people and doing stuff! If you've ever used Meetup, you know there are more reasons for people to get together than there are people. Don’t limit your plot hooks to guilds of assassins, adventurers, or merchants. Groups of protestors, irritated parents, neighbors, immigrants, and more, can all come together to advocate for their interests, but try to stick to factions that will be relevant to your characters and plots, or adjacent to them, lest we test the bounds of our sanity.
How do your people get around? By walking, for one. Emote as you interact with players, acting like you're getting bumped into or trying to pick your way through a crowd. Do a walk and talk scene where you interrupt yourself to say, "excuse me," or, "get out of the way," if your NPC is gruff, to imagined passersby.
Add animals and vehicles to your city, and facilities to house, feed and fix them. Pepper dialogue with related details or pre-prepared box text that turns attention to those things moving or playing nearby. Everything need not be a plot hook, but if it’s too cool, it probably will be.
A pair of gnomes riding an auroch hauling a cart laden with misshapen, malfunctioning machinery lumber by, calling out for people on the street to clear the way. |
Be prepared for the players to glomp onto those gnomes and ignore every plot hook for the rest of the session, because they sound awesome.
Three emaciated strays growl and yelp in the mouth of a nearby alley. Invisible to the locals who are accustomed to the activity of unattended animals, they seem to be playing. |
What kind of animal would be playing on the street in your city? Inject flavor here, emphasizing your setting’s theme. Can your party resist a group of hungry, playful strays?
Noise and Light
Background audio is something your players can help out with during the session, if you’re willing to cede control of the Bluetooth speaker. You could give them prompts, or put together a playlist before the session if you’re going for a theme such as a fantasy city. If you’re particularly brave, leave the tunes entirely in their hands - just make sure they settle into a playlist and don’t get too distracted playing DJ.
Note that it’s important to consult your players before setting any of this up. For those who are hard of hearing, adding even quiet sounds or music can severely disrupt their ability to pick out voices, and hearing the other people at the table is a lot more important than 10 hours of campfire sounds or a bardcore Eminem cover.
A sample for typical medieval-themed city streets:
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For a dwarven city, you could layer city sounds with a smith’s forge:
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A busy dockside market, replete with necessary gull sounds:
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Another busy market, this one gull-free:
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As you can see, it's easy to get carried away picking out audio tracks for your game. If desired, there are hyper-specific soundscapes for taverns, city halls, graveyards, even adventure locations like Wave Echo Cave from Lost Mine of Phandelver. It might be more practicable to manage your ambience in online games but whether your table is real or virtual, remember the audio is there to enhance your game, not detract from it. If you’re too busy hand-selecting John Cena’s entrance music to properly roleplay the entrance of your BBEG, maybe skip the embellishments.
Architecture and Geography
Finally, if your cities look like this in your minds:
Make sure you’re communicating these images to your players! Place your feet on the cobbled street and imagine the sun setting over the skyline, gondolas skimming silently by, the smell of sweets, oils and spices wafting from the night market, the faint chill of the evening settling onto your skin, how the atmosphere changes as day turns over to night and working people close their shops while others light their lanterns and fill the taverns… now tell your players about it.
Alternatively, you can tell me about it! As always, I’d love to hear your successes (and failures) for enhancing your game’s immersion. |
Prague photo by Pexels.
When in doubt, throw on a Skyrim or JRPG soundtrack. Job done!