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| From Slavador Trakal |
In fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) cities are usually places parties have to go, and not always a place they want to. The party needs a place to restock supplies so they can head back out to find more monsters and treasure. Some campaigns use the city as a place where the party must go to find out where the next adventure is. From my experience, less often the city is a place of adventure. I understand the hardship of running a city campaign, there are a lot of moving parts needing to be considered.
Hork is a city like any other. It can fill the role of any other city you might want to run in your world. The difference being orcs are the primary inhabitants. The laws and culture are different, just like cities in different kingdoms, or those inhabited by other races. Starting with the similarities allows you as the game master (GM) to use familiar hooks. Then because of the differences between Hork and most other cities, hooks that are slightly twisted can work. And, finally, every city has particulars allowing you to use hooks specific to the setting.
Starting with the familiar, here are examples that can be altered to fit your campaign and gaming style.
Familiar Hooks
“We are running out of...”
The party is in need of supplies and the closest place to gain the essentials is Hork. Supplies in the city are available to anyone willing to pay for them. In fact, in the city of Hork there are items openly sold whereas in many places those commodities are difficult to locate without knowing the proper contacts.
The Market is where the resident (Horkians, Horkites?) get almost everything they use, and those items not sold there can be found in some other tunnel.
Outsiders to the city are recognizable in many ways, which can lead to a shopping spree players are not used to. The laws of the city are based on strength rules. Cons are everywhere and prices are set based on what can be earned from the buyer. Theft is acceptable (if you have the strength to take and hold it), as long as you don’t get caught by someone stronger, and most merchants have some means of catching would be thieves. There is also the other side where thieves are watching for unsuspecting targets. The party is in a place where they can do just about anything. Just remember the laws of retribution and cleaning up after yourself.
Places listed can be used, or new locations created. The Market, The Market Bar, and The Squeeze can all be used for encounter areas when the party is in the Hork. In fact, I wrote The Squeeze on a request to provide a place of interest.
“We need to talk to...”
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| Orc Cleric by Ogurec-Ubica on Deviant Art |
Every city has people who know information others want or need—Hork is no different. The party has been directed to talk to a person who now resides in Hork. This could be a long lived orc who survived some ancient battle and knows where the Knight of Pervus fell. Or, a retired thief who once was in the cave of Fangarell the dragon.
Finding the right person to talk with can be a simple or complex series of events. The usual way an orc makes it to their later years is if they are connected to a tribe that can protect them. Others don’t want to be found. And, many times there is someone else who also wants the information, or, those who don’t want the information to be known. The cost of the information is always a consideration, and can easily lead into an adventure all in itself.
Hork is also a place to find a guide. In other cities a party may need the help of an expert in the local forest or mountains. Hork has a number of residents who know the surrounding terrain above ground, and the underground. Hork could very well be the stopover the party needs to find the person who can lead them to their final destination which is deeper in the labyrinth of tunnels and caves those who are not familiar with never return from.
Like locations, this is an opportunity to use residents already in the city or other personalities you already have in your campaign or would like to add. Detailed characters include Simpand Astherfen. There are also named characters that have basic information without a lot of detail in the locations.
“The caravan is stopping where?”
Many adventurers start their careers as caravan guards. Taking a job that gets them out into the country where they have the opportunity of sharpening their skills fighting off the bandits and monsters set on taking the merchant’s good. It also gets them from one location to the next in a larger crowd that provides some level of protection for themselves.
Most of these games of “caravan guard adventure” I have been involved in fall into two general categories: Encounters on the road and getting from point A to point B. Adding Hork as the destination, or part of the circuit, of the caravan adds a different aspect to being a caravan guard. Here is a place that having guards at the trading point is just as crucial as having them along during the journey. Again, the law of might makes right means a merchant needs more than just the right connections on where they are selling their goods; they need the muscle to show they have the right to own and sell their goods like the rest of the merchants in the city. This is especially important for the merchants not part of one of the guilds in the city.
“I’m tired of trail rations!”
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| Drow wizard by Wolf Eyes on Deviant Art |
Adventures are known for being rowdy folks who don’t always do well when they are in a “normal” city. When defending themselves or just enjoying an evening at the tavern they end up running afoul of the law. Then as the cleric and wizard finally get the information they came for, they bail out the barbarian and rogue from jail and they are on their way, quickly, out from under the watchful eyes of the constable.
Being an orc run city, it is known there are going to be fights, mayhem, and death, just clean up after yourself and pay your rightful dues to the business owner for the broken wall you threw the belligerent drunken half-ogre into. The law of Hork isn’t there to stop fights and death, but to control the aftermath.
Conclusion
These are some quick ideas and familiar hooks used when trying to get a party to go to a particular place. You can change the ideas up for they are not set in the stonework originally laid down by the dwarfs that lived in the city. I’m sure you have already remembered ideas you have used in the past and how they could work for Hork.
These have minor twists, as I believe are needed when dealing with any location. Next up is looking at some old themes and developing them more specifically to a dark city that is not ruled by law and order, or a social contract of considering the best good for the most people.
If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.
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