So, there your party is, right in the thick of the action. They’re running away from sixteen angry Doppelgangers, they’re weaponless, and they’re looking for help. And someone asks the inevitable question…”Just where the heck are we anyway?”

Do you know? Are they rounding the corner into a back alley? Or is there a Legion prescient just up the road they can seek help at? The success of a campaign is based largely upon how much the Storyteller knows about the environment the characters are in. If have no clue where your characters are and are making it up as you go along, this leads to frustration on your and the characters behalf.

“Is an alley to our right or left?”
“Um, I think I said right.”
“I’ll go to the left!”
“No, wait, it was on the left!”
“Okay, I’m going right…”
“No wait, left leads to the next street over. I think.”
“ARGH!”
*sound of ST being pelted by 10-siders.*

You, as the ST, need to be prepared for any eventuality in the campaign, and knowing where you are saves you a lot of trouble. Planning environments in advance can help prevent several problems, and keep a campaign running smoothly so you can worry about other things. And at the very least, it’s just one less thing to worry about.

Here are four suggestions for ironing out location problems in a campaign.

• Where does your Campaign take place?

  A deceptively simple question. Right off the bat, you probably said, “Chicago,” or “Stygia,” or some other simple, one or two word answer. So, you’re in Stygia…that’s nice, but very vague. You might as well say you’re in France, or the planet Earth, or the Milky Way galaxy. Now, let’s get specific. Where in Stygia does this campaign take place? Are you thick in the machine of the Legion? Or do you start out in a slum, surrounded by Renegades? Will you be going down the River, or to another Necropolis? What if your PCs want to go clubbing? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, it’s time to get a clue.

  Sit down with your campaign, and write down every location you’re sure your characters will visit. Is your campaign Skinlands-based, or does it take place in the heart of the Tempest? Jot down every city, building, street, and place your PC can or might find themselves at. Make sure you understand how they are in relation to each other. Your party can’t run to the Legion for help in five minutes if the nearest Citadel is across town. Which leads to...

• Draw or obtain maps

  It’s annoying, it’s time consuming, and it will also save your butt in a campaign. Even a loose sketch of where your PCs and NPCs will be running around makes life much easier for everyone. A map doesn’t have to be incredibly detailed, just enough for you and your PCs to have an idea of where things are going.

  If your campaign takes place in an established city, your job just got easy. Just get hold of a map of the city (or section) you’ll be in. Use internet sites like MapQuest or city information sites, or write to the city’s local Chamber of Commerce or Tourism Bureau for a free map and information on points of interest. This also makes life easier if you have players who have never been to the city, but are supposed to be familiar with it in the campaign; give them the info so they won’t be absolutely clueless.

  Or, if you really want to simplify in either case, just use your own city or town. Snag a map through the means described above, change things around (“Hmm...that bank headquarters would make an excellent Tower of Onyx…”) and design your custom location to your hearts content.

• Fill in the details

  You have a map, now get specific. Write down character haunts, buildings of importance to the locals, character specific locations, and so on. Don’t plan out your city completely, just fill in the most important parts.

  This is also the phase to fill in the actual physical details. What do these places look like? Is the Heretic church an imposing Gothic cathedral that would put anything in Europe to shame, or is it a modern work of twisting metal beams and glass? Is the main gathering place a marketplace, full of shops and stalls, or is it a park, full of dead trees, a decaying playground, and a Relic guillotine?

  If you don’t want go crazy thinking of things on your own, pick a place interesting to you and use it to fill in the details. For example, a campaign I ran had the characters in a setting with a neighborhood full of small shops and haunts. Rather than drive myself up the wall thinking of details, I thought of a similar place somewhere in real life. In this case, Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle area came to mind, and I described the neighborhood just like I would have Dupont Circle, modified it slightly, and no one was the wiser. Shortcuts are okay; after all, you have a lot more to think about in a campaign that just where it is.

  One more thing to keep in mind: don’t fill in your map completely. Save room for improvisation. For example, a PC needs to purchase a gun. You could scramble around your map, searching for where you put a store that sells such things, or you could just say down the street, there’s a place that has a sign in the window saying “We sell weapons.” Be flexible. A map is a helpful guideline, not the word of God, or the ST for that matter.

• Make sure your characters know where they are

  Yes, it’s easy and sometimes helpful to keep your PCs in the dark, but it’s also damned frustrating when you’re a PC who’s lived in the area for 100 plus years and have to constantly ask the ST, “Where’s (fill-in-location-everyone-should-know-about)?” If you have PCs who are supposed to be familiar with an area, tell them where the hell they are. Give them maps, filled in with things they would know about, such as points-of-interest, haunts, stores, patrols, etc. A Heretic would probably know all about the local churches, for example, but not where each of the separate Legion headquarters are. You should also have a master map for yourself with all these details in one handy place, so you don’t have to flip between several maps.

With the suggestions above, creating settings for a story should be a breeze. And now, whenever a PC asks for details, you can fill them in quickly. The only thing they have to worry about now are those sixteen Doppelgangers.