Are you a busy GM? Does session prep take too long? Do you never have time to work on the cool little details that can bring your adventures to life? These focused lists give you, the time-crunched GM, the tools to effortlessly add verisimilitude and detail to your urban adventures.

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1: The Pawn Shop

Hope and Glory: Run by the retired adventurer, Gabriel Ampuja (NG middle-aged male human), this shop has an adventurous clientele; such folk have to make do with higher interest rates than the norm—because a goodly proportion of them will never return to pay off their debt.
The Gold Stop: This high-end pawn shop only deals with people of means; the owner, Ilta Hopea (N middle-aged female human), won’t waste her time for mere copper or silver. She craves gold and the (begrudging) access her business gives her to high society.
Eerik’s: This pawnshop stands in a rough part of town. Its owner, Eerik Jurva (NE old male human), has a reputation for not asking too many questions. Many folk have claimed their stolen goods have turned up in the shop, but unless they have proof, Eerik ignores them.
All Things: All Things is a front—for the local watch who use it to keep an eye on nefarious types. The apparent owner, Hedvig Kallas (N middle-aged female human), informs her comrades about who sells her suspicious merchandise. The shop even turns a tidy profit!

2: Major Locale Features

The pawn shop has a heavy iron-studded front door and iron bars over the windows—on all floors. The back door is similarly reinforced and looks imposing.
The pawn shop has a vault in the cellar for the shop’s most valuable items. Only the pawnbroker has the keys, and they never leave their person.
The shop floor is divided in two by a wall of iron bars. The pawnbroker and their staff work on the other side of the bars to the customers. Similarly, items for sale are displayed in small barred cabinets.
Several lifelike statues of ferocious beasts dominate the shop floor. Local rumour has it that they are guardian creatures—and the pawnbroker does nothing to dissuade anyone from that belief.

3: Minor Locale Features

The pawnbroker employs mercenary guards to watch over his shop during business hours. The guards are paid well and loyal.
Once sumptuous tapestries bedeck the walls of the showroom; however, they are now old, faded and somewhat showing their age.
The shop’s displays of goods for sale are gloriously disorganised; it’s a miracle the shop sells anything.
The shop’s displays of goods for sale are meticulously organised; every item has a price listed and a note as to its provenance.

4: What’s Going On?

The shop is closed; the characters must come back some other time, no matter how urgent their business.
The pawnbroker is rearranging the display of goods for sale—a number of items have just passed their collection dates, and they are keen to recoup their investment.
The shop is busy, and a queue of customers—all clutching items to pawn—stretches out of the door.
A shop employee is mopping up a small pool of blood; someone just tried (and failed) to rob the pawnbroker!

5: What’s For Sale?

Owlbear Cushion (10 gp): This four-foot-long cushion is stuffed with owlbear feathers “harvested” by the great half-orc hero Krorz who was famed for his magic lance.
Magic Potion (100 gp): The pawnbroker has forgotten what this potion is meant to be, and is too cheap to get someone to identify it. As always, buyer beware.
Vial of Green Slime (10 gp): The label identifies this as a jar of green slime, but the pawnbroker won’t guarantee that’s what’s inside—they (wisely) don’t want to open it.
Treasure Map (250 gp): This map shows where a group of adventurers buried their loot—in the depths of a then-abandoned mine. (Now, something terrible lives in the mine, but the treasure remains unclaimed.)

Credit

This is a short system-neutral extract from Urban Locale #112 Pawn Shop by Robert Manson. The book is available from DriveThruRPG and Raging Swan Press’s own web store.

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Urban Locales: Pawn Shop