City Based Campaign Resources

MaasGreldain · May 12, 2004

In about a month, I will be starting an entirely new campaign for my group that will be about 80% city based. I need resources to develop this city. I would gladly buy a GOOD published product but resources on the internet would be helpful as well.

dreaded_beast · May 12, 2004

I've heard good things about the Green Ronin product, City of Freeport.

Haven't seen it myself, but people here say it's good.

Wycen · May 12, 2004

Magical Medieval Society and Cityworks.

Chupacabra · May 12, 2004

I'll put my 2 cents in for "Lankhmar, City of Adventure" an AD&D 2nd edition supplement that described the ins and outs of arguably the most famous city in all of early sword & sorcery literature: Lankhmar, the City of the Black Toga. This town was the setting for Fritz Leiber's "Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser" series of tales, which served as a HUGE inspiration to the creators of the original D&D game.

As this product was made for an earlier edition of the game, it will be much more useful to mine ideas from, rather than to be plopped down into your campaign whole-cloth.

Good luck! (I ran a 100% city based campaign a few years back, and it was a blast -- you are still able to cram a surprising number of ruined towers, dungeons, etc. into a city campaign, if thats your cup of tea).

PS -- although this may entail more work than you are willing to put in, might I also suggest that you keep your eyes open for an old (Circa 1990) Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying adventure called "Shadows Over Bogenhafen" (part of a longer published campaign called "The Enemy Within"). Shadows Over Bogenhafen was a highly-accalimed, multiple-award winning module that was 100% city based and could easily serve as the inspiration for a fantastic AD&D adventure. Although this publication may be rare (it went in and out of print many many times over the years) it is well worth the effort to track down.

der_kluge · May 12, 2004

Bluffside - More city than most normal people need.

Acid_crash · May 12, 2004

The above are good, another book to add to the list is Citycraft by FFG. It's a good book that helped me figure out a lot from one city I built.

Hand of Evil · May 13, 2004

Bluffside
Freeport
Streets of Silver
Geanavue

All are good and great products but don't forget to add to them

AEG's Toolbox, great product to add to any game.

smetzger · May 13, 2004

Freeport

Psion · May 13, 2004

Many of the resources people have cited above are actually cities. I don't know if that is exactly what you are looking for, but at least a lot of your work would be done for you. Bluffside and Streets of Silver are two of my favorites.

Green Ronin just came out with a product called Thieves Quarter that focuses on the thieves quarter of a city. It looks very nice.

Buttercup · May 13, 2004

If you want a city that is already built for you, I'd look at:

Freeport (piratey goodness, arrrggghhh!)
Bluffside (interesting premise, way cool, humoungous city)
Geanavue (beautifully done if you want a city that doesn't care for magic.)
Streets of Silver (think renaissance Italy, the Medicis the Borgias, poison, intrigue, and eeeevil.)
Seven Cities (generic, drop into any campaign, but not the most flavorful.)

I'm running a Freeport game right now, and I highly recommend it if you like pirates.

If you want to know how to build your own city, then you really must have Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. Your next purchase should be Cityworks. Both of these are excellent resources for the city building DM. Plus they're fun to read!