Sharn: City of Tower Streets?

I've been reading Sharn, City of Towers, and enjoying it. Little rules for small bonuses here and there. Lots of different wards. Some contradictory information here and there, but that's to be expected (usually when dealing with guards and PC power levels).

However, I'm trying to wrap my brain around streets. It mentions that because they're enclosed, they have lights and that some streets go through the towers, around the towers, etc... How are they effectively differetn than bridges?

In some ways, I'm seeing Vience but instead of water, it's with air.

Any help?

the way i picture it, is the towers are pretty huge, kinda like multi-level malls on the inside, each "open space" being any number of levels from one to hundreds. Inside, you will have walkways around each level and possibly stairs or lifts. Outside, there are paths that go around the tower, or possibly ramp up or down also...and these paths are wide enough that they connect to the next tower sometimes. Then of course there are multiple of these open mall areas stacked on top of each other.

So although there are some parts of Sharn where you can fall pretty far, and some of them are even "open" areas, chances are you will smack a path a few levels below.

The skycoaches will know where all the "open spaces" are, and to them the "streets" will be like venice with air. But I bet they use a different word than street, like air tunnel or something.

While I see it as a Venice I also see it like the city from the Fifth Element or Star Wars, the towers have through fares for the citizens taking them up or down.

A vertical Venice was my first image as well.

Not trying to be a smart-aleck, but a street that crosses a gap IS a bridge. I'm not sure I'm understanding the question.

Henry said:

Not trying to be a smart-aleck, but a street that crosses a gap IS a bridge. I'm not sure I'm understanding the question.

Click to expand...

It's not a problem.

In the book they mention streets and they mention bridges. I didn't understand the real difference myself hence the post.

Well, one thing to note is that the bridges are not all covered - witness the aerial image of Sharn in the Core book, and the Forgotten Forge adventure. The second to remember is that the streets run through the towers, as you said above, making it an unusual sight. Maybe I need to check out some photos of Venice for inspiration...

Another way to look at it is that the bridges/skyways level the plateaus, streets become bridges, then stairways, the towers were made higher to build clear ways to other areas but much like our instate highway system did not see the build up around them.

I'm reading the same book and loving it. I want to run a Sharn-based campaign so bad I can taste it.

The way I picture it is that most of what we would call "streets" are really more like bridges and balconies. They run around the perimeter of towers and between them and, occasionally, through the middle of them. Connectivity is at a maximum in the lower wards where the bases of the towers are all clustered close together.

As you go up to the middle wards the spaces between towers are further apart making the bridges longer and thinner. At this level there will be a fair number of places where bridges come together to form "intersections". The largest of these will rest on the tops of short towers or the crumbled remains of collapsed towers (in the poorer wards).

Rising up toward the upper wards the spaces between towers become distant enough that the bridges are fewer and often quite narrow, perhaps suitable only for foot traffic. Much if not most of the travel between towers will be by Skycoach at this point and the bulk of materials delivered to these wards will be either by Lift (coming up through the towers themselves) or by big "Skybarges" that drop off loads of material at large balconies.

One thing that seems intuitive to me (and perhaps it is addressed somewhere in the book and I've missed it) is that the upper wards must have some serious gutters to catch the frequent rains. These would drain into cisterns and probably be maintained by House Ghallandra who would assure that the water remains pure and drinkable. My reasoning for this is that water is HEAVY and yet absolutely necessary for the population of a large city. Having to devote a lot of Lift or Skybarge capacity to moving it into the upper wards would be terribly inefficient and costly. And magically pumping it up to the tops of mile-high towers stretches credulity for me.

The cistern idea seems ripe for adventure hooks anyway. There could be a sudden flood into one of the middle wards if an upper-ward cistern cracked. Or perhaps one of the criminal organizations might be trying to poison (or addict to a drug) one of the upper wards. All they'd have to do would be to sprinkly some of the substance into the gutters and let the rain wash it into the cisterns. Then they bribe or assassinate the Ghallandra cistern-tender and soon the residents of Upper Menthis are dropping like flies (or craving Dreamlilly).

Consider that whole water thing snatched and pilfered into my evil brain.

Are there any illustrations of the streets directly? I see several of the bridges, but the text notes a difference between streets and bridges as the streets are enclosed and light with everbirght lanterns (unlike the lower wards light by everburnign torchers...)

Perhaps there shouldn't have been any difference noted in the text? It's like one paragraph for bridges, and another paragraph for streets...

And yea, this is one cool city. It'll be another 4 star rating (fanboy they'll cry... fanboy!)