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City adventures - evoking the setting
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<blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 3248025" data-attributes="member: 3192"><p>A city is tough to adequately describe as it's like no other adventure locale. It's actually several locales with one name. My players just entered Diamond Lake in the AoW and I was finally able to give the a big description of how the town looked and felt. Below are the homebrew notes in spoilers with a few things removed (so my players can go ahead and read this if they see it). </p><p></p><p>[sblock]<strong>Town</strong> – Dirty sprawl of hundreds of buildings next to a muddy lake. Squalor.</p><p></p><p><strong>Houses</strong> – wood and stone built high off rolling hills and embankments. Many run down and a few boarded up. Steps lead up to many buildings 1-2 stories in height. Large, mansion-sized homes ostentatiously designed and decorated intermixed with the smaller ones. Many smaller doors and even windows are built right into the hillsides. (Many more are boarded up in these hillsides). 2 larger hills have large complexes built atop. 1 – an old estate built into a fortress. 2 – a massive sprawling mansion with many haphazard additions.</p><p></p><p><strong>Roads</strong> – main road "The Vein" is cobblestone farther in town, mud on approach. Others are just dirt.</p><p><strong>Square</strong> – Cobblestoned with tall torch poles around. 2 temples (square and circle), shops, an upscale parlor house called Lazare’s, and a massive building called “The Emporium” (with a line outside)</p><p></p><p><strong>People</strong> – Miners, poor, prostitutes, laborers, garrison soldiers, beggars, gambling on the street corner.</p><p></p><p><strong>Lake</strong> – Bordering the town to the East. Muddy and polluted. Warehouses made into cheap housing. A few ramshackle houses along it. 3 piers jut out with the remains of some run down fishing boats and barges (most don’t look like they have moved in years).</p><p></p><p><strong>Smelting house</strong> – large stone 2 story building made of stone towers clustered next to each other. No windows and fenced in. Along lake with the slag running off into it. 1 front tower connected to a building corner has a sign above the door (Benazel’s). 2 larger barn doors in center front are closed.</p><p></p><p><strong>Cemetery</strong> – on hill to north is a cemetery fenced in with a small house outside. 2 fences, one encircles a mostly filled in area with some mausoleum. Other area is more spread out. Newer.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mines</strong> – 3 mines in town. N, S, W. They are fenced in with offices inside the fences. </p><p></p><p><strong>Town Laws</strong> – in a Handout (not included)</p><p></p><p><strong>HISTORY</strong> – (cut)</p><p></p><p><strong>Encounter List</strong> - for wandering encounters (cut)</p><p></p><p>And afterwords I have a site list with numbers for each important location in town. The few included above are immediately noticeable as unique. Site lists for a city could be by quarter: A1-A20, B1-B20, etc.</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>What I would do for a city is a separate write up on each quarter and a master view for those approaching (with the surrounding metro area having its' own write up). </p><p></p><p>I find having a little intro to each Big Area can really help convey the scene. Think of it as a single dungeon room, but wherein many other locations can be found and interacted with. (e.g. a castle which again has many rooms).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="howandwhy99, post: 3248025, member: 3192"] A city is tough to adequately describe as it's like no other adventure locale. It's actually several locales with one name. My players just entered Diamond Lake in the AoW and I was finally able to give the a big description of how the town looked and felt. Below are the homebrew notes in spoilers with a few things removed (so my players can go ahead and read this if they see it). [sblock][b]Town[/b] – Dirty sprawl of hundreds of buildings next to a muddy lake. Squalor. [b]Houses[/b] – wood and stone built high off rolling hills and embankments. Many run down and a few boarded up. Steps lead up to many buildings 1-2 stories in height. Large, mansion-sized homes ostentatiously designed and decorated intermixed with the smaller ones. Many smaller doors and even windows are built right into the hillsides. (Many more are boarded up in these hillsides). 2 larger hills have large complexes built atop. 1 – an old estate built into a fortress. 2 – a massive sprawling mansion with many haphazard additions. [b]Roads[/b] – main road "The Vein" is cobblestone farther in town, mud on approach. Others are just dirt. [b]Square[/b] – Cobblestoned with tall torch poles around. 2 temples (square and circle), shops, an upscale parlor house called Lazare’s, and a massive building called “The Emporium” (with a line outside) [b]People[/b] – Miners, poor, prostitutes, laborers, garrison soldiers, beggars, gambling on the street corner. [b]Lake[/b] – Bordering the town to the East. Muddy and polluted. Warehouses made into cheap housing. A few ramshackle houses along it. 3 piers jut out with the remains of some run down fishing boats and barges (most don’t look like they have moved in years). [b]Smelting house[/b] – large stone 2 story building made of stone towers clustered next to each other. No windows and fenced in. Along lake with the slag running off into it. 1 front tower connected to a building corner has a sign above the door (Benazel’s). 2 larger barn doors in center front are closed. [b]Cemetery[/b] – on hill to north is a cemetery fenced in with a small house outside. 2 fences, one encircles a mostly filled in area with some mausoleum. Other area is more spread out. Newer. [b]Mines[/b] – 3 mines in town. N, S, W. They are fenced in with offices inside the fences. [b]Town Laws[/b] – in a Handout (not included) [b]HISTORY[/b] – (cut) [b]Encounter List[/b] - for wandering encounters (cut) And afterwords I have a site list with numbers for each important location in town. The few included above are immediately noticeable as unique. Site lists for a city could be by quarter: A1-A20, B1-B20, etc. [/sblock] What I would do for a city is a separate write up on each quarter and a master view for those approaching (with the surrounding metro area having its' own write up). I find having a little intro to each Big Area can really help convey the scene. Think of it as a single dungeon room, but wherein many other locations can be found and interacted with. (e.g. a castle which again has many rooms). [/QUOTE]
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