City Based Campaign Resources

[haiiro]

You can download a PDF of the City Building chapter from Magic Medieval Society: Western Europe for free: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1678&. It's excellent, and sounds like it'd be right up your alley.

Cityworks, from Fantasy Flight Games (their Legends & Lairs line) is also a good source of general ideas. Sometimes a bit too general, but it's helped me not miss anything when I'm working on my game.

Neither is a specific pre-gen city -- they're both resources for building your own city. I used (and still use) them both for my campaign, which is based around a single city.

Edit: I got so excited, I didn't notice Buttercup mentioned both of these sources...in the post right above mine! Ah well, at least I added something to her comments.

 

[kuje31]

You could also try to dig up all the FR material on Waterdeep. City System, City of Splendors box set, Volo's Guide to Waterdeep, etc.......

 

[darkbard]

i'll chime in with an unusual suggestion: monte cook's banewarrens. sure, it's a dungeon crawl adventure, not a city sourcebook. however, it's a dungeon complex based below a major city and contains enough rough outlines of the city in which the adventure is based [ptolus of monte's home campaign] and how various power factions interact, that it is a fine blueprint for building one's own city adventures. monte has taken great pains to account for how a city would function in a world of magic, monsters and heroes.

plus, it's a great adventure! and monte posts a campaign journal on his website of the two groups that adventure in the city that you can mine for additional ideas. it's available as a print product or download as a pdf [another plus]. check out www.montecook.com

 

[Silveras]

First, let me add my voice to the chorus for both A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe and CityWorks.

Second, I'd like to elaborate on CityWorks for a second. As mentioned, it helps a DM create a city. However, it also helps you run a game in a city, which is a different thing.

CityWorks includes some new base classes (Acrobat, Assassin, Pit Fighter {think Gladiator}), spells, Prestige Classes, and (more importantly) rules systems. Fires and other urban hazards are covered. A systematic means of describing the effectiveness of the City Watch is discussed (including how to set DCs for bribing guards, and for how observant the guards are). Everything in CityWorks would be a good add-on to any of the other "pre-packaged" cities, I think.

 

[Nightfall]

Uhm Hollowfaust and Shelzar perhaps? (A minority I know) But definately Bluffside and Freeport are great port cities.

 

[Gareman]

I've been running an urban campaign for about a year now. My choices:

Freeport: City of Adventure
Toolbox (for quick names and encounters)
CityWorks
Shelzar
Ptolus information from the Montecook.com site

You're also welcome to my player's guide for my city: http://www.runlevel6.com/scarredlands/ironcrown/ironcrownplayerguide.pdf
I've used some Arcana Unearthed races, combined with a Ptolus framework, with lots of other influences.