DMs: How Do You Handle Your City Streets?

[Deadguy]

Don't Do Too Much Work!

Once upon a time I used to map out towns and cities in quite some detail, often marking in swathes of streets. Not anymore. Even for places that are frequently visited, I have found that I don't need to put in all that detail.

Instead I have maps that show districts, with explanations of what those districts are, and some notes about the styles of buildings involved. I add to that the specific locations of important and landmark buildings (the latter is really useful - so NPCs can say something like "The Courts of Law? They're just down from the Hippodrome, on the same street that leads towards the High Hall of the City Council - that big red-roofed tower over there!").

When PCs are wandering about, I ask them what they are looking for, and what they want. Then I can improvise some stuff about specifics. if it doesn't look absolutely identical the next time they come along, well maybe they are confsued, mixing places up in their memories! In fairness, if a place seems like it will become important, then I mark it onto the map.

A good thing to do too is to make a basic map for the use of the PCs too - if you can photocopy (or generate a copy on a computer), then they can have something to jot down places of interest to them. I fond that this, more than reams of description they soon forget, gets them involved with the town.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I do blocks and then wards, each ward holds so many blocks.

Wards are broke down into things like...

Gate - where most traffic enters and exits the city, you find a number of inns, tarvens, stables and such in this area.

Docks - River, lake, or sea. Warehouses, bars, whore houses, and homes of dock workers. Most times will have the shader and poorer parts of town.

Merchant - the area between the docks and gate. Side to the docks poorer and becomes richer as it moves away from that area. This is the middle class area of a city.

Noble - Big homes, the very rich and the very powerful. You also find very large churches in this area.

Industry - tanners, smithies, ironworks, and such. Large factories surrounded by the homes of the workers. lower middle class.

Goverment - this is where the business of the city gets down.

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Each ward has a lot in common, taverns, bakers, candle makers, butchers, markets. It is that the quality of the goods in each ward is different.

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I normally just draw out a map or use one from the net (cc2 format).

If the city is the home base of my players I have them create NPC and locations that they know and tell me where they are.

 

[Psion]

When I do draw my own city, I usually pick a few central features, a wall (if it has one), and then expand from those points like a web.

However, drawing cities is a lot of work... even using city designer. What I often do these days is to grab a city from the FR atlas, erase the references, and put my own in. They are pretty nice, and so far no one is enough of an FR guru that they have noticed.

 

[Galfridus]

When I do draw my own city, I usually pick a few central features, a wall (if it has one), and then expand from those points like a web.

That's a very valid method for city growth that generally gives good results.

I have to admit, with some embarrassment, that I actually spent a lot of time researching medieval city design, layout, and growth...all for a city-based campaign I ran in college. For that game, I created a building-by-building map (in Freehand) for a 1 mile square city.

Since then, I create a general map with main roads and other major features (defenses, squares, temples, inns, etc.) marked, and "wing" the rest. If the PCs settled in a city I'd probably get into a little more detail, but so far this method has worked well.

I also print out a general map and provide it to the PCs, so they can get an idea of the city's layout.

 

[Holy Bovine]

However, drawing cities is a lot of work... even using city designer. What I often do these days is to grab a city from the FR atlas, erase the references, and put my own in. They are pretty nice, and so far no one is enough of an FR guru that they have noticed.

I do this all the time (and got a very used copy of the FR Atlas just for this alone - I don't usually run the FR but I have no problem swiping ideas and maps from it ).

I have never had a player recognize any FR city I've used - I usually only reveal a small amount of detail to the players as they gradually explore the city. IMC only the largest and most sophisticated cities would have maps detailing the sites - and those will usually be hopelessly out of date as new buildings & businesses open and old ones fall/close down.

I would say only detail the major points of a city and take stuff from the FR Atlas - it is a gold mine!

 

[D'karr]

Historical Cities

For some additional maps of historical cities look here:

http://www.legolas.org/castle/cities.html

 

[Orco42]

I use Grimtooth's random corridor dice.