Good city descriptions/atmosphere settings help

[NewJeffCT]

The players in my 8 month old campaign (still in 3.5) have been tooling around the forests, marshes, and also some small towns with populations under 2,000 since basically the beginning of the campaign.

However, by next session (this coming Friday), they will be entering the capitol city of the kingdom, with a population of 50,000 or so people - 90-95% human - for the first time. For at least a few of the PCs, it will be their first trip to a big city.

Are there places that can give me a good descriptions of entering a city that large in a medieval type era? You know, the sights, the sounds, the smells, etc? Even though it is mid to late Spring, the climate is fairly warm (akin to South Carolina, I would guess) and it is a port city on the ocean. There will be ocean breezes and salty air, but I am sure some of the smells will be unpleasant as well.

Most likely, the PCs will be coming from inland, either by horse or by riverboat, not via the ocean.

Thanks for any help/input!

 

[NewJeffCT]

kicking up to the front for hopefully more activity during the weekday.

 

[Ydars]

There are some great descriptions of cities in historical novels; try anything by P.C Doherty, Kate Sedley, or Ellis Peters; they are medieval murder mysteries, many of which are set in big towns/cities like London. For a really ancient and big-coty feel, try books about Rome by Colleen McCullogh (the author of Thorn Birds).

To describe a city, think of it's function. How does it feed itself; without preservation, meat and other foodstuffs have to be produced daily, which means a huge amount of livestock entering the city every day. Runaway bulls and cows would not be uncommon sites.

A big city will have lots of nasty smells; fires burning to cure meat or drive away insects, the smell of slaughter as animals are butchered behind the meat markets (the actual term for this area was "the shambles"), the smell of horses close the gates (this is where all the stables are), the riot of refuse (depending upon whether your city has open or closed sewers; or both), the smell of fish, the smell of urine from washer shops (yes Urine was used to wash clothes because urea breaks down to Ammonia, which is a good source of bleaching agent), the smell of excrement from tanners (used to rot the meat off to get the leather for leatherworking and vellum).

Then there will be the nice smells of bread baking and of incense from temples.

The description of a city also depends upon whether carts are allowed in during the day; many ancient cities did not allow wheeled vehicles on the streets until dusk. Rome was a classic example and this is the reason that the Senators and rich people had slaves carrying them around in sedan chairs; to get around this law.

If carts are allowed by day, traffic flow will be chaos and streets will get blocked as goods are unloaded and everyone has to wait in the narrow streets.

If they are only allowd at night, then dusk will be chaos as lines of carts try to enter the city. Firewatchers will be everywhere at night; this is where the town watch originally came from; not to catch criminals but to make sure no untended fires were left as huge fires could rapidly burn the whole city down.

I hope this helps; give us a shout if there is anything more specific you need.

 

[NewJeffCT]

To describe a city, think of it's function. How does it feed itself; without preservation, meat and other foodstuffs have to be produced daily, which means a huge amount of livestock entering the city every day. Runaway bulls and cows would not be uncommon sites.

A big city will have lots of nasty smells; fires burning to cure meat or drive away insects, the smell of slaughter as animals are butchered behind the meat markets (the actual term for this area was "the shambles"), the smell of horses close the gates (this is where all the stables are), the riot of refuse (depending upon whether your city has open or closed sewers; or both), the smell of fish, the smell of urine from washer shops (yes Urine was used to wash clothes because urea breaks down to Ammonia, which is a good source of bleaching agent), the smell of excrement from tanners (used to rot the meat off to get the leather for leatherworking and vellum).

Then there will be the nice smells of bread baking and of incense from temples.

The description of a city also depends upon whether carts are allowed in during the day; many ancient cities did not allow wheeled vehicles on the streets until dusk. Rome was a classic example and this is the reason that the Senators and rich people had slaves carrying them around in sedan chairs; to get around this law.

If carts are allowed by day, traffic flow will be chaos and streets will get blocked as goods are unloaded and everyone has to wait in the narrow streets.

If they are only allowd at night, then dusk will be chaos as lines of carts try to enter the city. Firewatchers will be everywhere at night; this is where the town watch originally came from; not to catch criminals but to make sure no untended fires were left as huge fires could rapidly burn the whole city down.

I hope this helps; give us a shout if there is anything more specific you need.

Thanks for the input - that was helpful. The city is on the ocean, so I assume that fish/seafood is at least a decent part of the diet of the citizens, and the breeze from the ocean should mitigate the smell somewhat.

 

[Lorthanoth]

If anything the smell will be worse - sewage being dumped in the water.

 

[Ydars]

It might make the smell worse; rotting fish is an awful smell and most fishing ports I have been to really stink in the morning, after the fishing boats dump their rubbish.

Also, you might want to consider that a city of 50,000 would have to have a very large fishing fleet to feed that many people without any input from cattle.

If you really want to go with this, the city would be heaving with fishermen.

 

[Gregor]

Some excellent inspiration for me is playing Assassin's Creed. They fully rendered entire Medieval cities full of people coming and going, markets, churches, etc. If you dont have the game, check out some screenshots. It really hammers home what life in one of those cities would be like.

 

[Fathead]

If you have the time, stop by a library and pick up Life in a Medieval City by Joseph Gies. It's a fantastic reference, and gives you some great descriptions to work with. When I was in college, I took Medieval Studies as a minor, and had to read one of Gies books...and it definitely had a positive impact on my campaign descriptions.

Also, check out some of his other "Life of" books:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ATH=Joseph+Gies

 

[taliesin15]

About sewers and the question of whether carts are allowed in the city at night, one possibility is a city like Venice, which has many canals (same thing with medieval Mexico City), and boats are the principal mode of transportation--which as a port city should be very prevalent anyhow. In the main city IMC, same thing- though there are no canals, there are a number of small streams feeding into the main river right above the city which is located on both sides of a major river as it feeds into the ocean. During warmer months, if the water is still (as in Venice), the sewage and detritus in the water will reek, and malaria (or other disease) could be an issue.

Major cities are also a key place for things unsavory. Slave trade, for example. And Prostitution. Don't kid yourself, slavery and prostitution have always been around "civilized" cultures (not just here in America, but worldwide), so if you don't have them in your Metropolis of 50,000, you're going to have to come up with a logical reason why not.

Don't forget other kinds of ugliness. Animals being butchered openly on the streets. Screaming kids being smacked brutally by their parents. Public hangings and ritual torture being attended by the masses as if they are baseball games.

Street food vendors everywhere. Seriously, don't forget that. That's an easy way to introduce flavor. Scam artists running games of three card Monty. Bring out yer dead. Strangely clad members of cults milling through the streets, perhaps with shaved heads, saffron robes, begging for loose change at the Ferry Terminal (like the Hare Krishnas in airports back in the 70s, kids).

 

[Dan Bell]

Sorry, I can't help much but only suggest a product that might give you some fodder: http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/cfg/zoom.cfg?product_id=5741