Recommend me a good urban campaigning book.

[Reynard]

I don't need a city setting, but rather a good 3.x/d20 guide to creating a city and running a campaign therein. if it is relevent, the city in question is very much a "hive of scum and villainy" with warring gangs/guilds and the PCs goal is to eventually break the strnaglehold these organized crime groups/families have on the good citizens of Maw Bay.

 

[Pinotage]

Hmm. For refence I reckon Pirate's Guide to Freeport will give you a load of good ideas and a solid start.

WotC released Cityscape - I have no idea how good that is.

There is also the old Fantasy Flight Games Cityworks, or something like that. Might be worth a look. I believe there is a sale on their products at the moment for something like $5 per book.

Dark Quest Games had a few supplements called City Guide. Might be worth a look. Also, some of the best city ones were from The Game Mechanics - Thieves' Quarter, etc.

Pinotage

 

[timbannock]

Hmm. For refence I reckon Pirate's Guide to Freeport will give you a load of good ideas and a solid start.

WotC released Cityscape - I have no idea how good that is.

There is also the old Fantasy Flight Games Cityworks, or something like that. Might be worth a look. I believe there is a sale on their products at the moment for something like $5 per book.

Dark Quest Games had a few supplements called City Guide. Might be worth a look. Also, some of the best city ones were from The Game Mechanics - Thieves' Quarter, etc.

Pinotage

Cityscape features the great addition to the D&D rules of "city damage."

That's right, "city damage." Kinda like "fire damage," but from a city.

I'd avoid it.

Cityworks looked good, and books like Sharn: City of Towers and City State of the Invincible Overlord have a lot of neat stuff you can mine for ideas.

I really like Lost City of Barakus (Necromancer), because it shows how to weave together a boatload of plots regarding a single city and the surrounding countryside. It's pretty low-level though.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Depending on the area's cultural backdrop, A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (from Expeditious Retreat Press) might do the trick nicely. I'd also recommend Crime and Punishment (from Atlas Games) - it's what it sounds like, and quite good too.

 

[Graybeard]

I have used A Magical Medieval Society, Cityworks, and Freeport as guides\inspiration. I have also used real world cities as guides as well. There are plenty of books about ancient Rome available to peruse. I also read mystery novels and use some ideas from those.

 

[freyar]

Cityscape features the great addition to the D&D rules of "city damage."

That's right, "city damage." Kinda like "fire damage," but from a city.

I'd avoid it.

To be fair, that's in something like one feat (can't quite remember, and my books are at home). The NPC stat section (warriors, fighters, rogues, etc of many levels) is quite useful in Cityscape. On the whole, i think it's got quite a few good ideas, though I wish WotC had some unified set of rules for joining organizations, since Cityscape has different rules than PH2, which has different rules than ... I think the main thing about Cityscape is that it is really for DMs who are new to urban campaigns.

 

[Hstio]

While it's a city setting, Five Fingers from Privateer Press is what I'll use in the future as a model for designing cities. The it handles influence and the power structure are outstanding. The single best book I've read in the past 2 years.

Hstio

 

[EvilMountainDew]

Alternatively, look for text on the web for writing medieval (or whatever setting you're doing) fiction. Fiction-writing setting tools are fantastic because they tend to leave themselves more for plots and such that you can utilize.

 

[punkorange]

I'm going to say check out Ptolus. If your not looking for a setting in particular, I believe you can get sections of the big book in pdf, and there is a section for just what you want.

 

[Phlebas]

Cityscapes got some nice stuff in it ( and some other stuff you'll probably immediately decide to ignore).

My biggest complaint was how light it was for the cost but i've been using it for reference most weeks as it has some nice tables and the standard npc's are also useful