Fantasy Cities

[tbug]

I'll be starting a fantasy campaign soon that takes place almost entirely within a city. Is there a resource out there along the lines of "This is all the stuff you should consider if you're running a fantasy city campaign."?

 

[Mark CMG]

These might help -

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...esign-best-supplements-rpg-cities-advice.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/222691-d20-city-building.html

 

[Perram]

I'll be starting a fantasy campaign soon that takes place almost entirely within a city. Is there a resource out there along the lines of "This is all the stuff you should consider if you're running a fantasy city campaign."?

WotC produced a fun book on the subject called Cityscape for 3.5. Might be worth checking out.

 

[tbug]

Great! Thank-you both!

 

[VheeShane]

I'll be starting a fantasy campaign soon that takes place almost entirely within a city. Is there a resource out there along the lines of "This is all the stuff you should consider if you're running a fantasy city campaign."?

You know thats the thing I never had the impetus to create an entire City!
I think I used Judges Guild maps and they had a city too i beleive. BUT that was a 100 years ago

 

[Hand of Evil]

See my sig for DM Advice, there are a number of threads on city based games.

 

[Piratecat]

City building is one of my favorite things about DMing. I'm happy to offer suggestions, if you're interested. And what are other peoples' favorite tricks and hints?

 

[[OMENRPG]Ben]

I typically prefer cities to have evolved naturally over the course of history. Therefore my campaign world has to have such a history as to have an impact on a city. On top of that, I consider things such as geography, climate, and other natural influences that could change or alter how the city came to be.

There are a thousand things you can do when creating a city, so don't get overwhelmed. I prefer to do the outside-in approach, making the large general scope of the city and then filling in smaller sectors with ever-increasing details. This can be particularly effective if you know the PCs are going to be contained witin a specific section of the city.

That's all I will go into for now, but there are countless ways to create a city and countless things to consider depending on your desired level of realism. In any case, good luck.

 

[Voadam]

I'm a big fan of the random descriptive tables in the Bits of the X series and they have a city supplement Bits of the Boulevard.

Not every building or person needs to be detailed or statted like a hostile dungeon.

 

[Hand of Evil]

To add more...

• Give your city a nick name...this should have something to do with it's nature. Example: City of Magic or the Port to the East or The Castle.
• Don't worry about map details, just create landmarks and place places around them. Think about the look, smell and feel of each ward, that is how the characters will know where they are.
• Power Groups: Who are the movers and shakers and how do they interact with each other.
• City Flow: This is the life of the city, when does the fleet come in, when are most people paid. What is going on when.