Worldbuilding and urban campaigns: principles, techniques, and ideas

[Desdichado]

I do not like the definition but as long as it is in an imaginary world with epic plot and characters it is classified as such, as in Harry Potter.

Harry Potter isn't high fantasy.

The items are in D&D, they should be a possibility in world building and used in city construction, landmarks or wonders.

If you want them. Because high fantasy has a default medievalist assumption, a lot of folks want their D&D to represent that too. Clearly Gygax himself was one of them.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Harry Potter isn't high fantasy.

If you want them. Because high fantasy has a default medievalist assumption, a lot of folks want their D&D to represent that too. Clearly Gygax himself was one of them.

thread jump: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?352870-What-is-quot-middle-fantasy-quot&highlight=potter

 

[DMZ2112]

Not to derail the discussion, but since Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, C. S. Lewis, et al defined the high fantasy subgenre, and they don't have any of those kinds of things. Your definition of high fantasy is wrong.

It's been a long time since the literary definitions of high and low fantasy were relevant to tabletop gaming. High fantasy gaming means the PCs are wizards and elves and dragonriders; low fantasy means the PCs just have to live with them. In a high fantasy D&D game, magical appliances and conveniences are a logical extrapolation of the setting and yet are often omitted. Frankly it causes me cognitive dissonance every time I notice it. Nations run by 'magelords' who still employ maids to empty chamberpots. Chamberpots would be the first thing to go, let me tell you.

 

[TwoSix]

Not to derail the discussion, but since Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, C. S. Lewis, et al defined the high fantasy subgenre, and they don't have any of those kinds of things. Your definition of high fantasy is wrong.

Saying "I don't want to derail, but semantics" is pretty much the equivalent of tying an elephant to the train tracks, you know.

 

[Desdichado]

Saying "I don't want to derail, but semantics" is pretty much the equivalent of tying an elephant to the train tracks, you know.

Yeah, I know. Which is why I won't allow myself to get drawn into a discussion on the topic. Consider it the equivalent of drive-by pedantry.

 

[DMZ2112]

Harry Potter isn't high fantasy.

thread jump: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?352870-What-is-quot-middle-fantasy-quot&highlight=potter

As with the definitions of many literary genres, what is or is not high fantasy is generally up to the person speaking, because there is no hard and fast rule. Any debate is largely masturbatory academia.

What's relevant to this thread is that most city campaigns are low fantasy in the gaming sense, which is to say that the PCs are normal folks trying to get along. Speaking generally about such campaigns when they are run in D&D, these normal folks live in a city that is run by magelords or dragons or elf princes and do their best to stay out of these powerful beings' line of sight while dealing with the issues that plague everyone in these settings who do not have personal magic, which pretty closely resemble the issues that plagued folks in the real middle ages.

But the problem is that at some point, that noble magic has to trickle down. You can't ignore it forever. Eventually it stops making sense that your characters, whether non-player or player, are not benefiting from it or suffering by it in some fashion.

The vagaries of terminology aside, Hand of Evil's point is far from being incorrect. It's certainly possible to run a city campaign in D&D -- or any D&D campaign -- without high magic, but that's not what he's talking about. If your world has high magic, your city has high magic. And a lot of dungeon masters (and authors) forget that.

 

[DMZ2112]

Yeah, I know. Which is why I won't allow myself to get drawn into a discussion on the topic. Consider it the equivalent of drive-by pedantry.

You'd save this forum a lot of trouble if you'd not allow yourself to be drawn in before you decided to not allow yourself to be drawn in.

 

[Desdichado]

You'd save this forum a lot of trouble if you'd not allow yourself to be drawn in before you decided to not allow yourself to be drawn in.

I'm "a lot of trouble" for the forum? I have a pretty high opinion of myself, but even I don't think that's possible to be true.

 

[Afrodyte]

Can y'all take your personal beef outside this thread? It's starting to obscure the discussion I originally intended to have.

 

[Hand of Evil]

But I want to hear from other people who make and run city-based campaigns. Specifically:

• What do you like about urban campaigns?
• How do you like to create a city for an urban campaign?
• What are some principles you like to keep in mind for urban campaigns?
• How does worldbuilding change when you focus on a city-sized scale?
• Which techniques have you found most helpful for building urban settings and campaigns?
• What are some ideas for an urban campaign that you would like to try?

I create by building a city history, day one is its founding, then carry it out to the date of my current campaign. To help perform this task I start with a basic map of the area the city sits in, expanding outwards over time. As said in an earlier post, I always have a reason for why a city is where it is. Take my home city, Columbia SC, before it was the capital of South Carolina, it had two things going for it, 1) it was the first place that granite could be mined, which was sent down river to Charleston and 2) the river was deep enough to Columbia to provide boat traffic, so was a gateway town. It was made the Capital because it was basically located in the center of the State. Charlotte NC (The Queen City) on the other hand was the first places gold was discovered in the US, that is a reason it is a Banking center.

I then add events such as floods, fires, wars, etc. and then apply to the city, then rebuild.

I have always found it helpful to look at real world cities for history to use in building mine.