D&D 5E Stink of the City and other unpleasentries, do you pay attention to them?

[Unwise]

Most fantasy cities are pitched at a level of technical advancement that has mage's academies and temples analogous to universities in our world. These have often been established for a very long time, there is always some artificial reason why technology has not advanced that much, the timeline moves on a lot slower than earth. By the time a place has universities, it is well on the way to having the tools to fix its filth problem. Maybe the cities have had their versions of Joseph Bazalgette design a way to fix it.

One a side note...

One of my favourite PCs and later NPC was a Wizard who was a Water Elementalist and was the city's leading sanitation worker. He was university educated and had grand plans for aqueducts, clean water supplies and irrigation systems. He had a fanatical devotion to improving the world through clean water. He had to go adventuring to make the money to prototype his ideas in order to get funding from the university and government. Many of his adventures were related to clearing blockages in the sewers, often caused by slimes, monsters, smugglers, cultists and bandits.

He ended up with a pet ooze, which ate all organic matter. He used it as a water filtration system, installing it in water systems, he pumped sewerage in to feed it and it expelled fresh clean water. It grew HUGE and needed its own containment area, almost like a nuclear reactor, he was always afraid of it going free. He made a pet of sorts of an Otyguh too, anything that feeds on filth is actually a very cleanly thing to have around, the more it eats the cleaner a place gets.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Awesome. Slimes and oozes are generally underrated for their urban infrastructure contributions.

 

[guachi]

I include it, if only ot contrast it with the cities and locations that aren't like that.

I also have racism, sexism, bigotry, nationalism, and other unpleasant things. Most of it isn't so egregious that it's overwhelming. The parts that are bad the players are told beforehand as it's something that basically every character would know.

 

[Leatherhead]

Only when it's thematically appropriate.

 

[Riley37]

Awesome. Slimes and oozes are generally underrated for their urban infrastructure contributions.

"I collect spores, molds, and fungus." - Dr. Egon Spengler, in "Ghostbusters"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeWgnPeZES8

Gelatinous Cubes are useful for clean-up, once they're properly directed.

 

[aramis erak]

Not at all. I mean, think about it. We have level 3 spells from druids to represent good harvest spells, meaning they can be part of the game and culture. Clerics can, and often do, take the part of midwives and healers.

I don't know why we can't have wizardry and other such magic use as part of sanitation. Even a simple cantrip can remove stench with the scent of perfume. Bathing is likewise easier with the help of basic magic. Stinky cities are the direct result of lack of sanitation. In a game where magic reigns, I see no reason why we can't have a basic understanding of sanitation and how to deal with it.

Further, there's almost always going to be gods of healing, and gods of sickness and pestilence. I imagine the blessings of the healing gods would help negate the stench that came from the latter gods.

Naughty wizards get sentenced to X-many hours of casting prestidigitation to clean the streets...

 

[Hand of Evil]

Waste dumps should be a location for all cities. For the longest time waste was just dumped into rivers, to be carried out to sea or part of the shoreline but now we have sites to take stuff to. With a fantasy city, you have to ask how much recycling is done, where is trash and waste taken, it is a magical toxic creation pit.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Not a problem -- after all D&D cities all have immense sewage systems in order to give PCs appropriate places to explore (and to hide evil cultists, vampires, and the Halfling Inquisition (tm)). Since these systems of pipes, tubes, tunnels, and chambers are inevitably populated with slimes, oozes, gelatinous cubes, giant rats, otyughs, and the occasional giant crocodile, the city stays quite sanitary. Which is good, because no one wants an evil wizard raising a fecal golem.

And how do they build these sewers with their 13th century technology, you ask? They contract to gangs of beholders with disintegrate rays to do the demolitions and clans of dwarves to do the masonry.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Not a problem ---

Yea, that is why the underdark races love the upper world so much, their waste runs downward.

 

[KidSnide]

I'm a little surprised by all the people saying that magic solves this problem. I always describe the stench of humanity when my PCs enter a city.

Con checks seems like a bit much, but describing smells is a great way to establish immersion. (I would get sick camping in standard adventuring conditions, but I don't make adventurers roll to avoid sniffles and a fever.)

-KS