What Things Would You Want in a 5E City Prep Tool?

[ChaosGenerators]

What elements would you like to see in a D&D 5E prep tool to help run urban adventures?

The tool would be similar to the 5E Prep Tool.

I'll create or reuse generators for the most popular elements on the poll

 

[ChaosGenerators]

Gah! That second "Building Description" on the poll should be "Street Names"!

 

[pogre]

Man, I wish I had this a couple of years ago when I was running an all urban campaign!

 

[Mistwell]

In my opinion the city book with the most utility for creating a city adventure on your own is Vornheim - the Complete City Kit. And some of the most useful elements of that book are the Urbancrawl rules for randomly generating city blocks and streets, the kinds of neighborhoods and buildings including generic floor plans for buildings, how the law and contacts in the city work, noteworthy major buildings, noteworthy major NPCs, and those kinds of elements. Tools for the DM to make the city their own as the party adventures are better than smaller details on specific areas of the city, other than some major touchstone elements of the city.

 

[Tallifer]

I always have kind of wanted to run some political intrigue in my campaign, but designing all the web of factional stuff and the multitude of names is a bit of a grind. A variety of Factions and their NPCs would be helpful.

 

[ChaosGenerators]

In my opinion the city book with the most utility for creating a city adventure on your own is Vornheim - the Complete City Kit. And some of the most useful elements of that book are the Urbancrawl rules for randomly generating city blocks and streets, the kinds of neighborhoods and buildings including generic floor plans for buildings, how the law and contacts in the city work, noteworthy major buildings, noteworthy major NPCs, and those kinds of elements. Tools for the DM to make the city their own as the party adventures are better than smaller details on specific areas of the city, other than some major touchstone elements of the city.

Thanks for the recommendations I'll take a look at those.

I think there is also space for tools that focus on building a city or city adventure and also ones for running games set in them (or helping to run at least)

 

[Mistwell]

Thanks for the recommendations I'll take a look at those.

I think there is also space for tools that focus on building a city or city adventure and also ones for running games set in them (or helping to run at least)

Unless it is a small city I am saying don't bother building an entire city. Instead, find a way to build just the major touchstones, and to generate on the fly sample city blocks, rather than detailing out an entire city 90% of which will never be seen by players.

 

[ChaosGenerators]

First version of the City Prep Tool, just using existing generators.

I´ll create and adapt generators for the most popular choices on this poll

 

[The M'hael]

I noticed some typos in some of the descriptions, and some of the encounter locations didn't make sense for a city, like a field of crops. Also, my personal preference is to avoid crazy sounding tavern food names, like a side of dragon with horse puree. I would make those less silly.

Also, for generating neighborhood layouts for cities, I use the Chaotic Shiny city map generator. It's not the best, but it does what I need most of the time.

 

[ChaosGenerators]

I've added Areas of the City to the City Prep Tool. Each area has a name, a type of area and one or two things that it is known for.

- The Upper Borough is a sloped area. It has ancient elven ruins.
- Plumhedge is a neglected area. It is the home of a beloved druid.
- The East Rest is a dusty area. It has ageing and outdated architecture and most of the buildings are of bright-red brick.

The areas are also available separately in the Fantasy City Ward generator.