Imaculata
Hero
I've been working on a map for a new city this week and I thought I'd share my process. Perhaps this can serve as inspiration for other DM's.
I'll probably refine the map more in the time leading up to the next session, but I'm already pretty happy with how it is turning out. At first I made a version that had all the names of important locations right on top of the map, but this makes the map look really cluttered. I like this style better, where the points of interest are indicated with numbers as if it were a tourist map. I still like having the names of districts on the map itself, but everything else is in a list to the side. I really like using icons for important locations, again like a tourist map would have. Most of the buildings on the map are indicated by simple shapes and I let the imagination of the players do the rest.
Petite-fort Lucia
The concept behind this city, is that it started out as a small fortified town (named after a local saint), which over time grew into this giant fortification surrounding a huge cathedral. It is ruled by a powerful and zealous order of paladins, who have used their vast wealth and influence to expand the city into something amazing. The town's people are extremely pious and loyal to the faith. I imagined that the cathedral should be something akin to the vatican, so I simply plucked a topdown picture of the vatican from a real map, and repurposed it. I then drew the city walls around it. Because religion is so important to the city and its people, I made sure to add multiple smaller churches to fill some of the empty space.
The city is built against the side of a mountain, and so all of its streets curve upwards. So if you're standing in the harbor, you can pretty much see the entire city sprawled out in front of you. I decided that lumber would be the city's primary export product. Behind the city is a dark and misty forest from which a network of logflumes snakes its way down through the city, towards the lumbermill. The forest and the logflume will be at the heart of some of the side plots that I have planned for the upcoming session. Some 'evil' from the forest has been attacking and killing the local lumberjacks, causing much fright among the locals. The church has capitalized on these fears to make people even more loyal to the church, by giving the people a clear evil that the church fights. The players will probably want to investigate this matter.
The basilique is also a very important location. So much so, that I'll probably need to make a separate map for it. There's still a lot to flesh out there plot wise, but I've already written down a couple of important characters.
However, I feel there's a still a lot of unused space in the city. I scattered some of the standard taverns and blacksmiths around, because the players are sure to visit those. I'll also need to add some inns. But I also think the city still needs some more plot locations and landmarks. So in the next couple of days I'll be diving into that further.