D&D General Best Big Urban/City Material (Any Edition)

[Enrico Poli1]

City State of the Invincible Overlord 3e

 

[Desdichado]

I'd further the recommendations for Sharn and Freeport, and add one of my own after a little bit of commentary.

• Sharn is very Eberron specific. As cool as it is, as a kind of noir fantasy New York, it probably doesn't work for most other settings. It is, however, probably the coolest single element in an Eberron context.
• Freeport, especially the systemless book, is quite good. Compared to the 3e book that it replaced, it plays it much more straight, and is less full of in-jokes and tongue-in-cheek puns, etc. It feels very D&D, for better or for worse, and comes across as more generic than you'd think. I recall thinking that the d20 Companion (which, admittedly, I haven't read in many years now) added even a bit more Lovecraftian elements, including a Sanity system, a pirate class, etc. It's still a far cry from grimdark, but it leans just a little bit into that, compared to the jokey stuff. The original trilogy of modules had this exact same tone, so it works fairly well. Not all Freeport material is created equal; sometimes the tone is wildly divergent.
• Five Fingers! This is actually my favorite city book of any city book that I have. Although it's a bit specific to the Iron Kingdoms setting, that can be adapted very easily by changing trollkin to orcs or half-orcs, gobbers to goblins or even halflings, etc. It leans a lot more than Freeport into the crime and horror angles, and even the piratey stuff feels more legit and less "Arrr, talk like a pirate day, matey!" than Freeport does. If you want a fantasy city that's got strong Godfather vibes, strong horror vibes, and strong intrigue vibes, all intertwined, this is what you want.
• I don't know what's changed in the years since it was published, but I also quite like the Absalom and Katapesh books for Pathfinder 1e. Katapesh has a much more dangerous vibe to it; kind of lawless; Mos Eisley for fantasy feel, while Absalom is a more traditional Mediterranean Medieval D&D city with a lot of fantasy elements. I can still recommend the 1e books for both, even if you don't use that system. Korvasa and Magnimar weren't bad either, although Korvasa was a very early book; even the layout is kind of primitive nowadays. All of them have enough detail to be used as an actual setting for a full campaign if you want. In fact, most of those have adventure paths (or at least significant chunks of such) set in those cities to add to their utility.

 

[aco175]

Nobody mentioned Waterdeep in all its forms.

 

[Desdichado]

Nobody mentioned Waterdeep in all its forms.

Are you recommending it, or commenting on the fact that it hasn't been mentioned? I'll admit that even though I'm obviously familiar with Waterdeep, I've never read any of the various Waterdeep books. I do have the old 3e version kicking around in a box somewhere, though.

 

[TheSword]

So if you want some sourcebooks for cities and city adventures you can’t go wrong with WFRP 4e. It’s a different system to D&D but close enough fantasy that you could convert the locations. They put a huge amount of effort into making the cities come to life with both settings and adventures.

Altdorf: Heart of the Empire.
Salzenmund: City of Salt and Silver
Middenheim: City of the White Wolf

All have a chunky 200+ page sourcebook detailing the city factions and most importantly dozens and dozens of plot hooks and adventure ideas.

The WFRP4e starter set details the City of Ubersreik with a decent length opening adventure and about a dozen further adventure outlined.

Then there are 3 anthologies called Ubersreik Adventures 1, 2 & 3 that are largely centered around that single city. They are cracking adventures and very original and intriguing.

Enemy in Shadows is a brilliant adventure which details a mysterious secret society taking over a city.

Power Behind the Throne details a plot to usurp rulership of a major city.

The three part, 2nd edition campaign Paths of the Damned: Ashes of Middenheim, Spires of Altdorf and Forged of Nuln details three city led adventures.

They even have a thriving Dwarven City in Lords of Stone and Steel and an Elf city described in Wardens of Cothique which is quite unique.

All in all, if you want high quality urban setting and adventures that are very different to the typical dungeon crawl you will find a heck of a lot to mine in WFRP.

In D&Dish systems. Then I heartily recommend Curse of the Crimson Throne by Paizo, Waterdeep Dragonheist and Keys from the Golden Vault. I’ve mashed up all three into an urban heist campaign I’m running in Waterdeep and it’s going brilliantly.

Waterdeep also has the well detailed Undermountain beneath its street with updates for every edition of D&D. There is also a setting guide for every edition including the great Volo’s Guide to Waterdeep for fans of nostalgia.

 

[aco175]

Are you recommending it, or commenting on the fact that it hasn't been mentioned? I'll admit that even though I'm obviously familiar with Waterdeep, I've never read any of the various Waterdeep books. I do have the old 3e version kicking around in a box somewhere, though.

I would recommend it. There is soooooo much information written all over the webs that is it makes things easy to pick and choose how much you want/need. Some of the new stuff is a bit more modern/magic-solving for my fantasy game, but I can just use what I want of modify some things as needed.

 

[Emerikol]

I think Ptolus is the best sandbox city ever done for a game. it is available in many editions now but originally in 3e.