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

5e Ravnica.

Is modern ok?

Print out a satellite map of any reallife city in the world. Make stuff up on the fly about who lives there and what they are doing.

I also like zobek, but I've only ever read the books, not played there.

Korvosa of Varisia on the continent of Avistan in the world of Golarion from the game of Pathfinder. I ran a five-year campaign of Curse of the Crimson Throne so I'm partial to Korvosa.

You should also check out the unconventional city of Kear Maga in Golarion.

Good advice from Pointy Hat to DMs running any city:

Make every city a theme park with amusement rides!

As much as I care about verisimilitude and plausible cultures − and love sandboxes − Pointy Hat is right.

A city must have railroads. Players can get off the rollercoaster if they want to explore the 'city'. But the moment the players want to get on the ride, those rails need to be there, and the ushers herding the players into their cart.

Otherwise, a city can be paralyzing. What exactly are the players supposed to do? Knock on doors randomly? Hundreds of doors? Thousands of doors? Millions of doors?

The highest priority of designing a city is fun!

Not in the Citites Actually Fun video, but apply for cities, the Pointy Hat (Antonio Demigo) advice from What D&D Can Learn From Baldurs Gate 3.

A players must decide on a COMMON GOAL regarding why they are in the city, in the first place.

Then, the DM must somehow connect the 'backstory' of the Background of each character, somehow, to various degrees, into this COMMON GOAL regarding why they are in the city in the first place.

Short Rests are ... press a button "Bam". Short Rests dont require a full hour suddenly during an urgent adventure. Make each Short Rest "15 minutes" (!). (Maybe even "instantaneous". Hit Dice are already limited, so Short Rests are a dwindling resource. Require a Hit Dice expense in order to replenish spells if any.) (Especially in dungeon crawls shorten the Shorts. But even in a city, when resting is easy, dont interrupt progress because of a Short Rest.)

Dont be stingy with Consumable Magic Items. Let the Barbarian cast a spell from a scroll. Try it for your players. See if you like it.

Yaarel said:

Short Rests are ... press a button "Bam". Short Rests dont require a full hour suddenly during an urgent adventure. Make each Short Rest "15 minutes" (!). (Maybe even "instantaneous". Hit Dice are already limited, so Short Rests are a dwindling resource. Require a Hit Dice expense in order to replenish spells if any.) (Especially in dungeon crawls shorten the Shorts. But even in a city, when resting is easy, dont interrupt progress because of a Short Rest

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I disagree with this: eateries, taverns, street vendors, bath houses, entertainers, parks and gardens etc are central to city life. Role playing a suitable location for a short rest is great for capturing that feel.

As for the main question, I like Ank’Harel, as detailed in Call of the Netherdeep. It’s not a great resource, only occupying a couple of chapters, but I love the flavour.

Yaarel said:

Is modern ok?

Print out a satellite map of any reallife city in the world. Make stuff up on the fly about who lives there and what they are doing.

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The only issue with this for medieval fantasy games is that modern infrastructure doesn’t mimic a medieval fantasy setting. Roads would be the most glaring example of this. Medieval roads were really small and crappy. For a modern or scifi game it’s more on point.

tgmoore said:

The only issue with this for medieval fantasy games is that modern infrastructure doesn’t mimic a medieval fantasy setting. Roads would be the most glaring example of this. Medieval roads were really small and crappy. For a modern or scifi game it’s more on point.

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That’s more of a societal thing than a tech thing though. There are a number of ancient cities that are very planned, whilst medieval London was a jumble of random buildings. Rome had a bit of both.

Paul Farquhar said:

That’s more of a societal thing than a tech thing though. There are a number of ancient cities that are very planned, whilst medieval London was a jumble of random buildings. Rome had a bit of both.

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Look at the old part of Siena in Italy if you want a medieval city.

Don't believe they have done much to update it from the 1400s.