Jester David
Hero
Ptolus is one of my favourite RPG books ever.
D&D 5E 5e Urban campaigns
Seconding Vornheim. It's a groundbreaking approach to RPG supplements, and packed full of itdeas that can be used in any urban campaign.
Wrathamon
Adventurer
What other references did you try?
I found some of the eberron adventures had some great city stuff in it.
edit my post as original was corrected
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I set most of my 5e playtests in a megacity setting that came into my head one day.
The basic premise is a city roughly the size of France and Spain combined (or about 1/8 of the land area of the USA). It's ancient and densely packed, running from a coastline of cliffs and sunken docks in the west to a continent-spanning desert in the east. The City has never had a central government - it's just too big. Legends tell of a couple of times when an individual was able to conquer enough of the city to name themselves Emperor, but none of these lasted past a couple of decades (usually falling to the squabbles of the generals once the original guiding force died).
Without any central power, the city is organised into districts - walled cities-within-the-City. There are tens of thousands of districts in the city, more than any single person could ever visit. Some districts band together into fiefdoms, with a few being quasi-nations in their own right with shared legal codes and culture. Each district is surrounded by a wall (for the older districts, a succession of overlapping walls as it expands). The walls themselves are magical and almost impossible to bring down.
Somewhere between a quarter and a third of the city is outside any surviving district, though - this area is called the Fill, consisting of slums, ruins and abandoned districts. Every few generations, a new domain arises from it... or sinks back into it. Some ancient domains have been sealed up magically, either as a result of magic or plague in the past; some parts have gone wild, with thick forests growing above and around urban decay.
The basic services of the city are provided by a number of powerful city-wide Guilds - one which maintains the major trade roads (and polices them; think lawful neutral paladin-nomads), one which maintains the sewers and aqueducts (as above, so below). One secretive group that manipulate the stone of the city walls (creating new walls around districts where needed, maintaining the old ones... and sealing up entire districts to halt the spread of disease and other contagions). One guild (really an alliance of many smaller guilds) that manages the flow of trade, concentrating mainly on staple foods (the most common of which is a long, starchy mushroom which can be grown on any stone surface with a little water and a simple magical ritual. When boiled, they have a bland, nutty flavour and look quite a lot like thick noodles. It makes terrible beer, which is considered traditional in most of the poorer parts of the City).
The guilds mostly recruit from the Fill, where they run schools and academies - and can better influence the loyalty of the students.
Obviously I have a good bit more setting detail in my notes, including a few bits and pieces on how such a large city can function (magic, obviously, but I have notes on the where and how), how it came to be, etc. It's been a fun setting to use - I've set a string of one and two session adventures in it, with the PCs all affiliated with a thieves guild (and the players told to generate any character they liked who had at least one feature that made them fit in the thieves guild (trickery domain for a cleric, illusion for a wizard, any race that's good at hiding, any background with thieves tools, stealth, deception, etc.
The basic premise is a city roughly the size of France and Spain combined (or about 1/8 of the land area of the USA). It's ancient and densely packed, running from a coastline of cliffs and sunken docks in the west to a continent-spanning desert in the east. The City has never had a central government - it's just too big. Legends tell of a couple of times when an individual was able to conquer enough of the city to name themselves Emperor, but none of these lasted past a couple of decades (usually falling to the squabbles of the generals once the original guiding force died).
Without any central power, the city is organised into districts - walled cities-within-the-City. There are tens of thousands of districts in the city, more than any single person could ever visit. Some districts band together into fiefdoms, with a few being quasi-nations in their own right with shared legal codes and culture. Each district is surrounded by a wall (for the older districts, a succession of overlapping walls as it expands). The walls themselves are magical and almost impossible to bring down.
Somewhere between a quarter and a third of the city is outside any surviving district, though - this area is called the Fill, consisting of slums, ruins and abandoned districts. Every few generations, a new domain arises from it... or sinks back into it. Some ancient domains have been sealed up magically, either as a result of magic or plague in the past; some parts have gone wild, with thick forests growing above and around urban decay.
The basic services of the city are provided by a number of powerful city-wide Guilds - one which maintains the major trade roads (and polices them; think lawful neutral paladin-nomads), one which maintains the sewers and aqueducts (as above, so below). One secretive group that manipulate the stone of the city walls (creating new walls around districts where needed, maintaining the old ones... and sealing up entire districts to halt the spread of disease and other contagions). One guild (really an alliance of many smaller guilds) that manages the flow of trade, concentrating mainly on staple foods (the most common of which is a long, starchy mushroom which can be grown on any stone surface with a little water and a simple magical ritual. When boiled, they have a bland, nutty flavour and look quite a lot like thick noodles. It makes terrible beer, which is considered traditional in most of the poorer parts of the City).
The guilds mostly recruit from the Fill, where they run schools and academies - and can better influence the loyalty of the students.
Obviously I have a good bit more setting detail in my notes, including a few bits and pieces on how such a large city can function (magic, obviously, but I have notes on the where and how), how it came to be, etc. It's been a fun setting to use - I've set a string of one and two session adventures in it, with the PCs all affiliated with a thieves guild (and the players told to generate any character they liked who had at least one feature that made them fit in the thieves guild (trickery domain for a cleric, illusion for a wizard, any race that's good at hiding, any background with thieves tools, stealth, deception, etc.
AEG DM Toolbox & Ultimate Toolbox - it is a book of tables, lots of tables.
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Quickleaf
Legend
I will second the Ultimate Toolbox! The city section is superb and chances are you'll make use of the other sections as well. Best bang for the buck
http://www.alderac.com/ultimatetoolbox/
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
I have a big issue with that rule, which comes from 4E, where I had a big issue with it.
First, for you and what you describe, it may work great. Essentially you are shifting in the genre a little, and what you describe sounds great.
As in a supers game and probably some others, it creates that situation where damage is usually non-lethal, and someone will make a choice to "take someone out"... permanently, which is an interesting choice.
But thats also the problem. In the more standard FRPG genre, you don't want that choice most of the time. Its easier not to have it. You may want the option...but then that should come with some penalty or require using certain weapons or tactics (like the bag of gold).
What am I talking about? The characters have lethal weapons (swords...fireballs) that they need to defend themselves as they selflessly salvage lost items (which they selflessly keep) or they need these to stand up to some evil. They don't want to kill a bunch of things, but thats just what happens in this dangerous world. The don't have a choice.
Think about how lethal force is justified in real life. If you change reality, so that swords are just as effective in doing non-lethal damage, but you kill anyways, what does that imply about the killers? Robust adventure (or military action, or police action) becomes much more genocidal.
I think that rule work because people ignore it. If you think about it, its a problem for games that are not 1) like a supers game (A team style!) where lethal force is rare or the other extreme 2) where everything that dies should because it deserves to (which probably would include the PCs at some point, I guess completing the circle). If the game is in between, that rule creates a bad choice, over and over again.
