Best Fleshed Out Cities for use with fantasy TTRPG

[Fluerdemal]

Which book would you recommend? I have Dragon Heist. What other book would flesh out the city more?

The old boxed set.

D.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

The original Waterdeep and the North (1e) contains a lot of information in bare bones format. It was the original and is still a good foundation. Volo's Guide to Waterdeep (2e) is great for presenting info to players in a more in-character way. It's great when used as a supplement to any other Waterdeep book. Waterdeep: City of Splendour (3e) is the biggest one and wastes more space on rules crunch (3e after all), but also contains a lot of good material in one package. It's on my list to get to.

I haven't looked at the old 2e box set, but knowing 2e location sourcebooks I would expect it to be excellent. My guess is that if I had it I would concur it is your best option. Dont confuse it with City System which is mostly just a box of Waterdeep maps.

 

[DQDesign]

Saltmarsh in 3.5 DMG II and Fallcrest in 4e DMG.

 

[dco]

D&D --> Ptolus, Freeport (this has a version without system), etc.
Shadow world RM --> Eidolon and Sel-kai city or the new version Eidolon city by the sky, Haalkitaine and the Imperial Court.
Warhammer --> Marienburg and Middenheim. The 2nd edition has some books with some pages for a city and adventure like Terror in Talabheim.
Fantasy Hero --> Valdorian age setting is a bit like Conan, it has 60 pages for a city.
MERP --> Minas Tirith
Pathfinder --> Guide to Korvosa + Curse of the crimson throne campaign.

 

[76512390ag12]

The Pavis and Big Rubble setting for RuneQuest is different and had great scope for different play styles from noir to epic

 

[practicalm]

If you are looking for good city books, Tredroy for GURPS is great because it has a good 3 empires meeting at one city theme that makes it an exciting adventure location.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Also, D&D has Raven's Bluff, which has multiple sourcebooks and was part of a shared organized play campaign.

 

[Fluerdemal]

Thinking about it there was also City of Lies for Legend of the Five Rings, plus Manifest in/for Ghostwalk had a really decent hook and some details for 3/3.5. In addition to the City State of the Invincible Overlord there was City State of the World Overlord - plus, and I'm really embarrassed to admit it, the Free City of Haven for the Thieves Guild system - it was really, really amazing.

D.

 

[GM Lent]

Someone upstream mentioned the City of Brass, and I'll add a firm vote for it. The 2e D&D Al-Qadim sourcebox Secrets of the Lamp has a pretty comprehensive overview of the City and it's districts in it.

My company has actually just finished the manuscript for an adventure/sourcebook on the City of Brass, which updates (slightly) the material in Secrets of the Lamp and includes a Tier 2 adventure module. In addition to the raw materials, we provide plot hooks/seeds for each of the 20 or so quarters in the City.

If that sounds good to you, keep your eyes peeled; we will be releasing it within the next few weeks.

 

[Fluerdemal]

LOL, been playing SciFi and Horror lately - forgetting what's stored in boxes in the basement.

There was also the City of Delights boxed set for... Calimport? Plus all the related materials over editions.

D.