Best Homebrewed Towns

[Jürgen Hubert]

That's a nice piece of work Jürgen. You usually do nice work.

But have you considered a Brown-Dartmouth rivalry in your setting?
Or at least a Cornell, Columbia, or Princeton rivalry?

To be honest, when I created that city I had no idea that there was a real world city called "Dartmouth" - I came up with the name independently, and I envisaged it as a mixture of Victorian-era London (sans the British Empire) and Ankh-Morpork.

But I guess I should add some more references to the "real" Dartmouth. If you can give me some pointers in that direction, I'm all ears.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

The City of Bridges, located in the exact geographical center of the largest continent on the game world; all major roads eventually crossed through the City of Bridges. It was so named because a) there were a LOT of bridges and b) the buildings and houses of the city were built into the side and support structures of the bridges (the exception being the Grand Temple of Travellers, located in the center of the mass of bridges). That was in an old campaign.

Two Rivers is a village built between..well..two rivers. It was idyllic, peaceful and prosperous. I say "was" because the founder of the town made a pact with a powerful fey lord to keep it as such, in exchange for "all of the village's children" at an unspecified time in the future. So, about 300 after the founding of the village, the PCs arrived in town just as the fey lord decided it was time to collect on the deal (and took the whole village into the Feywild to collect). They managed to talk the fey lord out of the deal through some legal trickery, and the village returned to the material plane. It now is suffering the normal problems villages suffer, which of course seem almost insurmountable to the people who have lived in protection and prosperty for several generations...

 

[Jack7]

But I guess I should add some more references to the "real" Dartmouth. If you can give me some pointers in that direction, I'm all ears.

I was just teasing a bit about Dartmouth College Jurgen.

But a lot of the older American cities, like Gotham (New Amsterdam), once a name for the Dutch section of New York, have really interesting histories. (I'm not one who is much for Wikipedia references, but it at least gives a general overview.)

The same is true for some American frontier cities, like Chicago, which started out as a trading post.

These places don't have histories nearly as long or interesting as say London, but then again they are extremely interesting because they have had a lot to happen in a short period of time. Mainly due to large influxes of different immigration waves (of population) and because of heavy trade and finance. Which would eventually lead to a heavy criminal element, like Chicago. Probably trader and merchant gangs as well.

(In my setting by the way dwarves are often merchants, traders, in banking, finance, and commodities, business, and academics. But what I'm saying is that such a city would invite such people in waves from many different places.)

When I read about your Dartmouth I thought of Gotham, and New York. How it would be very likely to undergo wave after wave of immigration due to the interest in trade which invites large numbers of immigrants, foreigners, and merchants.

I can also easily imagine such a city as you describe developing a strong university/academic center, and alliances with far stronger (militarily) states that they help support financially and that in turn help defend and protect their banking and finance center. An alliance/mercenary army and naval system such as occurred with many of the old Italian City Sates.

As for the history of Dartmouth College.

Good luck.

 

[Jraynack]

.
Two Rivers is a village built between..well..two rivers. It was idyllic, peaceful and prosperous. I say "was" because the founder of the town made a pact with a powerful fey lord to keep it as such, in exchange for "all of the village's children" at an unspecified time in the future. So, about 300 after the founding of the village, the PCs arrived in town just as the fey lord decided it was time to collect on the deal (and took the whole village into the Feywild to collect). They managed to talk the fey lord out of the deal through some legal trickery, and the village returned to the material plane. It now is suffering the normal problems villages suffer, which of course seem almost insurmountable to the people who have lived in protection and prosperty for several generations...

Those crafty elves - I think I'm stealing this hook for an adventure.

Anyhoo - my players enjoyed the small, port town of Qwal. It barely won its independence from the princes of the Forest of Tyrants only to have its new lords come from the realm of shadow. So the villagers were really between a rock and a hard space, especially when the local lord, Lord Vol, gave the wizard a "see invisibility" scroll telling her if she found anything "invisible" to bring it to his attention. He then gave her a shadow coin, which made her feel constantly sick saying to show this to the castle guards whenever she wanted to see him.

Needless to say, the area of Qwal happened to have numerous permanent invisible portals to the Shadow Realm and Lord Vol needed to locate them to bring his armies through. So characters played on both ends of the rope to keep the town of Qwal and the rest of the immediate area safe while placating the powerful Lord.

It turned into a 15 level campaign.

I think what characters loved most was the role-playing and getting to know everybody in the town, involved in the politics, and eventually becoming prominent citizens.

Especially George - their 15 year old NPC torch bearer. They discover that a secret dungeon lies beneath the town well. They encounter a rust monster fighting it in complete darkness because George was terrified, wetting himself, exclaiming they were all going to die, and couldn't keep the bulls-eye lantern straight.

Afterward, with his generous share of coins in tow (after George grew a pair), the characters discovered a few women of "questionable" morals attached themselves to George as he claimed he was in love and going to marry one of them.

And finally, when the torchbearer finally died after many heroic adventures, one of the characters used a wish to bring him back. He returned to town a few days later - different - with a large ruby embedded in his chest in place of his heart. Nothing ill came of him - but it was one of those nagging mysteries I threw in there just to keep players on their toes.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I was just teasing a bit about Dartmouth College Jurgen.

But a lot of the older American cities, like Gotham (New Amsterdam), once a name for the Dutch section of New York, have really interesting histories. (I'm not one who is much for Wikipedia references, but it at least gives a general overview.)

The same is true for some American frontier cities, like Chicago, which started out as a trading post.

These places don't have histories nearly as long or interesting as say London, but then again they are extremely interesting because they have had a lot to happen in a short period of time. Mainly due to large influxes of different immigration waves (of population) and because of heavy trade and finance. Which would eventually lead to a heavy criminal element, like Chicago. Probably trader and merchant gangs as well.

Interesting. There are probably quite a few things worth stealing there. While the primary influence of Urbis[ (and the Flannish Cities in particular) is 19th century Western Europe, parallels with the United States are probably also worth exploring. After all, the people of the Flannish Cities did throw off aristocratic rule.

Come to think of it, can you tell me anything about very prominent American family clans of the 19th century - extended families with a lot of money and a lot of influence in politics? Those would be useful models for the "upper classes" of Urbis...

When I read about your Dartmouth I thought of Gotham, and New York. How it would be very likely to undergo wave after wave of immigration due to the interest in trade which invites large numbers of immigrants, foreigners, and merchants.

Immigration is certainly a major factor here - and all the cities encourage strong immigration since that boosts the production capabilities of the nexus towers.

I can also easily imagine such a city as you describe developing a strong university/academic center, and alliances with far stronger (militarily) states that they help support financially and that in turn help defend and protect their banking and finance center. An alliance/mercenary army and naval system such as occurred with many of the old Italian City Sates.

These are certainly all valid issues, which I hope to explore in the future.

As for the history of Dartmouth College.

Thanks. Admittedly, the University District needs a lot more detail... Let's see what I can swipe from this link.

 

[Jack7]

Come to think of it, can you tell me anything about very prominent American family clans of the 19th century - extended families with a lot of money and a lot of influence in politics? Those would be useful models for the "upper classes" of Urbis...

Try these Google searches:


Famous American Industrialists
Famous Wealthy Americans
Famous American Philanthropists

You might also wanna try this link:

History and genealogy of the wealthy families of America

 

[Knightfall]

Dartmouth.

It's a huge city with more than 1,600,000 inhabitants, supported by an ongoing magical industrial revolution. It's also intended to serve as a "home base" for the PCs. And its politics and government structure are messed up enough to give the PCs considerable freedom...

That's really great, Jürgen. I'll be reading more of that later.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

That's really great, Jürgen. I'll be reading more of that later.

I should also point out that another wiki contributor is developing Praxus, an even larger city. It's not as detailed as Dartmouth yet, but we are getting there...