Building a City Article???

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Just recently I read a short excerpt about building a city. It had a variety of negative conditions that could be applied to cities to make them more interesting. For the life of me, I can't remember where I read it. I'm almost 100% sure it was a WotC product and it wasn't that long an except (10 pages tops).

Anyone recognize it?

edit: I remember now. It was from Races of Destiny.

 

[Quickleaf]

Were these urban event templates like Plague, Great Fire, or Uprising? I know a form for recording these appears in the Campaign Planner III. I think it originally came from a Legends & Lairs City-book.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

They're negative aspects that can be used to give a city flavour. Sorta sounds like the same thing.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Were these urban event templates like Plague, Great Fire, or Uprising? I know a form for recording these appears in the Campaign Planner III. I think it originally came from a Legends & Lairs City-book.

I have been using City Works and Campaign Planner together to great enjoyment, going so far as to create my own sheets. The Urban Event Template served as a springboard for several sessions. I have also started linking templates, where one event can lead to another in a chain.

Biggest use so far (planned for next month) - Event Template: Earthquake, Event Template (linked): Fire, Event Template (linked) Collapse of the dam upriver during the aftershock a few days later... Event (linked) Plague, Event (Linked) Rebuilding. This was for my Steampunk game, the fire was spread in part by the gas mains for the street lighting. Pretty grim consequences, between the disasters, disease, and people moving away in the aftermath the town lost almost a half of its population. Largest cause of the population drop was people moving away, followed by the disease, Followed by the flood, followed by the fire, the earthquake that triggered it was actually the least lethal of the events.

I based the results on a combination of real world disasters, including the San Francsisco Earthquake, the Galveston flood, and the Mulholland Dam collapse. I originally did the templates separately, then realized that a chain was not only possible, but likely given the right trigger.

I created a Before and After map of the city using City Works, dropping the Population as the process continued for the aftermath of each event except for the earthquake. How the PCs are going to handle the near destruction of the city I do not know. Loss of lfe will be in the thousands. The Rebuilding is going to take years to decades, but the city is going to take the opportunity to do some civic improvements, including an emergency runoff for the new dam, and a fire supression system (hydrants). As a result of the collapse the fall line is now almost a half mile upriver from where the dam was previously built. By the time the new dam is complete electricity will be coming into regular use, so a turbine and dynamo will be added to the design. (Current game year 1888 - the Year of the Eights, Redjack will be terrorizing London in a few weeks as well.)

The Auld Grump

 

[Silveras]

Just recently I read a short excerpt about building a city. It had a variety of negative conditions that could be applied to cities to make them more interesting. For the life of me, I can't remember where I read it. I'm almost 100% sure it was a WotC product and it wasn't that long an except (10 pages tops).

Anyone recognize it?

edit: I remember now. It was from Races of Destiny.

Actually, there is a Web Enhancement for the 3.5 DMG that expands on details for cities. It is an 11-page PDF. I think it meshes quite well with the stuff in Races of Destiny and it should mesh nicely with CityWorks.

 

[Cherub]

Actually, there is a Web Enhancement for the 3.5 DMG that expands on details for cities. It is an 11-page PDF. I think it meshes quite well with the stuff in Races of Destiny and it should mesh nicely with CityWorks.

anyone got links?

 

[Aus_Snow]

anyone got links?

Well, the DMG Web Enh. is here:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/DMG_WENH.zip

The rest? I'm not sure exactly what the rest of those things are, so...

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Actually, there is a Web Enhancement for the 3.5 DMG that expands on details for cities. It is an 11-page PDF. I think it meshes quite well with the stuff in Races of Destiny and it should mesh nicely with CityWorks.

Yeah, I use that too.

 

[jgbrowning]

Try A Magical Medieval City Guide ... http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1678&ENworld

It's free and full of useful city-stuff.

joe b.