Building too many cities (and watching Pointy Hat) hit the nail on the head.
All Cities are theme parks.
I've been lucky that most of my work is based on reinterpretations of real cities, so they already have their own unique qualities.
ex. Ed-town is Edmonton is what if it was a heavy psychic city inspired by Ohm town which was in the 80's rock anime Rock and Rule, but with heavy metal Minotaurs controlling the colosseum district), Genefield is a saskatoon reinterpreted by psychic plant mad scientists (coming soon),
Every listed location has to have a plot hook that the PCs can choose to clamp down on.
So I'm asking for your advertisement for a fantasy city you like (either already written or your own).
Let's hear your ads for your city/theme parks!
There's been discussion recently on city game loops and procedures in other places I visit, so first, here is a list of resources that may be of help generally.
Reading:
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Pick a copy of this book either used or from your local library and read it. Pick any page, and read it! Or read several pages, if you like. It will get you to think about what cities
are differently, as well provide gobs of
inspo on how one might envision them.
RPG Settings (Featuring Cities)
The first is a search of posts from
Hill Cantons, Kutalik's blog, from around the time writing was done for
Fever Dreaming Marlinko before it was published
. You'll find excerpts from it, as well as discussion about how the different cantons came together. Naturally, it is available to purchase.
Oz, by Andrew Kolb, was recommended to me last year when I was seeking good examples of how to organize city campaigns. It has great examples of combining good, graphic design with meaningful content. You can find a copy at your local library.
Blog Posts:
The first blog is the one that spurred new discussion on cities as setting. There's a been a
lot of writing about cities in the TTRPG space, but these four I feel illustrate the broader points.
The next two entries are more for historical purposes; you can see from when they came out that it's been a long discussion.
The last one is framed in response to elmcat's, but also provides a deep, contextual background. It is quite long, so have several chunks of time available.
Re: Pointy Hat, and Blogs Above
- Designing City-As-Theme, then expanding it to a theme park is fine! I feel you have to be aware what purposes the city is for. If your table desires only to visit a settlement to resupply for example, there's little point in taking a granular lens to it. Rides, no matter how tempting, won't interest them.
- Cities change over time, sometimes very quickly. Theme parks do as well e.g. I haven't been to Disneyland for almost a decade; it's quite a different experience overall now than before. Even if you go to theme park lands you're familiar with, their themes, services, layout and rides have changed.
- The purposes of the city from your table's perspective, will influence what systems/loops you decide to employ in their discovering, exploring and engagement with that city. Engagement can consist of: its peoples, its physical structure, its factions, its verisimilitude (yes, contrary to what Pointy mentions).
- Be mindful that within cities, there are constraints where you might go. Your city may have modern, accessible transport (or its equivalent), but your table will not be able to go wherever they may want due to: time of day, the environment, hidden or unknown knowledge, strange customs (e.g. businesses close in the afternoon and reopen late at night, because it gets too hot), laws, not having influence, a lack of reputation, class differences, and so on.
