City building and end of the world planning DM questions

[clockworkjoe]

I'm running a campaign where most of the civilized world will be destroyed by a series of disasters (in the form of epic monsters running around). The PCs are currently building their own city and there's a city run by a sorcerer overlord a few hundred miles away (pop 50,000 or so) but the rest of the immediate area is wilderness (not counting monster tribes).

What kind of resources are out there for planning an apocalyptic event and generating a newly minted city and a big city?

 

[babomb]

I don't know about the apocalypse part, but for the city, check out City Works and/or A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. You can download the city chapter of the latter book for free at RPG Now (but you should buy the book anyway, because it's great).

 

[Yair]

I've recently found some inspiring apocalyptic monsters in Legends of Avandu (also from rpgnow). I was in need of quite a few apocalypses, and the book delivered...
I have also found some sound advice in The Apocalypse Stone (an AD&D adventure), and (less useful) advice in Soul Harvest (demonic invasion mini campaign). I have a feeling that When the Sky Falls (an event-book about fallen meteors) might also give you some ideas, but I've never read it so I don't know.

I never used the city-building rules of MS:WE, but they seem solid. There was also an article in wizard's site about this very same issue that used similar, but slightly simpler, mechanics - so you may want to take a look at it (here) if you find their approach too complicated.

 

[haiiro]

Not sure about the apocalyptic event part, but FFG's Cityworks (from their Legends & Lairs line) contains some useful info on building cities from the ground up. In particular, it goes into how to decide what a city will look like based on where it starts, and also into how it will grow.

Once your city is up and running, Cityworks will remain a useful resource -- it's got lots of ideas about what should be in cities (and why), as well as systems for things like how easy the guards are to bribe, how fires spread, etc.