City Supplements - What do we like?

[Fenris-77]

Ah, well then.
I shall trouble your thoughts no further.

No, it's a good idea, all I meant was that you don't need a wee map, just a Ward name and a tracker.

 

[MGibster]

So what are your favorite city sourcebooks, or specific mechanics, or procedures, or rules? You might even tell us why!

My gold standard for city supplements is the City of Lies boxed set for the 1st edition of Legend of the Five Rings. In a nutshell, here's what I'm looking for in a city supplment:

• Locations: Anything from entire neighborhoods to specific locations within, I want places for the PCs to go.
• NPCs: Whether they're allies, enemies, or something in-between, I want a good number of NPCs for the PCs to interact with.
• Power & Control: Who is in charge? Who is happy or unhappy? Where are the conflicts?
• Seeds of Adventure: All of the previous entries will give the GM ideas for scenarios to be run within the city.

Arkham for Call of Cthulhu is another excellent city supplement. Greyhawk, both the original and the boxed set, are excellent as well. Maybe Greyhawk set the standard.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

No, it's a good idea, all I meant was that you don't need a wee map, just a Ward name and a tracker.

Though a wee map could make a nice visualization tool. Bu there are of course also challenges, where does it fit in the layout, how large does it have to be to be readable/fillable, especially given the shape of the wards...

On the challenges of making a city work as adventuring place:
I think one aspect can be to have various unresolved conflicts that are in a bit of a stale-mate situation, but also hooks why the player would decide to interfere - (or ways for them to be hired or otherwise compelled to interfere). I think plots that would resolve itself without player input run the risk of being just some background city simulation that the players wouldn't really notice - unless they do notice ,and then it might be problematic if the outcome is too severe.
There might be a world (or at least city)-ending threat in the city if you are into that kind of thing, but it can't progress further towards unless the party picks the hook and does something that moves the doom clock further (like unearthing a valuable artifact, unleashing a dangerous threat in the dungeons, exposing a corrupt official, dealing with a criminal organization, and the bad party making a visible move that causes enough concern that a party would most likely investigate further.)

 

[Bunch]

I haven't checked the whole thread but I'd recommend checking out Midkemia Press's various City supplements, especially Cities. All are available from DTRPG. They are the people who did Thieves Worlds random tables that were mentioned above.
For Tulan, Carse and Jonril(sp?) they give an overall map and then within each section of the book with that ward of the city they do a mini map to expand and detail the area. They try to produce a quickly gamble city with interesting encounters for various types and qualities of town sections.

 

[Scott Christian]

So what are your favorite city sourcebooks, or specific mechanics, or procedures, or rules? You might even tell us why!

If I'm going to invest time in developing a city (or town), I really try to use a broad lens before doing anything. I ask questions about who lives there? Then I ask why? I pair it with what are the resources/geography? Then I ask, what is their history? I use other places in the realm to compare/contrast their resources, people, history. I ask how they are connected to the other places? Then I ask what kind of culture would have developed because of that history and its people? And all of those may come in various orders, but to me, those are essential in making a living, breathing city.

Afterwards, I think of areas, and in particular, the primary mood of those places. Then, and only then, do I start thinking about various businesses, NPCs and their motivations, and most importantly, plot hooks for the PCs.

 

[JConstantine]

Reputation can be gained (and lost) on a ward by ward basis. When you help the ward and its inhabitants you get rep, and when you hurt them you lose it (GM discretion). [...] The inspiration here is the faction rules from Blades, but shifted to focus on wards rather than specific factions. IDK if it will end up being what I want, but this is where I'm going to start.

Merely an observation, but something that is overlooked with the factions in BitD is that the citizenry of each district are their own factions too, so your ward idea is essentially the same in practice.

Probably a 1-5 track for the positive side.

If reputation can be lost as well as gained, presumably it can be negative as well as positive, in which case I'd suggest a +3 to -3 scale. It seems to be the most intuitive.

---

Speaking of wards and BitD, one of the things I found genuinely underrated was the Traits section. While ostensibly intended for fortune rolls, it implied a lot about each district in terms of fiction at a glance. If we compare say, Brightstone and Barrowcleft:

Barrowcleft
Wealth: 1
Security & Safety: 3
Criminal Influence: 0
Occult: 0

Brightstone
Wealth: 4
Security & Safety: 4
Criminal Influence: 0
Occult: 2

Brightstone is a wealthy district filled with homes of the nobles, so of course it's wealthy, and power protects wealth so naturally it's safe and secure by extension, which in turn means no crime. All makes sense. But what about Occult? Well, it's where the main cathedral of the Church of Ecstasy is (and they engage in some freaky stuff behind closed doors) and the factions section tells us it's where the Circle of Flame is located.
Meanwhile, Barrowcleft has a low Wealth score, but a high Security & Safety. Why? It's where all the farms are, and that's the domain of the Ministry of Preservation. Lots of working class manual labour, hence the low wealth, but if anything happens to the food...well, "there are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy". Sure, many of the nobles have their own private electroplasmic grow houses and will be insulated, but if the citizens starve, they'll have do things themselves! Quelle horreur! The farms have to be protected.

On top of that, most of the districts have their own special effect.
Granted, from what I've seen in the Blades community, the overwhelming majority don't utilise this section at all, so maybe it's not worth taking inspiration from, but I personally found it the best section of the district write-ups.

 

[Fenris-77]

I have a first draft of a calendar and festivals done. I decided to use the ancient Egyptian calendar as it's something different and fits the background of my city setting.

 

[Scott Christian]

I have a first draft of a calendar and festivals done. I decided to use the ancient Egyptian calendar as it's something different and fits the background of my city setting.

View attachment 430475

Nice. Here is the calendar I built for one of my cities (Frostcliff) and its surrounding region. It's a six-day week (named after the old gods), with 36 days in each month, called seasons. Then there are ten seasons, making a 360 day calendar. I find this best because players can relate to cyclical growing seasons and it keeps it earth-like. Kind of similar to yours.

The other is from my desert city (Ash Shazar). It is also 360-day calendar (both are 360 as they followed lunar cycles). This one is a bit different though, as it follows three seasons, and those seasons are based on the city's three deities (historic figures turned into people to worship). I like the way this one is worded. Basically people saying things like: "I was born in 1400, during the season of wit, on the 9th day of the jackal."