D&D 5E Creating a Lost/Ruined City

[Gilladian]

I may need a whole city - a lost, ruined, mostly abandoned city, for my PCs to explore. Obviously, I'm not going to want to design every building or encounter in detail myself, so I'll be gathering resources, creating random tables, etc...

What resources would you draw on?

Background for anyone who cares... the city was the capitol of a continent-spanning empire before it was sacked; then a horrible devastating ritual was cast that basically turned the city and a couple hundred mile zone around it into a nuclear wasteland. 400 years later, the stark remains of the once-great city are surrounded by a wilderness of monsters and toxic wasteland. The fringes are recovering, but just about any bad thing I want can live here... including haunts and such.

But i need random tables, interesting buildings that might have survived the "blast" - I'm not sure the Devastation was terribly destructive to the physical buildings, though it may have caused earth tremors, etc... so much as it just killed and poisoned everything - and anything else that might be "going on" in the ruins. Adventurers are pretty rare here, as the region is moderately isolated, but rich pickings.

Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions of game resources to loot, sites to check out, and general ideas. Hopefully I have a few months to do some work before my PCs get here... if they ever do.

 

[Voort]

For the random tables, a quick Google search will give you the d20 ruined city encounter tables to check out/modify/copy.

For inspiration, the Fallout games series is a good start.

 

[soulcatcher78]

I1 Dwellers of the forbidden city is a good start to get some ideas.

Take a look at some of the destruction caused during WW2 to get an idea of what we gets left behind from widespread destruction:
http://doublethink.us.com/paala/wp-...-the-day-after-the-atomic-bombing-in-1945.jpg
http://www.icanw.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/hiroshimadamage.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JH-wRvxM0...Y/30la5IxI5NQ/s1600/450302+Cologne+bombed.jpg
http://journalisme-scientifique.podcastmcq.org/medias/ph2001-1774-caen-calvados-s.jpg

How much of the city has been reclaimed by the wilderness (jungle, forest, swamp) and how twisted is it?

Has the destruction of the city created a connection to the Shadowfell/Negative Energy Plane/Lower Planes?

 

[Mercurius]

A few more products to look at for inspiration:

Lost City of Barakus (3e hardcover, is being reissued I think)
Parlainth: the Forgotten City (Earthdawn box set)
Vor Rukoth (4e supplement)
Ruins of Myth Drannor (2nd ed box set)

 

[Zaruthustran]

There's a subsite of Slate that's all about weird destinations.

Like this town that was claimed by water, then re-emerged: http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_ob...ge_turned_flooded_ghost.html?wpisrc=obnetwork

They've got categories for their articles that sound like D&D adventure genres, such as http://www.atlasobscura.com/categories/incredible-ruins and http://www.atlasobscura.com/categories/watery-wonders , http://www.atlasobscura.com/categories/ghost-towns, http://www.atlasobscura.com/categories/anomalous-islands, and http://www.atlasobscura.com/categories/bizarre-restaurants-and-bars

You'll find plenty of inspiration there. Real-world disasters you can use to develop your undefined calamity, reference photos, ideas for what might have survived / what happens post-disaster.

I love the Internet.

Report back with what you settle upon!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Use a real world map, like Paris, London or such as your template, then add 400 years of changes. Buildings that have collapsed, nature taking over (rivers or swamps coming back).

Remember the fringes would be the first to be explored and will be empty.

 

[Tzarevitch]

City by the Silt Sea from the Dark Sun setting has a good map of a city destroyed by calamity. Change the dust to ocean and it makes a good coastal ruin. I've reused it lots of times over the years.

 

[Riley37]

If you want a real-world city which was built with low tech (well, arches and concrete, but not methane or electricity), and then sacked, (and rebuilt and sacked, repeatedly), there are LOTS of maps of Rome at different times. In 200 AD, it was the capital of most of Europe; in 800 AD, cattle grazed where Senators had once decided the fates of nations, and anyone who wanted some marble could go take apart one of the ruined temples. If Rome had been hit with that ritual, and depopulated all at once, then the possible loot could include flashy items such as golden statues, and a HUGE supply of mundane items such as knives, nails, goblets, pretty much every manufactured item of low-tech everyday life. Most food would be ruined, but things like sealed jars of oil might be worth carting off, assuming you can load wagons with whatever items you salvage from the ruins. If you found the armory of the Praetorian Guard, you could loot some well-made swords and some very expensively decorated armor.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I would keep to a small encounter table of stuff that is very common, leaving everything else as an encounter. Example of this would be Assassin Vines, they are all over the place, my table would reflect that. Same for dead falls, snakes and insect swarms. I call these hardship encounters, they are not going to kill the players but build the environment.

Stuff to find -
kitchen cutlery, spools, forks and knifes (silver & other)
Household nick knacks like crystal paper weights, cat figurines, globes, decorative boxes
Religions Artifacts - household gods or their symbols
Shoes - maybe a pair will be magic
Jewelry - costume and valuable
Toys

Oh, watch the History Channels' Life After People.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Ruined cities are fun!

What is the general climate of the area the city is in, and how long has it been since plant life in the area has more or less returned?

Deciding that can tell you a whole lot about what the place might look like, and of course the types of "normal" creatures that might be found there. Do you want the city to be overgrown with jungle, or still mostly barren with only a little scrub?