Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Designing a city for my pirate campaign
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7969029" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>[ATTACH=full]121221[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>I've been working on a map for a new city this week and I thought I'd share my process. Perhaps this can serve as inspiration for other DM's.</p><p></p><p>I'll probably refine the map more in the time leading up to the next session, but I'm already pretty happy with how it is turning out. At first I made a version that had all the names of important locations right on top of the map, but this makes the map look really cluttered. I like this style better, where the points of interest are indicated with numbers as if it were a tourist map. I still like having the names of districts on the map itself, but everything else is in a list to the side. I really like using icons for important locations, again like a tourist map would have. Most of the buildings on the map are indicated by simple shapes and I let the imagination of the players do the rest.</p><p></p><p><strong>Petite-fort Lucia</strong></p><p>The concept behind this city, is that it started out as a small fortified town (named after a local saint), which over time grew into this giant fortification surrounding a huge cathedral. It is ruled by a powerful and zealous order of paladins, who have used their vast wealth and influence to expand the city into something amazing. The town's people are extremely pious and loyal to the faith. I imagined that the cathedral should be something akin to the vatican, so I simply plucked a topdown picture of the vatican from a real map, and repurposed it. I then drew the city walls around it. Because religion is so important to the city and its people, I made sure to add multiple smaller churches to fill some of the empty space.</p><p></p><p>The city is built against the side of a mountain, and so all of its streets curve upwards. So if you're standing in the harbor, you can pretty much see the entire city sprawled out in front of you. I decided that lumber would be the city's primary export product. Behind the city is a dark and misty forest from which a network of logflumes snakes its way down through the city, towards the lumbermill. The forest and the logflume will be at the heart of some of the side plots that I have planned for the upcoming session. Some 'evil' from the forest has been attacking and killing the local lumberjacks, causing much fright among the locals. The church has capitalized on these fears to make people even more loyal to the church, by giving the people a clear evil that the church fights. The players will probably want to investigate this matter.</p><p></p><p>The basilique is also a very important location. So much so, that I'll probably need to make a separate map for it. There's still a lot to flesh out there plot wise, but I've already written down a couple of important characters. </p><p></p><p>However, I feel there's a still a lot of unused space in the city. I scattered some of the standard taverns and blacksmiths around, because the players are sure to visit those. I'll also need to add some inns. But I also think the city still needs some more plot locations and landmarks. So in the next couple of days I'll be diving into that further.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 7969029, member: 6801286"] [ATTACH type="full"]121221[/ATTACH] I've been working on a map for a new city this week and I thought I'd share my process. Perhaps this can serve as inspiration for other DM's. I'll probably refine the map more in the time leading up to the next session, but I'm already pretty happy with how it is turning out. At first I made a version that had all the names of important locations right on top of the map, but this makes the map look really cluttered. I like this style better, where the points of interest are indicated with numbers as if it were a tourist map. I still like having the names of districts on the map itself, but everything else is in a list to the side. I really like using icons for important locations, again like a tourist map would have. Most of the buildings on the map are indicated by simple shapes and I let the imagination of the players do the rest. [B]Petite-fort Lucia[/B] The concept behind this city, is that it started out as a small fortified town (named after a local saint), which over time grew into this giant fortification surrounding a huge cathedral. It is ruled by a powerful and zealous order of paladins, who have used their vast wealth and influence to expand the city into something amazing. The town's people are extremely pious and loyal to the faith. I imagined that the cathedral should be something akin to the vatican, so I simply plucked a topdown picture of the vatican from a real map, and repurposed it. I then drew the city walls around it. Because religion is so important to the city and its people, I made sure to add multiple smaller churches to fill some of the empty space. The city is built against the side of a mountain, and so all of its streets curve upwards. So if you're standing in the harbor, you can pretty much see the entire city sprawled out in front of you. I decided that lumber would be the city's primary export product. Behind the city is a dark and misty forest from which a network of logflumes snakes its way down through the city, towards the lumbermill. The forest and the logflume will be at the heart of some of the side plots that I have planned for the upcoming session. Some 'evil' from the forest has been attacking and killing the local lumberjacks, causing much fright among the locals. The church has capitalized on these fears to make people even more loyal to the church, by giving the people a clear evil that the church fights. The players will probably want to investigate this matter. The basilique is also a very important location. So much so, that I'll probably need to make a separate map for it. There's still a lot to flesh out there plot wise, but I've already written down a couple of important characters. However, I feel there's a still a lot of unused space in the city. I scattered some of the standard taverns and blacksmiths around, because the players are sure to visit those. I'll also need to add some inns. But I also think the city still needs some more plot locations and landmarks. So in the next couple of days I'll be diving into that further. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Designing a city for my pirate campaign
Top