[EN World city project] Time to vote

[Hand of Evil]

I recomend small islands - each person would be given an isle to design/build. The whole really can then be connected via bridges and really placed any in any location, river, bay, mountain lake, even the sky.

Why isles - you could create a grid format, as long as the borders stay within the grid the shapes can very.

Example...

 

[David Argall]

City of En...

ok, one possible city...

En..., also known as the City of Magic, boasts, or perhaps suffers, the densest concentration of spellcasters in the known world. Magic is everywhere in the city and the value of things is measured by the magic involved. Your rank as a citizen is directly related to how much magic you can cast. [indeed, the non-spellcaster is legally no more than property, to be disposed of at the whim of the spellcaster. This is not true in practice because the city depends on trade, and one can't expect merchants to come back to a city that allows fireballs to be tossed at them by irritated customers. So the non-spellcaster can walk the streets in safety, tho not without scorn.]
There is indeed an overload of magic in the city, which has been totally destroyed by fluxes in magic at least 10 times, a point that bothers the average citizen hardly at all, certainly far less than less drastic fluxes. [When the entire city, including you, has been destroyed, you support the effort to restore things to normal. But for lesser changes, well, some people like having antlers this year, and many will argue having the castle floating in the air is an improvement. So while the averge citizen is aware that he and his were utterly destroyed only because all the mages are busy and he can't get one to work for him until next week, he does notice that all the cats now have wings.]
The city is ruled by the Council of Archmages, who do not allow anyone to even approach them unless they are at least able to cast 5th level spells. To actually sit on it requires 9th. Despite this heavy mage background, the Council is viewed as a hindrance on mages, and quite correctly so. As noted, all the magic is made possible by the trade flowing thru the city, and the archmages know this. Accordingly, even tho the law is of mages, for mages, and by mages, the mage appearing before the Council usually loses out to a merchant.
While wizards dominate the city, all other spellcasters are welcome, with the welcome measured by their power. Some of the Archmages are priests [who are deemed mere lackies of their god, who is deemed just a mage with an ego problem - tho that opinion is kept quiet. All mages have ego problems and telling a ultra-powerful mage he is not a god is asking for a short life.]
The city skyline is notable for having no city wall, a point that attracts an army about once a century. A few survivors are allowed to escape so they can remind the next generation to ask why there is no wall before they try to attack. What is common are mage spires. It is a point of ego satisfaction to have the tallest tower your magic can support. Needless to say, rarely does a year go by without someone making their tower a bit taller than they can support.

 

[Tonguez]

First, figure out what sort of city is it. A port, an inland trade hub, a military support center, etc.

Next, get a vague notion of why anything would be here- relation to the outside world in politics and trade. Is it a relay point for overseas to inland trade? Is it at the tail end of a powerful empire? The capital of a glorious nation?.

The largest city in my homebrew is Bishnagar which is the terminus for the Eastern Silk Road, Southern Caravan Trails and the Western Isles. It sits on a fertile strip of land at the edge of the southern desert and is a huge sprawling Port on the Sea of Tethys.

I agree that Entropy is a stoopid 'geek-boy' name. Entropia is much better but still too geek for my liking (NB yes I do consider myself a geek too - but ya know you can be geek without being Stoopid)

Hand of Evil
Islands are actually are really good metaphor but remember that Islands don't need to be seperated by water - the Royal Gardens could be an effective barrier lying between the Central Market and the Judges Quarter

 

[Buttercup]

I have a few comments to throw on the table.

I agree that it annoys me when so-called generic locales...aren't. So I suggest that any maps we produce for this project be available with and without place names. That way, if the crags above your city are in the Nithbar mountans, you can call them the Krags of Nithbar instead of the Krags of Kul Moren. You can name the river whatever you like. And so forth.

Also, if this really gets off the ground, It would be cool if an administrator could give us our own forum so we wouldn't clutter up the General Discussion forum.

Next, I agree with those who have said that the city has to have a reason to exist where it is, and as it is. In fact, for it to be a really large city, it has to have several reasons. It can be a trade hub, and also the city with the largest concentration of spellcasters in the known world. It can also be near (or on top of) the only source for some rare material--if it were a spell component, that might explain the high number of magic users. Coming up with this sort of framework gives us a framework from which to create people and businesses. It also gives the DM something to hang plot hooks on. But if the city is to be a useful product at the end, for us or anyone else, it has to have diverse reasons for existing, and some of them need to be mundane.

Finally, to be honest, I think that having the ruler be Eric's Grandma is, well, a bad choice. It's an inside joke that in this context is mildly amusing, but not at all useful. Far better to have a council of Administrators, or Aldermen, or Dukes, or just Councillers, who are never seen, and maybe not even named. Again, we want to create a city that DMs (including us!) can actually use, and in many cases, that will mean leaving the cute, inside jokes and self-referential material behind.

 

[rounser]

Since it doesn't seem I can stem the tide of the Entropy/Entropia votes... I think I've found the perfect NPC...

Lord Kelvin...

Heheheh...

 

[TGD@work]

I recomend small islands - each person would be given an isle to design/build. The whole really can then be connected via bridges and really placed any in any location, river, bay, mountain lake, even the sky.

Why isles - you could create a grid format, as long as the borders stay within the grid the shapes can very.

Example...

I'm really not good at drawing but the above post gave me this idea.

Just sharing ...

 

[Steverooo]

Thou Missspelters!

I'll help, in whatever fashion you most need.

And I like part of one of the names on the list...Noahn.

City of Noahn.

They "corrected" my name for me!... It was supposed to be "Erek Noahn", harkening back to Tolkien's "Erech", and Fritz Lieber's "Newohn", but Krug "corrected" the "misspelling" of Eric's name! (Grrr!)

Despite this obvious Gnomish mistreatment, I am still going to volunteer to help... I'm just that kind of Elf!

 

[Steverooo]

Erech

Hmmm...I think starwolf has a good idea here. We might as well use the names suggested for something, it does kinda make sense, that several of the local names sound similar.

darklight

Well, in that case, let it be known that "Erech" means "hill"...

 

[Lalato]

Finally, to be honest, I think that having the ruler be Eric's Grandma is, well, a bad choice. It's an inside joke that in this context is mildly amusing, but not at all useful. Far better to have a council of Administrators, or Aldermen, or Dukes, or just Councillers, who are never seen, and maybe not even named. Again, we want to create a city that DMs (including us!) can actually use, and in many cases, that will mean leaving the cute, inside jokes and self-referential material behind.

I agree... Buttercup, did you see my earlier post on Lord Kelvin? He could be the leader of this great city.

 

[Tonguez]

Finally, to be honest, I think that having the ruler be Eric's Grandma is, well, a bad choice. It's an inside joke that in this context is mildly amusing, but not at all useful.

Nah we can still use the concept of the mysterious unseen Grandma as being the 'true' ruler of the city regardless of what the apparent ruling body looks like.

It harks back to concepts of the 'Nanny State', to Pratchetts Granny Weatherwax (the true ruler of Lancre for all intents and purposes) and of course to the menacing reality of Lloth in the Drow Cities.

Hey perhaps Eric's Grandmother is a diety of a secretive yet influential cult feared throughout the city and known as The Moderators (or perhaps The Watchers would be more appropriate) - now that works (Plot Hook anyone?)