Gotham

[Grandpa]

TO MY PLAYERS: This ruins everything. Please keep out.

I'm an unseasoned DM who would love some help and input on a newly launched city campaign, especially with regards to creating a memorable city, anticipating the effect of house rules, and ideas on how my campaign background can connect with official lore. Even if the concept holds no appeal to you, I hope you might help me out.

Concept

Gotham is the last great city of the civilized races. Once renowned for its riches, it is now infected with cults of personality that use sword and sorcery to foster chaos within its troubled slums. One hero, the Shadow Knight, became legend here, venturing out each night to battle evil and maintain order.

But 25 years ago, Gotham was devastated when a lifeless, titanic automaton passed into the material plane and crashed headfirst into the city, destroying its Arcane University and almost a third of the city. Since that day, the villains of Gotham have grown in strength, exhibiting mysterious new powers. The Titan still rests where it fell, and serves as a reminder that Gotham may never recover, as even the Shadow Knight seems unable to hold the chaos in check.

In play, the players have met and helped the desperate Shadow Knight (SK) reach a fading interplanar portal that he believes will lead him to the source of magic empowering his overwhelming enemies. But SK has just learned of an existential threat to Gotham from one of his known enemies. Out of options, he hands the keys to his lair to the players and asks them to protect the city. When SK disappears, a powerful entity named the "Jackal" (J) appears, reveling in the entertainment of this development. J teleports the players outside of Gotham as an explosion rocks the city.

Inspired by a simple campaign exercise, this setting is an adaptation of Batman: The Animated Series and Robotech for the D&D universe.

City Building

As citizens and protectors of Gotham, the players need a strong understanding of the city, but I've never built a city and have no idea where to start.

• What articles exist on building memorable cities?
• What tricks do others use to generate memorable city play?
• What resources beyond DDI offer maps that can be adapted for my campaign?
• What other elements should I focus on, based on the additional campaign information below?
• What other questions should I be asking?

In the next adventure the players are supposed to prevent a possessed alchemist (Manbat) from contaminating the water with magic that will transform the citizens of Gotham into hideous bat creatures but I have no idea how a water system would work for a big city set into the side of a mountain. How do aqueducts and sewers work? I desperately need to do research; some City 101.

House Rules

My experience with 4E is only as a heroic tier player and DM for a few sessions with new players. I love 4E but have quibbles I want to address with house rules and worry my lack of experience will make them ineffective.

• Are there spots where the intent and reality of my house rules (listed below) are misaligned?
• What new problems might they generate that I can't see?

Karma Points

Karma points are used to encourage desired player behavior, dull the frustration of dud combat rounds, and give one more reason to push forward before resting. A player that misses all attack rolls in his turn gains 1 kp. At the end of each encounter after an extended rest, all players gain diminishing kp (4, 3, 2...). Karma points are also rewarded at my discretion for behavior I like. Players exchange kp at any time for various effects: (1 kp) add one to a personal roll, (2 kp) grant 1 kp to another player, or (5 kp) gain a healing surge. Extended rests reset kp to 0.

Having played with karma points, they definitely help curb frustration with misses, and I love watching players pool kp to help each other. However, I worry that my after-encounter rewards are too good. In their last adventure, players never missed an attack after their first encounter due to point pooling. No one takes this for granted (yet) because it feels like an active effort on their part and the monsters still scared them, but I worry boredom will set in from too much success, and already find myself not avoiding additional kp rewards for fear of them having too much kp. I've already told them I might reduce the after-encounter reward (3, 2, 1...) but another thought is to flip it so each encounter after an extended rest grants increasing (1, 2, 3...) points. It would make me more comfortable dishing out incentive rewards and for later encounters in the day, add to the feeling that players had a hope of victory through "fumes" of momentum and desperation that added risk to the reward of resting ("But I have so much karma!"). I also wondered if gaining an action point was in the same league as "healing surge" for a 5 kp expenditure.

Campaign Background

While fleshing out the background, I wondered:

• Where are gaps in my knowledge of D&D lore preventing interesting connections to official lore?
• What story elements will the players like, that I should emphasize?
• What story elements might be hard to achieve in a campaign?
  I constantly wonder where gaps in my knowledge of D&D lore might prevent

Background

As a nod to Robotech, I wanted to invent a new race and resource. The Masters are a group of super-ancient humans with deep planar secrets. Using continuum—an element of original creation—the Masters long ago built a pocket in time and space impenetrable to detection. Sustained by the powers of arcane technology and the strength of Fomorians stolen and subjugated, the Masters constructed a “perfect” society shielded from the chaos of outside influence for millenia. But the continuum necessary to sustain their hidden society is now diminished, and the Masters must generate new continuum by bringing the Foundry—a powerful artifact capable of generating new continuum—to the location where the planes converge. On Earth, not far below Gotham.

The Titan

Because the civilized races are poorly defended after years of conflict and world-shattering events, the Masters plan to overwhelm them with brute force. The Master Fomorians—far more advanced than their Feywild cousins—construct a titan-sized automaton vessel modeled after warforged (unique to Master society). The Masters send the Fomorians with the Foundry to destroy Gotham, generate continuum, and retrieve it from Earth. The Fomorians travel the planes swiftly, passing through the Feywild—nearest their starting point—toward Earth. Just long enough to pick up a hitchhiker.

The Crash

A powerful fey spirit known as the Jackal senses the Titan entering its plane and decides to hop on board. Its penchant for chaos and curiosity quickly leads to the unravelling of all order within. By the time the Titan arrives at Gotham, its magic is severely disrupted and the Titan crashes, killing the Fomorians and much of the warforged crew. The Jackal settles into Gotham. The continuum used to power the Titan now bleeds into Gotham, empowering its villains while the Masters prepare a new journey to recover the Foundry and save their hidden society. They do so at great risk, as their kind were hidden even from death, and continuum is valuable to every being in the universe.

Tiers

Though the players are likely to spin things off in more interesting directions, I constructed a rough sketch of what the world around them will be up to. In Heroic Tier, the Shadow Knight leaves Gotham and the heroes must protect Gotham from its increasingly powerful enemies, including the Jackal. The heroes acquire hints about the source of the Titan that crashed, but have an incomplete knowledge when the Masters return to the material plane. In Paragon Tier, the heroes battle the forces of the Masters and learn about the purpose of their mission. They might make uncomfortable alliances to achieve victory. Player actions and events may even lead to the destruction of Gotham and the activation of the Foundry, all to the delight of the Jackal. In Epic Tier, with continuum blossoming from Gotham, powerful entities converge from other planes for control over the magic resource. The party must lead a series of surgical attacks to weaken enemies and find a way to destroy the Foundry. It all leads to an ultimate showdown with the Jackal, hell-bent on keeping the artifact—his ultimate source of chaos—on Earth.

Thanks

As a DM, I worry constantly about making sure everyone is having a good time and feel responsible for the players' impressions of Dungeons & Dragons. I hope that with a little feedback, it will be a really positive experience. Oh, and I have the great fortune of running a game with artists. Check out the attachments for some artwork from our game.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

First off I think I would do Karma points the other way. They get more the more they push on. Regaining healing surges is a pretty big deal. In my opinion healing surges are the real limit on pushing on. A party with full encounter powers is still pretty powerful but little or no heaing surge is a tpk waiting to happen.


4e characters are very powerful in the first fight anyway.
I cannot point you to articles on cities but I would rob supplements of their city info. Ptolus, the various Forgotten Ralms cities have had witeups and modules over the years. Some of the Pazio adventure paths are city based. Shackaled Cuty in particular.

In pre-industrial societies aquaducts and sewers relied on gravity flow. So for the aquaducts the resevoirs are at a higher altitude than the city. If there are points in the city at a higher elevation there is not water. Now magic can mitigate that. The aquaducts could be filled from a portal to an elemental source of water or a decanter of endless water. This portal or artifact has to be at a higher elevation than any place where water can be drawn in the city.

Simirlarly sewers took waste waters and effluent and poured out to the river or sea. Now again in fantasy land some more exotic options are available.

The thing is stuff goes from high to low but it can go up hill. If your resevoir is at 200 meters then you can pipe to any hill that is less than the resevoir outlet ( i.e up to 200m). The pressure from the tap is lower the closer the elevation of the tap is to the reservoir outlet is.

Sewers obey similar principles with added compliations due to the solid load in the liquid.

The campaign sounds cools and the outline sounds resonable.

On other thing about cities, cities exist for a reason, some are river crossings, others are seaports. Some are trade route corssing in otherwise difficult terrain (mountians or marshes). Some are religous centers and others are defensive redoubts.

Gotham/New York is a port and trading center. But you mentioned that your gotham is on the side of a mountain. So why is it there? is it a centre of worship sacred to some god? or where a number of mountain trade routes converge?

Answer that and a lot of questions about the nature of the city is answered.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

This is a dragon article and thus behind the DDI paywall but it you have a subscription it is worth a look.

 

[Grandpa]

First off I think I would do Karma points the other way. ... Regaining healing surges is a pretty big deal.

I committed to the karma point change and it gives me a good vibe. As far as surges, the party has a clear bias towards resting whenever possible and I hope a few more carrots to go on will help with resource tension without breaking anything. I know that working with resting is part of the DM job but my inexperience makes me assume it will take at least a few tries to ride the line well.

In pre-industrial societies aquaducts and sewers relied on gravity flow...

Thanks again for taking the time to write up all the information you did. Just that basic knowledge was a big help for me, and illuminating how magic could affect it is something I really appreciated. At this point, my mental sketch of how water runs through the town is still fluid (nyuk) but for the adventure, knowing that Man-Bat will attack a magical purifier at a water source for the city will suffice.

The campaign sounds cools and the outline sounds resonable.

A small vote of confidence means the world to a DM without that many games under his belt. The players seem to be enjoying themselves. Thanks.

On other thing about cities, cities exist for a reason...

Thinking about how the town was built up over time was extremely useful to me. My assessment of what might be realistic motivation for a city might be a off but the players seem okay with the explanations given. I'll follow this post with another that goes over the loose structure I currently have (and shared with them). I think it would be fun to share the product of this thread, soon.

This is a dragon article and thus behind the DDI paywall but it you have a subscription it is worth a look.

And thanks for this! Very timely.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

No problem, I am somewhat surprised that more people have not posted here the 5e stuff mus be distracting them.

 

[Grandpa]

I wanted to share results of input from this thread hoping it encourages more feedback and helps improve the setting. Despite not knowing how well I'm doing, I constantly find myself wanting to share the product of all my preparation.

City Inspiration
I started by looking for images that matched the imagery in my mind: night scenes with packed vertical buildings lit from below. I also imagined Gotham being located on a hill or cliff side to create the impression of vertical buildings. Concept art from Guild Wars 2 fulfilled both desires.

[sblock=Guild Wars 2 Inspiration]

[/sblock]City Rough
Two considerations drove my next decision. First, background story from one of my players' characters mentioned a wharf being part of the city (everyone got an attractive 1000 xp for completing a series of questions). Second, I had already described Gotham built on the ruins of another city.

Local Geography
This led me to imagine Gotham being at the edge of a bay or cove (and looked these up in Wikipedia to understand the difference -- it's amazing how much more interesting how geography works when having to build your own world).

[sblock=Geography Notes]

[/sblock]

1. Bay
2. Cove
3. South Cliffs
4. North Cliffs
5. Valley

Satellite View
I did a quick painting of what it might look like from above, later touched up by a draw night friend.

[sblock=Satellite View]

[/sblock]Ancient History
To incorporate the ruins, I drew from flavor text about the dragonborn empire of Arkhosia and decided Gotham was founded on the remains of an ancient dragonborn city called Ankor. After doodling the city, I imagined that a cataclysmic sunk the west side of Ankor and created the cove (2), with ruins deep below the surface of the water. East Ankor also sinks, but is still buried in the South Cliffs (3) with some parts peaking above the surface.

[sblock=Ankor Doodle]

[/sblock]Modern History
The next step was to create the more recent history of Gotham per Ardoughter's suggestion. I had already described Gotham to the players as the last great city of the civilized races so I decided it was part of the Nerath empire mentioned in my 4E books. The cove (2) looked hidden in the inspiration image but I imagined being discovered and used in wartime by the Nerath empire to bring and ready troops that would pass through the valley (5) and assault cities on the plains to the east. This camp attracted or brought dwarves to help forge weapons, who discovered extremely valuable ore in South Cliffs (3).

Post-War
After the war ended, the dwarves continued mining and the camp eventually became the first makings of a city and trading port. In time, the dwarves carved huge statues and an impressive community in the cliff side. Humans meanwhile capitalized on trade and heroes returning from war explored the area and found many valuables in the Ankor ruins. They expanded in the valley, up the North Cliffs (4), and built temples along a more-flat incline to the west of the North Cliffs. One rich hero, a Kane, built an estate atop the South Cliffs that overlooked the city, above the dwarf community.

Magic is Technology
In time, enough valuable artifacts and points of magical interest were discovered that the area became known as a hot-spot for magic and the city truly flourished. The North and South Cliffs were connected by a bridge and the Arcane Academy was founded. The South Cliffs held the Colosseum and rich estates (like the Kane estate), and training grounds and walled defenses manned by the Gotham Infantry. The North Cliffs hold the Academy and Government buildings. A more crowded but still very rich area that attract a very diverse crowd, and are also defended by walls to the north. On the bridge connecting the two areas, I imagined a lightning rail (borrowed from Eberron) that heads to the North, connecting Gotham to certain farmlands.

The Crash
When the Titan appeared and crashed into the city, it hit the Arcane Academy head-first and mostly filled the valley, but its left forearm smashed part of the Wharfs (again, to accommodate a PC story), with its hand underwater in the cove.

These thoughts all led to the following sketch of Gotham, and a second colored version meant to clarify the history of the city detailed above:

[sblock=Gotham Sketch and Timeline]

[/sblock]Next Steps / Feedback
Next, I'd like to try mapping it out top-down as something I can add more specific detail to, including districts and specific buildings, temples, etc., which is extremely intimidating.

My last adventure was run a couple days ago using this rough sketch of the city and it seemed to be a hit. The players took the crystal "key" the Shadow Knight gave them and found the Shadow Cave, and inserted it into the chest of a lifeless warforged, Red, who came to life and told them about his and the Knight's efforts to explore the Titan. Red was one of the warforged who arrived on the Titan but his consciousness only awoke two years ago. Red loves the city his consciousness was born in and helps the Shadow Knight find the source of the Titan and the magic corrupting Gotham. When Red and the Knight discovered a special crystal was necessary to explore deeper into the Titan and that Red was of a caste of warforged containing one, Red volunteered his crystal to the Knight. Red was lifeless for a month while the Knight explored the Titan and found continuum that could activate a portal to wherever the Titan came from. When the PCs met the Knight, he would have preferred to keep the crystal assuming it would be necessary beyond the portal, but gives it to the PCs so they can activate Red, who knows of an exorcism Ritual that can stop the possessed Man-Bat from performing a ritual on the city's water purifier and turn its citizens into evil bat creatures.

Thanks for letting me share. If you have critiques or ideas to offer, please do. I feel like every little bit helps me improve the game for my players and improve my skills as a DM. Unfortunately, my love for playing is a major source of stress as a DM responsible for the impressions others might build of D&D. I just thank the stars for 4E for simplifying my job and giving me the time to focus on this stuff.

 

[Gilladian]

One of the things I HAVE to do when I create a new town or city is figure out what the political structure is, and how it affects the ordinary people who live there.

Who is the ruler? Is there one or are there several? If several, do they cooperate or feud? Openly or under cover of "law"?

Where does the city's food come from? Who controls its arrival into the city? Are there feudal lords, or powerful guilds? If there are guilds, which ones are most powerful, and why? If there are lords and a feudal structure, is the city part of it, or do they have a charter that sets them apart (a "free" city)?

Does the city have a unified watch or military? How about fire vigiles as in Rome? Or do the locals simply hire someone to patrol their street/block/neighborhood? Are those groups honest or dishonest? Who "runs" them from behind the scenes?

What is the weather and climate like in your city? Is it desertlike, rainy and cold, rainy and warm, icy and windy? This will affect all sorts of things, like how streets are built, what is used to build structures, whether buildings are mostly mud, stone, wood, tile, brick, etc... Do the residents constantly have to fear fire, or is it wet enough to make warmth and light higher considerations?

I think you'll find you've already answered a lot of these questions, but writing down the answers can help you solidify them and prevent major "oops" conflicts later when you mention "the city guard" and everyone is like "WHO? There's never been one before!"

 

[Grandpa]

Thanks Gilladian. These are great blanks I need to fill.

One of the things I HAVE to do when I create a new town or city is figure out what the political structure is, and how it affects the ordinary people who live there...

Yeah, this is one of the big things I have to decide on. I need to re-read some of the suggestions in the handbooks for some options. Roughly, I see a council elected from select "decision-makers" in each district (?) that informs the decisions of a monarch who names a next heir before death (else the council appoints a new monarch). A monarch who ignores the council is uncommon since it can be seen as acting against the will of the people. Can this work?

Where does the city's food come from? Who controls its arrival into the city? Are there feudal lords, or powerful guilds? If there are guilds, which ones are most powerful, and why? If there are lords and a feudal structure, is the city part of it, or do they have a charter that sets them apart (a "free" city)?

Would it be possible to do both? I imagine small towns and farmlands beyond Gotham with feudal lords connected to the city and its council, but if fishing is also important to the city, that that supply might be in control of guilds. Or is this nonsensical?[/QUOTE]

Does the city have a unified watch or military? How about fire vigiles as in Rome? Or do the locals simply hire someone to patrol their street/block/neighborhood? Are those groups honest or dishonest? Who "runs" them from behind the scenes?

I like the notion that the "Gotham Infantry" is a wide umbrella with its own subdivisions that handle various duties from wall-duty to policing to security for rich families. I imagine some of these divisions could be entirely corrupt, or just certain parts of them. If this seems reasonable, I do still need to decide how they are connected to forces of good and evil. One of the players, actually is part of the Gotham Infantry, working undercover for the government, probably the Council (so Gotham's version of the FBI) trying to track down a supposedly treasonous General.

What is the weather and climate like in your city? ... This will affect all sorts of things, like how streets are built, what is used to build structures, whether buildings are mostly mud, stone, wood, tile, brick, etc...

I actually imagined Gotham as pretty wet; that despite its namesake, it exists on a coast with something more akin to Portland weather. I've never lived there but from what little I know it's almost always wet, and people like to gather around warmth, dryness and hot food. I don't know what geography causes this weather, exactly, so I need to do a little more research to understand it. And I have no idea how this might affect what buildings are made of, so any tidbits of info there would be a huge help to me.

I think you'll find you've already answered a lot of these questions, but writing down the answers can help you solidify them and prevent major "oops" conflicts later when you mention "the city guard" and everyone is like "WHO? There's never been one before!"

Definitely. This is a massive help. I'll see if I have some xp to share.

 

[Gilladian]

You asked if a city could have a council that informs the monarch? I don't see why not. If Gotham is going to be the capitol of a nation, with a monarch, then I would say you're likely to have two types of nobility in the city:

1) landed families of nobles - most of their property is outside the city - they're "working nobles" who either reside in the city part-time, or have some family here and most elsewhere.

2) unlanded or "court" nobles - these are either working kingdom officials such as the Kingdom Seneschal, or they are hangers-on who have semi-official reasons for being at court, and mainly are there to show themselves off. Often they are lesser branches of group 1.

Your King may have a council from both of these groups for the KINGDOM, but not the city. It is likely that they would be the ones to acknowledge the King's heir, or select one (fight for the position) if there is none appointed.

THEN you have the guilds and the upper ranks of the mercantile and craftsman classes. These people could as wealthy as the nobility, often, but typically lack the privilege and rights. They are powerful, but less showy. These folks are likely to be the CITY's council, serving the will of the King. Unlikely that this rank of people would be given any visible say in who ruled the kingdom.

Of course the Church/Temples are outside either of these and may ally or fight with either or both on different issues. Many of the Church's highest ranks are probably filled with nobles, with varying loyalties.

There's a vast break between those ranks of folk and the commoners below them.

Your ideas on the military/police/investigators sound right on. Remember that the church will have their own guards/inquisitors who are separate. And each guild may hire their own guards as needed. The largest guilds in the city (the Fisherman's guild and the Sea-Captain's guild spring to mind in a port city) may have substantial "military" power in this way.

My loose understanding of weather and climate lead me to believe that a port city located on a coast with mountains close behind it is likely to be humid, foggy and grey, as the mountains will trap the prevailing breezes off the ocean and cause lots of rain. If there's a warm coastal current (as I think there is for both Britain and our north-wesst coast) it will help make for a very "soft" climate.

Hope my rambling helps!

 

[Grandpa]

Hope my rambling helps!

It's been extremely helpful. Thank you so much.

I have another quick question that I hope someone might help me with. How was news usually delivered through a large medieval city? If a medieval building was accosted by demons the night prior, how would word of it get around? Were their ever news sources, like town criers? How did they make money? Where did they get the news?

Good stuff has been going on in the campaign. I hope to share more soon.