Great Fantasy Cities (and what makes them so awesome)

[haakon1]

Greyhawk City -- No more need to be said on this one.

Laketown (MERP) -- The classic Tolkien town in the wilderness, on Long Lake in the shadow of Lonely Mountain. Different but not unbelievable/overly fantastic setting for city, lots of cool flavor and intrigue in the MERP version.

City State of the Invincible Overlord -- Evil is not so bad in this convincingly functional evil city.

Blackmoor -- Oddly enough, I prefer the Greyhawk vision, where it's a ruined and not well-described place, next to an ancient dungeon. In my vision, the inn is still there, as a sole fortress of civilization (and gate site) that nobody dares mess with, due to the uber-magics inherent in the place where the first scene in D&D was set.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Anhk-Morpork... Becuase 'tis a silly place.

 

[sckeener]

Most of the cities I like have already been listed....

Sigil, Ptolus, City State of the Invincible Overlord, Lankhmar, Sanctuary, New Crobuzon, Scuttlecove, Cauldron​

One additional city I would list is Shelzar, the city of sin. I could picture some Senates from Sigil hanging there.

re Ptolus> I'm glad I have one of the books. It is the most well published books I've bought in years. I plan to mine it for ideas for decades.

re City State of the Invincible Overlord> I recommend getting the Wilderlands of High Fantasy setting. Tons of cities.

 

[The Human Target]

Already mentioned cities I lurve....

Armada
Sanctuary
Lankhmar
Waterdeep
New Crobuzon
Freeport

Two new cities I'll add for consideration...

Darujhistan- From the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. In a similar tradition to the great corrupt city of Sanctuary, Darujhistan is populated by vicious cutthroats, light fingered thieves, and scheming nobles while at the same time having a healthy dose of high magic all bathed in the glow of a citywide system of natural gas lamps.

Dylath-Leen- From the The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by HP Lovecraft. Made from dark rock, its sits like a big black tumor on the coast of the Dreamlands.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Dylath-Leen- From the The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by HP Lovecraft. Made from dark rock, its sits like a big black tumor on the coast of the Dreamlands.

Speaking of which, I'm gonna have to add Innsmouth.

 

[RichGreen]

Great thread!

Five Fingers is awesome, but I gotta say I LOVE both of the cities from the Gentlemen Bastards book, Camorr from The Lies of Locke Lamora and Tal Varrar from Red Seas under Red Skies. Camorr might as well be Five Fingers, feel-wise, for me.

I'm a big fan of these books too! Both cities are great - the Sinspire in Tal Varrar (massive casino for the rich - the more influential you are, the higher you can go) is such a cool location. The contrast between the canals and fantasy Venetian feel of Camorr with the gangland/Godfather elements is also very effective. I need to check out Five Fingers - that's quite a few recommendations on this thread, and I did like the Monsternomicon.

I've started a thread in Plots, Places & Rogues on a new city I'm working on here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=215138. Any feedback or suggestions gratefully received!

Cheers


Richard

 

[RichGreen]

Ooooooo. . . and there is a copy at my FLGS. I've been tempted to buy it for months, though I have the PDF (the buying and printing of which cost less than the hardcover) and I'm not 100% certain that I could ever use it as-written (since it comes attached to a pretty non-standard setting, from which spring many assumptions that I'm not really hot on).

I ditched the setting and the cosmology, and am using it as Zazesspur in Tethyr in the Forgotten Realms. I've had to do some tinkering and a bit of retcon but it's been worth it as the book is so easy to use in play. I'd buy it if I was you!

Cheers


Richard

 

[Dioltach]

Ankh-Morpork: "as full of life as a dead dog on a hot summer's day".

 

[hamishspence]

What about D&D-like worlds and their cities

Port Blacksand from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone is one to look at.

 

[sckeener]

One of the reasons I like Ptolus is for all the adventure seeds. Everywhere there is something that adds a bit to the setting. The politics is good and the adventure is near. There really is little reason to ever adventure outside the city. (though I love planar adventure)

Scuttlecove I (Dungeon #95)> I like all the diseases and the ur-priests. I love all the twistedness and the fact that the players really have to ignore a lot of it if they want to get in and get out. I had a party of 3 paladins that I ran through that city. It was beautiful torture watching them want to clean the city but having to reign back their desires to complete their goal.

Scuttlecove II > Still just as nice, but now minus the diseases. I didn't run paladins through the town this time, but I suspect they would have had an easier time resisting.

Sigil > I loved the town for all the factions and the freedom to do anything I wanted. I ran players through that played humans that looked like humanoid animals. I gave total freedom to my players to play anything. It was fun. I especially loved delving into some of the other planes.

Sanctuary and New Crobuzon > there are just sections of these cities that ooze slime and richness....they are like little bits of the planes on the material...

Shelzar, the city of sin> I usually have a city some where on the world like this one. I like the attitude and the intrigue.

Oh and I'd like add Erelhei-Cinlu (Vault of the Drow - I loved all the politics)

Innsmouth...good addition! toss in MU as well as Arkham!