Great Fantasy Cities (and what makes them so awesome)

[Varianor Abroad]

Let X being the number of copies of preordered trough website =~ 1000
Let Y be the number of copies preordered through retail

Since he says Y > X, then the total count is > 2000, and that's just preorders..., of course because of the price, I dare say most of the print run was preorders, but I am sure they left some wriggle room

Oops! I should have remembered that. Thank you for the correction DragonBelow.

 

[Clavis]

My favorite fantasy city is Tanith Lee's Paradys. A fictionalized, dark fantasy version of Paris, it's the central setting of her excellent "Secret Books of Paradys" series. The home base of the PCs in my campaign is heavily inspired by Paradys. "Malice in Saffron", one of the stories in the "Book of the Damned", is probably my favorite piece of medieval fantasy. The caveat is that the series is NOT for children, or anyone afraid of having their ideas about gender and sexuality severely screwed with. Lee's writing is sumptuous, and Paradys is among the sexiest cities in dark fantasy literature.

 

[Jolly Giant]

The first city that popped into my head when I started reading this thread was Ankh-Morpork. Kamikze Midget has already explaiend what's so great about it, and very succinctly too. (Although, to be perfectly honest, I feel the technological revolution has gone a bit far and a bit too fast in the last few books.)

Some of the most fun gaming I've ever had was spending an entire weekend DMing a party through the streets of Ankh-Morpork, in a campaign loosely based on the events in the Hogfather book. The PCs were a troll fighter, a zombie alchemist (homemade Discworld class), a human witch from the Ramtops (another homemade class), a gnome fighter/rogue riding a chicken, and a human hedge wizard (druid). On his very first visit to the big city, the hedge wizard almost got arrested for breech of the "Being Bloody Stupid" act, but the kind watchman (Carrot Ironfoundersson, back when he was still a lance-constable) eventually let him off with a warning. Good times!

 

[shouit]

Hollowfaust from Scarred Lands was really interesting, since necromancers were not evil per se.

 

[jdrakeh]

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

Yessssssss. Port Blacksand rocks, especially during the age of Baron Valentis, when it is a proper pirate city. Also, the city of Fang under Baron Sukumvit's control bears mention -- after all, it's where the original Trial of Champions (aka Deathrap Dungeon) was based.

 

[MissingDividends]

I haven't played in or used a ton of pre-made cities (my early DMs were all do-it-yourself types, and I sort of adapted their style), so I can't contribute much, but it's certainly an interesting thread to read!

I like the sounds of Sharn, Ptolus, Tashal. Does anyone know how each is released? Are there free materials to get a feel for them, and then purchasable books/downloads, or what? I was able to find a little material via forum/web search, but I have no idea what I'm looking for... maybe the people that like them well enough to recommend them could point me in the right direction.

Thanks
--MissingDividends

 

[jdrakeh]

I like the sounds of Sharn, Ptolus, Tashal. Does anyone know how each is released? Are there free materials to get a feel for them, and then purchasable books/downloads, or what? I was able to find a little material via forum/web search, but I have no idea what I'm looking for... maybe the people that like them well enough to recommend them could point me in the right direction.

Sharn and Ptolus were released as both PDF books and hardcopy products, though Ptolus costs $119 as a hardcover and is very difficult to track down in that format, currently. Sharn is easy to find in hardcover format, being a WotC supplement for Eberron (it also ships with a decent soundtrack CD if purchased as a hardcopy). Both are easily nabbed in PDF via RPGNow. I'd recommend grabbing Sharn as a hardcover, if only for the CD, and Ptolus as a PDF. Tashal I know nothing about.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Miraddia (okay I'm biased - this is from my own campaign)

The city spent centuries adrift through an interdimensional space. Very high magic stuff. Then the Imperial Mages returned it to the Prime Material, incidentally killing most of the Imperial Mages. There was then a rapid diaspora as the inhabitants of the city spread out to settle the surrounding region.

Currently the city has about 200,000 inhabitants, down from a peak of over 20 million. The city core and areas near the main roads from the core to the city gates (20 miles away) are still heavily settled and appear as a normal city. The vast majority of the city is very sparsely inhabited or abandoned, including a vast underground and sizable agricultural and park regions inside the city walls. The high magic technology the city was based upon has collapsed. Monsters and interdimensional things carried over from the transition lurk in the abandoned areas.

There is also a lot of intrigue and diplomacy going on, though the commoners know very little of this. While a powerful empire by any standards, Miraddia emerged in a contested region between two multi continent spanning empires far more powerful than itself. It strives to maintain its independence by playing off the two against each other and building its own strength.

What makes it great? Well it's mine Also, there's plenty of opportunities for adventure, and I love it that if you head away from the populated areas there's tons of abandoned areas very closeby to explore.

 

[Arnwyn]

Yessssssss. Port Blacksand rocks, especially during the age of Baron Valentis, when it is a proper pirate city. Also, the city of Fang under Baron Sukumvit's control bears mention -- after all, it's where the original Trial of Champions (aka Deathrap Dungeon) was based.

Excellent call on those, jdrakeh and hamishspence.

 

[Slife]

I really like Taltasqa, The City Built around the Terrasque. All sorts of creepy goodness. And plot hooks.
For example:

There has been talk of having the Tarrasque in a desert, the only ready available food being its flesh. They only drink its blood. But what if the area only started out as a desert? The first watchers, when they ran out of food and drink, might have taken to desperately using the Tarrasque for sustainence before discovering that it is surprisingly tasty, even a bit addictive, when prepared properly...

Time went on, and they figured out how to make many sorts of food and drink from the Tarrasque's flesh. Fruit and vegetables were still a commodity, of course, because the tongue eventually desired something else, but there was little need to find any other source of food. The increased desire for flesh, however, had left the beast bleeding far more than previously. Hasty ditches were dug to drain away the red liquid, and a few enterprising guardians decided to see if they could grow grain in this arid place by watering it with Tarrasque blood. The result was... Unusual. But tasty, and almost as addictive as the flesh itself.

Later, as the population began to grow and it was impossible for any more flesh to be removed - The bones and organs of the Tarrasque being constantly exposed now by cutting, and even those did not remain completely safe - blood drains were installed at a great cost of life beneath the beast by hired dwarves who dug in from below. An elaborate pumping and irrigation system was set up to ferry the blood far and wide to the fields of what was now becoming an empire. Where there was once a forest red grain blew faintly in the breeze, and the red corn was traded far and wide by their farmers.

None needed to go hungry, or thirsty, the blood waters the crops... And there are fountains that all can drink from. The skin and bone of the beast provide powerful magical weapons and armor for their defense... Its organs were found to be even more nutritious than its flesh, though far too useful in magic to be eaten by any but the richest among its people. The crops do well as an export, and no one seems to find it unusual that the people of the Tarrasque empire have eyes just a little more slitted, teeth just a little sharper, nails just a little blacker.
The blood, the flesh, affects everyone differently. Most live longer, some heal faster, some become stronger, some even become little more than tiny versions of the Tarrasque; monsters that are quickly put down by the guard. But that is mostly in the city, in the countryside they just eat the crops... And the changes are mostly cosmetic. They are still friendly, helpful, farmers living perfectly ordinary lives. At least to those outsiders who look in on them. They couldn't know about the blood sports in the fields at night. How those who don't change are killed... About the occasional monster born by ripping its way through a farm wives stomach before the rest kill and it it... and the mother... something that is said to be a good omen for the next harvest. They could not know about the high birth rate, and how it is balanced out by the cannibalism. As far as the outside world knows they are just farmers.

And they want to sell you some fruit... Don't mind the apples, its perfectly ordinary for them to be red all the way through.