Help me design a city--new paradigm?

EvilDwarf

Explorer
I'm really inspired to begin a campaign series which is set entirely (or nearly so) within an ancient ruined city. Yeah, nothing new on the surface (pun intended), but I have some ideas that I want to try out. For instance, I just got Dungeonscape--a GREAT read, BTW--but want to add the twist that the mega-dungeon is actually the city, sort of a dungeon-city.

Anyway, I've been playing around with maps, tiles, Dundjini, Autorealm, etc., and am finding I'm just plain tired of the top-down (or MAYBE even isometric) city map--such as the city maps in Cityscape.

Does anyone have or has anyone implemented some kind of new paradigm or different city layout/design paradigm for such an adventure? Some things I had considered were flowcharts instead of a city map, sort of like the old Zork maps, or using a "narrative" map where the whole city would be nothing but a series of descriptions of locations, "you are in the Plaza of the Kings--great crumbling stautes stripped of their gilding line the street, to the north is the Grand Plaza and to the west is the Tower of Angalor," etc.

Anyone tried a new/different approach to ruined city adventure mapping?

Thx.
 

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Technically, dungeons as such have never really existed in RL - at least not in the sense of an underground trap-filled fortified area used to guard some object, person, etc.

However, there have been underground crypts, underground settlements (well, partially underground, and mostly in modern times), and ruins buried by time and thus underground (albeit filled with sediment except for the occasional air pocket in a room).

There are thus two ways to look at this city:

1) It was always underground, perhaps a dwarven settlement or some other race's settlement. In this case the settlement is likely entirely open (ie: few if any filled chambers / passages), and it is similarly obvious that the 'dungeon' is, in fact, a former city (or revived city, perhaps, although used now by another race).

2) It was above ground but buried by sediment over the ages. Perhaps some local creatures or races have hollowed out some of the avenues, rooms, etc for their use, but it is likely that 25-75% of the settlement is still underground - perhaps with other air pockets, riches (from stores, banks, vaults, etc) yet to be discovered, etc.

In this situation it may be difficult to determine the extent of the 'dungeon'. It may not, in fact, be initially possible to determine that it was once a settlement at all, although the fact that it was at least one or more buildings near each other at some time in the past may be obvious. Perhaps the city has been partially excavated - via tunnels, by some race that prefers living underground. Adventures could include finding information on the former settlement at distant cities - in libraries, universities, oral legends, etc, then returning to make use of that knowledge to find structures currently still buried and unknown - along with whatever riches, wonders, etc may be within them.

Other adventures could involve the team being captured or chased while in the settlement - and accidentally finding a previously unknown passage. The danger outside is such that they decide to follow (and perhaps even excavate a bit on their own) the passage / rooms now revealed to them, eventually discovering this or that interesting thing, situation, knowledge, etc.



In the case of the former idea (ie: the settlement is obviously a settlement of another race from a bygone age, now refurbished for use by the current race that occupies it), you would design the settlement / city as you normally would a dwarven, drow, kobold, etc settlement. It is only a dungeon if the current inhabitants have chosen to place various traps about, bring down some walls and build up others to create a confused mass of twisting passages, etc - the better to defend themselves and their settlement from dangerous intruders, such as adventurers.


In the second stated idea, you could create a city plan as normal, but then cover up most of it, leaving only the few largest buildings and the widest avenues near them uncovered (as they would have been most easily found, thus leading to the formation of the new settlement or dungeon as they were unburied). Some various minor buildings and lesser avenues and even alleyways might also be uncovered / tunneled, as digging continues, but most of the city is still fully buried. Then decide which structures were larges within and best able to hold up under the weight of centuries of being buried under tons of soil. Those should have air pockets that might be breathable (or not, perhaps, but will certain gather interest if they are stumbled upon by the diggers).

Also, consider what structures were likely to have magical protections - these might not only have air bubbles, but also the magical traps, misdirections, protections, etc that might work well for a stumbled upon dungeon. Lastly, consider the sewer system. These are made to be underground, after all, and may offer both the initial means into the city (by the new settlers / dungeon builders or by the adventurers, seeking another way in / out) and the random collapses that surely occurred could make a nice maze - as well as offering a complex and perhaps as yet unknown means of moving about the partially excavated city and into as yet unknown structures.



Needless, to say, I prefer the second option.
 

For cities only ever use narative Maps and maybe scribble a flowchart for my own Sanity

1. Decide on city 'zones/districts'
2. State which Zones are linked

eg The Docks District flows northeast along the river to merge into the Low Market and northwest towards the Stores and then the Foulburg

There are three roads running out of the Low Market - Market Road, Shingleway and River Road

The Market Road runs from the Low Market up through the Commons and then into the open plaza of the High Market

The Shingleway makes its way back down into the Stores before circling back north through The Bottoms (the Bottom of the Commons) and out through the West Gate

- High Market
- - Commons -Bottoms-Westgate
Low Market - Stores - - - - - Foulburg
Docks District
Harbour

3. Carry on like this until you have the city you want then go about adding descriptive text, important locations, NPCs, Rumours and encounters in each district.

eg You can feel the oppressive weight of shadows crowd in as you make your way into The Bottoms, a rundown tumble of old houses and delapidated hovels. The street you walk along are narrow, twisting, squalid and dark, it is not safe to go walking in the Bottoms alone. You can feel yourself being watched, unwashed faces look out from doorways or down alleys
Rumours (Knowledge:Local)
5 the Bottoms is the ghetto at the bottom of the Common Residential district
10 The Bottoms are presided over by beggars, street urchins and theives who all owe their lives or more to Fat Sally the Midwife.
10 Fat Sally is a Kind but stern woman with a healing talent
 
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If you like a dungeon under the city, there's Waterdeep, Bluffside, and Greyhawk as well.

I'm sure others can come up with something but there are cities where you could put a large underground dungeon beneath them.
 

This reminds me of the Lost City level in the Thief: The Dark Project computer game, which was a vast ancient city sunk underground by a cataclysm. Parts of it were buried; other parts were accessible by caves; other parts were flooded by water; and others by lava. And, while the inhabitants were long dead, it was infested by fire elementals (lava tends to draw or even to spawn these in the Thief universe), by Burricks (burrowing lizards with noxious breath) who happened to tunnel in and make the city their home, and by Craymen ("lobstermen") who also used the caverns as their home. Treasure, ofcourse, was aboundant - especially in the old tombs (no undead, but seeral traps).
 

I like the Zork approach to mapping, fleshing out details as needed.

For basic design, though, I'd look at charts of ant colonies, which are the equivalent of cities in three dimensions.
 


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