How would you make a canal city work as a fantasy RPG setting?

[ilgatto]

(...)

f) What's going on with the weird dwarf in the red cloak?

Brilliant!

 

[gamerprinter]

My fingers are cramping just thinking about drawing all of those buildings.

I was drawing those at a speed of about 1.5 buildings per second, and I would draw for 15 minutes straight, then stop and rest my hand for 5 minutes then dive back in. For every 100 buildings I drew, I pre-thought where I need to include a small market, a temple or shrine and cemetery, so it wasn't just the Zen of quickly drawing, but carefully considering where to place this and that. I did this entire map in 16 hours.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I was drawing those at a speed of about 1.5 buildings per second, and I would draw for 15 minutes straight, then stop and rest my hand for 5 minutes then dive back in. For every 100 buildings I drew, I pre-thought where I need to include a small market, a temple or shrine and cemetery, so it wasn't just the Zen of quickly drawing, but carefully considering where to place this and that. I did this entire map in 16 hours.

Man, that is discipline and commitment. My hat is off to you.

 

[JohnSnow]

I'd also note that, definitionally, most canals tend to get dug on land masses. So if your "canal city" has a number of sizable landmasses, even if they're criss-crossed with canals, the landmasses could have underground areas, even some that extend beneath those canals.

Just worth considering.

 

[gamerprinter]

The canals could be laid out to form an elaborate sigil.

Either a warding sigil to keep something imprisoned, or an eldritch sigil to make some specific magical effect. The idea of gondolas traversing the canals generating mana is kind of neat.

Not published yet, but I intend to - this is my imperial capital of Kaidan, for use with a potential Starfinder setting I was working on, before the current Spelljammer project. This was created in 3D, but this city is literally the Mon (heraldric symbol) of the Imperial House of Japan (even the current one today), the Chrysanthemum. Since this city sits in shallow seaside, the canals are sea water filled. Like I said, this will be published, later in the year...

 

[pemerton]

It's very immersive.

Now now, don't get carried away by the depth of your insight!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Canals are for moving goods and there are a number of real world cities that have them and are not a port on a sea or lake. You just need the trade goods that would required them as they would take the place of roads.

Birmingham Egland has more miles of canals than Venice.
Annecy France is know as the Venice of the Alps.

 

[Voadam]

Not published yet, but I intend to - this is my imperial capital of Kaidan, for use with a potential Starfinder setting I was working on, before the current Spelljammer project.

Are you adapting Kaidan to Starfinder now?

 

[gamerprinter]

Are you adapting Kaidan to Starfinder now?

Kind of... I haven't decided if I'll integrate the entire Wheel of Life Reincarnation construct, so that it's fully Kaidan, but I wanted to include a Japanese star system, since I'm still filled with Kaidan research in my head, and gently place Kaidan into Starfinder. I've thought to refer to the original Pathfinder setting, if searching for that deeper, dark connection, rather than fully adopting it, but I haven't decided. Doing it the latter way would be a lot more work... maybe, I'd do it. (In my plan in draft cover design, the 4th one shows the Kaidan cover. And the second is an illustration of a Shogunate samurai)

Edit: I could do it like it was originally presented in the first module of the Curse of Golden Spear intro trilogy: The Gift. Where it's a one page overview of the Wheel of Life, description of the Reincarnation Cycle, include the Reincarnation Table adjusted for Starfinder - and that's it, as an appendix.

 

[bedir than]

Vertical catacombs
They go up, building up and then up and up and up and up. With lots of remains that become skeletons and zombies, etc.

Sky-cable gondolas
Since my main campaign includes a bog-city (think New Orleans meets Venice meets a Scottish peat bog) I know a bit about this. I added a rapid transit system via sky cable.

Libraries and temples
Your dungeons can be at ground level. Abandoned buildings are just as much dungeony as things dug into the ground.

Feature a semi- or fully-aquatic race
That could be an elf, or merpeople, or titans, or even just halflings that travel on rafts and boats using poles and their friendly otters to move about.