How would you make an Epic city?

[Sollir Furryfoot]

To make Union special and unique as an epic level city, I basically made several merchant type NPCs to populate it with special goods that you couldn't find elsewhere. A lot of them were hard to get a hold of, and the PCs had to make several Gather Information checks while in town to see who they could find. Furthermore, several of the NPCs were regulars, and other ones were only around the area some of the time. As some examples for exotic venders I had

Lower Secrecy (Gather info check 20-25):
-Centaur Druid who crafted infusions and potions of greater potency than those found normally. I.e. 4th-6th level spells.
-Half-elven cleric, retired adventurer with the ability to cast True Ressurection for a decent price. Pacifistic-type who also carries some standard potions.
-Planar rogue informant with access to lots of rumors/information
-Relatively new Charm & Curse shop with an Ettin sorcerer as the owner, each of its heads being in charge of a different aspect of the store.

Moderate Secrecy (Gather info check 30-35):
-Telepath with the ability to let PCs rearrange skills and feats for a decent price.
-Mad Scientist type who sold Grafts/Symbiotes (Fiend Folio, etc..)
-Loremaster, standard sage to give advice. Ability to scribe scrolls of non-offensive abilities.
-Taskmaster who buys/sells outsiders/undead, etc...
-Artificer, standard arms/armor merchant who could take requests (something not usually done by magic item makers in town)
-Fame shop, run by bards with access to plane shift. They could spin tales of the PC's exploits into even more daring stories of bravery and courage and subtlely introduce these stories/songs/etc... into other Prime material planes...for a price of course
-Ethergaunt (Fiend Folio) antique dealer dealing with goods turned ethereal, making them much harder to steal. His shop would be empty at first glance, but seeing-eye gems enchanted with See Invisible would be given to guests who wanted to procure items. Might have some ties in with Ethereal filchers seen about.

Higher Secrecy (Gather info check 40-45):
-A night hag who could trade out (Su) or (Sp) type abilities the PCs had, accepting cash as well (generally she got the better deal). Magic item equivalents such as a cloak of displacement would cost twice as much as the original item to make it slotless as a rule of thumb, and then some more to keep everything balanced.
-A half-fey smithy who could create powerful amulets/weapons tied directly to their owners, only he accepted their lifeblood in exchange (Permanent, incurable Con damage). Only the owner's blood would work, as the weapons were tied to their owners. They came in three types, costing 4 con (lesser), 6 con (moderate), and 8 con (graeter/suicidal), respectively. The weapons would be tailored to the person and among other unique powers, would be summonable, indestructable (as long as the PC was alive), and could pierce several types of damage reduction. ~Idea stolen from Saga Frontier.
-Gargoyle rogue with access to a black market of sorts (based off of the given character in the ELH, but with more resources).

Beyond being merchants, a few of these creatures had their hands tied in other aspects of the 'verse, with the PCs interacting with some of those elements. The higher secrecy merchants were especially shady and rightly so, the PCs would eventually fight villains that had inappropriate Su/Sp-like abilities and I planned for the monk who traded out a lot of his abilities find that those same abilities would come back to haunt him (the special abilities being more effective on their original owner).

As to actually enforcing the city's laws, I explained to the PCs through a recently acquired wizard cohort of theirs that the city used all maners of divinations each day to weed out trouble, and had special task forces (including Mithril golems) to take care of problems. Violence of all sorts was illegal in the city, along with several other potential crimes. The PCs were given a long list of crimes and their penalties. Furthermore, there was a dimensional lock on most of the city making it harder to get around and also escape should some crime have been committed.

 

[painandgreed]

I'd just keep everybody at normal levels and then give them all divine ranks. Not sure exactly what that would do because I've never bothered to buy any of the books that explain divine rank to my knowledge, but for something like an epic city, it would all be played by ear anyway. Commoners in such a city would go about their commoner lives but be able to do most of their mundane tasks easily through simple divine powers. The real trick would be separating the epic city from everything else. It would have to be on it's own plane or at least surrounded by epic level challenges so that although commoners were essentially epic, they still weren't good enough to deal with the monsters outside. So essentially, the PCs would be epic in a 'city of the gods' and be short some power despite their levels. IMC, this would probably be what would happen should characters go to the spirtual plane to talk to one of the gods, recover a dead friend's soul, etc.

For a more usable city IMC, there is essentially a monster city run by an epic lich and 'friends'. If they caused trouble, they'd have to deal not only with the lich and the other rulers of the city, but also the epic level undead the lich has built over the thousands of years for such situations. Probably before they even get that far, they'd have to deal with the monsters that make the place their home. Any serious disturbance would call groups of 20-50 leveled hobgoblins and their commanders pretty quick. Then there would be the evil adventurer parties that used the city as their base of operations and the heads of the evil churchs that had built their temples there.

 

[ashockney]

Epic in my mind has always been there, but plays above the fray and deeply concealed. The epic component to the world is present only at much smaller volume, with greater impact. The overwhelming numbers offset the impact/value of any one epic character, but those epic characters can and do shape the strategy, as well as talents of their respective arenas. Thus, if you think of a region, densely populated, with 1,000,000 people. Half will will be commoners. Of the other half, they are classed in some way. that's 500,000 people of at least level 1. Of the 500,000, on in 20 are 2nd level or above. Of the 25,000 who are 2nd level and above (doesn't seem that many, does it?), it gets pretty linear from there:
12000 are 3rd level and above
6000 are 5th level and above
3000 are 7th level and above
1500 are 9th level and above
750 are 11th level and above
375 are 13th level and above
200 are 15th level and above
100 are 17th level and above
50 are 19th level and above
Therefore somewhere around 50 out of a million are considered "epic". But consider, that this is one densely populated region, on a continent with several such regions. There are dozens and dozens of "epic" level personas, but that doesn't mean your average guard is 19th level. To the contrary, they are quite rare, extremely experienced, and often in key positions and thrust into important leadership/oversight roles.

So to answer the question of the post directly, what is an "epic" city like? In my campaigns, it's like most cities, but simply has enough "scale" to support (and endear itself to) many, many of the most powerful "epic" PC's and npc's in the realms. It is a culmination of their greatest innovations, deeds, and actions. It is a marvel to behold on a daily basis, and is beyond the dreams of most commoners.

 

[sckeener]

I have a couple of non-rpg books I use as examples of epic cities.

My favorite is Roger Zelazny's, 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and nominated for a Nebula Award in the same category, Lord of Light. Basically picture a bunch of epic level characters setting themselves up as gods and oppressing their decendents for all eternity....they live in an epic city....​

The Bizzare in Robert Asprin's Myth series. I cann't see an epic level cook...but I can see an epic level trader....need an artifact or a strange monster? who better to go to?​

I probably have a couple more...but I'm sleepy....

 

[DM_Matt]

I would see it as a place for people to either retire or hide.

The retirement option would be a paradise where the manual labor is done by constructs and/or bound elementals and nature is also magically manipulated.

For hiding, perhaps a place for the mighty but hunted can hide. Perhaps those who became so strong that they messed with gods or wahtnot.

 

[painandgreed]

I cann't see an epic level cook...

Willy Wonka

 

[kigmatzomat]

Forgive my ignorance, but I am not sure I grasp what you mean, most specifically the first post. What do you mean by epic-Mordor as opposed to Epic-Myth Drannor?

Mordor, from Tolkein's novels, was a dark place full of evil and monsters settled by Sauron. In contrast, Myth Drannor (and the other Myth-X cities) of the Forgotten Realms was your archetypical grand city of light and wonder, built by all races working together and relying on fonts of magical energy to power virtually anything.

Myth Drannor is an Epic City in scope and the elite populace but it has little challenge as the Epic members of the society would stamp out evil and criminal activities. BO-ring. Mordor, on the other hand, is epic due to the incredibly powerful entities that flocked to Sauron's banner. Orcs, particularly the Uruk-hai, had stamina and strength greater than humans so they could thrive, if only because their standards are so low. At the giants, goblins, and Nazgul and you've got an epic city of the dark.

Mordor and Sanction are brutal lands where the strong (and for Sanction, rich) survive. Mordor is too dangerous for any low-HD creatures to survive for any length of time but Sanction has a civilized region on the up-wind side where the air is pure and the temperature is tolerable for the merchants but only the money spent on guards, bribes to the larger gangs, and tribute to the dragon lord keeps them from being over-run. The poorer areas are too harsh for most demi-human adults to live and rare are the children who are born and survive to adulthood. The city is filled with the semi-civilized descendants of a monstrous, evil army who had learned at least the basics of living in a city/large populace.

This contrast of a relatively normal demi-human city surrounded by the ten times as many goblins, giants, trolls, and other beasties lets me use Sanction at multiple XP levels with the PCs venturing ever farther from the safe zones.

 

[ashockney]

A few common themes:

Many "epic" npc's (perhaps numbering in the hundreds, in a one million person city) but NOT your average "guard" or "commoner". Even with 500 epic npc's in a city of a million, they would be the primary movers and shakers that shape the city, their key nobility, royalty, merchants, adventurers, societies, and guardians.

Epic can be both dark (ala Mordor) and light (ala crime-free).

Often those in key positions in an epic city are adventurers or former adventurers (or in dark cities the most vile of villians - Sauron).

The infrastructure provided by an epic city, creates things that are fantastic, otherwise unimagined, and evolve the entire population to greater feats and accomplishments. Master craftsmen including artisans (willy wonka), builders (golems), mages (summoners), and leaders (kings/royalty).

The epic cities are quite often found in unique and unparralled venues, including deep below ground, floating, atop the highest impassable peak, etc.

Very cool.

 

[Slife]

I imagine it really depends on the primary alignment. I would imagine a predominately LE city to be something like the Nightside, from Simon R. Green's series.

Here's Wikipedia's say on it:

The Nightside series features the saga of John Taylor, a private detective. He is from a magical creation called "The Nightside", hidden deep in the tainted core of London's heart where it is always 3 A.M. People (and other things) come from all kinds of worlds (including fictional ones) and times to indulge in the secret and oftentimes perverse pleasures they can never pursue in their own worlds; and anything and everything is possible - the sight of a fallen angel burning eternally in a blood-sealed circle qualifies as a mundane sight. Native Nightsiders often possess a gift of some sort - often times a deadly one.