My cities suck

[smetzger]

1) Decide what the city is known for. Every city in RL is known for something:
Carlisle, PA - Car Shows
Augusta, GA - Masters Cup
New Orleans - Mardi Gras
Pittsburgh, PA - steel

2) What is the architecture like? Peeked roof or flat, balconies, sewer system etc.

3) What are the two or three main economic forces for the city?

4) What types of food is the city known for?

5) What about languages and accents for the city?

6) What are some uncommon laws that the city has?

In general think of a city that you have visited. What differences were there between the place you now live? Generalize those differences and those can be traits of a city that need to be defined. For example if it was warm then climate is something that needs to be defined.

 

[Wombat]

No offense but I prefer to use the maps in Freeport or Bluffside if I want interesting cities. But then that's because I love them a lot.

No offense taken!

Those are good maps, too, but I just happen to have a lot of the Harn maps around and use them as examples of standard semi-medieval civic planning

Nope, Freeport is great; Bluffside is pretty good, too

 

[Kichwas]

Add these two books to one's gaming collection to ensure interesting cities:

Cityworks
Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe

The second book listed has it's chapters on cities available for free download from a link at the url I provided.

I've recently purchased both of these (after asking which I should get) and am finding them full of the ideas and tools I need to enliven my cities.

They're well rated by Monte Cook, with the second one being the only book he's ever given a 10 rating to. It also won three ENies last year.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

One thing I'd suggest is to make a list of places within your city. Inns, taverns, shops, official people, town sqaures, historic buildings.
Then come up with descriptions for them. For example, Inns. Are they all the same? What makes the one your PCs stay at different from the others? What is the staff like? Are they all human? Is there any entertainment? What about shops? Does this town have a specialty?
Look around your own local yellow pages for ideas for names. You'd be amazed how many places there are IRL that would make excellent fantasy tavern names! But seriously, just think about how a real town would be set up, what ratio of say, inns to taverns, to shops, to temples?

I love designing cities

Although the best idea I have ever come up with wasn't for a city, per se. It was for a hidden village in the forest, where gnomes lived. The city was blocked from outsiders views by powerful illusion spells and within it's boundarys, the gnomes have markets, homes, schools and other typical buildings within the trees.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I agree with a few above posters – a lot of vivid description of sights, sounds and smells. If the players have just spent 3 months hiking across the continent to get to a large city, describe the differences in the smells and noise levels. If you live in the suburbs of Connecticut like me, one of the first things you notice about Manhattan when you visit (after the tall buildings) is the smell and how many people are there.

If you are intimidated in running a city, it may just be a matter of creating a few colorful NPCs to brighten things up – imagine Mos Eisely without Han Solo & Chewie (not to mention Greedo, the funky band, Jabba the Hut, etc)? Imagine Bilbo’s party from the 1st LotR movie without Merry and Pippin? All it takes is a couple of naughty hobbits, a worldweary smuggler, a sarcastic stable boy, a fast talking barkeep, a hardscrabble mercenary fighter, etc to make a city memorable.

As also said above, landmarks and important streets are important in the city – imagine New York City without the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Yankee Stadium, Times Square, etc for landmarks or without Broadway and Fifth Avenue for streets? Maybe your city has a huge 20 foot stone statue of the city’s founder in a square outside the castle? Or, maybe a series of well cared for polished stone arches set exactly every 50 meters along the main road from the city gates to the King’s castle. Or, the center of the merchant district is a large open market, at the edge of which sits a huge brightly painted (some proper folks say gaudily painted) inn and tavern frequented by traveling merchants from other lands.

I also found a few small organizational things useful. If you have players that like to talk and role-play, make up a long list of generic names to use in case the group decides to talk to *every* single person in the tavern. It always makes play run smoother if you do not have to stammer and stutter while thinking of yet another name. You may need a good list in a city, unlike the countryside. Colorful names for a few generic inns and taverns help as well.

 

[Nifft]

WotC had a nifty DMG Web Enhancement that advised building cities section by section, and gave some good advice about different sections.

IMC, the PCs are currently stuck in a city under quarrantine. The city has large blocks (3-5 stories high) which enclose large, open courtyards. Each block is essentially an inward-facing neighborhood. The city has some other interesting features, since it was built only 30 years ago on the ruins of a First Empire dockyard.

Location, history, power centers -- these are the ingredients to a successful city.

-- N

 

[Shallown]

What I do to make my cities live is not worry about half the stuff people above have mentioned, except for the one mention of people. People make all my cities unique. The main city is not all that exciting especiialy compared to what the players do while adventuring. What is exciting is the characters touching base at a Home of sorts. I make sure my city is alive mostly through change. I change things things happen while the characters areoff adventuring and mpost the time these events are sort of mundane but the characters like to hear that so and so got married or whatever.

Example - I have a magic shop (or the closest thing to it) at the university which is the only structured school in the country. the train mages and such as well as healers etc. Well the Gnome that runs the shop has a Toad Familar as does the Dwarf mage in the party. Well they had met and got along and thier familiars even more so. The Gnome mentioned "hey We should breed our toads and sell them to the apprentices around here" The Player was like yeah sure. Well when he came back like 3 months later the gnome was excited to see him and paid him the 50gp spilt from selling all the two familiars offspring. realize the player had like 10,000 gold to spend at the time but that 50 was the best money he made and what he remembered.

The City goes on while the players are gone. Burn down a building build a nkew one. Kill off a merchant (not to often unless their is a plague) But make things change. this is one reason I keep an accurate calender so I have a perspective in what has changed.

Another city my players hate is the port city. Were a recent ruler is trying to break away from the main nation after a recent war. This city taxed the crap out of the characters. They hated all the rules and people watching them all the time. A real level of paranioa arose about the town. The worst part is the real king of the nation is a character. he is king incognito right now and doesn't want the job (the best kind of king) So he is just seething at a chance to bring them under his nation once again.

The city was hated as much as any big bad evil guy with taxes, secret police, and a growing army on the border it is a presentthreat that the players can do little about since they are busy saving the world from abigger threat but I know they can't waitto get done and get back to these guys.


A city has to be given personality good or bad and the same ways you illistrate that to players you do with a city. Is the city paraniod, gloomy whatever then show that through the average common people they meet. And once in a while throw someone in to contrast that as well. Not everyone is gllom and doom since there is always one optimist and that one helps show how gloom and doom the other people are.

hope this helps

later