Stand alone City:::looking for interested contributers

[Writers_Blog]

Is anyone interested in starting a development of a campaign area ( a City is the general Idea) that has no outside ties to any one campaign setting) as a highly detailed write up
dealing with the different environs, peoples, and creatures that inhabit them

Some of the Ideas I have spring out of Real World Cities like Babylon, Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Prague...

Literary Ideas from Lankhmar, Sanctuary, Bascillica, Riva, Sarantium
Movie portrayals of Babylon (Alexander) Jerusalem (Kingdom of Heaven) Atuan (Wizard of Earthsea)

Game ideas from Sharn, Freeport, Manifest, Sigil, Waterdeep among others

say we shoot for a over all write up of 130-160 pages with

locales, Taverns homes of the rich thieves guilds, alley hot spots, bards guilds, bazaars
People Lords, Nobles, Religious Leaders, Guildmasters, famous Actors, thieves, a Retired adventurer turned gardener for an estate you name it
Flavor, What people eat, drink, see as entertainment, what swords do they prefer, what are their moral obligations...
Critters, things that go bump in the night, the Key zombie Filch who has become a greater zombie over the years by living in the sewers, etc.
City specific Items (Magic or otherwise) and why and who makes them for what.
A MAP of the districts
A Naming Guide for the populous
Appendix ABC.... Any other things like strange races that call the city home (RACIAL STATS)
CLASSES NPC CLASSES PRESTIGE CLASSES you name it

 

[jdrakeh]

I might be interested, but between looking for a day job and reviewing product for RPGNow and a few other publishers, I'm kind of pressed for time... I do have an old RTF document that extensively details The City from the Thief PC games around here, though. That might be of some interest to some folks. It was originally devloped on a now non-existant site by a group of folks who were compiling it as a PDF download. I started to re-format it when I still had Miscellaneous Debris up and running, but never got very far. If you'd like to take a look at that, PM me your email address and I'll send it along to you.

 

[Writers_Blog]

Ill go ahead and put it here...

Sid7e_NB[at]go.com

That is a lousy attempt by me to avoid spam...

It would be nice to have your imput and I would like to see the thief PC stuff as you have though most of it would be product that I would not want to use as a whole but it might find some one elses interest within the group.

My idea for this is at first just what ever you think would be neat, city name, regions, parks etc. and then when a group of people get involved begining a voting process for some things and loose assignments for volunteers as it progresses.

I have always liked Lankhmar City of Adventure, and feel that it would be neat to expand on that idea a City of Adventure, into an actual campaign setting where the city could potentially be the basis for a whole campaign

 

[jdrakeh]

I think that for this concept to be truly viable, the city needs to be one or more of three things as follows:

• Remote: Isolated from the rest of the civilized world by either geographic or societial barriers (e,g. the city is on an island, a colony on a new continent, in the distant Northern Wastes, full of criminals, etc).
  
  
• Large: The city needs to be large. That's pretty self-explanatory - there need to be plenty of different city quarters (probably defined by social class or economic well-being of the residents that make their homes therein) in which the PCs can find adventure.
  
  
• Self-Sustaining: The city needs to have its own fields, armies, constabulary, governement, etc. A fully functioning, self-contained, economic system. An empire unto itself.

Other things to consider are:

• Subterranean culture (outcasts, criminals, etc) living beneath the city in sewers and shanty towns.
  
  
• Merchant houses in control of commerce in and around the city. Fat, spoiled, aristocrats (many of whom are corrupt) these 'merchant kings' hold more true power in the city than the elected officials.
  
  
• Magic as tech. Magic is typically prolific in D&D settings, yet the densizens of said settings are still using torches to light their cottages and otherwise living in the dark ages. It makes no sense. There should be a magically charged 'street lamp' on every corner in the nicer sections of the city, clockwork automatons performing menial labor, etc.

I'll think of some more stuff when I get free time.

 

[Writers_Blog]

Amen to the last part,

I never could figure out why a society so normalized with magic, and cures for almost every disease would not be more advanced than the middle ages, Even Middle Earth is advanced beyond D&D standard.

I told my friend Pat about the Idea of this city and Described it as a City with Magic Neon Signs, then in looking around I came across two environment concepts that through me for a loop at a forum for concept art such as


http://www.dylancolestudio.com/sketches/images/HotWalkway.jpg

http://www.hydropix.com/Gallery/albums/archi-indus-med.jpg
http://img48.echo.cx/img48/1925/deco7ir.jpg




Keeping in mind that these are other peoples works and just for scale and depth


As for the fact that it should be a seperate Island or the like that would be in the long run a group vote, I want something that can be placed into my Setting or your Setting or Eberron or the like, and not make it difficult for people to do it. I personally like the idea of an Island cultural center or as the outpost on a frontier but one of the many things we make a determination on is how high a Tech Level (TL for short) I would like a stratified TL meaning that there is clear representation from all aspects of technology from little to none stone age, to a stopping point somewhere three to four knotchs under Spell Jammer

I would like to see unique looks at what Technology, and Fantasy could do for eachother. Which I might add is a sacrifice for me because I am forced by this to argue against things like Airships, and Steampunk as the grandiose mainstream sceme of TL I would like to see
Nautilai ( Submersibles of some sort other than the typical dwarven/ gnome variety.

Key features of the City should be worked out first

• Government
• Cultural Influences ( I.E. do the people share culture with any real world cities)
• Religion
• Whats worth adventuring
• People, People, People
• Variant Urban Adventuring DM Guide & Idea book

 

[Writers_Blog]

Adressing the comment about other things to consider

• Outcasts
  Where there are outcasts there are criminals, and there are adventurers being born
  wrongs that need righting, dreams that need uplifting...etc etc etc.
• Criminals
  Criminals do two things for adventures, they bring them jobs, and they provide
  information. A hive of skum and villany is the perfect forum for great adventure.
• Demi Races
  A new layer of the subterrainian gang is monster races, this may come in the way of
  slave pits, red light dark delights, you name it.
• Sewers
  Icky, I recently ran a group of adventurers through a cities sewers, oh what
  treasures they found in the bowls of the urban wastes, Rat masters, a skeleton long
  lost, a cat that shouldnt be walking and above all things an urban black dragon,
  talk about a slum lord. Not to mention unused or abandoned sections of the
  sewers make great homes for creatures not a picky as hobbits about the holes they
  dwell in.
• Dungeons
  Not typical in most cities of modern day, right? well there are the miles upon miles of
  unused subway tubes in big cities like NY where homeless have started there own
  culture, and the catacombs in Rome. In literature Citizen of the Galaxy R.
  Heinlein (Sp?) wrote about a catacomb underneath an ancient theater like Arena
  where many runaway slaves, and beggars hid from the police. In Forrunner by
  the late Andre Norton, the lead character hides in a catacomb within the city using
  her drow like appearance as an advantage. Then we have the best example of all
  Undermountain, from Waterdeep. Is there a chance that the city has a signiature
  dungeon under its sleeping citizens floors, that is again a group discision.
• ETC
  Most gaols are underground in literature, and fantasy films, and why not jails
  need to be securred against escape right. In Shannara there is a jail underground
  In Atuan, in such films as Ladyhawk. Old well shafts, mines, forgotten buried ruins
  lava tunnels you name it could probably be found in the lower regions of the city. Its
  really a group vote for how these things evolve from drawing board to finished product

My personal goal is good solid, long term urban adventuring. As A player I am tired of watching my fellow delvers simply use the city as a resupply depot before going out to another hole. As a DM I am always trying to get my players to broaden their abilities as players and to do more than just hack and slash. In this city I want to be able to have the stores and the depot for supplies, and the ability to hack and to slash, and to trade paint with tongue twisting diplomats, and narrowly miss the knives of their midnight assassins
I want to run away from the monsters that shouldn'y be there but have a grant from the Mayor. I want for Rogues to have something to do other than pick lock disable trap and pick the pocket.

And I apologize extremely if I over poetizied the goals I have for this City creation.

Some things that I think contribute to making a good setting are;


1. Concepts (in Art, and Music, and Language)
2. What do the see as Entertainment? Why?
3. What do they eat? Where is it from?
4. What do they do about those who die?

 

[Writers_Blog]

Thank you for your time JDrakeH, and I welcome what your input. I am going to hold off on actually starting anything in writing until more people sign up

 

[Thia Halmades]

*raises a paw*

I submit that while the idea is interesting, a lot of people would rather write for their own material rather than collaborate. If you post something specific up and need an opinion, I'd be happy to chip in, but I'm already neck-deep on my tip-toes writing two full blown campaigns, and that consumes... well, that and Pokemon is about my life right now out of the office.

The short version is: beware the monster known as creative control.

 

[Sigurd]

I think the trick is to come up with a structure that allows people to contribute whole ideas that fit in. You can have an infinite number of NPC's, people can contribute a business or building but the more compartmentalized the better the fit eventually. Then ask someone to ease everything into a (not the only) incarnation of the city.

Its a valiant project - I think Dragonfoot did something similar. It might be prudent to build a list of other such projects first.


Sigurd

 

[Psimancer]

I’m interested in helping out with the cartography.

I can be contacted at: psimancer[at]gmail.com

Just email a description of what you want (the more specific the better) and I’ll do what I can.