Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ColonelHardisson" data-source="post: 3680566" data-attributes="member: 363">I absolutely don't see how you could've gotten that kind of meaning out of that sentence. Let me put it like this: there are hundreds of other fantasy RPG cities out there, many if not most of them perfectly balanced for "realistic" play. The only real difference between Union and the average fantasy RPG city is that it isn't balanced like that. Why do we need yet another such city? Why must every single city be "realistically" balanced even though these are fantasy cities we're considering? That's what it sounds like you're saying - every fantasy RPG city city must be perfectly balanced according to what we find realistic here in the real world. Mundanity should not be a design goal for a fantasy city. Union is mundane if the main premise is removed, in the context of what is already in print. Most fantasy RPG cities are surprisingly mundane in the details, especially in utilizing the implications of common magic. The rest of your post about me somehow saying that every city needs to be populated by 20+ level characters to be different is so removed from anything I said that I can't really address any of it directly, as it has no bearing upon what I posted.Someone mentioned 50th level dirt farmers. Err, why have farmers at all? That many powerful spellcasters couldn't come up with enough golems or constructs to perform menial tasks throughout such a city? I mean, do we really think about where all the mead and food comes from in Valhalla? It's just kind of there. At least in a city like Union, there is an actual quantifiable way to determine how all that stuff magically appears. The city would hum along on a foundation of powerful magic, negating the necessity for superheroic farmers and 29th level city guards. Taking the main premise and thinking about the implications of just what such characters can do reveals that such a city would be profoundly different from other cities we're used to, even in fantasy games. Look at Hollowfaust. The main premise - necromancers run the city, but hey, it's actually a pretty nice place to live. Skeletons and zombies do most of the back-breaking work and even handle guard patrol duties. The designers thought about the implications of their premise, and came up with a unique and vital twist on the run-of-the-mill fantasy RPG city. The same is possible with Union. Why make yet another run-of-the-mill city - and yeah, there have been WAY too many such cities published - when a bit of thought can engender a really different take on the concept, one that could be among the most memorable places PCs ever visit? Watering it down by taking away the main premise - a city made up of epic level characters - seems pointless to me. Do that, and you might as well use any one of the various cities already available.Plus, when it comes down to it, nobody has successfully done such a city before. Why not give it a shot? It's new ground to cover.</blockquote>

Verification