Joshua Randall said:This is kind of random -- and I certainly don't think it's the best city idea ever -- but I once got a lot of mileage out of the Sorcery! gamebook Khare - Cityport of Traps. (Sorcery! was a more sophisticated successor to the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.)
Khare certainly lives up to its name, with a variety of potentially deadly traps around every corner. It's also got some bizarre and interesting NPCs (in D&D terms). But, bear in mind, the feel of the Sorcery! series(*) is much different than your standard D&D game.
Worth a look if you can find it.
(*) The full series runs as follows:
1. The Shamutanti Hills
2. Khare - Cityport of Traps
3. The Seven Serpents
4. The Crown of Kings
Good point - Khare and the Sorcery series are incredibly atmospheric, a really good Khare/Kakhabad sourcebook (with adventures) would be very hard to resist buying. They would need proper art though - I can't understand why publishers put out stuff like the Warlock of Firetop Mountain D&D scenario or Lone Wolf d20 RPG with none of the art that made the originals great. How hard/expensive would that be?