What Should a Large City Have?

[DerianCypher]

Thanks for all your help everyone. This city is turning out to be the biggest map I've ever drawn. I am estimating it to be about 9 pages of graph paper. If anyone wants me to post it I'd be happy to although its not very elaborate. Mostly buildings are represented by squares.

 

[Avarice]

Every large city should have at least one, if not more, kobold curry chefs running award-winning restaurants. With many happy patrons.

Every large city should have at least one, if not more, award-winning restaurants which serve kobold (possibly spiced with curry, though I find a nice white wine sauce to more than adequate). And where the restaurants leave off, the street vendors can take over, serving quick meals of kobold kabobs and kobold cold cuts to the satisfy the discerning palate of the adventurer on the go. Hmm, so perhaps I've designed one to many orcish cities in my time...

 

[Maerdwyn]

Thanks for all your help everyone. This city is turning out to be the biggest map I've ever drawn. I am estimating it to be about 9 pages of graph paper. If anyone wants me to post it I'd be happy to although its not very elaborate. Mostly buildings are represented by squares.

I'd like to see it if you get the chance

I'm also looking for a new project to practice City Designer 2 ( a city mapping program) on, so if you're interested in having it put on computer, drop me a line...

 

[DerianCypher]

Hrm... I was just going to scan it but that sounds great. I can't find your email so if you want to email me at DerianCypher@yahoo.com that'd be great

 

[Heretic Apostate]

The city should have evidence of growth. Big cities aren't made, they're grown.

What do I mean by this? Well, consider:

When the town was created, the houses were probably built wherever the inhabitants felt like. The streets probably were just originally paths where farm animals were taken to market. There should be a portion of the city that has meandering streets and houses built in a chaotic pattern.

Was the earlier town wealthy? Then it must have had a wall, to protect the town. The area that was protected by the wall would be packed tight, as space would be a premium. Eventually, the town would outgrow the walls, and would sprawl beyond them. The walls would then become obsolete. Wha happened at that point? What happened in Europe's history is that the wall would be torn down for building materials, and the resulting clear space would probably be used as a circular road.

Are there governmental buildings? In our own history, there was an age of enlightened (or at least, organized) government. There'd be an area of big governmental buildings, so that the government would be centralized.

How about some late-term city planning? In our own time, when the Renaissance hit, cities were developed according to plans. Just look at London, after the fire, at Paris, in the time of the Sun King, at Washington D.C., and especially at St. Petersburg, where the city was built from scratch. What do you see? A huge emphasis on geometric shapes. You have plazas, boulevards, streets going out in all directions. You have planned beauty.

So don't just draw your city from scratch. Start somewhere, and decide it is the original town. Take into account the changes to what is already there, and the addition of new stuff. As you go along, decide _why_ things changed. That area that's in the middle of the old town that for some reason now has a huge church? That happened when there was a huge fire, and the church bought the land. The big mostly-circular street? The remains of the first wall. That cluster of large buildings? When a strong leader centralized government bureaucracy.

Just some thoughts.

 

[Maerdwyn]

Hrm... I was just going to scan it but that sounds great. I can't find your email so if you want to email me at DerianCypher@yahoo.com that'd be great

Check your inbox

I'd still need you to scan the map, though - else I wouldn't have anything to work from

Ian

 

[Tonguez]

All a city needs is districts, interesting sites and people

A city is just a big dungeon with lots of random npcs to meet

1 Take a lesson from SIMCITY - Residential District, Commercial District, Industrial District etc (Church District, Government District etc etc

2 Design your Dungeon
Room = District
Monster = important NPC
Treasure = significant site (eg Temple, Tavern, Guildhall)

3 Name your districts, give them a personality and a whitewash (eg Portside - a tangle of warehouses, fishmongers hovels and taverns for the sailors coming of the ships, a rough and ready place where danger lurks in the darkness)

4 Take a lesson from Ankh-Morpork - the places you get to are more important than the road you follow (the roads are winding confusing things and some of them change on a daily basis anyway)

5 sprinkle your districts with rumours and give those rumours personalities and a job (instant mook npc)

NB

Don't give your city a sewer and imagine what happens instead!!!

 

[redbeard]

Medieval Demographics made easy

A number of these folks have made some very insightful and helpful comments on how to make your city.

I'd go with those - and then follow with the info on this site:
Medieval Demographics Made Easy

Based on older cities, it will help you calculate how many taverns, candlemakers, etc. there are. It will help you get a feel for scale of the city and fill in details.

 

[Kobold Curry Chef]

Every large city should have at least one, if not more, award-winning restaurants which serve kobold (possibly spiced with curry, though I find a nice white wine sauce to more than adequate). And where the restaurants leave off, the street vendors can take over, serving quick meals of kobold kabobs and kobold cold cuts to the satisfy the discerning palate of the adventurer on the go. Hmm, so perhaps I've designed one to many orcish cities in my time...

Barbarian!

 

[Altin]

If the city includes more than one ethnic or racial group you might also consider having sections of the city which are predominantly inhabited by one minority group and are built up in imitation of that group's homeland. A lot of the metropoli in our world have places like Little Italy and Chinatown and it isn't difficult to imagine fantasy equivelants. For instance, you could have an elven section which is dominated by gardens or a particularly refined architectual style or a Hobbittown which looks like something out of Tolkien, only in the middle of an urban expanse. This is also a good way to avoid the visual monotony that often accompanies city campaigns and combat 'yet another tavern' syndrome.

Yours,

Altin