WayneLigon
Adventurer
Cities have lots of people. People are sources of conflict. There is no adventure without conflict. Thus, cities are a huge spawning ground of adventure.
The thing I love about city adventures are the various factions: who rules what part of the city, who has to knuckle under to whom, who is plotting against what, etc. The first thing I do when designing a city is decide where it's power and life-blood comes from, because a city built around being a nexus of important trade networks is going to be a lot different than a city where the main source of wealth is a particular craft or resource.
For instance, look at this city. All that area given over to a university means that the university is a major player in the town. The chancellor probably advise the mayor on major aspects of policy, or maybe he's the real ruler of the city and the mayor is just a glorified puppet with an ancestry that just happens to have some of the correct names in it. There will be lots of specialty shops and support services for the things a university needs. It might change the very character of the people; maybe a long-ago chancellor insisted on creating a free school for the town's children and now most of the adults can read well enough to finish a moderately complex novel. Maybe the king sees a town of well-educated people as a threat, and moves a large garrison into place. The university starts to hire mercenaries to protect itself. Teachers and mages start to employ bravos to undermine the king's power in the city. The king looks for rogues to plan among the university to listen for talk of sedition. Student groups form secret revolutionary cults and cabals. Evil sorcerers look for people to break into the forbidden rooms of ancient libraries. There be treasure maps in those stacks and now you're being pursued by shadowy figures just because you picked up the wrong book from a table when leaving.
The thing I love about city adventures are the various factions: who rules what part of the city, who has to knuckle under to whom, who is plotting against what, etc. The first thing I do when designing a city is decide where it's power and life-blood comes from, because a city built around being a nexus of important trade networks is going to be a lot different than a city where the main source of wealth is a particular craft or resource.
For instance, look at this city. All that area given over to a university means that the university is a major player in the town. The chancellor probably advise the mayor on major aspects of policy, or maybe he's the real ruler of the city and the mayor is just a glorified puppet with an ancestry that just happens to have some of the correct names in it. There will be lots of specialty shops and support services for the things a university needs. It might change the very character of the people; maybe a long-ago chancellor insisted on creating a free school for the town's children and now most of the adults can read well enough to finish a moderately complex novel. Maybe the king sees a town of well-educated people as a threat, and moves a large garrison into place. The university starts to hire mercenaries to protect itself. Teachers and mages start to employ bravos to undermine the king's power in the city. The king looks for rogues to plan among the university to listen for talk of sedition. Student groups form secret revolutionary cults and cabals. Evil sorcerers look for people to break into the forbidden rooms of ancient libraries. There be treasure maps in those stacks and now you're being pursued by shadowy figures just because you picked up the wrong book from a table when leaving.
