Worldbuilding Starting City

[Raven Crowking]

Can you give me a little more to go, RC?

I crafted a full and beautiful response, and EN World ate it.

When I get some time (very hectic at work) I'll respond again. And hopefully, when I hit "submit reply" the words "to the aether" will not be implied.

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

I crafted a full and beautiful response, and EN World ate it.

When I get some time (very hectic at work) I'll respond again. And hopefully, when I hit "submit reply" the words "to the aether" will not be implied.

That is why, when I am about to submit a reply, I select everything and copy it. It works wonders on the Wizards boards too, where every other post dies a sad, lonely death due to a database error.

--------------------

Anyway, on topic:

1) A good trick for any city is including a new and different form of government, which immediately sets it apart. For example, maybe only elves can hold office in the city but only members of other races can vote. Making up a reason why a city has a given system is just as fun and useful.

2) It's a fantasy game, so make at least one obviously fantastical element that the inhabitants take for granted. One of my cities used a type of magical crystal that is translucent orange from one direction and invisible from others to make bridges in the air between buildings, so as to free up ground space without cutting off the light from above. The PCs arrived and thought everyone was using spells to walk on the air; when they asked a resident about it, she looked at them funny and said "Walk on the air? Are you all nuts? You could fall and die!" They were really confused until they figured the whole thing out, after which they've talked about that city for quite some time.

Hope those ideas help; more if I have any.

 

[Mallus]

I crafted a full and beautiful response, and EN World ate it.

I hate when that happens, and it's been happening a lot lately... anyway, here's an adventure location/plot device.

• The Tower of Sleep: is located in the ruins of a nearby city, or in a still-abandoned part of the campaign's base city. The premise behind the tower is simply; at the top there is a chamber with a number of magicians --a dozen, a score?-- in an induced magical slumber.

• The sleeping magicians have been there for centuries, most, if not all of them against there will, placed there by a long dead mage-king. They have been forced to dream spells and rituals, and together form a magical engine, or perhaps what's better described as a living artifact.

• The Tower's 'engine' has power over dreams which can be used for communication, espionage, sabotage, control, even assassination.

• Or perhaps the 'engine' can be used to produce a wider variety of magical effects, though I'd probably stick to the 'dream theme'.

• Either way, whoever unlocks the Tower's secrets gains access to it's powers, slowly and one-at-a-time. (I'm seeing this a slow process, full of trial, error, and unforeseen consequences).

• As explorers progress through the Tower, they gradually leave the material world and enter the enslaved dreams on the sleeping mages, who's unconscious minds attempt to simultaneously aid intruders --in hopes they'll free them-- and destroy them --as 'programmed' by their captor.

• Freeing the sleeping mages might proves interesting, seeing as they're old, cunning, avaricious magicians who have endured centuries of involuntary magical servitude, they'll probably try to gain control of the Tower's engine for themselves. Of course, there's probably a good egg/ancient white mage or two in the lot.

• The Tower could be entirely senescent (heh, I'm waxing Gygaxian today), occupied by an adversary, or occupied by a creature ignorant of it's powers who is unintentionally showering the land with dreams/nightmares, etc.

• I'm seeing plenty of adventures based on the Tower, across a fair range of levels; explore it, exploit it, either at the players initiative or as hirelings, prevent someone else from gaining access to it, pursue a rival into it, set themselves up as it's masters and blackmail kingdoms with it, free the mages, kill the mages (which would have some unintended consequences), etc...

 

[mcrow]

Maybe the city of mists? A city in an artic environment that always stays warm due to heat the seeps out from several tunnels in the earth that are spread throughout the city. While outside the city it may a frozen wasteland, inside people can roam the streets in summer atire.

There are several levels of depth in these tunnels, some of the uppers are occupied by the poor, the transients, and criminals. The deeper you go the worse you get. Several criminal organizations operate out of the "depths".

The tunnels are never ending in depth, many go past the "dead zone" but few return.

There is a large spire that resembles a giant termite mount that rises from thec center of the city. Steam pours out of the top, the source of the steam is unknown however there are many legends made up to explain it. This steam is harnessed for practicle use: Opening the large gates to the city, used for a propelant for the cannons on the city walls, powering the elevators in the spire and many other large applications. They have not been able develope any technology that is not dirrectly connected to the spire thus there are massive copper tubes running all over the skyline of the city. Only the rich live in the spire.


the best I have off the top of my head.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Not much that can be done without details - even the broadest - of the city, but a few random ideas to throw out.

Conflict in the city is a must - be it nobles heckling one another or three or four "Great Houses" all backstabbing one another to ensure they reign over the others. As the wilderness is dangerous and there's not much "light" out there, maybe have the city built on or near a river, and travel/trade in and out is mostly done through the canals. I'd avoid having the standard "This race is EEEEVIL, this race is good" going on. Instead, for more fun conflict, the city is founded and mostly filled with race X, and races W, Y, and Z are all looked down on as outsiders. Heck, even people from race X that weren't born int he city/country are considered outsiders. Different city factions have different levels of animosity for the non-natives. And if all else fails, a hidden cult worshiping some evil god/creature, luring innocent citizens into their cult is always fun.

 

[Desdichado]

I have a deep and abiding fondness for urban fantasy settings,

OOh! Oooh! Me too!

One of the things I like best about urban settings is the intrigue opportunities, though. Very dark cults operating in the shadows. Spies, terrorists and organized criminal guilds flaunting the laws. Serial killers hiding in the crowds.

To me, urban settings offer three very attractive themes that I like to use over and over again, and weave together: 1) organized crime (fantasy gangsters), 2) intrigue (fantasy Robert Ludlum) and 3) horror (fantasy Supernatural.)

So somewhat cavalier (if not exactly lawless) places that have some definite similarities to Sanctuary, Lankhmar, Freeport, etc. appeal to me greatly.

But; like Mallus, before I offer anything more specific, I'd like to know what your thoughts are here. If you're looking for something completely different, then I don't want to waste my time posting stuff you're not interested in.

EDIT: Oh; if you want a really cool fantastic location for your city, check out this link: http://www.jessevandijk.net/g_08_76.html

 

[Phlebas]

its always good to get a feel for what the population do with there time

IMC I created a couple of sports. chariot racing for the rich (with each guild sponsoring teams) and hoops (3 man cross between squash and basketball) played on street corners by the poor

over the course of the last few years my players have had to track down an enemy crimelord where the only clue was that he was a chariot racing fanatic (which meant they had to find a way of getting into the VIP area) and then helped out a freind by standing in for the poisoned member of his hoops team and get through a must win game

They've also investigated cheating, corruption and bribery at the races (one of the chariots was pulled by half-golem horses !) and as they've hit higher levels one of the PC's is sponsoring his own hoops team to develop his reputation in the city

The idea for using chariots came after i read a book on the byzantium empire where the fans of the chariot teams had effectively become 2 political parties due to the sponsorship of the teams by noble families. chariot races were often scenes of riots caused by political tensions rather than the race itself.

 

[RichGreen]

IMC I created a couple of sports. chariot racing for the rich (with each guild sponsoring teams) and hoops (3 man cross between squash and basketball) played on street corners by the poor

over the course of the last few years my players have had to track down an enemy crimelord where the only clue was that he was a chariot racing fanatic (which meant they had to find a way of getting into the VIP area) and then helped out a freind by standing in for the poisoned member of his hoops team and get through a must win game

They've also investigated cheating, corruption and bribery at the races (one of the chariots was pulled by half-golem horses !) and as they've hit higher levels one of the PC's is sponsoring his own hoops team to develop his reputation in the city

The idea for using chariots came after i read a book on the byzantium empire where the fans of the chariot teams had effectively become 2 political parties due to the sponsorship of the teams by noble families. chariot races were often scenes of riots caused by political tensions rather than the race itself.

I am using chariot races in my campaign city too which has got a Byzantium flavour (among other things). I've done quite a bit of work on it, including detailing some locations, bits of history and so on so have a look at the thread on ENWorld in my sig and see if any of it helps with your city. It's a lot bigger than Golotha (possibly too big for a real PoL campaign) but maybe some of it will be useful to you.

I really like Mallus' Tower of Sleep -- I'm going to try and find somewhere for it in Parsantium.
Cheers


Richard

 

[Phlebas]

I am using chariot races in my campaign city too which has got a Byzantium flavour (among other things). I've done quite a bit of work on it, including detailing some locations, bits of history and so on so have a look at the thread on ENWorld in my sig and see if any of it helps with your city. It's a lot bigger than Golotha (possibly too big for a real PoL campaign) but maybe some of it will be useful to you.

........

been there, read it, contributed some (i've mentioned the chariot race thing before but i'm not sure it was in that thread) & nicked lots already

great city, lots of hard work and love the detail...

 

[Ebonyr]

Another thing about urban setting to work on is the smell and feel. Here are my thoughts on the following:
What do the people normally eat?
What does it smell like?
What kind of clothes do they wear? Hats?
Fabric types?
Is the sky full of smoke from cooking or foundry's?
what does the typical street look like? Stone or dirt?
Architecture?

Just some things to spice up an urban setting.