Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 9749409" data-attributes="member: 22779">One of thing that bugs me in a lot of published settings is that the creators just plonk down cities every so often just to make the map look &quot;right&quot;.&nbsp; The Sword Coast is a great example of this - massive, sprawling cities - Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate and Ahm, just to name three - all &quot;centers of trade&quot; with no one to actually trade with.&nbsp; Neverminding that Waterdeep has no source of fresh water.&nbsp; Sorry a major city of hundreds of thousands of people are not going to survive on rain water.&nbsp; I would buy it if there was an aqueduct system or they took the time to divert that river to go through the city, but, nope, we've got a city of 250 k people with no source of water.&nbsp; Another one that always bugged me was Scarred Lands.&nbsp; In Scarn, the continent is basically a wheel with all the major centers along the rim and overland travel is virtually impossible.&nbsp; The trading hub, Shelzar, is actually impossible as written - to the west you have an impassible waterway filled with monsters and to the east, you have an isolationist empire that doesn't allow ships to pass through its waters.&nbsp; Neverminding that it makes no logical sense to travel to Shelzar to trade with another city when your easiest path lies nowhere near the city.&nbsp; Grrr.&nbsp; Drives me nuts.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 9749409, member: 22779"] One of thing that bugs me in a lot of published settings is that the creators just plonk down cities every so often just to make the map look "right". The Sword Coast is a great example of this - massive, sprawling cities - Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate and Ahm, just to name three - all "centers of trade" with no one to actually trade with. Neverminding that Waterdeep has no source of fresh water. Sorry a major city of hundreds of thousands of people are not going to survive on rain water. I would buy it if there was an aqueduct system or they took the time to divert that river to go through the city, but, nope, we've got a city of 250 k people with no source of water. Another one that always bugged me was Scarred Lands. In Scarn, the continent is basically a wheel with all the major centers along the rim and overland travel is virtually impossible. The trading hub, Shelzar, is actually impossible as written - to the west you have an impassible waterway filled with monsters and to the east, you have an isolationist empire that doesn't allow ships to pass through its waters. Neverminding that it makes no logical sense to travel to Shelzar to trade with another city when your easiest path lies nowhere near the city. Grrr. Drives me nuts. [/QUOTE]

Verification