-Tracy Hickman
World building a city: Its a daunting task. You want to create a compelling rich world full of things to do, and see. It has many steps and will be part of the bulk of your work as a GM.
Walk the grounds: What kind of world is this? Are you putting them on the equivalent of Hoth? Or are you dabbling more into a Dark Sun kind of setting, all sand and heat? What does the night sky look like? Are the stars important? Or are they just pinpricks in the night? How many moons are there? Is it tidally locked? Are there mountains? Are there visible Nebulae? Where are the major bodies of water? Put down a city. Where do the streets flow? What do the people do? What culture do they adhere to? Who are they at war with? What animals scuttle in the forests? What do their children aspire to be? Building a society can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it. Walk around the place in your mind, find the poverty, find the wealth and affluence, step through the halls of power and witness the ancient societies begin to form in your mind. See the guards walking the streets. See the cars, or the space hoppers, see the poor clinging to the walls of filth. See the people who hide their guardianship in the shadows, see the people who pretend with righteous splendor in the light. Places hold romance until visited, things hold mystery until explored. The horizon is a place that the players want to go but can't, not yet. Keep them in the present using lush environments. Meaning is found in spaces between your words, let the players picture the place, that will make it the best of their imagination.
"Plate tectonics- Create terrain
Ocean currents Determins Climate
Climate bands- Weather patterns
Rainfall- erodes and changes terrain
Course of Rivers- Spread civilization
Technology and magic are all evoked from the spread of geopolitics."
Tracy Hickman- World building.
After topography, you might want to think culture, the cause of all conflict. For city building, break the city up into quarters, not like fourths, but like chunks. Find the affluent areas and define what guilds, societies, gangs, nobility are in power. Find the poorest chunk and define how much control the thieves guild has, or the street thugs, or the church. You should have NPC's of interest in each chunk you define.
For City building these are some things to consider:
Mercantile quarter- Name at least five goods and or services people can get from there, be it drugs, textiles, armor, guns, etc. Whether the gear is legal or not, and what's generally available. Give them some characters to interact with. Good place for PC's to get gossip, and begin learning of the halls of power in the area. This should also be a major cultural center with art and theater, showing the players where they are.
Dockside- Everything happens at port. New people come in, old people go out. People are robbed, stabbed, turned into fondue. Pirates come in, goods and services, hookers, beer, supernatural animals, illicit artifacts, aliens, smugglers, gold, nuyen, credits, whatever you want. Good place for people to get connected into the underworld if need be. Also a good place to host the information broker NPC.
Residential areas- This is where the bulk of the population is. Great place to show between rich and poor. Packing as much poor into as little space as possible allows you to show decadence vs squalor. PC's who end up in a fancy dress ball will be reminded of the street choked with homeless they recently passed through. NPC's here can be anyone, local community leaders trying to make a difference, local thieves trying to make a buck, local artisans down on their luck, magic users trying to hide while they concoct plans. Illegal drug dens, brothels, etc.
Archive- This is a location inside the city that holds knowledge. This can take the form of a university, a forbidden library, a mage's guild, server banks. Its a good place to put an arcanist character or information broker. Remember that knowledge should be jealously guarded, and the rarer the knowledge, the better the guards.
Military- This is anywhere that holds a fortress, or barracks. It should be a center for guards, and is as dangerous as you want it to be. Good place for Patron NPC.
Foreign Quarters- This is where you put other species, or other foreign powers. You get to explore themes on race, power, inequality. They are very human elements and are things that players will explore both as players and as PC's. It is a place to explore emotion, so use it, or I'll hit you with a pie.
Sewers- This is a great place to explore. Players will find the darkest secrets by sifting through the sludge. down here are secrets, thieves guilds, assassins guilds, ghouls, gangs, illegal goods, monsters. Here is where you should send them. They will feel equally safe, and in danger.
Rooftops- Just like the sewers are a realm to themselves, so too are the rooftops. Topography changes, players are forced to think differently about spacial constraints. They will most definitely be somewhere they shouldn't. Cats, late night lovers, owls, ravens, children, these are all now perception vs stealth checks you can throw at your party, until they get into that one window they've been trying to find. "LACE CURTAINS MY OVERSIZED RUMP! They're all lace curtains!"
Golden Palace- This is the area that holds all the wealth. Who holds it? What do their houses/ apartments look like? How many servants do they wield in the arts of seneschal? What security do they have? How do they treat the poor? How do they treat their fellow rich people? Web of stabs should be found here, both literal and sociopolitical.
Clerical: This is the last place to consider. If religion plays a part of your game, where do the people draw their faith from? What major religions are practiced? Are they true believers? Do they just reap the locals for wealth? These are all possible places to explore.
No comments:
Post a Comment