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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2015 19:22:44 GMT
Lots of good stuff in this one. I think the most important immersive trait to describe in a new town/city is the common architectural theme. Building materials, shapes and sizes are the elements I stress most. As the guys mentioned, most towns are constructed from the most readily accessible materials, even when superior architectural knowledge is available.
My party is currently in a large city in a grass plains region. There's a rock quarry in the vicinity, but very few forests, so buildings are made almost entirely of stone. The moderate-wealthy areas have primarily red ceramic tile roofs, while the poorer folks still use thatching. Most buildings are only one story high (see below). The city is packed pretty tightly into a walled area, as its host nation borders a land inhabited primarily by monstrous humanoids. Even middle class homes/businesses tend to be fairly small, though the mansions in the Estate District are enormous, including the king's palace. Communities the size of small villages have sprung up around the outer walls of the city.
Madrizod and his subordinates have a higher place in the hearts of worshippers than the other deities of Matron's Tower. His symbol is the square, and square buildings are superstitiously believed to bring good tidings to the occupants. Rectangles don't count, and some would say buildings must in fact be cubic to receive the blessing, making expansion upward a challenging prospect. When a homeowner or entrepreneur wants to add a new story to his building, he may attempt to buy out his neighbors' property, and absorb or demolish the adjoining buildings to create a new cube. Note however, this is just a major trend. There are several hundred buildings throughout the city that either do not have a square foundation, or have multiple stories. They tend to stick out, though, often riling their neighbors.
My players are undertaking a globe-trotting adventure, so having distinct architecture in each of the major zones will be critical to convey the feeling of travelling great distance. Their next few destinations will be the equivalent of an ancient Persian city, followed by a Greek metropolis, then a Germanic tribe moot site, and finally a former dwarf fortress city now occupied by drow.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2015 19:28:16 GMT
Also, I'm totally using the idea of "gang colors" getting one of the PCs in trouble when they get to the next big city. One of the PCs is especially partial to red, as he is loosely based on the Red Mage from Final Fantasy. Thanks for the idea guys, never would've thought of that one on my own!
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Post by friartook on May 11, 2015 21:26:25 GMT
Go shopping. Its not my favorite PC...its all of 'em. Its why I don't put much in the way of treasure in my campaign.
Lots of great advice here and many things I never really thought of for town building.
Weirdly enough, the "light bulb" moment for me was a stray comment by (I think) DM Chris, "Anything you do as a Dungeon Master should be for the enjoyment of your players." That may be a misquote, but it captures the gist.
This is one of those painfully obvious statements that is so easy to lose site of when the rubber meets the road. A huge part of a DM's roll is being a game facilitator. After all, there is no game without a DM. We are like the drummers of the RPG world; we don't get to be lead singer or the lead guitarist, we may not get the fame and recognition, we aren't the star of the show...but without us, there's no rhythm to the song. Good for us all to remember that we are there to MAKE THE GAME HAPPEN as much as to tell a story, show off our worldbuilding chops, play cool NPCs/monsters, kill characters, etc.
Edit: I just listened to the last five minutes and heard that I got a shout-out. Thanks guys! Happy to be supporting this podcast and community!
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Post by DMC on May 12, 2015 15:03:18 GMT
As a DM, I've noticed my PCs like to go shopping at the "Mage Shop", and hang out like some D&D-style Jay & Silent Bob. Imagine a Bard that says f*ck a lot and a non-speaking Monk. LOL
As for me personally when I'm playing, I chose Make Social Contacts. I like creating NPCs on the fly with the DM this way. Didn't expect me to talk to the Butcher or Market Owner? That's probably what I'm going to do. Not for conflicts, though that does happen sometimes, but to flesh out the city/town and make it more "real".
It's a great idea for Session-0 as well. Have each player name a NPCs and go around the table and have each person give them some attribute. Whether it be a tie to someone, a quirk, physical look, mannerisms, what they did in a previous large-scale event (Before or After the great war, During the trader strike, how they view the budding Mageocracy, etc.)
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Post by DM Chris on May 13, 2015 16:54:03 GMT
As for me personally when I'm playing, I chose Make Social Contacts. I like creating NPCs on the fly with the DM this way. Didn't expect me to talk to the Butcher or Market Owner? That's probably what I'm going to do. Not for conflicts, though that does happen sometimes, but to flesh out the city/town and make it more "real". I love having NPC's that are created on the fly become recurring. It's funny to have the players have this "Ugh...not this person again" when in reality they love having someone to remember like that. Or it is more of a "I am so excited we got to see this person again. I love them". Either way it makes me happy, and I think the players as well, when NPC's made on the fly come back again. That being said...some of them are just stupid and should never be brought back again. NPC discernment helps.
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Post by kjmagle on May 14, 2015 19:56:29 GMT
The gang thing in Metropolis would be sweet.
After just watching the movie again i would love to do a campaign in a Metropolis and base the story off ... "the Warriors".
Come out and pla-ay!
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Post by umbralwalker on May 14, 2015 23:08:43 GMT
This episode's Storytime wins. That is all.
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on May 14, 2015 23:21:07 GMT
This episode's Storytime wins. That is all. Certainly that was my favorite part of the entire episode! It was Warhammer that eventually lead me to Dungeon Masters Block and I have always loved the skaven race. And I am working on applying a skavenish race into my own world... thanks for the ideas!!!
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Post by umbralwalker on May 14, 2015 23:41:33 GMT
This episode's Storytime wins. That is all. Certainly that was my favorite part of the entire episode! It was Warhammer that eventually lead me to Dungeon Masters Block and I have always loved the skaven race. And I am working on applying a skavenish race into my own world... thanks for the ideas!!! Whoops! Did I post that in the wrong episode? I think I did. Lol. I was talking about the dragon-turtle jousting. I blame new-baby brain and sleep deprivation. Still, yes, that skaven story was pretty awesome.
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on May 15, 2015 2:14:54 GMT
Certainly that was my favorite part of the entire episode! It was Warhammer that eventually lead me to Dungeon Masters Block and I have always loved the skaven race. And I am working on applying a skavenish race into my own world... thanks for the ideas!!! Whoops! Did I post that in the wrong episode? I think I did. Lol. I was talking about the dragon-turtle jousting. I blame new-baby brain and sleep deprivation. Still, yes, that skaven story was pretty awesome. Who knows... I feel as if maybe I posted in the wrong thread. Or maybe that you were right and the skaven was a different story in the episode... I do remember the turtle-jousting from somewhere (wait. was it this episode?). Oh well, both stories are great and awesome!
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Post by DM Mitch on May 15, 2015 19:21:02 GMT
The gang thing in Metropolis would be sweet. After just watching the movie again i would love to do a campaign in a Metropolis and base the story off ... "the Warriors". Come out and pla-ay!
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Post by kjmagle on May 15, 2015 20:12:25 GMT
The gang thing in Metropolis would be sweet. After just watching the movie again i would love to do a campaign in a Metropolis and base the story off ... "the Warriors". Come out and pla-ay! Oh yeah! Can you count, suckers? I say, the future is ours... if you can count! Now, look what we have here before us. You got the Saracens sitting next to the Jones Street Boys. We've got the Moonrunners right by the Van Cortlandt Rangers. Nobody is wasting nobody. That... is a miracle. And miracles is the way things ought to be. You're standing right now with nine delegates from 100 gangs. And there's over a hundred more. That's 20,000 hardcore members. Forty-thousand, counting affiliates, and twenty-thousand more, not organized, but ready to fight: 60,000 soldiers! Now, there ain't but 20,000 police in the whole town. Can you dig it? Can you dig it? Can you diiiiiiiiig it?! Now, here's the sum total: One gang could run this city! One gang. Nothing would move without us allowing it to happen. We could tax the crime syndicates, the police, because WE got the streets, suckers! Can you dig it? The problem in the past has been the man turning us against one another. We have been unable to see the truth, because we have fighting for ten square feet of ground, our turf, our little piece of turf. That's crap, brothers! The turf is ours by right, because it's our turn. All we have to do is keep up the general truce. We take over one borough at a time. Secure our territory... secure our turf... because it's all our turf!
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Post by goodmush on May 15, 2015 21:01:28 GMT
So I have to ask, does anyone have a template or a series of questions they run through when building out their cities and towns?
I want to see if there are any differences to the method that I'm currently using. And maybe someone has a better way.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2015 0:52:13 GMT
Honestly, I don't really build cities anymore. Too much work. I pull up a map off google images and adapt it to my setting, plugging in notable people and places as I see fit, making up the rest on the fly as needed.
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on May 16, 2015 2:10:55 GMT
Honestly, I don't really build cities anymore. Too much work. I pull up a map off google images and adapt it to my setting, plugging in notable people and places as I see fit, making up the rest on the fly as needed. What about if you had a campaign based in the city? Would you work on building a city then? Or not?...
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