I was thinking of a setting consisting entirely in a city. But this is not just any city, it's a massive continent spanning city. A city with so much variety, that no matter where you go, its always new. Countless districts, each governed by their own leaders and each with their own varied cultures, traditions, etc.
Magic makes keeping it all together possible, mainly communication and travel, but even then the bureaucracy is thick.
Below ground is as much of a city as there is above. Endless sewers and waterways very few people have completely mapped or archived.
So I just want a lightning round of district ideas. This will be the funnest part.
>Districts for each school of magic recognized by the government (and even secret ones underground for those not recognized) >Districts for each major race. Dwarven district, elf district, gnome district, etc. the seedy illegal races are underground, or hidden in plain sight among the other districts >Districts for each religion recognized by the government (and those not undeground of course) >ruined district. some disaster happened that nobody is sure about, but there are rumors. An entire district, which was made from chunks of others in complete ruins with a perpetual cloud of dust hanging in the air >port district, where all the ships come and go. May not be the largest, but by far the longest, within it divided based on the major trade companies and families >royalty district. Meant to hold the embassies and bases for other nations and kingdoms, but quite frankly is just the party zone for all the rich families asshole sons who are supposed to be learning of international trading and business, but a nonstop party
>crime district. think a huge state size penal area walled off and protected by a magic bubble where all the ne'er do'wells (and some that people just want gone) go to die >agriculture district. even with this city being the worldwide trade center, some of the population needs sustenance. This may be the biggest district, but least populated. Unless you count the animals. Also each neighboring district has a long standing request of the mages to put up smell wall around it. the request has been in for a very very long time >the park. It's advertised as the central park of the city, with a beautiful arboretum and an escape to nature for those druidically inclined, but it's more like a wild forest, but not the good kind >crime town. people scratch their heads at the description because it's immaculate. everyone seems happy and clean. the truth is its home to the assassins guild, the cities biggest organized crime ring >the well. A freshwater spring comes up near the northern part of the city and an industry and district are built around it. it is pumped throughout the entire city and the 'nicer' districts generally find themselves closer to it, and the worse ones are farthest away. lately though the well seems to be drying up, and some are trying to expose the truth, while others are trying desperately to keep it under wraps. a failure could lead to a citywide collapse and panic
What do you guys think? Any ideas? Also fantasy city artdump would be cool.
Ethan Myers
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Luke Rogers
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Ethan Kelly
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Aaron Howard
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Jacob Perez
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Jaxson Clark
I've always wanted to play in a game set in a big city
Lincoln Carter
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Owen Martin
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Noah Mitchell
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Dominic Baker
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Landon White
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Bentley Cook
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Adrian Harris
I don't know why, but reading >Mega City >possible via magic makes me think of a school of magic that's geared towards construction.
>Decanter of Endless Cement >Raise Apartment Tower >Summon Heavy Rebar >Demolish Office Complex >Precision Rain of Nails >Perfectly Horizontal Rod
Tyler Nguyen
The agricultural district needs to be big. Like, massive. A city like manhattan couldn't be sustented with 10 central-parks worth of fields. Either you make the agricultural district a magic thing with fantastical fertility, like one full harvest everyday, or you need to supplement it with other means.
Since the whole thing exists solely because magic (If not we're going to tackle the logistics behind the construction of such massive sewers, and the issue of how those construction material were collected, and you won't like it), might I suggest this : Each district is connected via a series of portals to fertile demiplanes having the sole purpose of answering to the needs for food of that district. The agricultural district is used only by the adjacent districts, which are notoriously poor, and suffer from frequent shortages due to poor logistics.
Elijah Lopez
Once, when I used that Veeky Forums magic item generator that circulated around here a while back, we ended up with an ominous and ridiculous-sounding item :
The Creeping Building of building building. Basically an evergrowing building constantly spreading more building accross the land.
Nicholas Davis
Hell, maybe that's what happened here; only that people just started moving in the empty houses.
Leo Ramirez
The city itself would be the greatest wonder of the world. Magic provides a means for communication and transportation, and would even have a part in its construction. the sewers and everything, but it was still mostly manpower.
We could even have the city cut right into a mineral rich mountain range. It is the trade capital of the world so each nation would have a part in building up some of the city, to have it become a part of the city. this would explain the variety of cultures and architecture across it.
The city would not have been built in a day. This is a very very very old city that has been built up over a very very long time, constantly expanding, and districts constantly change as they rise to power and fall. Not to mention there would be conflicts and even wars fought within its borders between districts, accounting for the shifts.
And I can see magic playing a part in the agriculture. The dock district would be supplementing some of that food as well.
Jack Smith
Ptolus: City By The Spire.
Eli Myers
>PDF is 84 MB.
Welp, I can't upload it.
Jason Parker
Put it on a mediafire or megaupload? Im interested in what you are talkng about.
Jason Allen
You can't, reallistically, handwave it away with just natural expansion and a convenient starting site, if your logistic and building mean remain largely at the medieval level. The only exemple that comes to mind to depict something similar to your setting would be the Tokyo-Yokohama sprawl, and that thing needed the better part of a decade and modern technology to be achieved, and they still were very much constrained by the natural environment.
Mind you, what I'm trying to do isn't undermine your setting. I like it a lot, and I would like to contribute. I'm just trying to provide satisfying explainations if your players start asking awkward questions.
A detailed setting is an immersive setting. Telling your player what's in their plate and where does it come from can go a long way to them being engaged in the setting, and thus, in your game.
Grayson Morgan
Seconding this.
Oliver Perez
Well how would you do it? Other than 'its impossible' or 'a mage waved his hands and it appeared'. I like the idea of something built over a very long time very slowly and countless millions lived and died during its construction. I feel magic should play a part though, but not too much because the setting would feel too cheap.
Adam Gutierrez
Also at the very head of the city is some sort of council of representatives, and above them is some figure. A person or whatever that nobody knows anything about. Nobody has ever seen him, heard him, not even those that work directly under him. Some believe he is the same being still running things since the cities inception hundreds of years ago. Others he is a new chosen official who gives up his identity to run it and the mantle is passed from person to person. Others think he is constantly assassinated and replaced, explaining why his life is so secretive.
Colton Carter
Obviously, OP, the agriculture issue is easy to solve.
The City is a black fucking hole. Entire nations are contracted to provide enough foodstuff to the City to keep it floating. The local Agricultural District is meant to supplement this, and is still so large that it represents 4/5ths of the City's topside square mileage. The District is insanely fertile, and yet only manages to dent the hunger of one fifth of the inhabitants of the City.
As for questions about architecture and sewage and suchlike, the city is ancient. Like, truly ancient. Moving over two districts, you will pass by buildings constructed during different millenia, walk down streets named for men and women from legends ten-thousand years forgotten (though not when the street was founded by them), and across canal-bridges built by species long extinct, or built so long ago they can be measured in geological time. The technology gap between two districts, particularly in regards to the sewage system, should be commented upon. The Dwarven District features new copper pipes and indoor plumbing. One dristrict over and you'll find the Halflings still dumping their waste into the river, and the Elves one district beyond that use magical chamberpots to quietly teleport their waste into an empty demiplane.
Kevin Sanchez
This is pretty much exactly what im thinking. Its just built up slowly over hundreds of years, a constant project as sewers and pipes are getting updated, and most of it still isnt finished, even though they cant expand anymore. And like you said, the waste and water problem is differently handled in each district.
If such a city existed, it would be the world powerhouse. Nations would be indebted to it constantly and have to play parts in its sustaining because to not do so would be suicide as it has the monopoly on world trade.
Jack Ward
if it's a Mega City, it better have a City Watchman named Dread who is the law there.
Cameron Jackson
That should be another thing touched on. Law and peacekeeping.
A central police force would be impossible, so each district policing themselves solves the problem, but is also open to heavy corruption and complications between the districts. There could be a universal creed (like bill of rights, and trade processes and taxes) obeyed by all, leaving smaller things up to themselves, but still it would be an issue, as some districts would follow the creed to the letter, while others find it more of a guideline.
There could also be roaming marshalls that are under authority of the head council to investigate things and make sure these civil liberties dont get out of hand. Of course there would only be so many and there is only so much they can do.
Its definitely not a perfect utopia, but its all they got.
Jacob Bell
I thought that Sigil was the city atop the Spire.
William Miller
Basically it's a setting set in a giant city, with appropriately giant versions of markets, noble quarters, graveyard, etc. It's built at the foot of a giant spire reaching into space, which was built by some evil lich king in the distant past who tried to take over the world. The idea is that a full campaign from levels 1 to 30 in D&D 3.5 can be done just in the city.
Some kind of elite, feared all-city investigative force would be cool. People who only show up when shit gets serious, who are respected by everyone due to their prowess or power, and the fact that their mere presence means something really bad happened. Maybe they could also publicly punish egregiously corrupt officials.
Isaiah Watson
Exactly. Im thinking like the specters in mass effect or something. A PC path ripe with adventure definitely, or a pesky villain thats always watching
Jackson Gonzalez
>the city is literally a living thing, a titanic underground organism building it's carapace of shoddy office buildings and low rent apartments up over time, and humans have just started to move in
Adam Morgan
Almost looks like Dark Souls before all the shit happens
Jack Morales
Why not go full Dredd.
The world outside ruined by magical fallout from a full wizard on wizard war, great wards on the great wall surrounding The City, all manner of fucked up monsters both small and colossal twisted by the wild magic and in a state of cold war unease with The Hive.
The Hive being another mega-city, much like The City, but ruled by a council of Elder-Brains and governed by Mind-Flayers.
Anthony Nguyen
What I'm hearing is that you basically want your campaign set in Ravnica.
Bentley Nelson
That's basically it from what I understand. However, I've yet to find any in-depth lore on how Ravnica came to be a planet-sized city, or really anything that's more about the city than its guilds. Sadly, Ravnica is all about the guilds and how they interact with each other rather than a mixed bag of guild interactions and the unique fact that the whole plane is a cityscape.
Ravnica itself was largely a backdrop.
Therefore, you can't fault OP for trying to tackle such a setting from the ground up.
Liam Baker
Because I don't think the city could survive without support from the outside world and nations.
This is not to say it's completely peaceful outside, because nations still war, but the city remains neutral to everything and is commonly the neutral zone that nations meet for negotiating whatever.
This doesn't stop those nations from making the city part of their battleground, however, it's just that the war is generally more subtle.
Sebastian King
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William Morales
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Leo Scott
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Brayden Perry
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Nolan Kelly
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Logan Kelly
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Carson Martinez
Rooftop gardens and vines growing up the buildings on some of the higher levels where sunlight reaches. It's amazing how well plants can grow with just a little magical "encouragement".
Too much magical fuckery in your food and water and you get magic cancer or some shit so its a bit of a balancing game.
Rumour has it that the dorf enclaves in the roots of the city have just started to get good results from heir sunlight rune research and will soon be growing food of their own deep underground with no need to import anything from those "cheating fucking elf merchants".
Bentley White
>Hell, maybe that's what happened here; only that people just started moving in the empty houses.
What if, a long time ago, a House Hunter Mimic (one of the building-sized ones that looks like a house) got into something that caused out-of-control fecundity and now the entire continent is covered with what is basically the equivalent of stromatolites?
