Weirdlet
2013-05-16, 12:22 PM
Hey, Playgrounders- I'm hoping to get some inspiration/help from folks here, as I poke at and polish ideas for an urban campaign. My inspiration is mostly ripped from Dragon Age II's Kirkwall, but I feel like the place could use a few more districts than just High Town, Low Town, Dark Town, the Alienage, the Docks and The Foundry District.
Some info about the people of the city and their interactions here-
Humans are probably the least fleshed out, but they have ostensibly the dominant presence in the city- and the temples that regulate mage-craft (licensing the wizards and forcibly gathering up the sorcerers for observation) and dispense magical healing are their invention.
Dwarves are beginning to be the financial power in the city. Those who come to the surface are technically exiles, but for a very long time they have been slowly building a network of trade that feeds back to the dying kingdoms underground. They own factories and foundries, many of which are under-regulated and worked by-
Orcs. Orcs have been the go-to mercenaries for whomever could bully them into service for centuries, ever since their creation by the Ancient Empire. There is a ban on new orcs entering the city, and it's rare to see a (recognizable) female amongst them- and yet, despite blazingly unsafe working conditions in the dwarf-owned foundries, their population seems to remain steady.
Tieflings are a small population in the city, and their treatment tends to be not unlike that of medieval European Jews. They try to keep their heads down and work their small monopolies on items from the Ancient Empire, from whose crazed nobles they descend (and they're feeling much better now, thank you).
Halflings work the docks on the river- theirs are the faster boats for smaller goods, and they connect with pastoral farmers outside the city to get the populace a lot of its food.
Elves are a small population, mostly in the theater district. They aren't much trusted, because their Sidhe ancestors were what the Ancient Empire fought tooth and nail, and they themselves are exiles from Underhill, having to play on human fascination with their beauty to survive.
The city is cramped, dirty, and tense. High cliffs protect its harbor and its jagged coast makes it difficult for non-halfling ships to slip in and out of the inlets. As the temples have a monopoly on healing and licensed, properly-contained magic, it also becomes a hot spot when sickness is on the land, people trying to get in so that they can be protected from disease (which is a bit of a reversal of the real-world tradition of fleeing to the country in times of plague).
Some info about the people of the city and their interactions here-
Humans are probably the least fleshed out, but they have ostensibly the dominant presence in the city- and the temples that regulate mage-craft (licensing the wizards and forcibly gathering up the sorcerers for observation) and dispense magical healing are their invention.
Dwarves are beginning to be the financial power in the city. Those who come to the surface are technically exiles, but for a very long time they have been slowly building a network of trade that feeds back to the dying kingdoms underground. They own factories and foundries, many of which are under-regulated and worked by-
Orcs. Orcs have been the go-to mercenaries for whomever could bully them into service for centuries, ever since their creation by the Ancient Empire. There is a ban on new orcs entering the city, and it's rare to see a (recognizable) female amongst them- and yet, despite blazingly unsafe working conditions in the dwarf-owned foundries, their population seems to remain steady.
Tieflings are a small population in the city, and their treatment tends to be not unlike that of medieval European Jews. They try to keep their heads down and work their small monopolies on items from the Ancient Empire, from whose crazed nobles they descend (and they're feeling much better now, thank you).
Halflings work the docks on the river- theirs are the faster boats for smaller goods, and they connect with pastoral farmers outside the city to get the populace a lot of its food.
Elves are a small population, mostly in the theater district. They aren't much trusted, because their Sidhe ancestors were what the Ancient Empire fought tooth and nail, and they themselves are exiles from Underhill, having to play on human fascination with their beauty to survive.
The city is cramped, dirty, and tense. High cliffs protect its harbor and its jagged coast makes it difficult for non-halfling ships to slip in and out of the inlets. As the temples have a monopoly on healing and licensed, properly-contained magic, it also becomes a hot spot when sickness is on the land, people trying to get in so that they can be protected from disease (which is a bit of a reversal of the real-world tradition of fleeing to the country in times of plague).