Qualities of a city

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've been brainstorming how to do the "kingdom management" thing for the latest draft of my homebrew system, STaRS (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281582). I've worked out the general details for how it'll work, but... I need 5 or 10 abilities, D&D-style, to cover the city/country's core qualities. Things like population, wealth, industry, stuff like that. Can anyone help me come up with a good list? This is ultimately an optional rule for a light system, so it doesn't have to be too detailed, but I'd like to be reasonably balanced and comprehensive.

[Rhynn]

MRQ2's Empires uses Military Strength, Law, Size, Religion, Communication, and Wealth.

[Storm Bringer]

I'd suggest something like Travellers Universal world profile system, where the details can be summiised in a single string of letters and numbers.\

Examples of values you may want:

Size: size of the city
population: tens, hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands?
population modifier: things like large minority populations, skewed class demographics, etc
Local government: is their a Mayor? a town council? a noble? The King himself?
Law Level: hands off or brutally repressive?
transport: is thier a Port? a River? a major trade road?
defence: walls, guard strength, wizards?
Trade goods: things they sell. magic items, weapons, jewels, etc,
major guilds: mages guild, merencary guild, traders guilds, etc.

[AuraTwilight]

The World of Warcraft RPG had a pretty interesting way of going about it. The ability scores were...Force, Mobility, Resilience, Learning, Awareness, and Command, which were supposed to map to Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect, Spirit, and Charisma.

[Slipperychicken]

You should check out ACKS, especially for its morale system.


If one tried to make it work, I think a state's "ability scores" would look like this:

Military (this influences your military's effectiveness, force-projection, and also your law-enforcement capabilities)
Agriculture (mostly in terms of potential food-production. If your population goes over this stat, your state will be dependent on food imports)
Commerce (governs everything from banking, to tourism, trade, manufacturing, services, shipping, etc)
Infrastructure (quality and proliferation of roads, bridges, mail service, telecommunications, ports, etc).
Population (number of people, relative to other states. This will help determine how many soldiers you can field).
Morale (this will determine things like how much taxes, war, drafting, and corruption the people and nobility/special interests will endure before turning against you).

Many of these factors influence each other heavily, so bear that in mind. For example, infrastructure and commerce are tremendously useful in war. Armies might win battles, but supply lines win wars. Also, you'll want some way to differentiate between land, sea, and air capabilities.

Also, countries would probably have status effects. Corruption, intrigues, and divisive politics will likely impose penalties on various stats. For example, corruption might put a -2 on Military, Infrastructure, Commerce, and Morale. Or it might impose a -4 if it's particularly severe. A weak or insane ruler might impose a -2 on morale, increasing the likelihood of a coup attempt. Long-lasting peace might give a +2 to morale and commerce.

[Knaight]

REIGN defines organizations (of which a city is one) with Might, Treasure, Territory, Influence, and Sovereignty. Might is military capacity, Treasure a measure of current funds, capability to borrow, fiscal reputation, etc., territory a measure of both amount of land and its quality, influence a measure of political power, and sovereignty a measure of in-group loyalty and identity within the organization.

REIGN also defines a whole bunch of things organizations can do to each other in a cohesive system built around those traits. It's worth taking a look at.