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The Insanity
2014-05-11, 04:15 PM
This is in a D&Dish setting ('cuz it's a D&D game).
In a big, dangerous and corrupted metropolis what districts could there be (other than those that D&D city supplements are suggesting) and which one could possibly be the most dangerous and corrupted?

JusticeZero
2014-05-11, 05:40 PM
Well, how/why is it "corrupted"? And how are you needing it to be dangerous?
In my experience, the most dangerous place to be is the rich touristy part of town. The pickpockets don't hang out in Dirtside, because nobody has money. They go to Upper Shinymarket. They pinch all the rich tourists. They roll the drunks on their way out of the bars.
The crime in Dirtside is mostly only there because that's where the retail centers for illegal enterprises (drugs, guns, people, etc.) are at, because they know the police don't want to bother with all those dirty people with tusks, funny skin colors, or whatever. They can't get the police to help them, so they have to use their own enforcers to deal with people trying to rob them. Anything the enforcers do looks like a crime.

Coidzor
2014-05-11, 05:56 PM
Well, I can imagine there being an Assassin's Quarter or the like, where the area is dominated by a Temple/Academy/Guildhall or multiple smaller institutions devoted to the art of efficient killing, and as a result for practice they may occasionally select certain people who while not notable enough to get contracts on their heads would provide a challenge or offer money for people to play "The Game" which may take multiple forms but basically amounts to agreeing to be hunted in exchange for money or some other boon if one manages to survive or at least remuneration to one's next of kin.

Maybe some areas where if one enters it, one is automatically assumed to have given consent for a similar setup. Or some areas where it's basically like the old Spartan practice of sneaking off to murder Helots without getting caught. Though this would likely not be all that near to the Assassin's Quarter itself.

But alchemists, poison-makers, makers of exotic weaponry, crafters of certain magical items, those are the sort of supporting businesses I'd imagine in such a district.

The most potential for corruption would probably be either the seat of economic power or the seat of political power. Other seats of power, especially if multiple seats of power are consolidated together, such as, say, the most influential and powerful church also controlling magic more generally while also having deep coffers and a controlling interest in banking and business in much of the settlement...

But then, I suppose that depends on just what you mean by "corrupted."

The Insanity
2014-05-11, 06:26 PM
Well, how/why is it "corrupted"?
It's officials are corrupted, as in take bribes, ignore crime, etc.


And how are you needing it to be dangerous?
Not sure what you mean. I don't need it to be dangerous, it's just is because that's the setting the game is going to be in - a shady city full of crime.


In my experience, the most dangerous place to be is the rich touristy part of town. The pickpockets don't hang out in Dirtside, because nobody has money. They go to Upper Shinymarket. They pinch all the rich tourists. They roll the drunks on their way out of the bars.
I would say rich people, especially living in such a city, would have bodyguards.

Gildedragon
2014-05-11, 08:02 PM
Well what is the City Governance's Alignment?

If it is LE: Expect a big fortress, maybe more. The city runs as well as any neutral or good city, better even. Dissidents disappear and reappear (sometimes) acting (and even looking) like totally different people, and no one bats an eye. Crime is low and harshly punished. Or crime is high because everything is a crime, but crime is always punished. And all the time the fortresses of the Lawkeepers loom over the city. Everything is guilded, religions are strictly monitored, chaotic cults are sumarilly disbanded.

if it is CE: Corruption is rampant, there may be a million laws but no one follows them, anyone can skip them with enough cash or favors. there is no assassin's guild, no need, there is Protection guilds, a lot. You will probably get killed if you don't hire a guild bodyguard. City probably isn't very rich overall, as the money concentrates in the elites very fast, and isn't spent on city planning. Think slums with a VERY opulent core.

NE is probably somewhere in between.

Mewtarthio
2014-05-11, 11:36 PM
At first glance, I thought you meant that the city itself was evil, a la Silent Hill.

Coidzor
2014-05-12, 12:33 AM
At first glance, I thought you meant that the city itself was evil, a la Silent Hill.

That would be a twist on things, I suppose.

Rhynn
2014-05-12, 06:55 AM
The poor districts. Pickpockets prowling markets etc. just take your cash. (Honestly, thinking that's as dangerous as cities get is a bit ridiculous. :smallbiggrin:)

Criminal groups and organizations, and the sort of individuals who will think nothing of killing you when they rob you, are mostly going to be found in the poor parts of town, because that's where you won't find law enforcement; and because poverty breeds desperation and crime. These types will prey on the rich and powerful to the degree they can get away with, and make up the rest by preying on the weak and poor.

Merchants, burghers, trade districts, the homes of the wealthy, etc. are going to be guarded - by the city constabulary, by a neighborhood watch -type thing (which the wealthy can afford to hire and equip), or just by private guards, because those people can afford to spend a little so as to not lose a lot, and to ensure their own security and peace of mind.

In the poor districts, where people have no means to organize a common defense or patrol, and no clout to get the city government to do it, the mean, vicious, strong, and well-armed can do what they want; and groups of such people will rule the roost. The group with the best mix of strength and ruthlessness will come into power.

You're not going to find severed heads marking turf in tourist traps; you'll find that in the poorest districts, where might is right. In some cities, those neighborhoods are literally not controlled by the city government, and its representatives are not welcome there.

JusticeZero
2014-05-13, 10:10 AM
Yeah, that's the popular perception. It's not correct, but it is popular.
Lower class district :
People are poor. The police ignore this part of town because the bribes coming from it are small for the hassle. So organized crime has a strong presence here. Organized crime likes these neighborhoods because the police leave them alone. But organized crime doesn't want the neighborhood to be dangerous, because that means that they are killing and chasing away the customers. So a lot of the "crime" you see here is actually a police action by a regulated illegal police force.
The other major crime component here comes from the fact that the mentally ill don't stay rich, they go broke and end up in shanty town.

Upper class districts have bodyguards (who are prone to corruption), but they are also the targets for professional criminals who case and research targets. The rich houses are further apart and fenced, so if a scuffle breaks out, the neighbors won't know unless they are looking the next day when the police quietly slip in and out so not to make a scene.

Wherever the bars that people with extra money go to is where you will see lots of crime, because that's where the money is.

Winter_Wolf
2014-05-13, 10:49 PM
I don't know how much it helps, but I have a friend who lived in a large US city, and he said more or less, "I feel 10 times safer in the ghetto at 10:00pm than I do in the business district." Extrapolating from that and based on my own experiences in a different large city during the night, I too would rather be in a ghetto late at night than in a club/business/commercial district. The crime rate around the clubs was ridiculous, and the cops were all lining their pockets to look the other way. The long running "joke" in that city is that the only difference between the criminals and the cops is who gets the official backing of the local government.

Mostly I'd imagine the docks or the gateside areas that catered to wealthy travelers and outsiders would be most plagued by corrupt officials and criminal activity. After that, probably the warehouse districts where the merchant wasn't savvy enough to buy "protection" before storing his goods. Wealthy locals would probably be relatively safe via having connections to either underworld or extremely influential members of the government and/or security firms with the power to curb stomp "threats" with impunity.

Additional: if in an industrial/post-industrial era, I'd sooner assault a police officer than get caught in an industrial district after dark. Those are some scary-ass, dangerous places when all the workers are gone; where I've lived those are the places you get gangs looking to roll and/or straight up murder people for kicks and giggles. I don't care who you are, when you're alone and you see a group rolling toward you in those areas, your inner gold-medal Olympic sprinter comes right to the forefront.

Beleriphon
2014-05-13, 11:40 PM
This is in a D&Dish setting ('cuz it's a D&D game).
In a big, dangerous and corrupted metropolis what districts could there be (other than those that D&D city supplements are suggesting) and which one could possibly be the most dangerous and corrupted?

The single most dangerous place to be in a city a serious crime problem is the place where all the money is found. That might be the brothel quarter, or the central market, or Many Inns Lane, but the important part is the money. Follow the money and you'll find crime. People will find a way to make a buck without having to work overly hard for it, or without having to pay taxes on it. If your city is otherwise functional, but corrupt in the idea that the officials are overly easy to bribe and nobody cares about that then tax avoidance is probably the main reason to get into criminal activity. If the government is more or less non-functional then crime is more of an issue of who has the power in any given area and who wants that power. Local crime bosses in an weird mirror of a feudal heirarchy are probably normal.

Driderman
2014-05-14, 05:41 AM
Evil humanoid ghettoes which the authorities either avoid, or where the corrupt guardsmen in question have suspect dealings with the inhabitants.

Coidzor
2014-05-14, 12:27 PM
Goblin sweatshops and Orcish Factories(ala Arcanum) would fit in an Industrial Quarter where creatures like Kobolds and Goblins which reproduce quickly and who have short, cheap lifespans and small size and dextrous little hands would be used as a better alternative to halflings and human children, though Halflings would do in a pinch. Orcs, on the other hand are compact but strong and thus great for heavy grunt work and shoveling coal and moving heavy parts between assembly lines or finished goods in packages for shipping and the like.

DigoDragon
2014-05-15, 12:27 PM
At first glance, I thought you meant that the city itself was evil, a la Silent Hill.

Can it be both? :3


As a player, whenever I find the party in some GM's "evil city", there always seems to be some kind of district made up of open sewers that serves as the black market for all the goblin, reptilian, and orc folk to trade and do business. It's great if you want tax free stuff unregulated by the corrupt city officials... so long as you don't mind the fact they uncannily also contain humanoid-eating giant gators.

Clawhound
2014-05-15, 01:59 PM
I don't think that there needs to be "special" areas of the city necessarily. Think about Chicago in the 1920's. There were gangsters everywhere. The city was thoroughly corrupt, yet there were still pleasant neighborhoods. People still eat, see shows, play baseball, make things, sell things, learn, and so forth.

Big men don't just get to be bad, they get to be sponsors. They take care of their own, including their own neighborhoods. What keeps Nice Neighborhood safe is that Libby the Lich lives there, along with all her kids and grandkids, and she has no trouble sending troublemakers to Tartarus, literally. She also sponsors the local school because racketeers kept trying to extort money. Many small businesses moved into her neighborhood because she's made such a safe space.

The Temple to Evil God is evil and its supplicants bring gold, which attracts thieves and other criminals. It becomes worth their interest to keep the money flowing in to them, and not to the criminals, so the entire neighborhood is on their payroll looking out for trouble. There's noplace safer than the Temple of the Evil God.

Various races and enthnicities stick together. They build their own enclaves. They enforce their boundaries. Elves really shouldn't go walking down the dwarf side of the street.

Those unexpected interactions are what makes evil fun.

Benthesquid
2014-05-15, 02:58 PM
In the campaign I'm working on, Selenopolis, the city where the action'll be set, consists of three levels.

First there's Upper Selenopolis, the floating towers ruled by Syrinx and their elite Strix enforcers. Then, down below, in a weird symbiotic relationship, is Selenopolis Between. This is where the factories and wage-slaves that support Upper Selenopolis are, and it's divided into a number of districts.

Those I've decided on so far-


Yent- colloquially Tusktown, for its large population of Ragebred Skinwalkers. Ruled by Mama Durra.

Lam’s Twist- Primarily elves and drow. Previously affluent, suffers under sanctions imposed by the Syrinx. Controlled by the Urban Rangers of the Pan-Elven Council.

Horsehair- Gnomes, svirfneblin, and dwarves. The most affluent District of Selenopolis Between. Defended by the militant New Brush faction.

Barterville- Market district, the most cosmopolitan district. Not the territory of any organized gang.

Mal-i-te- Dockside district- inhabited by Grindylow, merfolk, and Sahuagin in the water, and undines and suli on land. Controlled by the Witchwyrd An-Lan-Zu.

Gris-Gris Fen- A complex of abandoned factories, workshops, and universities. The accumulated thaumic resonance of centuries of magical experimentation and exploitation has left the laws of reality twisted. No organizations are based out of Gris Gris Fen, but Otyughs dwell here, and brave explorers search for magically infused relics and artifacts.

Of course, those are just brief overviews. Each district has unusual members, plus various subclasses and factions within it (perhaps the gnomes of Horsehair have a tendency to employ Spriggans as bodyguards and manual laborers, out of some sort of "Gnomish Burden,").

Not that I expect you to use my notes wholesale, but just an idea how you might approach this sort of thing.

The Glyphstone
2014-05-15, 05:06 PM
As mentioned, the poor/downtrodden/slum areas of the city will probably have the lowest crime rates. First, they're the poorest places, so there is little to steal or kill for. Second, they're the same places said criminals probably live, and it's a very stupid criminal who causes a stink in his own neighborhood or attacks his neighbors, who are likely to also be criminals and more likely to resort to 'direct retaliation' than respectable folk would.

Now, for outsiders, the slums are likely to be the most dangerous place for an outsider/visitor, but as far as city residents/locals go, they'd be as close to safe as anywhere could be in a big city.

S@tanicoaldo
2014-09-21, 10:22 AM
I LOVE EVIL METROPOLIS! Half of my games are in places like that. Once I used a holy city full of temples to also be the city of thieves something funny since the main god is the god Arte the god of Purity and law.

Ideas:
-Noble district: Bodyguards shoot you with no warming or reason if you don't apear to fit in the place, the place is beautiful, full of trees, fountains and ligth. Inside the mansions we have many parties, mascarates and orgys. The fact that nobles love to wear masks is a analogy of their personality. This place look lovely and safe. But in reality it is just a devil using a pretty mask. Evil cults, backstabbing and political intrigue is all around. Nobles kill nobles for titles, money and pleasure.

-Temple district: A place where all the religion activity is concentrated. Enormous and detailed cathedrals appear left and right piercing the sky with their spirals and towers. You feel oppressed by such malevolent architecture. And you should. This is no different from the merchant district where each store is trying to sell more and have more customers. This clerics play with old, mad gods and twist the teachings written in ancient holy books in other to take every coin from the followers pockets.

-Red light district: A place where death and pleasure walk hand by hand. The decadent music fills the air together with the smell of rotten flesh and diseases. The nobles, the bourgeoisie and the gentry attend large and luxurious brothels. But no less corrupt than the street prostitutes attending the rabble. And if you want to do it with someone of the same sex you should not since the great god Arte forbids it. There are no homosexual brothels in the city if you want so you need to go the temple of Arte after midnight using a mask. The amount of sexually transmitted diseases is huge in the city thanks to this place, the expensive prostitutes are able to use potions and perfumes to mask the odor and appearance. The poor ones on the other hand smell like death and look like corruption.

-The living district: It used to be a residencial district but now it is a prolongation of the Mercantile district, the twist and turns form the streets in this place made it earn the nickname "Maze district". Since it is easy to get lost and it is hard to have a good angle to see. Both Assasins guild and the thieves guild work here. The entrace is a wide, low, open doorway, framed by grimy stone blocks. There led up to it two steps hollowed by the treadings of centuries. Orange-yellow light spilled out from bracketed torches inside. They couldn't see very far in because of Death Alley's angle. Yet as far as they could see, there was no porter or guard in sight, nor anyone at all, not even a watchdog on a chain. The effect was ominous. Since there are so many thieves and assassins they bride the guards to not go there at specific times. Inspiration from 'Ill-met in Lankhmar', Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Liebe

-The residential district: Travelers are not welcomed here, the district is a well formed community who hate the people from the living district that lost their homes and now try to live here, they all have secrets and they try to find out other peoples secrets. They protect themselves when necessary but burn witches and arrest outsiders just as easily.

-Mercantile district: Full of stores and merchants, strange smells and products. They will do all they can to sell their stuff to you and to permanently end the competition of other merchants.

-Cash district: Banks and thiefs left and right. Some of the wealthiest people live and work in the Cash District. Bankers, moneylenders, and moneychangers share the streets with fences, loan sharks and pawnshops. This is the district of shady deals and operators as well as high finance and wealthy patrons
inspiration from Lankhmar City of Adventure by Bruce Nesmith, Douglas Niles and Ken Rolston.

-Poor district: This is where the ones that have no money live, you can find cheap workers and criminals here.

-Square district: This is another comercial district but some people live here. It is filled with the unusual vendors and merchants. There is a huge park with many types of trees and plants. The perfect place for romance and murder. There is always a minor celebration in progress in this district, especially along Festival Street, which extends into the Park District. On major holidays, the street is choked with people. Vendors crowd the sides, hawking their wares. Street performers in multicolored garb try to entice a few coins from the populace. Of course, no festival would be complete without a full assortment of pickpockets and cutpurses...constant income for the Thieves' Guild. inspiration from Lankhmar City of Adventure by Bruce Nesmith, Douglas Niles and Ken Rolston

-Nigth district: During day a normal place during the night, For there the vendors of drugs and the peddlers of curiosa and the hawkers of assignations light their stalls and crouching places with foxfire, gloworms, and firepots with tiny single windows, and they conduct their business almost as silently as the stars conduct theirs.

I think it is really easy for me to work with this type of setting because since I live in a very small town the first time I went to the big city I felt like I was in another world. A terrible and terrifying world.

Storm_Of_Snow
2014-09-22, 11:34 AM
To start with, just because it's evil, doesn't mean it won't have the same things as everywhere else.

Slaughterhouse district - next to the slums (the aroma of fresh blood and animal wastes would preclude it being anywhere near anywhere better), and near the city gates, where animals are brought in daily, killed, butchered and the meat moved out to market stalls, taverns and the homes of the upper crust. The tannery district would be next door - or just outside the city gates.

If you want to make someone disappear, you've got access to people who're used to killing, who're very good at slicing up carcasses, and buildings where the decor can best be described as centuries of bloodstains.

And they don't even have to end up in the cities food chain - just being chopped into parts and dumped into the sewers, sold to non-human races with a taste for human flesh, or thrown onto waste matter bonfires would be enough (main purpose is incinerating the cattle bones to go back to the fields as bonemeal fertiliser).

Professions may have a street or two, at most a small area where they congregate - physicians on one, lawyers on another, fine work artisans like locksmiths and jewellers on a third, debt collectors in imposing buildings around a square (possibly even the place where criminals have sentences carried out, ranging from executions down through whippings to the stocks/pillories)

A red light district would likely be near the routes of incoming cargos - the docks, canals, main streets and so on - in order to attract as much business as possible. And of course, you've likely got the high class workers, who are visited by the rich/nobility, who can thus afford things like cure disease spells, contraceptive herbal infusions and so on, and work out of descrete, well-appointed private addresses, rather than shabby brothels, inns, or back alleys.

Red Fel
2014-09-22, 02:11 PM
I think a lot of it depends on how organized the crime and corruption is.

First, let me agree with others on this - the poorest parts of town will have relatively little crime, because there's no profit to be made; the richest parts of town will have relatively little crime, either because security is so beefed up there or because that's where the kingpins live, and under no circumstances do you mess with those guys. (Think classic gangsters; they always came home to their families in their nice suburban homes, at the end of a cul-de-sac, where all of the houses along the cul-de-sac belong to their closest and most heavily armed lieutenants. You did not mess with them at home.) The high-crime areas, therefore, would be somewhere in the middle - tourist districts, business and merchant districts, middle-class areas where people are who have enough money to steal but not enough to protect it.

Next, organization level. Disorganized, violent crime can pop up anywhere. Shootings in the nice districts. Total war in the poor districts. Daylight robberies in the entertainment district. The catch is that a corrupt city won't tolerate that kind of disorganized crime, if for no other reason than the fact that a corrupt police force can't extort money if it can't show that it can keep crime away from the wealthy. When this kind of crime happens, particularly in nice areas, it forces an otherwise complacent police force into action.

By contrast, organized crime tends to be neat but brutal. It stays away from the nicer parts of town absolutely. When it hits anyplace else, it does so with surgical precision - police are conspicuously absent, the surrounding buildings and businesses are unharmed, and there are no innocent bystanders injured. Tourists and visitors are practically a protected class; after all, they bring tourism money, which benefits the city - and by extension, benefits the kingpins. Crime against tourism means a drop in tourism, which means less tourist dollars, which means a problem. So visitors to the city, unless they're in the wrong place at the wrong time, can expect to see no crime whatsoever, simply because the organizations studiously avoid them. By contrast, locals can expect to be on a first-name basis with the representatives of their local criminal syndicate; almost everyone will be paying some form of protection money. Interestingly, people in the poorer parts of town might actually show fondness for their criminal overlords, as these are the people who keep crime away from them, unlike the ineffectual police force.

So, let's look at your average districts: Residential: Wealthy: In an organized crime city, no crime whatsoever. This place is occupied by the wealthy, who don't care, and the kingpins, who are protected. In a disorganized crime city, low crime; the risk is too high. Middle-class: High crime. These are the people who can't afford police protection, but have enough wealth to become targets. Poor: Low for-profit crime, high violent crime. There's not much to steal, here, but there are plenty of desperate people who do stupid things. Nobody comes to this area if they can avoid it, however, so not much of the crime is considered newsworthy. Commercial: Marketplace: In an organized crime city, everyone either pays protection money or goes out of business. Crime generally consists of the targeted ruination of non-compliant businesses. In a disorganized crime city, the wealthy merchants have security; the poor merchants get robbed. Black Market: Since everyone involved is a criminal, it's basically understood that you don't mess with the black market. It ends badly for you. Low crime, some pickpocketing and swindling. Manufacturing: Where the craftsmen are. Ironically, this will see more organized crime than disorganized crime; since most finished products are stored elsewhere, and everyone goes home after hours, there's not much here to steal nor people to rob. As such, the only real reason to commit crimes here is to put someone out of business - the role of organized crime. Warehouse: High crime after hours. Places get robbed, criminals meet at night, illegal deals go wrong, gangs schedule warfare, what have you. Entertainment: Where the city goes to have fun. If a city has high-class and low-class entertainment districts, expect the former to be much safer, subject only to targeted attacks (via organized crime, generally). If there's only one entertainment district, it may be a high-crime area, simply because it's where you can find wealthy targets in the open. Other: Government: The place where the corrupt government meets. Criminals leave the government alone, and in exchange the government (for the most part) leaves criminals alone. Temple: Where the religions go. In an organized crime city, this area is extremely low crime - much like you don't bother the kingpins where they go to eat and sleep, you don't bother them where they go to pray. In a disorganized crime city, expect the wealthy temples to have guards, and the poorer ones to look like public urinals.

sktarq
2014-09-22, 03:30 PM
As mentioned, the poor/downtrodden/slum areas of the city will probably have the lowest crime rates. First, they're the poorest places, so there is little to steal or kill for. Second, they're the same places said criminals probably live, and it's a very stupid criminal who causes a stink in his own neighborhood or attacks his neighbors, who are likely to also be criminals and more likely to resort to 'direct retaliation' than respectable folk would.

I'd really disagree with this. Lowest organized perhaps but likely to have lots of crime. Rather low basic street crime etc-maybe but probably high. People will steal mostly based on opportunity -places they know, places where the cops won't bother them. Likely to be near home or the other poor neighborhood next door. Or near the bar they want to drink at and were near when they realized they wanted money. Lots of criminals would shake someone down in a poor part of town for a few silvers knowing that the cops are far away than for a couple gold and know the cops are somewhere in the area. And just because an area is poor doesn't mean that gangs won't find themselves much better off than they were by extorting whatever they can from local businesses etc. And because the local businesses can't get the attention of any local law enforcement they pretty much have to. And relative levels of wealth are far more important than absolute wealth.
Sale of illegal/untaxed items....those contraband sales will probably be going on largely where the cops aren't looking-in the slums. . . why nice cars drove in the projects so often in the eighties had nothing to do with certain Colombian imports at all. If the city is permissive of such trades then they could be moved outside of such areas and probably would. And yeah most street criminals do live in and terrorize the same areas. That may not seem logical but the opportunity aspects and the ability to constantly push on the psychological side of it outweighs the opportunity to make a bigger score. It is about your turf-and being king of your turf and a king who doesn't live in his turf is either no king at all or very confident in his ownership.
as for other kinds of districts that could be highly corrupt. If the city is a major trade power there might be a financial district-like Sharn. . . and the corruption is about intimidation of who get favorable loans, who gets the contract from the city for cobblestone repair and the like. A different kind organized crime strike here, but just as common and just as brutal. . . perhaps the head of their favorite horse will serve as warning. The rich deal with OC differently but still pay their pound of flesh-kickbacks in the businesses they own being the most common. Otherwise where the crime is is going to depend on how the local criminals make their money. If they use the area to create exports to sell elsewhere - say in the drug trade. The outlying villages would be deeply infiltrated. Smuggling or even just avoiding of tariffs? need docks, caravan, and warehouse districts under your thumb. A bunch of mercenaries etc would be little different from a dark take on an adventurer district. Alchemy type regions (which would act a lot like Tannery districts) would be very useful. Slaves and the like would need to be deeply hidden if they are illegal in the region. Workhouses to squeeze gold out of them, possibly the sewers to move them around, and very likely outlying farms and such to act as safehouses.

Totema
2014-09-22, 03:53 PM
Piggybacking on the whole "poor district = low crime" idea everyone's throwing around, I like to think of the Mars slum in the 1990 version of Total Recall. It might be sleazy and unpleasant but everyone there knows each other and, unless they're working for The Man, they've got each others backs, so it's deceptively safe. At least until the military police come busting in and shooting rampantly.

Storm_Of_Snow
2014-09-23, 03:36 AM
On the poor area = low crime, I'm kind of in two minds - yes, there'd be very little theft, pickpocketing etc, simply because there aren't the goods there to steal, but I think there'd be a fair bit of crime against the person (assaults and murders), and you'd certainly have street gangs.

There might also be a lot of trade in illegal drugs and alcohol - some people trying to drag themselves out of the slums by whatever means they can, while others may use them simply to get through life.

Mastikator
2014-09-23, 04:23 AM
Which district is most dangerous should depend on who you are and what time of day it is. Any poorly lit district is automatically murder district at night, though it could be safe during the day.

A district controlled by a gang or theives guild/assassin guild should be very safe as long as you have not offended them or made any trouble (after all, only the ones in charge are allowed to use violence).
An uncontrolled district, or district that is contested would be extremely dangerous.

If you have fancy clothes and lots of wealth then poorer districts become extremely dangerous since people will want to rob you.
If you have dirty clothes then well off districts would be dangerous since the police would seek to drive you away/make an example out of you/place you in debtors prison.

An adventurer would probably be in the "fancy" category and the evil authorities would like them as long as the adventurer doesn't do anything to challenge the status quo.

JusticeZero
2014-09-23, 10:35 AM
People keep positing that entertainment districts are safe. I offer my response thus:
This is a crime map of New Orleans. (http://www.crimemapping.com/map.aspx?ll=-10028420.34475195,3498132.4035417205&z=14&mc=world-street&cc=AS,BU,DP,HO,RO,TH&db=9/17/2014&de=9/23/2014&mini=y) See that deeply inscribed Z-shaped line? That is in the French Quarter, which is the primary entertainment district in the city. I avoid it like the plague.
The middle line is Bourbon Street, which is full of overpriced bars which try to be simultaneously trendy and seedy. If you hear people come back from New Orleans and talk about the bars and the smell, they probably spent their entire time within two blocks of that middle line.
The bottom line is Canal Street, which is the main thoroughfare for tourists. That line is mostly convention centers, casinos, expensive restaurants, and ticky-tacky merchants.
I'm not really sure what's up with that top line with the assaults on it. It's a relatively quiet and poorly lit street as I recall, and it ends at a park that i've met some mildly interesting hoboes and drifters at, but remember, I stay away from the area (it's just plain unpleasant for me, since I can't stand drinking.)
The line along the river is Decatur, also entertainment district. Trendy overpriced restaurants and ticky-tacky.

Storm_Of_Snow
2014-09-23, 11:26 AM
First time I ever went to New Orleans (1999), I got told to walk down brightly lit streets until we got to the French Quarter, then relax a bit. But even then, don't go down any dark alleys.

Second time (2008) it felt a lot more relaxed and peaceful, and hopefully it'll be the same later this year.

The thing with those kinds of areas (NO's French Quarter, Soho in London, Amsterdam's RLD and so on) is that people do relax their guard, and in some cases, are intoxicated, which makes them easy prey.

JusticeZero
2014-09-23, 01:21 PM
This may be so - nonetheless, the French Quarter is the single most high crime area in the city. I live in one of those parts of town which, in a fantasy setting, would be tusks and ears as far as the eye can see.. it's like living in freaking Mayberry. Crime hasn't ever been a big problem really, as long as you aren't doing anything especially dangerous.

curious-puzzle
2014-09-23, 04:29 PM
One of my favourite "corrupt/evil" rpg cities is the styes from dungeon 121 (there was another adventure in a later issue that I can't recall). It oozes danger and atmosphere, and is a great source of info and ideas.