Building a metropolis for an urban campaign

[SciChronic]

So i'm starting a side project for a future urban campaign i may or may not DM in the future. I intend on it being an urban campaign with 90% of the campaign happening within the city (metropolis size), but i need some help creating it. I've never built a town before, so some direction as to books to look through and jsut general advice/help to create this would be very much appreciated.

For the setting, i'm going to take some inspiration from Raymond E. Feist's Krondor. The PCs will be placed in "Western Capital" of the Kingdom, which is not really the capital, but is the largest city on the western half, but is the birthplace for the current king, and is currently ruled by the king's brother, the duke. The king, however, has grown rather paranoid over the past few years, and believes that his brother is plotting to take the throne. In reality, the brother has no interest in the throne, and is happy with his current station. However, civil is a growing possibility. Whether or not the PCs get involved in this, i'm leaving up to them.

Major districts:
King's road - eastern entrance into the city, it is lined with taverns, inn's, and shops welcoming travelers, nobles, and wealthy merchants. This path leads all the way to the castle. Following the kings road out of the city leads all the way to the eastern capital and it's castle.
The Poor Quarter - where, the poor live, obviously. It is located near the docks where many of its residents work.
Warehouse District - the border between the poor quarter and the docks.
Butcher's Alley - a street known for its many slaughterhouses
Tanner's Square - located in the Poor Quarter, The stench from the tanneries is said to kill the livestock in Butcher's Alley for them.
The Docks - The commercial port for the city, more than one body has been dumped here
The Common District - where the middle class lives
Temple Square - at the border between the common district and the upper district, temples for each benevolent/neutral god can be found here
The Upper District - where the upper class lives, bordering the King's Road
The Royal Port - Where transport ships and the royal navy docks
The Castle - located on a cliff facing the see, it's placement and design is very strategic, designed to thwart invaders both foreign and domestic.

Major Organizations:
The Merchant's Guild - not so much a guild, more of a meeting place for merchants to broker deals
Crafter's Union - a union for magic item crafters, the majority of magic item producers are part of this union
The Court - the royal court of the city. politics, intrigue, etc. etc.
The Mockers - The first major Thieves' Guild, and the one with the longest history. Led by the mysterious Laughing Man, the rules of the Mockers are extremely strict, and unforgiving. In truth, the Laughing Man, is the Royal Spymaster. knowing that stopping all crime would be impossible, the duke chose instead to control it, and use it as a tool to redistribute wealth into it's poorer districts.
The Ravens - a new thieves' guild that is known for its brutality. (set up for a gang war arc)

that's everything i've thought up so far.

[Know(Nothing)]

A certain amount of your city has to be organic-- you can't plan everything ahead of time. Come up with a few notable NPC's from every area and guild that you have(super brief, don't stat everything) and let your players pull at the strings. If you have players who amble about town and make their own adventure, you'll end up painting the details of your town just by playing. If your players charge right after the plot lines you lay out, you might benefit from making some random encounter tables. IIRC, DMG2, PHB2, Cityscape, Waterdeep: City of Splendors, and a few others will have relevant information for you.

My most helpful idea? Have a map of your town. Use a premade one or draw one up yourself, but have lots of details to play around with.

[Sir Garanok]

Races of Destiny has some nice stuff for cities on chapter 8 and 1.

Also some classes you might wanna use like urban ranger.

[ThisIsZen]

My personal method for designing a city, one I intend to keep to, went something like this:

Decide on the size of the city (check, in this case)
Divide the city up into wards (also mostly check for you it looks like)
Use the DMG Web Enhancement to assign Districts to each ward, up to around the total expected of a city of that size. Keep note of each district, using something like this notation:

7 <Ward Name>
7-1 <District Name>
<District info blah blah>

Feel free to refluff districts, and shuffle around their contents if you want. This gives you a general idea of what's where without getting specific, and means you almost always have something to play with. "Oh, I need a fancy tavern. Well, guess it could be here, here or here, or maybe here."

Plus, if you aren't a particularly keen city planner, it can really help. My current plan for MAPPING the city is basically to lay out the main thoroughfares and how they crisscross the city, and note the city limits. Then lay down the wards. If I need to zoom in, I can make a new map laying out a given ward by district - likewise, wards can be zoomed in on for specific districts. And I don't have to worry about what buildings to put where - it's all in the district descriptions.

This is just super general stuff in case you wanted to codify your design more. As far as what to add, I don't have much right now, but hopefully this'll be useful in some regard.


It's also worth thinking about not just the current state of the city and the recent history but also further back - this can inform your decisions as far as authority structure goes. Knowing the culture means knowing certain things about societal organization, and this can be relevant even in seemingly similar nations. Just look at military hierarchies, for example, or the different police organizations in Western democracies.

[Seharvepernfan]

Detail the city watch and city guard (if they're different from each other), and all the resources they have access to.

Where are the temples to evil gods? The sewers? Rich people's basements? Know this.

Come up with the people that everybody knows by name (the elaiths and khelbens and mirts).

Come up with a bunch of taverns, shops, businesses, etc, just so you have them ready.

Come up with lists of available items, their costs, and how and where they can be procured.

What monsters inhabit the city? How do they act?

What other organizations exist? Harpers? Knights of the Chalice? Cobra?

Sites of interest? Anything, really. Go wild.

Dungeons? Sewer/dock compounds? Large basements? Abandoned warehouses? Mansions?
Try to have a few static ones that your players can go do just whenever.

Try to come up with lots of plots and goals for the various people and organizations, then come up with a spiders web of possible interactions. On top of that, come up with events that happen no matter what, and how those events mess with the spiders web (like earthquakes, tidal waves, githyanki invasions, plagues that have nothing to do with magic or undead, etc).

Come up with something that makes this city unique and memorable to your players, so that it will never just seem like "some fantasy city" to them. Every play oblivion? You know the white-gold tower? Something like that, though it doesn't have to be a physical structure.