Designing a Flying City! (... including logistics and demographics)

[Ninjaxenomorph]

A possible opportunity to run a campaign recently fell in my lap. Me and two others have been working on a setting, and we were a bit oversuccessful when recruiting new players. In that we now have six others, in addition to us three, making for possibly an 8-player group. I had the idea to run a second campaign, so we could break up the group into more manageable chunks, and so the GM for the first game isn't overwhelmed. Since the three designers will likely be at both sessions, I can count on roughly five players.

Now, about the campaign itself; I came up with the idea for a flying city, New Laqueta. The campaign concept is that of an urban campaign. Players come to the city, have to deal with the gangs, work their way up. Let me put the description I came up with for the city here:


New Laqueta

Overview-
Alignment: N
Notable NPCs:
Races and Monsters: Humans, harpies, domestic gnolls, gnomes, mana wights, among others (setting has several custom races)
Resources: Airship maintenance and construction, trade in exotic goods, services

New Laqueta was once an airborne anomaly, a floating conglomeration of lost airships, a flying city (Old Laqueta), a floating castle, and at least one pre-barrier helicarrier. The halls were infested with mutants and monsters, all ruled by a cult to a dead sky-god. The place was cleansed by an adventuring party led by Regina Red-Rook. In a rare moment of prescience, she realized she could establish a homeland for her race, apart from any others. But what started as a social experiment evolved into an economic service; the airships that plied the skies started docking, and more and more non-harpies moved onto the floating city, christened New Laqueta, improving the city, eventually finding a way to control the movement. In the present day, New Laqueta is controlled by the Airman’s Council, made up of representatives from the different districts, which often overlap with different airship companies. Since relocating near a continent often brings great wealth and exotic goods, the movement of the city is decided by bidders from all corners of the world, representing cities and nations. The knowledge held by the city itself can be seen as a resource, having some of the most developed technomagical knowledge on all of Coria.

The floating city is known as a place of adventure. Its dingy sub-districts have all sorts of gangs controlling the streets, while intrigue runs rampant in the aristocratic districts of Old Laqueta. The strategic importance of the city was realized early on (especially when the functionality of Old Laqueta’s offensive weaponry was discovered), and the Airman’s Council established several major treaties, all of which had two major effects. One, that New Laqueta is neutral ground. In times of war, warships are not approach the city. Second, that New Laqueta may not fly over a signatory nation or settlement. In addition, should a hostile action be taken against New Laqueta, all signatory nations will provide forces to retaliate. New Laqueta itself can muster quite a defense force, as it can draft local airships into service if necessary to complement its own master-crafted warships, as well as harpy skirmishers. The most famed defense, however, are the Dark Riders, professional soldiers that ride into battle astride black riding birds. Rumors hold of a family that have even tamed drakes to ride into battle.


So, flying metropolis. I've been using the settlement rules (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/settlements) to stat the city up. The biggest obstacle I've faced is the population; I'm not entirely sure where to peg it. A metropolis (which New Laqueta certainly is, it's a nation-state in and of itself) has a minimum population of over 25,000, and they can go up to 300,000 in some settings. While the flying city itself is huge, space is at a premium; I've been considering multiplying cost of living rates, as well as some item prices. That said, I have been somewhat inspired by Renaissance-era Venice, with the Venetian Arsenal being similar to the shipyards of New Laqueta. Venice had a population of approximately 150,000 then, if my scant research is correct. If I can get a number pinned down, I can split that up into proper demographics easier, and start on the actual layout of the city.

For the layout, I know the 'flying city' of Old Laqueta makes up a significant portion of the entire structure; it's modeled after Laputa from Castle in the Sky, and the top has both the aristocratic district and gardens, very much the 'nice' section of the city. I'd imagine prominent businesses would have their offices here. The interior of the city would be more mysterious; workings of the actual flight mechanisms, the superweapon, forgotten tunnels, and such. Only the outside would really be habitable, probably a combination of actual habitats built into the shell and extra housing built along the sides. Furthermore, I mentioned several other components in the description: Specifically, the helicarriers, flying castle (itself a modified Cloud Castle of the Storm King, with many of its spells modified to provide arcane power to engines), and airship conglomerations. The castle has probably been converted into the seat of government for New Laqueta, with the spells provided by the artifact converted into arcane power for the rest of the city. The helicarriers have likely been converted into cheap housing; modern aircraft carriers hold up to 3,000 crew, and while there would certainly be less aboard a flying version, these semi-functional ones have likely had a lot of unnecessary stuff stripped out and have small towns on top. The last would have to be the wrecked airship conglomerations, along with manifolds constructed specifically for the city; these would probably be more utilitarian in use, holding the extra infrastructure, more independent businesses and buildings, along with being the actual shipyards and docks for the airships that are constantly arriving and departing. This would kind of fill in the gaps in the city. Beneath the city is probably some sort of magic Alarm setup, for when creatures fall. Items that facilitate Feather Fall are practically mass-produced in the city, since there's so much verticality. That said, the gangs jealously guard areas that have holes in the Alarm field...

As for gangs, I've come up with five: the Rooks, a violently racist all-Harpy gang (harpies are a player race in this setting) with a long history, the Union, a semi-legitimate group that is ostensibly formed to do what normal union groups do. In practice, its the largest gang in the city. The Lo and Ve Tongs are two mana wight groups. Mana wights are a very weird player race, and these organizations reflect that, full of arcane casters and strange motives. They are, however, much less belligerent than the other gangs, but fiercely territorial all the same. Last is the Retali-Town Tailors, the most 'normal' out of the gangs, though they are very egalitarian. They are based off of one of the helicarriers, formerly called the 'Retaliator', but some of the letters have been worn off.

So, all in all, I need help determining approximately how big the city is, and how many people can live there, along with any other suggestions.

[Sagetim]

Well, if you want to keep the size down you could say that the city has closer to 25,000 as it's population. Around 30,000 would be a nice round number that would keep the city consistently in 'metropolis' territory of population level. Now, a population of 30,000 is going to need at least enough space to bunk people, have work space, and move around. I doubt that everyone on the place is in cramped tenement conditions though. So while the majority of the population might be stuffed into cramped spaces (I would suggest looking at how many people could fit in an actual tenement, and the size of a typical tenement building, to get spacing for at least half the population) the richer and more powerful sections of the population are going to have access to the normal sized rooms in the castle section, or proper quarters on permanently docked air ships, or what have you. Depending on the core structures that the floating city is based on, it might even have gardens where people of sufficient station and privilege are allowed to stretch their legs. Of course, no space should be going to waste, so fruit trees and other such things should be growing in locations like that. Which makes them a target for the more ballsy gangs, and a place where fights might regularly break out between guards and gangs.

Additional food sources in the city would probably include some items that are hold overs from it's previous existance, barrels of unlimited rice or myrlynd spoons or what have you. In addition to those any level 5 and up clerics are probably supplying simple fare to the neophytes of the faith through create food and water. On the luxurious end of things, people with the money to afford one and the space to deploy one could have a portable oasis. Among other things, that magic item (from the 3.5 magic item compendium) provides you with a number of dates sufficient to feed, I think it is, one person per day. Those Dates are going to be a luxurious resource, even if you have a consistent supply of them each day.

If you're willing to get creative, you could even say that mages on the city have developed vines that are growing all over the city that produce fruit each day, like Goodberries but...you know, not berries. If the city has a steady supply of food to the point of being self sufficient, then it won't be stuck in a lurch if it finds itself unable to trade for food for one reason or another. With some well leveled wizards, Walls of Iron could provide the necessary raw iron for a lot of the city's general needs (like nails, screws, and other little metal objects that might need regular replacement). I can't remember at the moment, but there's bound to be a means of getting a steady supply of wood for the city's needs as well. It all kind of comes down to how high a level the city's casters are and what kind of support they provide it.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I was thinking similar, actually. Earlier, after I had put the post up, I thought that around 30,000 seemed like a nice round number to peg it at. Space-wise, I was thinking it goes as thus: upper class lives up top in Old Laqueta, which ranges from manors to Victorian-style houses, or in their own private airships (most wealthy). Middle-class is slightly more spacious room on the manifolds, airship conglomerations, or on top of the carriers. Lower-class citizens are packed onto the smaller manifold living quarters, or on the carriers. The Cloud Castle is mostly reserved for elite guard and officials, since it houses the control mechanisms for the city.

As for food and water, I imagined that they would be importing a massive amount. Maybe part of the bidding process from the signatory nations is supplying food? It's not so much a bid where you win or lose, its that all of them bid, and the amount offered determines the route the city takes across the world. Since cargo is coming in from everywhere, it's an economic boon to wherever it gets near. Besides that, though, some food is handled by farms on the city itself (including at least one enchanted goodberry field), and exotic food imported independently.

[Dusk Eclipse]

For getting supplies, they could probably resort to good ol'piracy, I mean if the city has their own means of moving and direction, they could in theory raid caravans or even other countries with relative safety, I mean if the city is flying they should have their own air force.

[Sagetim]

A handful of Decanters of Endless Water would probably be enough to supply an active sewage system, allowing the city to keep its farms supplied with a ready source of...fertilizer. I know it's kind of gross to think about, but when you are trying to aim at self sufficiency with a flying city, you're going to want to recycle the waste as fertilizer. If you had a city fully supplied on the food front by magical sources, then the sewage system would be much simpler: It would just dump out the bottom of the city.

On the bright side, you could fairly easily have running water through piping set up with these decanters of endless water. On the down side, this also means more things that need an upkeep and more things that gangs can potentially steal (pipes that is). However, back on the upside it creates work: Mages supplying Wall of Iron spells for a steady supply of iron would keep smiths supplied with the materials to make the pipes and fittings, which would supply the plumbers with the bits they would be replacing or installing, which the gangs would steal and sell or resmelt or what have you, which keeps some portion of the economy running. It's not a perfect system, but it keeps criminals occupied with stupid **** (like stealing pipes) instead of murdering people. It keeps skilled laborers employed by the city so that they can be called upon at a moments notice to do other things. And it gives the high level wizards something to do as a daily chore. As a benefit that you could present at a city council meeting, it also provides (at least most) of your citizens with running water. That's majorly great for hygiene. And it means that you don't have to worry about your citizens dying of dehydration if they have free water.

[Mithril Leaf]

I just wanted to point out that if you have a level 13 Wizard with a Valet Familiar and Craft Construct + Craft Wonderous Item, you can add 715,776 pounds of capacity by creating a flying permanent Animated Object with Craft Construct, Muleback Cords, and a Heavyload Belt. This costs a grand total of 11 grand.

Alternatively: You could spend 46,000 for another +14 Strength over the standard Colossal Animated Object, if you do, you hit nearly 5 million pounds. This averages out to about 65% more efficient.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

For getting supplies, they could probably resort to good ol'piracy, I mean if the city has their own means of moving and direction, they could in theory raid caravans or even other countries with relative safety, I mean if the city is flying they should have their own air force.

They have a very impressive aerial navy, but most of it is short-range. Pillaging seems out of character for the city, even if they only preyed on non-signatory regions... however, freebooters pillaging then selling the spoils independently seems delightfully possible, and adventure-worthy.


A handful of Decanters of Endless Water would probably be enough to supply an active sewage system, allowing the city to keep its farms supplied with a ready source of...fertilizer. I know it's kind of gross to think about, but when you are trying to aim at self sufficiency with a flying city, you're going to want to recycle the waste as fertilizer. If you had a city fully supplied on the food front by magical sources, then the sewage system would be much simpler: It would just dump out the bottom of the city.

On the bright side, you could fairly easily have running water through piping set up with these decanters of endless water. On the down side, this also means more things that need an upkeep and more things that gangs can potentially steal (pipes that is). However, back on the upside it creates work: Mages supplying Wall of Iron spells for a steady supply of iron would keep smiths supplied with the materials to make the pipes and fittings, which would supply the plumbers with the bits they would be replacing or installing, which the gangs would steal and sell or resmelt or what have you, which keeps some portion of the economy running. It's not a perfect system, but it keeps criminals occupied with stupid **** (like stealing pipes) instead of murdering people. It keeps skilled laborers employed by the city so that they can be called upon at a moments notice to do other things. And it gives the high level wizards something to do as a daily chore. As a benefit that you could present at a city council meeting, it also provides (at least most) of your citizens with running water. That's majorly great for hygiene. And it means that you don't have to worry about your citizens dying of dehydration if they have free water.

Hell, sewers providing fertilizer means that's another low-class job. Water would be handled by both magical means (though I dislike saying its a specific magic item glued into place, and more general enchantments), and technological/technomagical water condensers. What, you don't want to drink distilled cloud? Also, the gangs are more territory-based than goods-based. The Rooks violently defend harpy sections and are the most likely to attack outside their districts, the Union is the most widespread and organized of the gangs, the mana wight Tongs are very defensive about protecting the mana wights under their protection (with an inordinate amount of magic at their disposal), and the Tailors are more about protection money. All the gangs do do things for their respective communities; stealing food, 'protection' (mostly a racket, but still applicable), acquiring goods, and influencing higher-ups. They're not all brainless idiots. You make a good point, though, about running water; not exactly a luxury most of the world has.

[BWR]

Bruce Heard's bit on Mystara's Floating Kingdom of Ar, might be useful. A series of blog articles ending here (http://bruce-heard.blogspot.no/2013/03/Ar13.html)with links to previous installments. It's based around a kingdom of floating islands rather than a single one but there should be plenty of numbers and ideas you can use.

[Yahzi]

Use a custom gate or something instead of Decanters of Endless water; while they can keep a lot of people from thirst, they can't actually perform agricultural or industrial uses. People tend to wildly underestimate how much water those things take.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Bruce Heard's bit on Mystara's Floating Kingdom of Ar, might be useful. A series of blog articles ending here (http://bruce-heard.blogspot.no/2013/03/Ar13.html)with links to previous installments. It's based around a kingdom of floating islands rather than a single one but there should be plenty of numbers and ideas you can use.

Most of the stuff seems to be for a stationary floating city, but I'll look through it for useful stuff.


Use a custom gate or something instead of Decanters of Endless water; while they can keep a lot of people from thirst, they can't actually perform agricultural or industrial uses. People tend to wildly underestimate how much water those things take.

Like I said, I prefer to use vague enchantments anyway.