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MrZJunior
2016-04-09, 09:44 PM
The current "bad guy" in my campaign is trying to redevelop the ruined site of an ancient city. The city lost the protection of its patron deity an indeterminate time ago and went into decline. The antagonist has successfully performed a ritual to regain the favor of this deity and is hoping to refound the city and repopulate it with himself as king. With the god's favor the fields around the city will become more fertile and wind patterns will change making the city a more practical location for traders to stop.

He's a pretty clever guy so he will probably have some ship loads of colonists ready on nearby islands. What sort of skills and groups would he need to refound the city?

Gildedragon
2016-04-09, 10:26 PM
Skills? Resource management. Diplomacy. Military might otherwise be able to secure resources. Architecture and Engineering to manage and repair (and maintain) the infrastructure, and fix any damaged buildings.
Spells to create constructs and undead: one needs a workforce to work the fields

RazorChain
2016-04-09, 10:27 PM
First of all cities need food. So farmers, hunters and fishermen. Circle of farming means that dairy production needs to be closest to the city, then livestock and then grain, oats etc. This is determined by ease of transport.

You need somebody to build the city, that means stonemasons and carpenters

You need trade, that mean infrastructure like roads, river traffic. Places to stay like inns and taverns. Somewhere to peddle wares like marketplace

Then you have to consider what can the city trade? Does it have any raw resources to trade?

As population rises then other services will be needed like craftsmen and artisans

But most important is access to food and water.

MesiDoomstalker
2016-04-10, 02:17 AM
By your wind comment, I assume its a coastal city (or Airships are a thing but only work via sails for some reason?). Obviously a city existed and prospered there but only through the grace of the Diety. So, that means its location is good for a prosperous city in almost every manner except a critical, but basic component; sustenance. Now with the Diety's favor restored, the lands are fertile again and wind brings trader's sails to port. So what does that mean?

Well the good news is you have a fair amount of groundwork done. Even if the city is in absolute tatters, and most if not all buildings need to be torn down (of what remains) and rebuilt from the ground up, you still have a ton of resources already readily available. Any non-rotten timber, the vast majority of stonework and most sewage systems would be salvageable with a bit of work. On top of that, if your antagonist has good ranks in Knowledge (History) or his colonists have a member with high Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) (at least 1 should, preferably the city planner), you can determine the layout of the old city as a basis for the layout of the new one. Plus most of the road system will be easily determined though likely in need of serious TLC.

So you have a fair amount of resources on site for quick construction, the possibility to skip or shortcut a large amount of planning, all you need to do is get building. Depending on how the city needs to stand by the time the PCs reach it, there are a few different ways it can go.

If the PC's find it early, they'll find a boom town. Despite the number of people it will be scarcely populated with finished buildings. It will have only essential structures; a barracks and mess hall for the fleet of engineers, stonemasons, and other craftsmen needed to construct a city. A simple tavern for said workers to kick off (and for investors and trader's to rest while they peddle their goods and haggle with the King for their business). The start of a wharf, with some form of warehouse which stores merchant's wares under heavy guard, along with an ever increasing amount of salvaged material from the old city. It will be mostly a main street of completed and essential buildings with a sprawl of in-progress construction spreading outwards. Beyond the city limit, which may be the remains of the old city's walls, will be a secondary barracks for those starting to prepare the land for farming. Farmland will develop quicker than the city, but thats ok as the workers in the city need vitals. But for the moment, they are working on imported goods.

If the PC's find it a few years after its initial founding, they will find a bustling port town. The outskirts of the city will still hold the remnants of the old city, there is a good 100 to 300 foot gap of cleared space between the city proper and the ruins, where new construction is taking place. By this point the city is self-sustaining and prosperous though they are still likely dipping into the coffer's to expand quickly. The farmland outside the city is well developed and spacious and constitutes its main source of export at the moment. By now, any natural resource in the vicinity is starting to be tapped for its revenue, but any operation here is fledgling. The city's wharf will be well developed, the single most important area in a booming port town. There will be a few tavern's to select from and a large marketplace not far from the wharf and its warehouse stores. By now, large guilds will have taken residence though likely only an outpost or message board in the more popular taverns.

If the PC's find it late in its resurgence they will find a impressive metropolis. Only the general layout of the city and its thoroughfare's remain of the old city. The city is ringed for miles by farmland, supporting its burgeoning population. The city itself will be packed to the gills and if the Antagonist is smart, will have built his outer defensive walls further than the previous city to allow for more continued growth. The wharf and the marketplace have by now merged into a seamless bustle of activity. Likely, the city has spread further up and down the coast than its predecessor. One can find a guildhouse for every major guild and a number of smaller guilds dotted throughout. A pristine sector of the city houses its nobles and the King's Palace. Whatever natural resources in the area will have full blown operations, draining every copper possible, which is funneled out of the wharf and into the trade winds.

Inevitability
2016-04-10, 08:26 AM
If something is ruined, monsters are going to move in (kind of an unwritten D&D rule). I imagine the villain would either need bands of adventurers to chase the monsters out or negotiators to forge alliances with them.

SirBellias
2016-04-10, 09:15 AM
If something is ruined, monsters are going to move in (kind of an unwritten D&D rule). I imagine the villain would either need bands of adventurers to chase the monsters out or negotiators to forge alliances with them.

I could see a villainy type recruiting the smaller grunts for guard work and labor, and the bigger threats as nobles with a share of the profits/a decent Manor house or something.

Vitruviansquid
2016-04-10, 09:19 AM
The current "bad guy" in my campaign is trying to redevelop the ruined site of an ancient city. The city lost the protection of its patron deity an indeterminate time ago and went into decline. The antagonist has successfully performed a ritual to regain the favor of this deity and is hoping to refound the city and repopulate it with himself as king. With the god's favor the fields around the city will become more fertile and wind patterns will change making the city a more practical location for traders to stop.

He's a pretty clever guy so he will probably have some ship loads of colonists ready on nearby islands. What sort of skills and groups would he need to refound the city?

Why not just give the bad guy NONE of the conventional skills you would need to re-establish a city?

Since you've already made it clear that the success of the city is dependent on the favor of a deity, just make it like whenever this project is about to fail, some unexpected windfall arrives from the deity to turn things around.

BayardSPSR
2016-04-10, 04:22 PM
He's a pretty clever guy so he will probably have some ship loads of colonists ready on nearby islands. What sort of skills and groups would he need to refound the city?

As people have said, having a thriving pre-industrial urban population demands a thriving rural agricultural population. Most of the people needed to "found" a city will be farmers who don't live in it.

Aside from that, if a coastal city is to proper, it will have a high population of sailors and ship-owners. If its imports and exports are transported by its own residents, then a higher percentage of the profits of that trade will be redirected into the city, and the city is likely to develop a navy to protect its trade routes from pirates. Over time, the emerging city-state may even found colonies in distant, resource-rich places (or forcibly occupy settled resource-rich places). Boom! Empire.

Sources: Athens, Rome, Carthage, Venice, Alfred Thayer Mahan.

Storm_Of_Snow
2016-04-11, 03:00 AM
In the short term, food and water could be stockpiled and brought in with waves of troops, workers and eventually colonists, longer term, you'll need to supply them in situ.

You'll need guards to protect colonists and scouts to recon the area. If the plan is to move into the remains of the city, you'll need surveyors to determine which buildings are usable, and which need to be repaired or demolished, if not, you'll need a lot of tents.