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Cravix
2017-09-22, 09:46 AM
So I am working on a campaign where i need a detailed city as it will be dealing with a monster invasion. I need a city that has sections that say that players can reclaim one at a time. Underground locations like an aqueduct or sewers. Most city generators give stats like population or important npcs but dont really dive that map layout im really needing. Help is appreciated.

jayem
2017-09-22, 11:36 AM
What's it's big brush history, big brush geography?
When is now?

Potatomade
2017-09-22, 12:23 PM
The City of Greyhawk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_of_Greyhawk), maybe? Or Waterdeep and the North (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterdeep_and_the_North)? If all you're wanting is maps or ideas or whatever, you could borrow them from these. Unless you're playing with some hardcore nerds, I doubt most folks would recognize them.

Vogie
2017-09-22, 01:04 PM
We'll need a bit more than that. If it was the generic post-medieval time that D&D is set in, it's actually surprisingly easy. Cities in that era were completely open air and outside the castle walls, and in case of invasion, the cityfolk would retreat into the castle walls.

If you want one with a wall that goes around the city, perhaps look for a map of King's Landing from Game of Thrones, or the city from Attack on Titan?

An easy way to create a substantial-size city is using urban planning basics using a snowflake method. First divvy up the city into zones of roughly the same size and shape. These zones can be based on guilds, industries, factions, families, and whatnot. Then pour a lot of detail and design into just one of those zones. Making the streets, the sewers, the walls, everything, for just that zone. Then, like making a paper snowflake, you can "unfold" that design across the rest of the city. It could be a shape, a series of concentric information, et cetera.

https://cdn.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/002/411/356/large/mark-kamyshin-nerosyan.jpg?1461405030

Then you can go through and make changes. The industrial and warehouse districts will have less housing and more, well, industries and warehouses, while the port will have less walls and more marinas and docks. The keep zone will have thicker walls, barracks, and fancy courtyards in lieu of homes, shops, and churches.

LibraryOgre
2017-09-22, 01:30 PM
Ruins of Adventure (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16808/FRC1-Ruins-of-Adventure-1e?it=1) is set in Phlan, a city on the Moonsea in the Forgotten Realms, and designed around just that. There's some problems (IIRC, one of the maps was rotated 90*, so the key doesn't match up with what the descriptions are), but it will give you a big city, well mapped, with lots of options to work with.

jayem
2017-09-22, 01:44 PM
If you want one with a wall that goes around the city, perhaps look for a map of King's Landing from Game of Thrones, or the city from Attack on Titan?

An easy way to create a substantial-size city is using urban planning basics using a snowflake method. First divvy up the city into zones of roughly the same size and shape. These zones can be based on guilds, industries, factions, families, and whatnot. Then pour a lot of detail and design into just one of those zones. Making the streets, the sewers, the walls, everything, for just that zone. Then, like making a paper snowflake, you can "unfold" that design across the rest of the city. It could be a shape, a series of concentric information, et cetera.

If you have two zoning snowflakes of different sizes, then you'll automatically have just a bit more variation too.

So you could have 11 'key buildings' marked on your zone, and then a rolling list of 19, so zone 1 gets buildings 1-11. zone 2 gets building 12-3, etc...
And hope they don't notice that to find the armory you go to where the church was in the zone before.

Or variants thereof. Perhaps you could have each zone consisting of an outer block of streets with an inner block of streets (with fixed connections between the 2) and both of them on different cycle lengths. So you design 3 structures for the middle, and 4 for the outside giving you 12 distinct road networks.

Aran nu tasar
2017-09-22, 03:00 PM
The city of Duskwall, the setting of Blades in the Dark, could work quite well for this. If you don't want to spend money on the game, the free reference documents here (https://www.evilhat.com/home/blades-in-the-dark-downloads/) will give you a number of maps, as well as an overview of all of the districts and factions. You can use the city as written, or just use the maps and come up with your own factions and details.

Vogie
2017-09-22, 03:14 PM
If you have two zoning snowflakes of different sizes, then you'll automatically have just a bit more variation too.

So you could have 11 'key buildings' marked on your zone, and then a rolling list of 19, so zone 1 gets buildings 1-11. zone 2 gets building 12-3, etc...
And hope they don't notice that to find the armory you go to where the church was in the zone before.

Or variants thereof. Perhaps you could have each zone consisting of an outer block of streets with an inner block of streets (with fixed connections between the 2) and both of them on different cycle lengths. So you design 3 structures for the middle, and 4 for the outside giving you 12 distinct road networks.

That's a good point. With two designs, you can easily move the variations around like puzzle pieces to construct a map, even on the fly.

Another thing to think about, when designing a city of any size or era, is the landmarks that the city would have sprung up around. This could be a natural bay or harbor, a large mountain, et cetera. For example:

Jerusalem was settled on a plateau for natural defenses.
Minas Tirith was settled on a hill next to a mountain for the same reason.
The Capital of Panem was connected to a dam and reservoir lake for hydroelectric power.
The Twins and Riverrun in the Westerosi Riverlands are located on rivers for both defense, a water supply and control of transportation through the surrounding area.
New Amsterdam was settled due to the trade benefits of the location, which slowly spread onto both Long Island and the Hudson Valley to become New York.
Rome was built, initially, on the seven hills surrounding the single natural ford location of the Tiber river, in a central location in Italy


The type of city design will, of course, mold to the area that it is in. Even modernized and heavily-augmented cities like New York, Amsterdam, Venice, and Dubai are still largely attached to the natural environment in over 80% of the cases.

Braininthejar2
2017-09-22, 04:05 PM
How about some historical city, like medieval Cracov?

http://www.sklep.kacperryx.pl/userdata/gfx/8b71f3e9453ec6820afda4cfe0c802cb.jpg

solidork
2017-09-22, 04:12 PM
I've been itching to find a reason to use this one: https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator

2D8HP
2017-09-23, 06:26 PM
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories (http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/04/fritz-leiber-sword-sorcery-grows-up/) introduced Fantasy fiction to the "Thieves Guild", I believe in the 1943 story

Thieves' House (http://www.troynovant.com/Franson/Leiber/Thieves-House.html)

So why not use the classic:

Lankhmar – City of Adventure (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lankhmar_%E2%80%93_City_of_Adventure)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/ca/TSR9162_Lankhmar_City_Of_Adventure.jpg/220px-TSR9162_Lankhmar_City_Of_Adventure.jpg


...or, a detailed later homage and parody of the same:

The Compleat Ankh-Morpork City Guide (https://discworld.com/products/books/book-the-compleat-ankh-morpork-city-guide/)

https://discworld.com/management/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/guide-217x300.jpg