What’s the Best-Developed City in 3.PF?

[Palanan]

Across all sources and publishers, what’s the best-developed urban setting in the 3.X/Pathfinder rules?

I’m looking for the city with the most of everything: the most history and lore, the most physical and narrative detail, the most factions and plot hooks, the most NPCs and creatures with 3.5-compatible statblocks.

My only restriction is that this needs to be a city on the main world of the setting, e.g. Prime Material, and not something planar. (Sorry, fans of Sigil, I’m firm on this point.) A few portals to other planes are fine, but for my purposes the city itself needs to be in the setting’s principal world.

I’m open to all published settings, first-party Wizards and Paizo, as well as any third-party materials that meet the criteria. So, what are some contenders?

[noob]

I’m looking for the city with the most of everything: the most history and lore, the most physical and narrative detail, the most factions and plot hooks, the most NPCs and creatures with 3.5-compatible statblocks.
It is simple: it is a city containing all the published and third party dnd 3 or 3.5 or pathfinder cities next to each other.
It is over that simple homebrew fits all your criteria and will always be the best because no matter which city someone creates it will be within that city and therefore add to the amount of content.
However it is also a very incoherent city but coherence was not asked for.

[Psyren]

Waterdeep probably has the most sheer amount of stuff written about it, and ancillary media as well like board games and video games - particularly if you broaden your search to include info from other editions like 2e, 4e, and 5e.

[Silly Name]

Neverwinter has also received its fair share of attention, both in 3.x and across other editions. The people at WotC seem to really like the Sword Coast in general.

And, of course, Greyhawk isn't a slouch in the "thousands of pages written about it" department either.

[Edenbeast]

I'm going to shamelessly mention Raven's Bluff, although I don't think there's much 3.5 material available. But for ADnD there were 3 accessories, at least 1 novel, and an adventure (you'll join the Nightwatch)

But I guess in terms of number of books and novels, material across multiple editions, then Waterdeep wins.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Psyren
Waterdeep probably has the most sheer amount of stuff written about it, and ancillary media as well like board games and video games - particularly if you broaden your search to include info from other editions like 2e, 4e, and 5e.

Yeah, Waterdeep is pretty much the oliphaunt in the room on this topic. I was hoping there would be some contenders, but as you say, Waterdeep has been a mainstay of the Realms ever since AD&D. Kind of a blessing and a curse, really.

Does Pathfinder have anything in-depth about any of Golarion’s cities? I know that part of Runelords takes place in Magnimar, but I can’t think of any setting resources that focus entirely on a given city. In general Paizo doesn’t seem to be following Wizards’ lead with books on specific regions (Shining South, Silver Marches, etc.), but I don’t know if there are Player Companions that might do this to a lesser extent.


Originally Posted by Silly Name
And, of course, Greyhawk isn't a slouch in the "thousands of pages written about it" department either.

I know virtually nothing about Greyhawk. I’ve played exactly one game session in fifteen years in that setting.

Is there a particular city in Greyhawk that gets the Waterdeep treatment?


Originally Posted by Edenbeast
I'm going to shamelessly mention Raven's Bluff, although I don't think there's much 3.5 material available. But for ADnD there were 3 accessories, at least 1 novel, and an adventure (you'll join the Nightwatch)….

Interesting, thanks. I really don’t know much about the AD&D resources, but Raven’s Bluff sounds vaguely familiar.

[AmberVael]

So I've worked on two pretty developed cities. They're not the largest compared to some of the official settings, but maybe they'll serve as a basis of comparison or prove helpful in some other way?

Languard is the first. Creighton Broadhurst kept notes on his writing process on his blog (http://www.creightonbroadhurst.com/gloamhold/) and you can read a ton about the city there. He also has a more formal overview of the main book here. (http://www.ragingswan.com/city-backdrop-languard/) On its own the main book probably isn't a contender, but he divided the city into several sections and then released supplemental material for each one. Low City, (http://www.ragingswan.com/languard-locations-low-city/) Shambles, (http://www.ragingswan.com/languard-locations-the-shambles/) Fishshambles, (http://www.ragingswan.com/languard-locations-fishshambles/) Wrecks, (http://www.ragingswan.com/languard-locations-the-wrecks/) High City, (http://www.ragingswan.com/languard-locations-high-city/) and Beyond the Walls. (http://www.ragingswan.com/languard-locations-beyond-the-walls/)
Between all those, there's a good amount of detail on Languard and what you can find in it.

Andrus is probably still larger than Languard though. Andrus: The City of Men (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/232681/Andrus-The-City-of-Men) is part of Drop Dead Studio's Skybourne setting. It gets a full sized sourcebook to itself, with a chapter on each city district.

[Khedrac]

Is there a particular city in Greyhawk that gets the Waterdeep treatment?
They mean the city of Greyhawk - it got an entire 2nd Ed boxed set as well as all of its other mentions.
For 3.5 there's a fair bit about it in Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk.

I would also serve up another contender: Sigil - there was a lot published for it under the Plansecape banner, and again for 3.5 see Expedition to the Demonweb Pits.

[BassoonHero]

I nominate Ptolus, by Monte Cook. It probably doesn't have as much raw material as Waterdeep, but it does have a single, very thick, authoritative sourcebook. Ptolus: City by the Spire details all of the various districts of the city and the caverns below; noble houses, guilds, churches, and other organizations; inns, taverns, shops, monuments, civic institutions, and other locations; and countless NPCs of all sorts. The marketing material touts "more than 350 fabulous illustrations and over 100 color maps". I actually printed and laminated an enormous city map (about 3 feet by 4 feet) from the included materials.

In addition to the core book, there's a supplement focusing on the Delver's Guild, a a couple of adventure modules that take place in or below the city, and various peripheral content.

All this put together is probably less than the sum total of the material related to Waterdeep, but that material is spread across countless books and modules written at different times for different purposed, and it carries with it a lot of FR's baggage. Ptolus was designed as a coherent whole to be used as a campaign setting unto itself, and the vast majority of its material is contained in one well-organized, well-indexed sourcebook. For these reasons, I think that it has a reasonable claim to be "the Best-Developed City in 3.PF".

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by AmberVael
Creighton Broadhurst kept notes on his writing process on his blog and you can read a ton about the city there.

Interesting, thanks. I’ve come across that blog before. The descriptive writing is a bit much, but some interesting ideas.


Originally Posted by AmberVael
Andrus: The City of Men is part of Drop Dead Studio's Skybourne setting. It gets a full sized sourcebook to itself, with a chapter on each city district.

That’s an impressive project. You don’t usually see a forest as the cause of the end of the world, so it does have me intrigued.

(Inspired by Nausicaa, perhaps?)


Originally Posted by Khedrac
They mean the city of Greyhawk - it got an entire 2nd Ed boxed set as well as all of its other mentions.
For 3.5 there's a fair bit about it in Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk.

Huh. I never realized it was a city and a setting. That one game session didn’t really get into setting lore.

Is there anything about the city that sets it apart?


Originally Posted by BassoonHero
I nominate Ptolus, by Monte Cook…. Ptolus was designed as a coherent whole to be used as a campaign setting unto itself, and the vast majority of its material is contained in one well-organized, well-indexed sourcebook. For these reasons, I think that it has a reasonable claim to be "the Best-Developed City in 3.PF".

Very persuasive indeed. Definitely interesting.

Sadly, the pricetag for a used copy on Amazon is far above my range. But you sure do make me want to read it.

.

[weckar]

I'd nominate Sharn, but mostly Ptolus. It is insane how many potential plot hooks that book has hidden in the margins. We played a 1-20 weekly campaign in that city for well over three years which only ended because we'd utterly destroyed it. We used MAYBE 5% of the available material in that time.We are still considering rebooting that game one of these days.

[tyckspoon]

Huh. I never realized it was a city and a setting. That one game session didn’t really get into setting lore.

Is there anything about the city that sets it apart?


So, as I understand it, originally the players of proto-D&D were just delving this one massive megadungeon. Eventually one of them thought to ask what the place was called, aside from 'the dungeon.' Greyhawk was the name given to it. Access to the dungeon was through the basement floors of a castle located above it, so obviously that was Castle Greyhawk. And you can't have a castle without a supporting village or city, so the nearest point of significant civilization where the adventurers would go to rest and recover.. well, that was the city of Greyhawk. You can see how this wound up having the entire setting that spawned from it just called 'Greyhawk' too :smallamused:

[Seto]

Don't know about the others, but
Golarion's Riddleport is a contender. If I'm not mistaken, several aventure paths start in Riddleport, including Second Darkness (which I'm currently running), and the famous Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne. Each of those contains Riddleport material for both players and GMs, approaches it from different angles, focuses on different NPCs... I could tell you from memory the different neighborhoods, important NPCs and locations, crimelords etc.

[Thurbane]

I'm also going to vote for Waterdeep.

I'm not a huge FR fan, but it has a ton of supplements throughout the various D&D editions, and is still being supported.

[Nifft]

Huh. I never realized it was a city and a setting. That one game session didn’t really get into setting lore.

Is there anything about the city that sets it apart?

All the usual Gygaxian craziness.

For example: the sewer system was built hundreds of years before the city, because the founder used precognition and/or divination magic to figure out how the city would grow.

There was a self-insert uber-wizard who basically ruled the city, but he's gone now. He kidnapped ~8 regional demi-gods and used them to ascend to divinity, somehow. One of them escaped and is currently acting like a Saruman expy (... and somebody should totally go do something about that guy). The self-insert uber-wizard did some crazy stuff, though that stuff is probably cliche or typical by now.

From a non-silly socioeconomic perspective, Greyhawk is a big deal because it's centrally located, and because it's on a major river route which handles trade from the Baklunish West to the former Great Kingdom. It's a gateway for the nations of the Sheldomar Valley and the Elven kingdom, it's a close trading partner for Irongate, and it's where the Council of Eight had been meeting. It's an independent city-state in between a lot of larger states, and it's not on the front-line of that Saruman-expy's invasion (... yet).

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Golarion's Absalom is pretty developed, taking into account the vast number of Pathfinder Society scenarios that take place there. Hell, one museum in particular appears so often I'm pretty sure every PC has their own story about the place. And it's not even very large.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Ninjaxenomorph
Golarion's Absalom is pretty developed, taking into account the vast number of Pathfinder Society scenarios that take place there.

Does PFS have its own separate sources? Like a subscribers-only magazine or something?

There's a "Pathfinder Chronicles" 64-page book on Absalom, but I'm not sure what Pathfinder Chronicles is.

[Recherché]

Pathfinder Chronicles was just the old name that the first worldbuilding stuff for Golarion was published undergo. All it means is that it's old and low on crunch.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Nah, PFS scenarios were short adventures you bought and ran for Society play. Definitely not module length, but a lot of the more interesting ones were more than just dungeon crawls, and presented some interesting parts of the city.

[Kol Korran]

I'd nominate Sharn, but mostly Ptolus. It is insane how many potential plot hooks that book has hidden in the margins. We played a 1-20 weekly campaign in that city for well over three years which only ended because we'd utterly destroyed it. We used MAYBE 5% of the available material in that time.We are still considering rebooting that game one of these days.
I thought to nominate Ptolus as well, due to it's actual play value. Though I haven't played it myself, I know 2 groups that have. One played using it for 9 years, over 2.5 campaigns (the group broke due to RL reasons) and another for 4 years (one long campaign). What impressed me in both groups:
- Both groups never left the city ("There is soooo much to do there!")
- They realy got involved and invested in it. (Part of this may be due to the DMs, but at least part is due to the setting).
- Both groups ran a semi- sandbox game, in which their own motivations, actions and initiative changed the place, and the material supported this playstyle well.
- They only needed this one book (setting wise) to play.

I found this impressive. I never got around to purchasing it. (Due to price, and running other games) but from the people who've played it I hear high praise and satiafaction.

[Mordaedil]

I don't think you can really beat Waterdeep, because if you want to be generous, it has roughly three books detailing it.

The Campaign Settings Guide gives a rough detailing, but then it has a book specifically written about it and its inner workings, and there is another book governing Undermountain, which is just below the damn city.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Many Galorion cities are well fleshed out... if your willing to piece them together. Some cities of import, like Absalom, Magnimar, Riddleport and Korvosa (I say import as they are the 'jewel' of the setting or the first bits of the setting conceptualized, respectively) have their own dedicated source books which detail their history, districts, NPCs as well numerous plot hooks. However, many cities in Galorion have a brief blurb in the the setting book that covers the area that city resides in and maybe a map of the city. And many places have bits of info thrown all around various sources (especially the four I just mentioned).

That being said; its hard for any Galorion city to contend with the decades of content of all kinds tacked onto cities like Waterdeep or Greyhawk.

[Kurald Galain]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Sigil...


Golarion's Absalom is pretty developed, taking into account the vast number of Pathfinder Society scenarios that take place there. Hell, one museum in particular appears so often I'm pretty sure every PC has their own story about the place. And it's not even very large.
And yes, that. And that infamous museum may not be very large, but it changes shape of its own accord (which is a plot point in at least one adventure).


Does PFS have its own separate sources? Like a subscribers-only magazine or something?
Aside from the adventures, the cities and factions and individuals of Absalom and Riddleport are also pretty well summarized and cross-referenced on the PF Wiki.

[carpocratian]

My bet is that Greyhawk (the city) has the most material for it overall IF you go all the way back to when it first appeared in print. Even more so if you include articles from magazines.

[Khedrac]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Sigil...
I did - just no one noticed.

I would also serve up another contender: Sigil - there was a lot published for it under the Plansecape banner, and again for 3.5 see Expedition to the Demonweb Pits.

If Waterdeep the city is allowed to include Undermountain (the dungeon) then I would say that Greyhawk (the city) is allowed to include Castle Greyhawk (the dungeon), which has (over time) far more information published about it (notably at least 3 1st Ed AD&D adventures - WG6, EX1 and EX2 - set on demi-planes contained therein).

Personally I'd probably favour Sigil for actual total though if one excludes material published by Living campaigns and novels.

Edit: Mea culpea, I totally missed part of the original question:

sigil was forbidden in the premise of the thread which is why mentioning it does not advance the creator of the thread.

[noob]

sigil was forbidden in the premise of the thread which is why mentioning it does not advance the creator of the thread.

[Mike Miller]

I don't know much about it, but there is a 3rd party book, The World's Largest City. Maybe it has some use?

[Mordaedil]

I was honestly just including 3rd edition published material, not counting 2nd edition or 1st edition, as they had... A lot more expansive material that would be unfair to both 3rd edition and Pathfinder.


Though 2nd edition did have a few maps of the complete dungeon of Undermountain, which is... Rather expansive. The largest dungeon built by hand I assume. Sigil doesn't have that much published in 3rd edition, otherwise I'd have it as my top recommendation (the planes are however a good contender, as they are covered in both the DMG, the Planar Handbook, Manual of the Planes and Hell and the Abyss get expanded upon in Fiendish Codex I & II, Fiend Folio and Book of Vile Darkness, and the good planes get some in Book of Exalted Deeds, you know, if you count the planes as places you'd want to visit)

Heck, planning a campaign entirely taking place in Hell would be quite entertaining.

[noob]

I was honestly just including 3rd edition published material, not counting 2nd edition or 1st edition, as they had... A lot more expansive material that would be unfair to both 3rd edition and Pathfinder.


Though 2nd edition did have a few maps of the complete dungeon of Undermountain, which is... Rather expansive. The largest dungeon built by hand I assume. Sigil doesn't have that much published in 3rd edition, otherwise I'd have it as my top recommendation (the planes are however a good contender, as they are covered in both the DMG, the Planar Handbook, Manual of the Planes and Hell and the Abyss get expanded upon in Fiendish Codex I & II, Fiend Folio and Book of Vile Darkness, and the good planes get some in Book of Exalted Deeds, you know, if you count the planes as places you'd want to visit)

Heck, planning a campaign entirely taking place in Hell would be quite entertaining.
Explaining again the only restriction of the creator of the thread.


My only restriction is that this needs to be a city on the main world of the setting, e.g. Prime Material, and not something planar. (Sorry, fans of Sigil, I’m firm on this point.) A few portals to other planes are fine, but for my purposes the city itself needs to be in the setting’s principal world.

[Mordaedil]

I mean, that was to address the other posters, not the OP specifically.

[Calthropstu]

Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, Evereska and Castle Ravenloft, Silverymoon, Mithral Hall all win hands down for 3e. 2e and 1e et al would include Istar, Solace and Greyhawk.

For PF Golarion, it looks like the most written about is Absalom, the main city of PFS. Second would be Nerosyan, the capital of Mendev thanks to all the publishings regarding the Worldwound wars. A distant third would be Sandpoint because of Amieko.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Kol Korran
I thought to nominate Ptolus as well, due to it's actual play value.

The more I hear about Ptolus, the more impressed I become. Sadly, the book is out of financial reach for me, unless by some minor miracle I can get it on ILL. Unfortunately most game supplements aren’t available that way.


Originally Posted by Calthropstu
Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, Evereska and Castle Ravenloft, Silverymoon, Mithral Hall all win hands down for 3e. 2e and 1e et al would include Istar, Solace and Greyhawk.

Huh. I know there’s some information on Silverymoon in the Silver Marches supplement, but not that much, and I’ve never seen much 3.X material on Evereska or Mithral Hall. Can you suggest some sources for these?

[Psyren]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Sigil...

Reading the OP might help with that :smalltongue:


Yeah, Waterdeep is pretty much the oliphaunt in the room on this topic. I was hoping there would be some contenders, but as you say, Waterdeep has been a mainstay of the Realms ever since AD&D. Kind of a blessing and a curse, really.

I mean, it's not hard to see why. Giant melting pot trade hub, convenient access to nearby dungeons with huge CR ranges to challenge any party, secretive leadership that routinely gets infiltrated for on-the-fly urban fantasy drama etc. It's not my favorite city by a long shot but I can see the broad appeal.


Does Pathfinder have anything in-depth about any of Golarion’s cities? I know that part of Runelords takes place in Magnimar, but I can’t think of any setting resources that focus entirely on a given city. In general Paizo doesn’t seem to be following Wizards’ lead with books on specific regions (Shining South, Silver Marches, etc.), but I don’t know if there are Player Companions that might do this to a lesser extent.

As others have stated, Absalom is your best bet for sheer volume. Cheliax also has quite a bit written about it IIRC.

[Telonius]

I think Cauldron deserves an Honorable Mention. It doesn't have the sheer amount of stuff written about it that some of the others (Waterdeep particularly), but it does have an entire 20-level adventure path written around it. The characters, factions, and locations in the city (and the surrounding region) are well-developed, complete with artwork for most of the named NPCs. It pulls off the impressive feat of being both distinct enough to be memorable, but vague enough that you can plop it down in almost any setting and have it work.

[Da Beast]

Sharn has a source book, although I'm sure some of the cities from longer lived settings like forgotten realms have more written about them. The main selling point of Sharn is that it feels quiet a bit different from other fantasy cities by merit of being in Eberron.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Kurald Galain
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Sigil....


Originally Posted by Psyren
Reading the OP might help with that….

Thank you. :smallsmile:


Originally Posted by Psyren
Giant melting pot trade hub, convenient access to nearby dungeons with huge CR ranges to challenge any party, secretive leadership that routinely gets infiltrated for on-the-fly urban fantasy drama etc.

It’s definitely a go-to. The first 3.5 campaign I played in spent quite a while in Waterdeep, and especially Undermountain, since we portalled in without realizing it for a long, long time.

Our escape involved the infamous “drow splat bonus,” but that’s a story in itself. :smalltongue:


Originally Posted by Psyren
As others have stated, Absalom is your best bet for sheer volume.

Apart from that Pathfinder Chronicles item from 2009, is there any single book that combines all the bits?


Originally Posted by Telonius
I think Cauldron deserves an Honorable Mention.

I don’t think I’d heard about that one, thanks.

All I can say is, location, location, location.

[Telonius]

I don’t think I’d heard about that one, thanks.


You might have, even if you didn't know it at the time - it's the shackled city in "Shackled City." :smallbiggrin:

[Psyren]

Our escape involved the infamous “drow splat bonus,” but that’s a story in itself. :smalltongue:

The way you worded that makes me imagine your party collapsing a cavern on them to escape. ("Splat" bonus, har har.).



Apart from that Pathfinder Chronicles item from 2009, is there any single book that combines all the bits?

Don't know about any other single books I'm afraid. The Paizo forums can compile a list of all the smaller stuff for you.

[BassoonHero]

The more I hear about Ptolus, the more impressed I become. Sadly, the book is out of financial reach for me, unless by some minor miracle I can get it on ILL. Unfortunately most game supplements aren’t available that way.
If it helps, it's available in PDF form on [DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/24802/Ptolus-Monte-Cooks-City-By-The-Spire-Ptolus-Core) with some extras. Still not cheap, though.

[Kurald Galain]

Apart from that Pathfinder Chronicles item from 2009, is there any single book that combines all the bits?
Reading my previous post might help with that... :smallbiggrin:

https://pathfinderwiki.com

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Psyren
The way you worded that makes me imagine your party collapsing a cavern on them to escape. ("Splat" bonus, har har.)

Actually it was my DM’s term, and a little less dramatic than a cave collapse.

We had fought our way through Undermountain, and were just coming out of a heavy door leading to Skullport when we were jumped by a gang of drow. As a druid, my first reaction was to switch to wild shape, and in the next round I flew above one of the drow, switched back to my native form, and dropped down on top of him.

I’d only been planning to knock him down (my druid was heavy into nonlethal solutions) but, as it turned out, these weren’t very high-level drow. I did 6 points of falling damage…and the drow only had 5 hit points.

The DM was laughing uncontrollably for several minutes, after which he awarded me a hefty amount of XP as a “drow splat bonus.” One of the goofier moments of the campaign.


Originally Posted by Telonius
…it's the shackled city in "Shackled City."

Well, so it is. I never read that AP, so I always assumed the city was just called…well…“Shackled City.”

The Playground really needs a forehead-smacking icon. Or a facepalm. Either would do.


Originally Posted by BassoonHero
Still not cheap, though.

No, apparently not. :smalleek:

[Nifft]

Anyone have experience with Hollowfaust?

I recall the name being a product which I bought at some point, but I don't think we used it.

[Thurbane]

I think Cauldron deserves an Honorable Mention. It doesn't have the sheer amount of stuff written about it that some of the others (Waterdeep particularly), but it does have an entire 20-level adventure path written around it. The characters, factions, and locations in the city (and the surrounding region) are well-developed, complete with artwork for most of the named NPCs. It pulls off the impressive feat of being both distinct enough to be memorable, but vague enough that you can plop it down in almost any setting and have it work.

I've got the Shackled City hardcover from Paizo on my shelf at home, looking forward to running it one day.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Nifft
Anyone have experience with Hollowfaust?

I’ve never heard of it, but major points for an innovative take on necromancy. I’m seriously tempted to buy it on the strength of the Amazon reviews. Necromancers as benign scholars is a great premise to run with.


Originally Posted by Thurbane
I've got the Shackled City hardcover from Paizo on my shelf at home, looking forward to running it one day.

Alas. Another hardback I’d love to hold, but sadly priced far out of reach.

[Calthropstu]

The more I hear about Ptolus, the more impressed I become. Sadly, the book is out of financial reach for me, unless by some minor miracle I can get it on ILL. Unfortunately most game supplements aren’t available that way.



Huh. I know there’s some information on Silverymoon in the Silver Marches supplement, but not that much, and I’ve never seen much 3.X material on Evereska or Mithral Hall. Can you suggest some sources for these?

Much of the literature is novels written by various authors. I know there are 3.5e stats listed for Alustriel Silverhand floating around somewhere and she, and the city, are listed and featured in numerous books. Mithral Hall, of course, was featured in all of the Drizzt Do Urden books written in the 3.5 era. They became so popular, in fact, that Wizards coerced the author into supporting the switch to 4e, turning the story to straight garbage (in my opinion).

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Silverymoon
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Mithral_Hall
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Evereska


Looks like all three are in the forgotten realms campaign guide. Evereska looks to even have its own book, and is also featured in player's guide to faerun. So yeah, quite a bit going on there.

[Efrate]

Wati from mummys mask ap is surprisingly detailed for an ap.

Celwynian (sp?) Seems to pop up a fair amount as I skim through various things.

[Florian]

I find it a bit hard to give an answer here without knowing the exact use parameters.

Both, City State of the Invincible Overlord and Bard´s Gate (Necromancer Games, Frog God Games) are extremely detailed cities made for old-school sandbox gaming. The main focus is on exploration, so they're handled as classic sites to be explored, including plot hooks, adventures and such.

Golarion is a bit difficult to gauge and recommend. Cities here are mostly used as adventuring sites (in contrast to just backdrops) and are mainly flashed out as part of PFS scenarios, modules and APs, but as such in really high details, especially everything in Varisia (Korvosa, Kaer Maga, Riddleport and Magnimar) and Absalom (also including Shadow Absalom on the Shadow Plane). There's a huge chunk of maps, stuff, NPC, lore and stuff, but you have to collect it from the whole range of Paizo books.

I think it was a more or less now defunct d20 3PP called The Game Mechanics, which started a "City Quarters" series, with one sourcebook going into the details of one city quarter each, slowly assembling a very interesting and detailed city. Didn't follow up on this, but what I can remember was damn good and cool.

The whole Forgotten Realms books have already been named, especially Waterdeep and Neverwinter, as well as the City of Greyhawk. I´m just not a fan of the whole direction TSR/WOTC took in developing their settings.