My crew will likely reach a major city for the first time next session. I expect they will be spending some time there, in various stints of time, for the forseeable future. I want to flesh it out as much as possible. I have been perusing the various modules and stealing ideas for various institutions, but it never hurts to ask the hive mind for ideas as well.
The city is a coastal one, the regional capital for a monarchy covering a much larger area. Population = 100,000, but half the population wiped out in a tsunami 18 months before. Major industries are ship-building, both military and commercial, and it is a central hub for import/export, focusing on exporting foodstuffs and precious metals south to the capital city, the seat of the monarchy. Below is a list of of the kinds of things I have come up with and am looking for more. No encounters, just run of the mill institutions you would find in a city I have described. Things like inns and stables will be interspersed throughout the city, which should cover a 10 x 7 km area, roughly in a triangle.
Harbour: Merchant Ship Building Royal Docks (Military Ship Building) Royal Navy Regional HQ Local Warehouses Royal Secure Warehouses Wholesale Fish Market Trade Houses Harbourmaster Royal Customs Agents
Government Sector Human Regional Seat Elven Embassy Dwarven Embassy City Management Royal Military City Guard Various Religious HQ's
Trade Sector: Trade Houses Grand Bazaar Stalking Horse Inn GHSC HQ
If you own Waterdeep: Dragon Heist just copy waterdeep wholesale with a different shape and the tsunami thing. Otherwise:
Almost every building will show signs of being rebuilt recently, cities of tents have been set up to house those whose homes were destroyed in the tsunami (docks hit hardest???).
Remember, this is a half-the-city missing thing. Revolution has been a constant threat for the past year, many well-ranked mages have been fired and outcast for failing to predict/stop the disaster. Every NPC lost someone, and many of those institutions you mentioned are struggling due to the loss of tourism and trade.
Keep in mind that I know very little about this world, but in the description the tsunami stood out most, so that's what I centered my thoughts around.
Could be fun to have your group arrive there around the same time as the town is having a sort of long term celebration of life for those lost (now that the city is beginning to recover, if that is the case), and have them compete in a competition or two of some kind (maybe a dagger/axe throwing tournament of some sort?). I’m a pretty new DM so I’m not sure how hard that would be to pull off.
A library or university (arcane or otherwise) would be a good fit in a city this size. Regarding the tsunami, the relative wealth of each district should clue you in on how much repair has been done. The slums might have been fully wiped out and now exists as a tent city, while upper class areas may be nearly fully restored, minus a house or two where the whole family died or moved away in the aftermath. You mentioned religious HQs but cathedrals and temples might be prominent (if the city folk turned to the gods after the tsunami) or may be run down/destroyed if the city folk abandoned their faith after the wave struck.
I can only think of a few optional things. Would a library fall under "religious sector"? Also, museums or, if you have a druid, a zoo of some sort? Possibly a fairgrounds or large arena for occasional events like fairs and circuses. A black market.
Yes, thanks. All good ideas. I have added a "Royal University" in the Regional Seat of Government zone. Also, a Colosseum, a large refugee camp, a small theatre district, a slaughter-house zone, grain mills (right near the lumber and fabric mills, as they all use the same diverted water source), and a garbage dump. The Religious HQ area (kind of like the Vatican, but multiple faiths) is also found in the high rent district, but yes, temples and churches will be scattered throughout the city, primarily in the sections of the city that were unaffected. No question some of the religious orders will be tending to the poor and displaced, so there will be makeshift religious structures near the refugee camp.
I think the museum and library are covered by the Royal University.
And yes, absolutely, the poor parts of town were hammered the hardest by the tsunami, as the floodwaters surged upstream. The wealthy section (Old Elven Quarter) was the high ground. The focus on rebuilding was definitely the waterfront, as this was the economic portal to the region. As with real life in a disaster, the poor suffered the most.
Oh, and lastly, aquaducts are a brilliant idea, and sewers are automatic. The trick is I have to assume that sewers in the high ground areas (higher income) were more prevalent to start and less affected, but still flooded in areas. The low lying, poorer areas likely had open sewers running along the roads.
The actual map is huge. Using chart paper, with 1 inch squares (finding massive sheets of hexes is tough), the map is 33 x 23 inches, with 1 inch = 1000 feet. That works out to roughly 7 miles by 4.5 miles. Assuming the city is shaped roughly triangular (long side follows the river), that gives an area of 15.75 square miles, or 41 square km. For a city in medieval times. that density of 2400 citizens per sq km is really high, but concessions must be made.
There is a lot of empty space on the map, but it makes sense as this would be mostly residential of different economic classes. The people have to live somewhere.
Somewhat unrelated, I checked out the true size of the Roman Colosseum. Stealing from Wikipedia: " It is elliptical in plan and is 189 meters (615 ft / 640 Roman feet) long, and 156 meters (510 ft / 528 Roman feet) wide, with a base area of 24,000 square metres (6 acres). The height of the outer wall is 48 meters (157 ft / 165 Roman feet). The perimeter originally measured 545 meters (1,788 ft / 1,835 Roman feet). The central arena is an oval 87 m (287 ft) long and 55 m (180 ft) wide, surrounded by a wall 5 m (15 ft) high, above which rose tiers of seating. "
Now, I have designated a 1000 x 1000 block for it, which is much larger than the real one, but the real one could hold 50,000 to 80,000 people. Gives you some idea of the scale of the real world and how so many D&D maps are really out of touch with real city planning. My city of 100,000., pre-tsunami, would never need such a huge structure, but there it is on my map.
Most population estimates of Ancient Rome give a range of 450k to 1.2m in population, with an area of 16 square miles, so it may be that your population vs area calcs are skewed (since you have 100k in roughly the same area)
now, in general city populations were lower in the Middle Ages (Rome declined significantly in the 300-800 CE centuries) and most cities were considerably smaller, so the colosseum specifically was for a much greater population when it was constructed (and inversely, only 5-10% of the city population) than during most of its history afterward. Other arenas had smaller capacities one in Croatia, Pula Arena, had a capacity of ~23k and was 430’x340’ and 100’ high serving a population of 30k plus surrounding countryside, so size vs city population as a whole swing wildly
Looking at an MIT thesis paper on population density, 2400 people per sq km is actually a really low number. Rome at its lowest is listed in the text at 13 people per acre (x247 acres per sq km for 3200 people per sq km) and other cities such as London and Paris list densities 1.5 to 4 times higher Than Rome in the Middle Ages.
Venice, a major city in the late Middle Ages / early renaissance is only 5.2 sq km with a population exceeding 100k at the time...even today 55-60k people live in the historic city (and that’s with modern urban densities that are much lower as a rule)
If you want a city map that your players will be less likely to recognize than Waterdeep, might I suggest finding a copy of the old map of Mirros/Specularum from Karameikos. It’s from an old D&D setting that hasn’t been supported since the ‘90s, so most people won’t have ever seen it before.
I also highly recommend the map of Glantri City from the Principalities of Glantri from that same setting. That’s one of the absolute best D&D cities I have ever seen mapped out.
Looking at an MIT thesis paper on population density, 2400 people per sq km is actually a really low number. Rome at its lowest is listed in the text at 13 people per acre (x247 acres per sq km for 3200 people per sq km) and other cities such as London and Paris list densities 1.5 to 4 times higher Than Rome in the Middle Ages.
Venice, a major city in the late Middle Ages / early renaissance is only 5.2 sq km with a population exceeding 100k at the time...even today 55-60k people live in the historic city (and that’s with modern urban densities that are much lower as a rule)
I am not so sure about that. I did as much research as I could, and densities seemed lower that that. It gets kind of dicey using Rome as an example, or any large population city, due to the inevitable "suburbs". I am certain that Rome was larger than a 4 x 4 mile area, at least he area that contained 1 million plus people. In any case, my physical map is done. The only thing I might add would be a "hospital", but pretty sure that would have been the purview of temples that administered to the poor and sick. I would be curious to know when the first large scale medical-focused structure actually showed up in history.
Looking at an MIT thesis paper on population density, 2400 people per sq km is actually a really low number. Rome at its lowest is listed in the text at 13 people per acre (x247 acres per sq km for 3200 people per sq km) and other cities such as London and Paris list densities 1.5 to 4 times higher Than Rome in the Middle Ages.
Venice, a major city in the late Middle Ages / early renaissance is only 5.2 sq km with a population exceeding 100k at the time...even today 55-60k people live in the historic city (and that’s with modern urban densities that are much lower as a rule)
I am not so sure about that. I did as much research as I could, and densities seemed lower that that. It gets kind of dicey using Rome as an example, or any large population city, due to the inevitable "suburbs". I am certain that Rome was larger than a 4 x 4 mile area, at least he area that contained 1 million plus people. In any case, my physical map is done. The only thing I might add would be a "hospital", but pretty sure that would have been the purview of temples that administered to the poor and sick. I would be curious to know when the first large scale medical-focused structure actually showed up in history.
All cities have "outskirts" (I wouldn't call them suburbs, that's a modern concept) or "satellite" towns. Keep in mind that early censuses didn't always count all people, just certain ones (citizens, males, landowners, etc) and ignored groups including women, children, and slave/servant classes. that's one of the reasons behind the variable populations given for Rome and others. In general, much smaller simpler homes + larger family units + shared work and living space = much greater urban densities in antiquity and the middle ages. Its only recently (ie the last 200 years or so) that building techniques have improved to allow for densities approaching those of antiquity (for reference, NYC is ~10,500 people per sq km currently). Even in the pre-republic era of Roman history (c. 500 BCE), estimated populations and city size (35000 people, 700 acres (>3 sq. km) indicated densities exceeding 10,000 people per square km (source wikipedia, other listed sources indicate higher populations)
Regarding hospitals, formal hospitals arose at different times around the world, including in antiquity (although mainly in eastern civilizations), and in the middle ages were still highly associated with religious institutions. Christian hospitals started popping up starting in the 300 CE era following the first council of Nicea, and in some areas proof of standalone hospitals were found ranging from that time up through the 1100's, still associated with religious orders. Secular support for hospitals only really started in the renaissance and afterwards (documented evidence of a switch to state/private support in london is dated to around 1540). Constantinople is shown having two large scale hospitals (separate wards, male and female doctors, self supporting) in the 1100s
Looking at an MIT thesis paper on population density, 2400 people per sq km is actually a really low number. Rome at its lowest is listed in the text at 13 people per acre (x247 acres per sq km for 3200 people per sq km) and other cities such as London and Paris list densities 1.5 to 4 times higher Than Rome in the Middle Ages.
Venice, a major city in the late Middle Ages / early renaissance is only 5.2 sq km with a population exceeding 100k at the time...even today 55-60k people live in the historic city (and that’s with modern urban densities that are much lower as a rule)
I am not so sure about that. I did as much research as I could, and densities seemed lower that that. It gets kind of dicey using Rome as an example, or any large population city, due to the inevitable "suburbs". I am certain that Rome was larger than a 4 x 4 mile area, at least he area that contained 1 million plus people. In any case, my physical map is done. The only thing I might add would be a "hospital", but pretty sure that would have been the purview of temples that administered to the poor and sick. I would be curious to know when the first large scale medical-focused structure actually showed up in history.
All cities have "outskirts" (I wouldn't call them suburbs, that's a modern concept) or "satellite" towns. Keep in mind that early censuses didn't always count all people, just certain ones (citizens, males, landowners, etc) and ignored groups including women, children, and slave/servant classes. that's one of the reasons behind the variable populations given for Rome and others. In general, much smaller simpler homes + larger family units + shared work and living space = much greater urban densities in antiquity and the middle ages. Its only recently (ie the last 200 years or so) that building techniques have improved to allow for densities approaching those of antiquity (for reference, NYC is ~10,500 people per sq km currently). Even in the pre-republic era of Roman history (c. 500 BCE), estimated populations and city size (35000 people, 700 acres (>3 sq. km) indicated densities exceeding 10,000 people per square km (source wikipedia, other listed sources indicate higher populations)
Regarding hospitals, formal hospitals arose at different times around the world, including in antiquity (although mainly in eastern civilizations), and in the middle ages were still highly associated with religious institutions. Christian hospitals started popping up starting in the 300 CE era following the first council of Nicea, and in some areas proof of standalone hospitals were found ranging from that time up through the 1100's, still associated with religious orders. Secular support for hospitals only really started in the renaissance and afterwards (documented evidence of a switch to state/private support in london is dated to around 1540). Constantinople is shown having two large scale hospitals (separate wards, male and female doctors, self supporting) in the 1100s
Interesting stuff indeed.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
My crew will likely reach a major city for the first time next session. I expect they will be spending some time there, in various stints of time, for the forseeable future. I want to flesh it out as much as possible. I have been perusing the various modules and stealing ideas for various institutions, but it never hurts to ask the hive mind for ideas as well.
The city is a coastal one, the regional capital for a monarchy covering a much larger area. Population = 100,000, but half the population wiped out in a tsunami 18 months before. Major industries are ship-building, both military and commercial, and it is a central hub for import/export, focusing on exporting foodstuffs and precious metals south to the capital city, the seat of the monarchy. Below is a list of of the kinds of things I have come up with and am looking for more. No encounters, just run of the mill institutions you would find in a city I have described. Things like inns and stables will be interspersed throughout the city, which should cover a 10 x 7 km area, roughly in a triangle.
Harbour:
Merchant Ship Building
Royal Docks (Military Ship Building)
Royal Navy Regional HQ
Local Warehouses
Royal Secure Warehouses
Wholesale Fish Market
Trade Houses
Harbourmaster
Royal Customs Agents
Government Sector
Human Regional Seat
Elven Embassy
Dwarven Embassy
City Management
Royal Military
City Guard
Various Religious HQ's
Trade Sector:
Trade Houses
Grand Bazaar
Stalking Horse Inn
GHSC HQ
Craftsman Sector:
Magic Shops
Craftsman Shops
Wood Mills
Fabric Mills
City Jail
Royal Prison
Slums
High Class Residential (much in old Elven Sector)
Middle Class Residential
Theaters, Inns, Stables, Religious Sites interspersed throughout
Read this and you will have most of what you need to build an awesome D&D city.
https://gamingballistic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Medieval-Demographics-Made-Easy-1.pdf
Then visit Donjon and check out some of the links there. Good luck.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
If you own Waterdeep: Dragon Heist just copy waterdeep wholesale with a different shape and the tsunami thing. Otherwise:
Almost every building will show signs of being rebuilt recently, cities of tents have been set up to house those whose homes were destroyed in the tsunami (docks hit hardest???).
Remember, this is a half-the-city missing thing. Revolution has been a constant threat for the past year, many well-ranked mages have been fired and outcast for failing to predict/stop the disaster. Every NPC lost someone, and many of those institutions you mentioned are struggling due to the loss of tourism and trade.
Keep in mind that I know very little about this world, but in the description the tsunami stood out most, so that's what I centered my thoughts around.
Proud poster on the Create a World thread
Could be fun to have your group arrive there around the same time as the town is having a sort of long term celebration of life for those lost (now that the city is beginning to recover, if that is the case), and have them compete in a competition or two of some kind (maybe a dagger/axe throwing tournament of some sort?). I’m a pretty new DM so I’m not sure how hard that would be to pull off.
Thanks guys, not looking for plot lines. That part is all taken care of. I was looking for the type of institutions found in a large city.
A library or university (arcane or otherwise) would be a good fit in a city this size. Regarding the tsunami, the relative wealth of each district should clue you in on how much repair has been done. The slums might have been fully wiped out and now exists as a tent city, while upper class areas may be nearly fully restored, minus a house or two where the whole family died or moved away in the aftermath. You mentioned religious HQs but cathedrals and temples might be prominent (if the city folk turned to the gods after the tsunami) or may be run down/destroyed if the city folk abandoned their faith after the wave struck.
Your list sounds pretty thorough.
I can only think of a few optional things. Would a library fall under "religious sector"? Also, museums or, if you have a druid, a zoo of some sort? Possibly a fairgrounds or large arena for occasional events like fairs and circuses. A black market.
Also, aqueducts and sewers. (Less optional)
@iconarising and RivaGrayEyes:
Yes, thanks. All good ideas. I have added a "Royal University" in the Regional Seat of Government zone. Also, a Colosseum, a large refugee camp, a small theatre district, a slaughter-house zone, grain mills (right near the lumber and fabric mills, as they all use the same diverted water source), and a garbage dump. The Religious HQ area (kind of like the Vatican, but multiple faiths) is also found in the high rent district, but yes, temples and churches will be scattered throughout the city, primarily in the sections of the city that were unaffected. No question some of the religious orders will be tending to the poor and displaced, so there will be makeshift religious structures near the refugee camp.
I think the museum and library are covered by the Royal University.
And yes, absolutely, the poor parts of town were hammered the hardest by the tsunami, as the floodwaters surged upstream. The wealthy section (Old Elven Quarter) was the high ground. The focus on rebuilding was definitely the waterfront, as this was the economic portal to the region. As with real life in a disaster, the poor suffered the most.
Oh, and lastly, aquaducts are a brilliant idea, and sewers are automatic. The trick is I have to assume that sewers in the high ground areas (higher income) were more prevalent to start and less affected, but still flooded in areas. The low lying, poorer areas likely had open sewers running along the roads.
The actual map is huge. Using chart paper, with 1 inch squares (finding massive sheets of hexes is tough), the map is 33 x 23 inches, with 1 inch = 1000 feet. That works out to roughly 7 miles by 4.5 miles. Assuming the city is shaped roughly triangular (long side follows the river), that gives an area of 15.75 square miles, or 41 square km. For a city in medieval times. that density of 2400 citizens per sq km is really high, but concessions must be made.
There is a lot of empty space on the map, but it makes sense as this would be mostly residential of different economic classes. The people have to live somewhere.
Somewhat unrelated, I checked out the true size of the Roman Colosseum. Stealing from Wikipedia: " It is elliptical in plan and is 189 meters (615 ft / 640 Roman feet) long, and 156 meters (510 ft / 528 Roman feet) wide, with a base area of 24,000 square metres (6 acres). The height of the outer wall is 48 meters (157 ft / 165 Roman feet). The perimeter originally measured 545 meters (1,788 ft / 1,835 Roman feet). The central arena is an oval 87 m (287 ft) long and 55 m (180 ft) wide, surrounded by a wall 5 m (15 ft) high, above which rose tiers of seating. "
Now, I have designated a 1000 x 1000 block for it, which is much larger than the real one, but the real one could hold 50,000 to 80,000 people. Gives you some idea of the scale of the real world and how so many D&D maps are really out of touch with real city planning. My city of 100,000., pre-tsunami, would never need such a huge structure, but there it is on my map.
Most population estimates of Ancient Rome give a range of 450k to 1.2m in population, with an area of 16 square miles, so it may be that your population vs area calcs are skewed (since you have 100k in roughly the same area)
now, in general city populations were lower in the Middle Ages (Rome declined significantly in the 300-800 CE centuries) and most cities were considerably smaller, so the colosseum specifically was for a much greater population when it was constructed (and inversely, only 5-10% of the city population) than during most of its history afterward. Other arenas had smaller capacities one in Croatia, Pula Arena, had a capacity of ~23k and was 430’x340’ and 100’ high serving a population of 30k plus surrounding countryside, so size vs city population as a whole swing wildly
Looking at an MIT thesis paper on population density, 2400 people per sq km is actually a really low number. Rome at its lowest is listed in the text at 13 people per acre (x247 acres per sq km for 3200 people per sq km) and other cities such as London and Paris list densities 1.5 to 4 times higher Than Rome in the Middle Ages.
Venice, a major city in the late Middle Ages / early renaissance is only 5.2 sq km with a population exceeding 100k at the time...even today 55-60k people live in the historic city (and that’s with modern urban densities that are much lower as a rule)
If you want a city map that your players will be less likely to recognize than Waterdeep, might I suggest finding a copy of the old map of Mirros/Specularum from Karameikos. It’s from an old D&D setting that hasn’t been supported since the ‘90s, so most people won’t have ever seen it before.
I also highly recommend the map of Glantri City from the Principalities of Glantri from that same setting. That’s one of the absolute best D&D cities I have ever seen mapped out.
I hope that helps.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I am not so sure about that. I did as much research as I could, and densities seemed lower that that. It gets kind of dicey using Rome as an example, or any large population city, due to the inevitable "suburbs". I am certain that Rome was larger than a 4 x 4 mile area, at least he area that contained 1 million plus people. In any case, my physical map is done. The only thing I might add would be a "hospital", but pretty sure that would have been the purview of temples that administered to the poor and sick. I would be curious to know when the first large scale medical-focused structure actually showed up in history.
All cities have "outskirts" (I wouldn't call them suburbs, that's a modern concept) or "satellite" towns. Keep in mind that early censuses didn't always count all people, just certain ones (citizens, males, landowners, etc) and ignored groups including women, children, and slave/servant classes. that's one of the reasons behind the variable populations given for Rome and others. In general, much smaller simpler homes + larger family units + shared work and living space = much greater urban densities in antiquity and the middle ages. Its only recently (ie the last 200 years or so) that building techniques have improved to allow for densities approaching those of antiquity (for reference, NYC is ~10,500 people per sq km currently). Even in the pre-republic era of Roman history (c. 500 BCE), estimated populations and city size (35000 people, 700 acres (>3 sq. km) indicated densities exceeding 10,000 people per square km (source wikipedia, other listed sources indicate higher populations)
Regarding hospitals, formal hospitals arose at different times around the world, including in antiquity (although mainly in eastern civilizations), and in the middle ages were still highly associated with religious institutions. Christian hospitals started popping up starting in the 300 CE era following the first council of Nicea, and in some areas proof of standalone hospitals were found ranging from that time up through the 1100's, still associated with religious orders. Secular support for hospitals only really started in the renaissance and afterwards (documented evidence of a switch to state/private support in london is dated to around 1540). Constantinople is shown having two large scale hospitals (separate wards, male and female doctors, self supporting) in the 1100s
Interesting stuff indeed.