Themed and Wacky Cities

[roguerouge]

A staple of the Civilization games was the themed city: the military city, the science city, the money-generating one... But are any groups doing something similar? Or something distinctly odd or unusual?

[Pansy Overlord]

Sobering
Type: Hot Springs Tourist Trap
Population: ~750 (Mostly River Kobolds; haha! Get it? Trap! 'Cause they're kobolds!)

Up and coming town built around the sulfur springs in the Greenbelt. Chock full of brothels, inns, taverns, marketplaces, and exotic craftsmen, all competing for business in the new town known for its "healing" waters.

Or at least, if it survives, in 400 years it will be a tourist trap...

[Hu5tru]

Our group's now NPC rogue built a town around the hill giant encounter which is rather like Deadwood, except it's on a river and is called Driftwood. That's the only place in the entire kingdom where we actually built a brothel (another city we annexed already had one).

Our general has founded an Aldori fighting school and an arena in his town, as well as a castle. Also a temple to Gorum, or at least a shrine... *shrug* he's obviously the bruiser, so, very little in terms of cultured entertainment planned in that city.

My cleric's city hosts the cathedral, which she shares pretty equitably with the two other largest faiths in the kingdom, Desna's and Iomedae's... well, maybe not so eagerly shares with Iomedae's these days as her mentor is beginning to grate a bit on her nerves with his "More just than thou, and lookit me, I'm several levels higher and can call planar beings to my side at a whim"-ness. She also has founded a medical college she's trying to promote so that it will be recognized in the whole of the River Kingdoms, and... well, actually has a lot of plans for cultural type things, but my city tends to get kinda... ignored, and will likely be ignored more now that we're moving into part 5 and it's not relevant to the mass combat side of things.

Our wizard and king live in the capital, which looks like meta and largest amount of gold and magical items you can cram into a city and have it still function as one for the purposes of the population.

I think once mass combat part is done, we're going to build a sort of pleasure city in the calm meadowy hex near Lake Silverstep, sort of a Versailles, exclusive for the ruling class to take a break. Maybe we'll build a temple to Sheyln there since our councilor, previously mentioned uptight LAWFUL cleric of Iomedae has good reason to hate Calistria with all the firey passion of his goddess's sun domain. At least, that's what I envision, but it took me till part 4 to get my cleric a city, so much is my group interested in representing their patron goddess...

[Major__Tom]

We have two, out of seven cities. (Each player has charge of two cities, one has two. They all consult on the capitol, although our best artist draws in the buildings, quite well, I might add).

Marie Falls - located 25 miles from their capitol. My wife's city. She decided right at the beginning she was going for the 'upper crust' retreat from the day to day politics/consumerism of the capitol. For that, she built a lot of defense, and only expensive buildings. We even marked up. She doesn't have a waterfront, she has a marina. (2xcost yes, 180 BP, I increased the benefits by 50%, did not increase the magic items). She does not have houses where required for luxury shops, etc, she builds mansions and noble villas. Instead of a brothal, she build a casino (3xcost, 2 squares instead of one, added +1 to econ). The king is a paladin of Sune (we use Forgotten Realms deities), by law all cities must have at least one brothel.

Meganburge. - Since they have thousands of kobolds, with full citizenship, Meganburge is their chief location. The player who has the king took this city as his personal city. No houses, only tenements. He only builds the cheap stuff, and I haven't given him any price breaks.

It makes their cities unique, and really seems to add to the interest. For the record, four of the PCs have mansions in Marie Falls (the rich city), the king lives at the castle in the capitol city, and the royal assassin has a room in one of the better brothels in the capitol city. And a room in a tenement in the kobold city. And a small house in the city on the border. And a mansion in the rich city. And - you get the idea.