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Hey there,
Im looking for inputs that will make Magnimar feel more like a real city. It can be everything from small everyday events and rumors to plothooks and fights. I want to seperate the events into the city districts to make certain they feel different. Here is a few examples:
Bridgeward district
A puff of green smoke rises from the great chimneys of the Golem works.
A entourage of a rich noble mourns his death day in Mourners Plaza.
A Jeweler claim to have seen a giant monster from the Irespan rummaging the streets of underbridge at night.
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A couple things I do is focus on a handful of shops so when the party goes shopping they have particular NPCs to interact with. In my opinion, buying and selling loot by rote as it's written kills any settlements sense of being alive more that anything else.
Another nice trick is to create a list of random encounters for use in the city. Unlike wandering monster encounters (though this trick works nicely in the wilderness as well) this list should have all manner of little tidbits that happen in cities. Perhaps a group of people are yelling at each other on the street corner or a cart splashes mud (or grosser) on the party as it passes. I challenge anyone to walk through any city and not have a handful of these types of things happen.
Little pieces of flavor like you already mentioned are one of the easiest and most effective things you can do to bring a place to life.
Those are exactly the kind of stuff I ask for. My apologies if i didn't make myself clear.
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You should think about how do you see it. Is it a dirty city? If so describe the dirtiness.
Or is it clean? Then think about how this is achieved and describe that.
Are there golems cleaning up? Or people? Are they using waggons to put the litter and the sweepings in or are they carrying buckets?
Are swine through the streets in the morning to eat vegetable waste?
I think you get my point.
If it is winter, are they using wood, coal or totally different fuel to heat their homes? This will change the smell of the city and describing it can add immersion.
Yeah i get where your heading I just wanted peolpe to write their own ideas of events etc. to use as inspiration and cooperate to create magnimar for later reference.
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One thing to do: look at your local newspaper, or local news website, and refluff a couple of articles to be "what's going on in town today". Festivals, scandals, weddings, broken sewer pipes, travellers from strange lands, major murder cases, conventions of merchants from foreign lands... it's all grist for the mill.
There's a Campaign Setting book "Magnimar: City of Monuments" that's worth checking out.
Also, try describing things in terms of non-visual senses.
Smells: Bread baking in the morning, fish markets, sea breeze, freshly sawn wood.
Tastes: Pick a region near the ocean and steal a few dishes. Here are some Catalan ones:
Suquet (a seafood stew), fiduea (scallops and noodles), turron (bar-like confection made with almonds, sugar, and eggwhites).
Sounds: Seagulls fighting for scraps in the market, vendors calling out their wares, two wagon drivers yelling over right of way in a narrow alley, clarion horns announcing an event with the Lord Mayor.
Touch: Gritty cobblestones during the dry season, warm rain falling all through the day, the smooth, worn wood of a table.
Its worth getting the Pathfinder Tales Blood of the City by Robin D Laws novel. Not only is it a great read, its brilliant at bringing Magnimar to life and you can mine all sorts of sights, sounds, people and street stuff from it.
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As you wander through the streets you come upon
1. a small crowd gathered around 2 performers. One is a grippili dressed in tights and a rope-tied tabard balancing on a thread between two posts, all the while carrying stacks of balls on pins with his hands and face. The other is a Halfling dancing and twirling on a wide bench with flaming batons.
2. several children kicking a leather ball through a side street. An errant kick has sent the sphere hurtling toward (select random character) and it smacks into your side. The throng of boys and girls look after it imploringly, frozen with fear.
3. a side alley where you hear muffled words angrily delivered. The easement is shrouded in darkness. (Perception DC 10 reveals) a dozen or so feet down the alleyway a pair of burly men have a smaller, aproned laborer pinned against a wall off his feet. (The toughs [APL -1 NPC encounter] are shaking down a local apple vendor for protection money)
Experiences of the city
1. Graffiti on a nearby wall proclaims that "Nunzio wuz here"
2. A plump old woman pushes a rickety wooden cart with steaming pies wafting savory smells from within
3. Jeers and catcalls can be heard as a particularly comely elven woman strolls along the street, her clothing more scandalous than the common fare
4. Mud and worse squishes underfoot as you cross a narrow lane
5. A gnome sits on his stoop carving an impish figure in clay; several more, seemingly alive, hover at attention on bat-like wings
Is this what you are looking for?
I'd forgotten this one. *casts Thread Resurrection* There we go.
Wayfinder #7 has a fair bit of Magnimar lore/denizens etc. to steal.