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Heya,
I'm currently designing a home brew capital, but I'm drawing blanks on ideas for city districts. Basically I'm looking for inspiration to what might distinguish such districts. I'll need a lot, so don't hold back ;-)
I'm thinking something alike:
The slums: the poorest district that the city guard has abandoned and where law and order is governed by the gangs. A good place to keep a low profile, but also the place to have your throat cut for a couple of coppers.
Help me out;-)
Military district, prison district, high-class district, middle-class district, perfumer's district, harbor district, treacle mine district, market district, fancy deserted monument district, city gate district, whore's district, priestly district, old burnt-out jew-equivalent district, jew-equivalent district, rubbish district.
Slums is too generic.
I want actual reasons why it is the bad part of town. Natural disasters and a failure to properly rebuild the infrastructure seems like a great reason.
-You could go with classics, like fire, flood, earthquakes,etc.,
-more bizarre but realistic reasons (it was once the high class district...built venice style on the water- levels rose, and a good portion of the ground floors are flooded, and the area is navigated largely by rope bridges)
-bizarre fantasy reasons- next to the old cemetary that spontaneously spawns undead. Near the old sewers that makes it technically a battlefront in the fight against allegator people/tentacle monsters/etc. close to the forest (which makes it take the brunt of druid raids)
well you could have multiple poor districts, each controlled by different gangs battling it out in turf wars. also its important to note what kind of city it is. is it a big metropolis with lots of different races. maybe there could be racial tension. just like new york you have parts of the city that were traditionally irish or traditionally italian etc.
you could have one element of the city stands out because of the over the top dwarven structures and they may not like the eleven parts of the city. the elven parts of the city may be near a large park.
also just like most cities, a lot of places and districts are very similar to each other. what separates them is the history. so its good to think about the cities history, what events caused certain influxes of certain groups and how these different groups cultures shaped the city, even if the certain group doesn't exist anymore or if they've lost there way and assimilated into the culture, the history is still there.
Interesting thought- city on a cliff...with the poor districts over the edge.
Because land is at a premium since the capital doesn't have as many directions to expand, poorer residents have to live in areas built on the cliff face.
These areas are considered undesirable for the obvious "9 hells, I can fall", but this goes further- the lower down on the cliff you are, the more likely things are going to fall from higher up the cliff face, and the harder it is to get to the top of the cliff (which makes it hard to get basic supplies).
Still, they are supported by the nobles since it puts 'undesirables' literally out of sight and out of mind. The construction is typically rushed, shoddy, and with a lot of corners cut because of this.
And interestingly you can make this the 'half orc' district, and easily make an excuse to have a lot of people with the beast rider feat (which means PTERODACTYLS! Justified and awesome given the conditions). Also, perhaps make witches common (since even at level 1, flight hex sounds like a good deal in that situation- infinite feather fall spells)
Also, good excuse as any to have airships.
Interesting thought- city on a cliff...with the poor districts over the edge.
Because land is at a premium since the capital doesn't have as many directions to expand, poorer residents have to live in areas built on the cliff face.
These areas are considered undesirable for the obvious "9 hells, I can fall", but this goes further- the lower down on the cliff you are, the more likely things are going to fall from higher up the cliff face, and the harder it is to get to the top of the cliff (which makes it hard to get basic supplies).
Still, they are supported by the nobles since it puts 'undesirables' literally out of sight and out of mind. The construction is typically rushed, shoddy, and with a lot of corners cut because of this.
And interestingly you can make this the 'half orc' district, and easily make an excuse to have a lot of people with the beast rider feat (which means PTERODACTYLS! Justified and awesome given the conditions)
Also, good excuse as any to have airships.
I actually had a similar Idea that I don't mind sharing. the whole city looked like a collection of giant skyscraper like cathedrals and the slums were on the bottom constantly living in the shadows from the constructs above, and the people living at the top, a lot of them have never actually setting foot on actual earth. these constructs had giant bridges on which they lived there lives, and if they looked down it was so hard to see the bottom because of all of the other bridges and buildings beneath them.
How about re-thinking the classic slums?
In the past, crime went rampant and the city watch lost too many men in there, so they withdrew from the district, leaving the citizens to fend for themselves.
After a few years of excessive crime, that was what they did. A bloody war with the gangs left the regular people in charge of their district and they made it quite clear that the city watch was no longer welcome.
Since then, the district has been ruled by a council of elders who tries to keep everyone happy, even though they are poor, while keeping criminal elements out.
I like the cliff face idea, though I would play it as a noble's district with an unrivaled view and magical elevators :)