The rules are simple! One might even say unoriginal!
Step One: Roll a d100 and consult the list below. This is your race.
Step Two: Roll a 1d35 (you may want to use the forum's random number generator for this) and consult the list below. This is your skill.
Step Three: Your race is either the dominant race of the city, the founding race, or just extremely important to some aspect of it (as a rule of thumb, this race should be the most prominent race in your description). Your skill represents the most important skill to the city—such as Appraise being the inspiration for a city of merchants.
Build your city based on the above criteria and go nuts!
- 1. Human
2. Elf
3. Dwarf
4. Half-Orc
5. Half-Elf
6. Halfling
7. Gnome
8. Orc
9. Goblin
10. Hobgoblin
11. Drow
12. Tiefling (humanoids with fiend ancestry)
13. Aasimar (humanoids with celestial ancestry)
14. Fetchling (humanoids with shae ancestry)
15. Ifrit (humanoids with efreet ancestry)
16. Undine (humanoids with marid ancestry)
17. Sylph (humanoids with djinn ancestry)
18. Oread (humanoids with shaitan ancestry)
19. Suli (humanoids with jann ancestry)
20. Dhampir (half-humanoid/half-vampire)
21. Changeling (hag-kin) (the children of humanoid males and hags)
22. Catfolk
23. Lizardfolk
24. Ratfolk
25. Vanara (monkey-folk)
26. Vishkanya (humanoids with slight snake-like features and poisonous blood)
27. Strix (black, avian humanoids with harpy-like builds)
28. Tengu
29. Merfolk
30. Gillmen
31. Duergar
32. Derro
33. Svirfneblin
34. Kitsune (shapechanging fox-folk)
35. Nagaji (reptilian humanoids originally created by the naga as a servant race)
36. Samsaran (reincarnated blue-skinned humanoids)
37. Wayang (gnome-like beings with roots in the Shadow Plane)
38. Grippli
39. Kobold
40. Ogre
41. Dryad
42. Satyr
43. Pixie
44. Nymph
45. Sprite
46. Forlarren (bipolar fey born from the unions of nymphs and fiends)
47. Nereid (aquatic nymph-like fey)
48. Nixie
49. Treant
50. Faun
51. Centaur
52. Harpy
53. Medusa
54. Naga
55. Gargoyle
56. Minotaur
57. Troll
58. Gnoll
59. Adlet (barbaric wolf-like humanoids)
60. Vegepygmy
61. Sahuagin
62. Cecaelia (merfolk-like humanoids, with octopus tentacles instead of a fish tail)
63. Grindylow (the goblin equivalent of Cecaelia)
64. Locathah
65. Derhii (winged, intelligent gorillas)
66. Girtablilu (centauroids with a scorpion-like lower half + claws)
67. Sasquatch
68. Tanuki (short raccoon-like humanoids)
69. Thriae (all female-race of bee people)
70. Spriggan
71. Dark Folk
72. Drider
73. Mongrelman
74. Serpentfolk
75. Ettercap
76. Shae (humanoids made of solid shadow)
77. Flumph
78. Vodyanoi (salamander-like humanoids)
79. Ghoul
80. Vampire
81. Gearman/Warforged (mechanical humanoids)
82. Changeling(doppleganger-kin) (descendants of humanoids and dopplegangers)
83. Shifter (descendants of humanoids and lycanthropes)
84. Uldra (small blue-skinned fey adapted for cold environments)
85. Darfellan (powerful humanoids with orca-like skin)
86. Asherati (desert-dwelling hairless elf-like beings capable of swimming through sand)
87. Illumian (human-like beings infused with sorcery with glowing sigils floating around their heads)
88. Raptoran (winged and taloned elf-like race)
89. Goliath (tall, strong humanoids with stony appearances and tough hides)
90. Dragonborn (draconic humanoids)
91. Aberration-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
92. Construct-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
93. Dragon-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
94. Ooze-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
95. Plant-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
96. Thri-Kreen (four armed insectoid race)
97. Bariaur (centauroid with a mountain goat-like lower half)
98. Rogue Modron (free-willed box-like construct)
99. Aranea (shapeshifting giant spiders)
00. Pseudodragon
- 1. Acrobatics
2. Appraise
3. Bluff
4. Climb
5. Craft
6. Diplomacy
7. Disable Device
8. Disguise
9. Escape Artist
10. Fly
11. Handle Animal
12. Heal
13. Intimidate
14. Knowledge (arcana)
15. Knowledge (dungeoneering)
16. Knowledge (engineering)
17. Knowledge (geography)
18. Knowledge (history)
19. Knowledge (local)
20. Knowledge (nature)
21. Knowledge (nobility)
22. Knowledge (planes)
23. Knowledge (religion)
24. Linguistics
25. Perception
26. Perform
27. Profession
28. Ride
29. Sense Motive
30. Sleight of Hand
31. Spellcraft
32. Stealth
33. Survival
34. Swim
35. Use Magic Device
Darfellans and Knowledge (engineering). Hm...that's a tricky one.
umm I got driders and flying..... hmmm
I can see what direction this will go
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The Drifting City of Fat and Lamps
CE metropolis
Government: The Council of Glow
Population: 8,900 (90% darfellan, 7% sahuagin, 2% merfolk, 1% other)
Stories on the mysterious city of nets can vary. To some, it's a paradise; a utopia where everyone is plump and happy and lights shine all throughout the night. To others, it's a cursed place, a city of ships with nets cast between that lure in travelers with beautiful colored lamps, never to escape.
In truth, it's a bit of both. The Drifting City of Fat and Lamps is a utopia—for darfellans. It originated as a powerful clan of orca-riding rangers who, in punishment for their treatment of an awoken great blue whale, were cursed to never be able to leave the sea. This marked both the creation of the first darfellan and the event that would lead to the founding of the great city.
Held up by numerous enormous ships at the center, with smaller boats on the edges, the city is comprised of hundreds of vast nets. Brilliant engineering allows each ship to move virtually in unison, and the colored lamps that fill the entire city burn bright with whale oil. The nomadic city subsists almost entirely upon whale meat—but humanoid sailors will do in a pinch. The forces of the city are skilled hunters, wielding elaborately-crafted harpoon guns, and food (regardless of the source) is always plentiful and rich. Seal milk and exotic whale-based dishes are served with every meal. The people are fat and merry, and the occasional land-dwelling merchant is even welcomed into the city to bring trade and yet more opulence—after being sworn to secrecy, of course.
It is a city of prosperous evil. Yet even this has a gloomy side. The city is utterly contemptuous towards magic, and has in effect declared war on the art. Those with sorcerous blood or wizardly talent are arrested and slaughtered, and the common people of the city are beginning to grow rebellious as more and more subjects are deemed "potentially arcane". Worse, fear grows in the common sectors that an actual archmage will hear of the city and decide to see it destroyed. The rule of the corpulent Council of Lamps begins to fray, like a thin net cast under too great a haul, and the time may soon come that the citizens of the great floating city first learn the feeling that others know as "hunger".
Half-elves and Climb. Hm. I already have an idea.
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(Dang you had a curse as your origin too. I need to think outside the box next time.)
Nephila- The Golden Spire
LN Metropolis
Government: Sepivalc 7th Lord of the Spire
20,500: 40% driders, 30% grippli, 25% Vanara, 5% other
Once the Driders who would come to found Nephila dwelled deep among the roots of the great trees of the great Western jungle. Carving burrows with their great hairy bodies, lined with their webs throughout the floor of the jungle the driders dominated ruled the ground. But despite their dominance of the floor, great tribes of Grippli and Vanara roamed the trees above, where the driders' couldn't traverse. The roaming tribes of the trees would often sneak down and steal food and valuables from the driders in daring raids only to retreat back to the trees to the frustration of the driders.
After a truly daring thief stole the golden scepter of the lord of driders himself, The lord cried out to the great spider god to give his people the means to ascend to the tree tops. The god granted his wish changing the driders' large ungainly bodies into sleek elegant forms and gifted them with strong golden webs, However as payment the god cursed the driders to never set foot on the ground again. The driders quickly conquered the roaming tribes and founded their great capital Nephila.
Nephila can be seen for miles upon miles around to any who can see above the canopy. The driders originally built the city downwards from the tallest tree in the jungle, they have since erected a great pillar in the center reaching twice as far s the original tree. The great golden webs support a great number of wooden landings where many driders dwell, while the grippli and Vanara and lower class driders remain in a great under city in the branches below the canopy.
While the Driders quickly conquered much of the jungle , they desired to extend their reach further. Using a combination of ingenuity, strong webbing, and a little magic driders have crafted web constructs allowing them glide upon the currents of the wind allowing them to sweep down unto towns normally outside their reach. The driders' have also constructed large, magicked balloons of webbing to carry their vanara and grippli soldiers to act as a ground force when they invade towns. Often the driders will send in their ground troops to secure an area before sweeping down to grab valuables before ascending back to the sky.
The Grippli and Vanaras conquered by the Driders were inducted into the society near the lower rungs yet the Driders do not mistreat them. They work as valued members of the city willing to work for the prosperity of Nephila alongside all others. Nephila is also home to a small number of slaves brought back from their flying raids who work for the most powerful members of the society.
Despite it's power and wealth, the current lord of the Driders is deeply concerned because an overzealous raiding party has recently killed a great sylph priest and the sylphs now threaten to turn the sky against the driders and scatter their city with a great storm if demands are not met.
Next is 52- Harpies and 32- Stealth. Hmm intersting.
Btw I really love your Darfellan city. Very well done.
Drow
Stealth
Seems a bit obvious no? This will take some work to make innovative.
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The Hidden Quarter: city within a city
The city of Inderwick holds many surprises. It is well known to be a haven for some fey, that it was built on much older ruins and that now that undercity conducts the twin waters of the Ingersweep and Nordrun Rivers though the elaborate sewers. Most would think: if there's a nefarious element hiding in the city, this is where it would be.
This would be wrong.
There are a network of innocuous buildings, tents, shacks and turrets which comprise the Hidden Quarter, a drow city. Not nearly as opulent or grand as the underground cities underground the Hidden Quarter does have one thing going for it: Stealth.
Every single building is intentionally kept small and then imbued with magic to make it lighter than it should be as well as granting the construction mobility. Finally these constructs are trained by the finest drow slavemistresses in the arts of stealth.
So it is that most of the populace of Inderwick has never even seen or heard the buildings of the Hidden Quarter. The constructs constantly cleave to the shadows, shift between buildings or move into the many stands of trees permitted to grow in the midst of Inderwick. Some even burrow partially into the ground, though these are rare for the traces they leave.
The Hidden Quarter also occupies other buildings. Drow spies and diviners constantly monitor the citizens of Inderwick to determine abandoned structures, unused attics, wings closed for a season etc. These chambers then become temporary housing for some of the smallest buildings of the Hidden Quarter.
The drow are motivated to maintain this elaborate ruse for the gathering of slaves, information an magical lore. Inderwick is well known for the Arkane Akademie housed at its heart. There may be another reason however. Inderwick is also a city very friendly with the elves of the forests.
Race: Merfolk
Skill: Knowledge:Local
Well, I'll give it a try.
Ahuizhotl, the Devil's Basin
CG Large City
Despite the name, the Devil's Basin is a place of community and good hope. Centuries ago the great domed city of a seaside human kingdom slid into the sea, cutting its population down to tatters and seemingly ending the fortune of the kingdom. However, the survivors were approached by the local Mer, who were amazed by the gift-underwater being a poor habitat for masonry and architecture. Despite the initial misunderstanding the two races came to an accord, both bringing their own strengths to the table in reconstructing the city.
Now, the Devil's basin is a marvel of magical engineering. Shielded by a crystal dome that only partially breaches the surface, most of the contained city toes the line between land and sea, with waist-high water standard outside of personal or living quarters. Through the use of clever engineering and magical pumps the city is kept hospitable for both aquatic and surface races, leading both to be able to interact at a level rarely found elsewhere. The Basin is considered the go-to place for gossip, guides, travel, or otherwise, and is guaranteed to have someone who can help with any journey on land, sea, or under it.
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I got ratfolk and spellcraft, so here's my take on that:
Glitterburgh (Pronunciation similar to Edinburgh)
Lawful Neutral Village
Government: Magical; The Grand Evoker
Population: 118 (92% Ratfolk, 3% Orc, 3% Half-Orc, 2% Human)
Tribes of primitive ratfolk have lived within the Dirt Sea, nestled in the northwestern reaches of the Hold of Belkzen, for time immemorial. These ratfolk claim burrows that lie within small islands that rest above the churning sands, away from the main trade routes and the eyes of orc slavers, who could only imagine the wealth the humble ratfolk safeguard.
Glitterburgh is the hidden jewel of their meager civilization, a series of sparkling caverns carved deep into the largest of the islands, where ancient ratfolk settlers discovered convergences of powerful ley-lines. Considered to be holy by their primitive culture, the ratfolk that live within Glitterburgh’s hallowed caves have taken a keen interest in the study and veneration of the peculiar crystal formations that grow within the earth. Blessed with arcane knowledge, the ratfolk of Glitterburgh are master artisans in the working of this mysterious stone, weaving magical fragments of it into their tools and clothing.
The stronger the magical prowess of the individual, the more they become attuned with the crystals, as bits of it slowly encase fingers and limbs. The amount of crystal covering one’s body is not only a sign of arcane might, but of social status. The ratfolk with the most crystalline body is known as The Grand Evoker, who claims to commune directly with the soul of Glitterburgh and who bestows guidance to the colony.
The existence of Glitterburgh is a tribal secret that only ratfolk may know of, which is why when an off route slaver skiff accidentally landed on its shining shores, the Grand Evoker proclaimed that the unfortunate orcs and their slaves had a choice: either swear fealty to the tribe and live among them, or perish. The current non-ratfolk populace of Glitterburgh are the descendants of those that made the wiser choice.