Metropolis too big?


Homebrew and House Rules


I am making a homebrew campaign that most of not all of it will occur within a single city. The problem I'm running into is the size of the city. With all the research I've done my initial plan makes the city roughly the size of 5 Metropolis cities cluster together.

That seems kinda impractical even if I run it and stat it as 5 different cities. So I'm trying to figure out a good size for the city that could keep higher level PCs interested in staying.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Well... one thing that might add to one's desire to stay in a city, even at higher levels would be if the city were placed magically.

What stops you from potentially having a single city that might touch down in more than one distinct physical location on a world. In fact... what is to stop it from potentially spanning worlds and including public (or semi-public) planes that it might intersect with.

Some planes might be constrained sub-plains that are effectively within, only part of the city. For other planes, maybe there is agate to the local plane of shadow, flame or earth, etc. Such city gates might be located in specific districts and there might be restricted portions of such districts that effectively require someone be higher level to successfully get into those areas, either metaphysically, or by way of sociopolitical clout.

But just imagine how much a city would be in the center of trade if it was but a days travel from multiple points in a world that would otherwise be weeks or months apart, by other paths.

You could also have different edge-points of the city kind of act as separate cities, but whom magically share magical edges, and so while in some senses may seem to some like separate cities, but from other perspectives might appear like separate districts of a singular greater city. Imagine if the city had 5 cities spread across the world so that at least a part of the city at all times would be in nighttime at the same time that another part of the city would be in daytime. A new meaning for a City that never sleeps.

(ok of one portion is in the plane of shadow, potentially it would never reach daytime)


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Even without a "planar metropolis" concept, there are other ways to justify five closely located cities that are effectively almost a single mega-city. For a real-world example, New York City consists of what are pretty functionally separate communities in each of the boroughs, simply from the population size.

A group of (somewhat friendly competitor) city-states in a large river delta that formed a confederation-style government to resist being conquered at some time in the past and then grew into one urban sprawl, broken up by the river channels, based on shipping trade could be a plausible model.

For more a more widely spaced confederation of city-states, a small bay or lake (or collection of lakes) could also work.

A more fantasy-style model requires a bit more justification, but having the city be the capital for a multi-species empire with each species enclave effectively being it's own community (Dwarfhold, Elftown, etc.) might be something to consider.


Size aside, what keeps players/high level PCs interested is having high-level conflicts and repercussions. If the city's important enough, it could have extremely powerful factions whose infighting has much larger stakes than the city itself.

And such a city would naturally be a magnet for agents, researchers, con artists, and celebrities from across...wherever.

Ptolus is an example worth looking up, as is the Shackled City AP, though Waterdeep, Greyhawk City, and others have served as campaign bases for many tables. There's lots of good material to pick and choose your favorite bits from.

My most recent campaign had PCs who went from establishing a business franchise (the initial hook) to hobnobbing w/ organized crime & upper class to eventually becoming protectors against invasion forces alongside previous rivals & the allies they'd accumulated along the way.
Essentially moving the scope from a broad sense of the city w/ the spotlight on their neighborhood to an ever-broadening interest in larger affairs/threats in the city, region, and world. The party could have abandoned the citizens at any point, yet their investment in their business, the city, & its NPCs grew throughout (as does the intrigue, as seeds for all incoming dangers had been laid throughout).

I could imagine adopting Kingmaker's system for growth for such a campaign, albeit with less wilderness and more social maneuvering.
Even the Skull & Shackles pirate system could work re: climbing through the ranks, using the campaign's theme in place of the Booty aspect.

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