Tag Archives: Megadungeons

Day 11 K is for King

K – King/Queen, governor, authority/power/figurehead

Who is in charge here? Is it the capital of the kingdom or empire? If so, where is the palace? If not the capital city, where is the palace of the governor, satrap, or prince?

Is authority held by the head of state, or are they merely a figurehead?

Is the real authority known, or a power behind the throne?

How might this look to adventurers exploring a fallen city?

Is the fallen city the capital of an empire or kingdom, or one of it’s many cities? If not the capital, who is in charge?

For an empire, it can have many different looks.

  • A client king, like the Romans used. They appointed kings over their territory who owed their throne and their power to Rome. The most well-known example is King Herod of Judea, from the Bible.
  • A governor/satrap/viceroy/or other appointed official. (This may not start out as hereditary, but become so over time.)
  • A prince of a cadet (junior line) of the royal family.
  • A prince (noble title, not of the royal family)
  • An Archduke/Duke or other noble.
  • A cleric (Perhaps the main temple of the city is of the predominate religion that is favored by the Empire/Kingdom.)
  • A magic-user (Certain cities may be located in area where knowledge of magic is essential. Or it may just be a tradition that happened, and has no real requirement beyond tradition.)
  • One need only look to Gary Gygax’s list of government types, in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, to see other possibilities.

If there is a power behind the throne, who is it?

  • The Guild Master of the Thieve’s Guild
  • An even more shadowy Guild Master of the Assassin’s Guild
  • Plot complication – The Thieve’s Guild’s master is secretly also the master of the Assassin’s Guild.
  • A powerful member of a prominent family.
  • A group of members of the most prominent families.
  • The head of the merchants’ or crafts’ guilds, or a group of the heads of each such guild.
  • A group of very rich, powerful, and successful adventurers.
  • A magical creature, that can shape shift to hide it’s true nature. (This could be a dragon, or any variety of several creatures. It will have other means to exert power without revealing it’s true self. A magic using dragon could present themselves as a wizard, for example.)
  • A demonic creature, if of a chaotic bent, it may not care if the ruler knows their origin.
  • A doppleganger who has replaced the ruler. (Is this a doppleganger acting alone or with or for someone else?)

How is the ruler determined? 

  • Hereditary (There may still be a ceremony of a secular or religious nature, or travelling to swear loyalty to the Emperor/King, etc. to make it official.)
  • Appointment by the Emperor/King
  • Appointment by regional ruler
  • Election by regional nobles from a set eligible group.
  • Election by the guilds of the city.
  • Election by the people. (This could be limited to very specific groups who are eligible to vote, as we have seen in our own history of voting.)
    • For example, only land holders, soldiers, merchants, members of a certain social class or group of families.
      • Certain families could include those whose ancestor(s) fought in a significant battle, or who founded the original settlement, or through tradition have a power that originally belonged to all, etc.

 

 

Day 10 J is for Joust

J – Joust – games, tournaments, festivals, celebrations. Calendar.

Entertainment is a common way to keep the commoners distracted from their lot in life. In ancient Rome it was “bread and circuses”. What sort of celebrations and contests will there be? Will they be regular events on the calendar?

Is there a spring festival, a harvest festival, midsummer? What seasonal things are a big deal in this culture?

Will any of these elements survive down to the present culture near an ancient, fallen city?

Hippodromes, stadiums, coliseums, jousting yards, etc.

Will there be statues or other monuments to memorialize famous sports stars?

Will elements of the calendar be evident in orientation of buildings, or specific types of buildings? Will the calendar be  a series of buildings, stones, or landmarks? Is the calendar based on the sun, moon, stars, seasons, or seasonal event?

Would their be massive stones used for having the light of the rising, midday, or setting sun to mark the beginning or end of a festival? This would be for dramatic flair. What remnants of such calendars would survive in the towns and villages of the present day in your campaign, if this refers to a collapsed city?

See my article on Calendars And Random Generation, which can be useful for picking random dates for different kinds of festivals.

Humans, demi-humans, and humanoids would all have different days and times for their celebrations.

Types of Festivals/Celebrations/Events:

  • Planting
  • Harvest
  • Calving/Birthing
  • Spring Roundup
  • Party (Birth, Birthday, Wedding, Anniversary, Death, Victory, Just Because, Special Day, etc.)
  • House/Barn/Church Raising (The whole community gets together to build something and has a big feast at the end.)
  • Seasonal Event determined by the calendar, season, start alignment, eclipse, comet, etc.
  • Civil Holiday (Foundation of the city, kingdom, king’s birthday, etc.)
  • Religious (significant day in a given faith, holy day, etc.)

Types of Contests:

  • Cooking
  • Eating
  • Wrestling
  • Archery/Spear/Javelin/Dart
  • Jousting
  • Fencing/Swordsmanship
  • Lumberjack
  • Harvesting/Plowing
  • Drinking
  • Gambling
  • Feats of Strength
  • Poetry
  • Riddle
  • Races (Foot, horse, chariot, wagon, cockroaches, etc.)

Contest Resolution:

  • Roll to hit vs AC for Archery – Can be tedious. Quick resolution for speed of game play. If there are 20 contestants, rolling to hit for all 20 for three shots each will take a lot of time.
  • Flip a coin
  • Pick high/low card
  • DM/Player story interaction
  • DM Tells the Story
  • Player Tells the Story
  • Players Tell the Story for what other players do
  • Mechanic from other system, like Fudge/Fate, Apocalypse Engine, Advantage/Disadvantage from 5e, etc.
  • Roll vs. Ability Scores

In addition to festivals, or even as part of them, other forms of entertainment were gladiatorial combat, as in ancient Rome. In the Middle Ages, and at many other times, putting animals in a pit or other structure and letting them fight, either like animals or dogs vs. bulls, i.e. bulldogs, or cockfighting, or people vs. animals or monsters. I have been in some campaigns where you start off as a slave fighting for his life in the slave pits. This was common after Conan The Barbarian came out in the early 1980’s. It was one of those tropes like you meet in a bar. Every new group of characters in our various games, if they met in a bar, we had to have a bar fight. I haven’t played or GM’d in a session where the players got in a bar fight since high school.

Players will ask what is there to do in this town for fun? Gambling, wenching, drinking, eating, fighting, etc. are all common for some players. In my current campaign, my players haven’t asked that question. They are content with the tavern that caters to adventurers. They happened to be in town when there was a festival and took part in that. I determined on my game calendar when certain events would happen, and if the players are not in town, they only hear about it, if it is shortly thereafter, or if they ask about the time since they were last in town.

Day 9 I is for Innkeepers

I – Innkeepers/tavern keepers/barkeeps, etc.

Travelers need a place to stay and sailors and merchants and the common people need a place to gather for drink and gossip.

How dense are the bars? I once lived in a town of 300 people that had five bars. It was a farming community, many miles from any big city, and not much to do. I was an outsider and did not fit in, and never felt welcome.

The quality of inns and taverns will vary by the socioeconomic power of the area where it exists. The wealthier districts will tend to have the more expensive accommodations. The least expensive accommodations might be suitable to the upper middle class, for example. While the poorest districts would seldom have anything beyond upper lower class or maybe lower middle class quality/cost.

A quick assumption that by the book equipment costs are middle middle class prices. One could add 10 or 20 percent for each step up, so that a pint of ale that is 1 s.p. by the Player’s Handbook is 1.1 or 1.2 s.p. in an upper middle class inn or tavern. Similar increases for each step of lower upper class, middle upper class, and high upper class. Perhaps the increase for the higher class establishments might be a doubling or tripling. It might be questionable if the higher class was related to the quality of the food and drink, most likely not the quantity. Would the cost for the lower echelons of society be much of a drop? There would most likely be a significant drop in quality.

What sorts of things would be found in the abandoned inns and taverns of an ancient city? Would there be casks of fine ale, wine, or whiskey that survived all this time? Would their be grains kept dry all these years that are still edible? Might there be some cheese still sealed in wax?

Would their be scattered coins, gems, or jewelry?

What odd sorts of object might be found in an abandoned inn or tavern?

This list would be good not just for an inn or tavern in an ancient city, but one that was raided in a small village or way station.

What Survived In the Inn/Tavern? (Randomly determine the condition- is it edible, and location of the following.)

  • 1d10 Bottles of the finest ale.
  • 1d10 Bottles of ale.
  • 1d6 kegs of the finest beer
  • 1d6 kegs of beer
  • 1d12 bottles of the finest wine
  • 1d12 bottles of wine
  • 1d20 bottles of the best whiskey
  • 1d20 botles of whiskey
  • 1d12 assorted cheeses
  • 1d6 assorted cured hams, or legs of beef, or mutton
  • 1d12 mugs
  • 1d12 plates (wood, pewter, silver, etc.)
  • 1d12 sets of tableware (knives, forks, spoons, chopsticks, etc.)
  • 1d20 sets of serving utensils (knives, forks, spoons, etc.)
  • 1d20 kitchen utensils (pot stirrers, cooking forks, ladles, etc)
  • 10d20 copper pieces
  • 5d20 silver pieces
  • 1d20 gold pieces
  • 1d6 gems
  • 1d4 pieces of jewelry

Where is the secret hiding place? (1d6) (Determine if this has been found or if not found, does it still contain its original contents? If the contents were moved, are they buried or hidden nearby?)

  1. Under the keeper’s bed.
  2. Under a movable section of the bar.
  3. Behind a brick/stone in the fireplace.
  4. Secret compartment in the fireplace mantel.
  5. Behind a rock/stone in the fire area of the fireplace.
  6. Secret compartment in a post or pillar.

In March, 2014 I published an article on districts or quarters of a city.

Day 8 H is for Heralds

H – Heralds/Proclamations/News/Rumors

How does official government news get around? Is there a chief herald who directs all the district and neighborhood heralds with official proclamations? Is there a place where it is posted for those who can read?

How does news of the exploits of adventurers get around? News of foreign wars and monster incursions? Gossip and word of mouth are how most information gets around.

News will travel from city to city via merchants and the more hops the news makes the more blurred and distorted it is when it comes in. Rumor and gossip is how the commoners will hear of things, much like the game telephone where whispering down the line ends up with a totally different story than what started. How to determine how distorted the facts have become?

For a collapsed city, will there be remnants of a chief herald’s office? Will there be stellae or other carvings that depict information throughout the city? Will there be any trace of how information was relayed?

For some, using a more English flair, a herald would be in charge of Heraldry, as in the College of Arms. Heraldry in the Middle Ages arose out of keeping track of who was who on the battlefield, and it became formalized to indicate the arms, AKA heraldic device of a royal or noble house. Contrary to the belief of some Americans, if you have the same last name as a famous noble house, you do not “officially” get to use those arms. The exception is for those of Scottish descent, the clan lord, often a noble, may authorize a clan badge that all members of the clan may wear.

Inkwell Ideas has a Coat of Arms Design Studio program with a free and a fee version. Designing a coat of arms for even each nation in a campaign, like all the human kingdoms, plus the demi-human kingdoms, can take a lot of time. Some like the added touch of the visual aid. Others prefer to use clear and descriptive language for theater of the mind.

Unless you are going for realism for an RPG campaign set in a historical period or a “clone” of a historical period, going into the detail of a college of heralds, and all the detail involved can be quite daunting. I have tried to do that and end up spending more time on simple touches that I find are not necessary to actual play. As a world builder, I WANT that stuff. As a DM, I like the added touches, but can’t justify spending more time than I already have. Those little touches are nice, but if you aren’t going to use them in play, or as something that helps you as DM tie things together, is it really worth the time spent? My answer is if it helps you run a better game, then go for it. Each DM has to judge for themselves what that means.

Whatever level of detail your heraldry involves, will there be any signs of it in a living or abandoned city? Will monuments contain the insignia or the ruling families? Will merchant houses have their symbols? Will ancient marks of thieve’s long dead still exist? Will its meaning be lost or muddled to a current thief?

Taverns tend to have colorful names and we tend to expect them to have a sign depicting the name.

Will any of the symbols of an ancient empire still be in use? Will it span monuments, banners, tapestries, shield devices, mile markers, and coins? In my campaign, the ancient empire was symbolized by an iron tower or an iron throne. The tower theme has survived into some successor kingdoms. Some petty kingdoms have variations on the iron tower, each claiming to be the rightful emperor, but none able to make anyone outside their small area of influence recognize that.

I have a mercenary group my player’s have encountered, called the Green Shields, with green shields and cloak clasps that are also green shields. Would a famous mercenary group have survived over the centuries and players find an ancient pre-cursor to the current group, or might it only be a coincidence?

What groups can have symbols?

  • Royals
    • Senior branch and cadet branches.
  • Nobles
  • Nations/Countries
    • Could be same or variation on the Royal coat of arms/insignia.
  • Merchants
    • Specific Businesses, like Barber Poles
  • Guilds
    • Merchants
    • Magic Users
  • Adventurers
  • Temples/Dieties/Clerics
    • Theological differences between branches of the same faith need a way to recognize those in schism, heterodoxy, heresy, etc.
  • Mercenaries
  • Taverns
  • Tribes/Clans & their subdivisions
    • Scottish clans and their septs.
    • Orc Tribes, like the Bloody Hand.
    • Plains Tribes of horsemen, etc.
  • What kind of groups did I miss?

In March, 2014 I published an article on districts or quarters of a city.

 

Day 7 G is for Graveyard

G – Graveyard/ghosts/ghouls/ghasts/grue/tombs

What are the funerary rites? If cremation, then there is not much chance of there being a lot of undead, unless the collapse prevented the cremation of the dead. Some cultures have ritual cannibalism.

Large cemeteries with lots of bodies can make a near endless source of skeletons and zombies, and a haven for other undead.

Will the cemetery/graveyard be a single location, or many smaller ones throughout the city? Will the dangers by any undead be merely a barrier to treasure, or just a short trip to a quick death?

Types of Tombs

  • Mausoleum
  • Crypt
  • Tumulus/Burial Mound/Barrow
  • Cist Tombs
  • Cave Tomb (Yagura – medieval Japan)
  • Cenotaph (“empty tomb” in honor of a person)
  • Catacomb
  • Burial Vault
  • Sarcophagus
  • Bier/Catafalque (Platform for a corpse or coffin with a corpse.)
  • Tree and Scaffold Burial also called Sky Burial (Native American plains tribes did this.)
  • Domed/Thalos Tomb/Beehive Tomb
  • Columbarium (Building for storage of cremated remains/cremains.)
  • Ossuary for holding bones after decay of the flesh (Jewish and early Christian paractice)
  • Bed Burial (an Anglo-Saxon practice)

Will temples have burial vaults under the sanctuary? Are the royals/rulers of the city buried in a grand manner and somewhat on display, from a stone sarcophagus to some form of artwork?

Will there be battlefields where the fallen were buried en masse? Will there be any form of tombs with multiple burials, with multiple platforms, niches, etc., like a catacomb?

If cremation is practiced, is it done with an individual fire built as needed, like on a riverbank, or like a viking funeral? Are they so sophisticated in their technology as to have a crematorium? Do they let the wind scatter the ashes, or do they gather them up and scatter them later? Perhaps they preserve the ashes in urns and place the urns in a special building, called a columbarium?

If mummification is practiced, this is an indication that there will be the possibility for a lot of mummies as monsters. Mummification can happen in various ways, via dehydration of the corpse in a dry climate, like in Egypt or the deserts of South America. Mummification can be more invasive, including removing the blood and major organs to ensure removal of moisture from the corpse. With a more “modern” twist, the corpse can be embalmed, and the process of embalming prevents the decay of the corpse. Would a culture practicing some form of mummification display the deceased for all time? Sort of like Lenin on display in Moscow?

If the culture is a high magic one, or was in ancient times, how many liches are there? According to the AD&D Monster Manual, a lich is at least an 18th level magic user, or a magic user/cleric. If archmages were relatively “common” at some point, how many of them would be of the alignment and mindset to become a lich? Such powerful creatures would be rare and placed carefully. I have an idea for my campaign where the players can find an ancient wizard’s lab with an experiment incomplete, that if they fiddle with it, will complete the process for a long dead wizard to become a lich.

Would players find signs of a vampire infestation where burials involved decapitation, staking, etc?

All known religions or lack thereof, have some form of dealing with the remains of the dead and a ceremonial way to say goodbye to deliver the remains to a final resting place. One need not get too detailed with this, but a bit of thought to how each major group processes their dead will add a bit of flavor to help it come alive for the players.

[Updated] Alternatives to burial:

  • Burial at sea
  • Funerary cannibalism
  • Cremation
  • Excarnation (removing the flesh from the bones)
  • Hanging coffins
  • Sky burial (placing on a mountain top)

See also: Disposal of Human Corpses

Day 6 F is for Farmers and Feeding

F – Farmers/Feeding

Any sizable population needs to eat. There is limited potential to grow food within the city, unless there is a very regimented layout and everyone has access to garden space. There will be farmland nearby, or within easy shipping distance.

For example, when Rome conquered Egypt, they did so in part, to control the grain from Egypt – it was the bread basket for Rome with shipments about three days out from Rome, as I recall. Unseasonable storms and shipwrecks of grain shipments that caused a delay would lead to unrest. The grain ships were the size of the large shipping vessels of later centuries, many with two or three masts. Something not commonly mentioned in school. [I can’t seem to find the book I have where I read about this, and don’t recall the title.]

Cattle or other herds used for meat would also need to be close. Unless salted or cured, meat would not keep long. Thus there would be a market where livestock is slaughtered and the leather makers get the hides, the butchers get the meat, and the glue makers get the bones. There are other groups related to animal slaughter, such as drovers, herdsmen, stockyards, etc. Typically, animals were most often kept for their value in helping to plow or harvest, or the ability to harvest their wool or hair. Meat tended to be a rare part of a peasant’s diet, other than fish or fowl, most meat would be a rabbit or squirrel.

For a collapsed city, the remnants of surrounding farms and the stockyards and slaughter operations would be evident. Small hamlets where the farmers and resident smiths and carpenters and wainwrights lived to support an area of farmland. The module The Village of Hommlet is a farming hamlet with many adherents to druidical teachings and a decent level druid to lead the flock with a holy grove in the center of town, and a low level assistant. What kind of bonuses would such a farming community have to their output with druids around? They would easily have a surplus for sale or trade.

It is important to keep in mind that a portion of crops had to be kept back for planting the next year. Any famine that caused them to resort to eating their seeds for the next year’s planting would be devastating. If this happens, how far do they have to travel to get seeds for next year’s crops? In some areas, this could force a mass migration to get to an area where seed was available for planting.

Surplus grain that wasn’t sold is easily converted to beer. If fermentation is known in your world, the first step in making whisky is to make beer. The grains left after the beer making stage can be used for animal feed. Agrarian societies tended to use all they could and minimize waste.

My mother once told me that she asked her mother what she missed about living on the farm, where my grandmother grew up. My grandmother answered, “Fried blood.” That sounds really gross to me. I have no idea how it was prepared. I have an image of an iron skillet on a wood or gas stove, with cooking oil (lard) and adding blood from the latest beef or hog slaughter. For all I know, it might have been mixed with flour or cornmeal.

Farms will be on land that drains well, so land that floods every year after planting time will not be planted. Bottom land that floods unpredictably might be planted as it is today, but unless they have discovered marine cement like the ancient Romans, and use lots of labor or lots of magic to build flood control levies, the rivers will change course and flood far and wide. Just read about the floods in the 1930’s and 40’s that lead the Army Corps of Engineers to implement flood control with dams and levies to stabilize the course of the major rivers.

There are many kinds of natural disasters that can lead to crop failure:

  • Floods (Unless it is something like the annual flooding of the Nile to deposit silt. That is required for a decent crop in that arid climate.)
  • Droughts
  • Hail (after the crop has sprouted)
  • Frost (on tree buds or sprouted crops)
  • Unseasonable Temperatures (Extremes of cold delay planting or slow growth, and heat burns up plants even with plentiful water.*)
  • Naturally occurring disease or blight
  • Naturally occurring insect swarms or overabundance of crop pests (Without insecticides expect worms in apples, etc.)
  • Disease among the horses, mules, oxen, or whatever plow animal predominates, reducing the volume of land made ready to plant, if it comes before or during plowing.
  • Disease among farm workers during the time for plowing, planting, watering, or harvesting.

Unnatural occurrences affecting crops:

  • Invading Armies Burn Crops
  • Rampaging Monsters Uproot/Dig Up/Pull Up/Burn/Freeze/Etc.
  • Rampaging Monsters go after farmers and livestock.
  • Divine Intervention at the behest of the evil big bad, or some good big good.
  • Area druids, clerics, and magic users coming together to save crops, if they’re the good guys, or destroy them if they’re bad guys or at war with a nation.
  • Any natural disease can be caused by an evil cleric.

There are lots of simple engineering projects that ancient civilizations used that might be evident in your campaign. 

  • Terraces (Hilly or mountainous terrain will use terraces for flat area for growing crops. Only the sheerest of cliffs will not have a terrace. The Incas had impressive terraces in the Andes.)
  • Irrigation Canals (Long distance transport can be 20 feet deep and 50 feet wide. Smaller branches to agricultural lands will be shallower and narrower, until there is a ditch perhaps 2 or 3 feet deep and as much wide that is tapped to let water onto the fields.)
    • Irrigation canals could tie into navigation canals, if it would not limit the effectiveness of the navigation canal.
  • Aqueducts could carry water to hard to reach farmland.

Manure and composted vegetable matter would be the primary fertilizer. Manure was usually reserved for the gardens near farms. In your game, you might have cart loads or wagon loads of manure hauled from the king’s stables to the royal gardens or royal fields.

Every farmhouse will have a garden for herbs and vegetables for the farm family, and surplus for sale. Are there root cellars to keep fruits and vegetables cool and dry into the winter? What methods of preserving fruits and vegetables exist? The most basic is sun drying. Lay out on some sort of cloth or tarp slices of thicker fruit to dry. Smaller fruit, like grapes are laid out whole and dried for raisins, and plumbs for prunes. My last great-grand aunt (my grandfather’s youngest aunt) lived into her 90’s, when I was in my early 20’s. She would lay out a cloth on her bed covered with apple slices and open the curtains to dry them.

Ice houses could exist in areas where it freezes or near mountains. Until the development of mechanical refrigeration, ice would be harvested from lakes and ponds and put in underground ice houses. Dirt, sand, clay, and straw were used to maintain a steady temperature. Ice was able to be kept into the summer months. Toss in a wizard who can make a wall of ice and you have a year round deep freeze, or an air conditioner.

Cheese making is an early technology. Milk from any animal will not keep long without refrigeration and pasteurizing. The best long term storage of milk is to make cheese. Cheese properly sealed in wax will keep for centuries. Butter is related to cheese making. It can last several weeks if it doesn’t get too hot for too long.

Are there beekeepers? Without beekeepers, honey would be more rare and expensive, since it would all be wild honey. This would make mead non-existent to very rare. Honey does not rot, if it dries out just add water and heat it. I have an idea for giant bees being used for an apiary. Perhaps giants would use such bees.

Is the process of pickling known? You can’t have pickles without this. Nearly anything can be pickled, including meat.

Canning was not discovered until the late 1700’s  or early 1800’s. Napoleon funded early efforts at canning to help feed his army. Home canning using Mason jars is not that old. Would the quality of glass and pressure cookers be available to support canning? I don’t see that in my fantasy RPG, but if it works for you, go for it.

Is crop rotation practiced or known? It depends on the degree of realism in your game. Hand wave it unless it serves as a plot point, is my opinion. In the Medieval period crop rotation was letting land lie fallow, unused, for a season or two to renew itself. It was not until much later that it was realized that some crops used up certain things in the soil and other crops put it back. The prime example is corn (maize) using nitrogen and legumes, like peanuts or beans fixing nitrogen in the soil.

Giant or miniature animals.

In a fantasy setting what effect would there be on agriculture if giant or miniature versions of farm animals were used by human sized races? Huge horses and oxen could plow more land and give more manure. However, larger animals require more feed. Miniature as in the fantasy miniature animals could be used to plow gardens or small terraces. Specialized fruits and vegetables might require either giant or miniature animals in the planting for harvest. An extravagant ruler might delight in having miniature horses plow his personal garden for his own table. Of course, halflings would tend to use smaller animals and giants that planted would use giant horses.

Finally, a website I discovered in early March, Lost Kingdom, has many interesting articles on how medieval life can inform fantasy RPGs. I already mentioned The Porcelain Argument in a blog posting last month.

“Surplus food allows cities, trade and a large standing military – all the characteristics of a formidable nation.” From The Porcelain Argument at Lost Kingdom.

Various types of medieval farming implements are discussed here, at Lost Kingdom. I added a note to their article: “The development of the horse collar enabled the move to horses and mules for plowing. The collar distributed the weight on the horse and did not constrict its trachea, and gave it 50% greater capacity to work. The horse then could work more hours than an ox. This lead to the horse replacing the ox in many agricultural areas of Europe.” See Wikipedia.

The Lost Kingdom also has an excellent article on the Farming Year. One thing this article did not mention was pollarding. It was a system of pruning trees for either animal fodder, called pollard hay, or for wood, usually used for staves and poles. Since pollarded trees tend to live longer, I can see druids being in favor of this form of tree harvest.

* Three years ago we had extreme heat and I kept my garden watered. Most of it burnt up, but my pumpkins and squash went crazy.

Day 5 E is for Entrances & Exits

E – Entrances & Exits – gates, sewers, streams, rivers, etc.

There are many ways into and out of a city besides the gates. Think like a thief or assassin, or an intelligent or hungry monster. How to get in or out without being noticed, or without consequences?

Any opening in the walls, or over or under the walls, is a potential entrance or exit.

Rivers, streams, harbors, aqueducts, sewers, hidden doors, sally ports, and so forth.

If there is a blind spot on the wall between towers that a thief can climb over, the thieves guild will know about it.

If there is a subterranean connection to the cisterns or sewers, the thieves guild would know about it – unless there is no current connection. Or it could have something nasty, so the thieves guild knows about it, but can’t use it. Perhaps the thieves guild could hire a party of newcomers to go after the whateveritis under the guise of a merchant having a problem. The gold paid to adventurers to avoid risking guild members’ necks would pay for itself, if the adventurers are successful, and it opens up a new smuggling route.

News stories in recent years about underground cities being found during renovations in different towns in Turkey, give an idea to the type of things that can be discovered in an area that has been inhabited for thousands of years. In RPG’s this has an interesting twist by having many fantasy or science fiction races and their different activities setting the stage for events and discoveries in the current era of the game. The well-known concept that the truth is stranger than fiction is a wonderful source of ideas for constructing and modifying your cities, and other aspects of your game world.

Be creative and determine connections that are only partly known. What if a well used smuggling route suddenly opens up to an unknown cave complex after an earthquake, and the route is blocked by something bad. Or what if the something bad is smart and strikes up an alliance with the smugglers/thieves guild?

Is there a magical device to allow or control entrance into or out of the city? That is, is magical entrance and egress from the city blocked or controlled to only allow those with the right device to do so?

Known and Unknown Entrances & Exits

  • The city authorities can only control the things they know about, and have power to control.
    • If they know about teleportation, it does not mean they have the means to block it.
    • A forgotten portion of the sewer system may not have any bars or gates, or any form of patrol.
  • Likewise, the thieves guild and other shadowy groups can only exploit the things they know about, and have the power or ability to exploit it.
    • The leader of the thieves guild knows there is an excellent route into and out of the city, but there is a group of trolls down there, so they can’t use it.
    • Bribes and threats to a guard’s family may be better than trying to be sneaky and avoid paying or risking a fight with the town guards.

Types of Entrances & Exits 

  • Gates
  • Sewers/Drains
  • Rivers/Creeks/Streams/Harbors
  • Aquaducts
  • Bridges (Why go on top of the bridge, when you can walk on the bottom?)
  • Catacombs
  • Caves/Caverns (Connecting to Sewers, Rivers, Catacombs, Dungeons, Cellars, etc.)
  • Blind Spots between towers
  • Hidden Doors/Sally Ports (Wealthy persons along the wall may have a clandestine method of passage unknown to the city authorities.)
  • Air (Magical Flying Devices, Flying Creatures.)
  • Magical Entrance (Spells like Teleport or Gate, Teleportation Rooms, or Devices for magical transit of space.)

Means To Control Entrances & Exits

  • Guards
  • Tolls
  • Rules/Laws Governing Entrance
  • Mundane: Signs/Doors/Gates/Bars/Moats/Drawbridges/Portcullises/Murder Holes/Arrow Slits/Barricades/Pavises/Pits/Cauldrons/Mantlets/Etc.
  • Magical: Continual Light, Detection Spells, Glyphs of Warding, Protection Spells, and Special Devices to block teleportation, for example.
  • Patrols: Regular or Staggered Intervals. Irregular and infrequent patrols may be the same as non-existent if they are only once or twice a year.
    • The frequency of patrols is something the thieves’ guild will know well. The neighborhoods of the rich and powerful will usually have more frequent and larger patrols than the less well-to-do areas of the city. Areas where there has been recent trouble may have a show of force with large and frequent patrols until things go back to “normal”.
  • Other

Make a list of how normal and illicit access to the city occurs. If you have a map, note it on the map, or have a “cheat sheet” to remind you of these things.

Day 4 D is for Dungeons

D – Dungeons/prison, jail

Any large city will have a means to imprison law breakers and trouble makers.

A large enough city might have district jails for local/petty crimes, and a main prison for major crimes.

A prison could be an above ground structure, such as an island in the middle of a harbor with a tower.

It could also be a dungeon under the governor’s palace.

Some prisons can be intentionally imposing structures with a design aimed at intimidation and fear. Perhaps stone lions that come to life when there is a prison break. Maybe they have gargoyles that are bound to serve the warden. Jet black stone construction of sheer walls of an unusual height, with towers and battlements, and big, mean, tough guards on patrol. Magical wards to prevent magical ingress or egress, rooms with detect lie, or perhaps just the interrogation chair has that ability, so that the interrogators can lie. Huge banners flying with the insignia of the prison.

Are there pits where the worst prisoners are just dumped and forgotten, like a series of oubliettes?

Depending on how “nice” the government is, there could be shackles on the walls, torture chambers, a gallows or chopping block.

Some types of crimes might warrant putting someone in stocks in the local square. Public shaming was a formal type of punishment that lasted into colonial times in North America.

Is there a secret police? If so, do they wear a uniform so that everyone knows who they are, and fear them and listen to them out of fear?

Is there a standard uniform for constables? Does the city guard perform all policing functions? Is there a difference between the city guard and the army? In the Wednesday night online AD&D game I play in, one city we spent time in has different districts of the town controlled by different factions. Each faction has their own city guard for their area. It is sort of a miniature confederacy in the same city.

Are there any magical items to aid in enforcement? Are there any spell casters involved in policing? Is spell casting banned?

Are their hounds or other types of creatures, perhaps magical, or other worldly used to track down fugitives?

What does the judicial system look like? Are you guilty merely by being caught, or are their judges and/or a trial? Do punishments consist of monetary fines, or cutting off body parts? Is slavery or indentured servitude part of the system?

Are there rules that “everybody” knows, unless you’re an outsider, but you are still expected to know? Is “The Law” chiseled into a monument, or kept in a large scroll somewhere?

Is exile an option? Is such exile at one’s own expense, or are you shipped off to a penal colony? The ancient Athenian version of exile was ostracism. So named because they wrote the person’s name on bits of broken pottery, an ostraka, plural ostrakon. The person was banished for ten years, and thus was “temporary”.

A city with a strong bent to lawfulness will tend to have a consistent way of handling crimes. Do racial issues come into play? Do humans and dwarves get along, for example?

Is the justice system fair for all who live there?

What about adventurers just passing through?

If this is a ruined city, what are the signs left behind of the justice system? Prisoners still on the rack? A pile of bones from the last hanging? Will undead of unjustly condemned prisoners lurk about these places?

In March, 2014 I published an article on districts or quarters of a city.

Day 3 C is for College of Magic

In my campaign, the ancients were more advanced in their use of magic. This was supported by the Collegium of Mages. Each ancient city had its own college of magic that was a way for weeding out the bad apples and ensuring that the wisest and most skilled wizards powers were put to good use.

When civilization collapsed, those ancient halls became a dangerous place for all but the most intrepid or foolish of adventurers. That’s where all the good stuff is!

How does a current city in a high magic setting handle the organization or lack there of of its wizards?

For a fallen city, what kinds of things might there be found in the haunts of wizards?

In addition to magical devices, like weapons, armor, wands, ring, etc. there could be rooms, statues, golems, familiars, imps, homonculi, trapped creatures, magical traps, and many other kinds of things to make going their both interesting and dangerous.

What kinds of experiments might be found there?

Would lanterns or other devices with continual light or continual darkness be common in such a place?

Would there be special devices, phrases, or other means to safely access these areas?

In my campaign, there are different levels of amulets that enable the wearer to enter such areas, in addition to showing their rank.

Would a geas be placed on the unwary to get some item needed to restore the guards and wards making it harder to get in?

All magic users and illusionists had copper or bronze medallions that were non-magical and merely showed one as a member of the Collegium. As the medallion tarnished or aged, one knew their skill level was advanced. Much like the black belt derived from the accumulation of dirt and grime on the belt.

At the level of Wizard, 11th level, the wizard received a silver amulet, gold for Mages at 16th level, and platinum for Archmages at 18th level.

Day 2 B is for Boats

B – Boats/docks

Further related to water are boats and docks.

If a stream or river goes through a town, there will be traffic of some kind if they are navigable. Traffic that will either use the water for a road, or traffic over the water via a bridge, causeway, or ford.

Larger bodies of water will support ships and lead to a need for docks, landings, wharves, dry docks, cranes, shipwrights, boat wrights, carpenters, sail makers, net makers for fishermen, military docks for the navy, longshoremen/dockworkers, sailors, navigators, captains, admirals, taverns, fishmongers, markets, etc.

If there is navigable water nearby, it will have some effect on a city. Even if a few days ride away, trade from some places will be quicker by water to the closest point. This will lead to a town that is the docks for the city and then there will be roads from there to the city.

Canals can be either a constructed or a natural part of a city. For example, Venice is constructed in an area of low land and the canals have been used for the benefits of defense and transport.

Constructed canals would connect rivers to each other, or perhaps the sea. An extravagant city could have canals that are part of a moat system and rely on rainwater or the sea to keep it filled.

A city with extensive canals would have lots of docks and bridges or walkways to connect buildings. Cities with canals would have lots of boats for transportation of both goods and people. Would their be gondolas for hire that are polled, rowed, or towed? Would their be only one kind of power to these boats, or a mixture? Would magic be involved in powering boats?

Boats take many different sizes and shapes, from a crude log to a kayak, canoe, rowboat, barge, raft, flatboat, galleys, longboats, and sailing ships. Sails can be found on boats and ships of all sizes.