(One-Page City) Samurbia, City of Scheming Swords

[Geordie Racer]

All these one page cities are great, as is Zulgyan's one-page manifesto. I've done something similar for my own campaign, the main difference being that I've focused on a single district of the city, so that I can key all of the houses and add a bit more detail. My plan in the long run is to build the whole city up district by one-page district, though to start off with I think just one will do fine.

Great idea - I may use this to zoom in on particular, the bazaar, for example.

I could imagine a city built in collaboration with others, each adding a district. If the same mapping tools, fonts and general layout were used, it would look really cohesive when put together.

[Grim]

Excellent stuff! It took me 30 pages to write up my main city and I'm still not done.

[Zulgyan]

I'm glad that Enharza inspired Geordie Racer, who is already innovating and enriching the one-page city concept! I hope more join the one-page city crew and create wonderful cities!

I will incorporate BOTH of Geordie's cities into my campaign. And if he comes up with more, I'll probably have even more fantastical cities to game with!

If you want to see Enharza in action, check this out: http://zetaorionis-zulgyan.blogspot.com ... ion-i.html

I ran the whole session out of those 2 city pages, 1 page of notes, the AD&D Monster Manual and the Fiend Folio.

As for developing the city district by district, it sounds like a great idea. I have personally avoided that because I want the PCs to travel and visit, many many cities, so the shorter they are, the better!!! But this is just a very personal preference! Say NO to one-wayism!

[Mythmere]

It would be really cool to do like, three of these one-page cities side by side in Knockspell. In the context of a magazine presentation, I think a couple of changes to the format might work better. What you've done here (and what Zulgyan has done with Enharza) is a complete resource for playing, which necessarily includes a couple of mundane elements: the random encounter tables aren't particularly abnormal in Samurbia, for example. In a magazine presentation, the whole package would need to focus on what's unusual about the city. The factions in Samurbia are a good example of the kind of "creative shockwave" that I try to find or elicit in every article.

What I'm thinking aloud, as an outline for a three-city spread, might be as follows:
1) Start with a "summary" that ties together the various elements of the city instead of burying it as "General." The theme for Samurbia is the faction war. I'd add a bit more about the aging warlord - perhaps it's his weakness that allows the factions to be rising into power the way they are? Maybe mention the areas beyond the walls.

2) Tie the encounter tables to the city's particular character somehow, instead of just offering a short and generic table (because those tables would repeat quite a bit from page to page). Maybe substitute possible "unusual events" for the standard tables, or put more elements from the factions directly into the encounter charts.

3) Maybe we could get Samurbia (Samaarbia?), and then have an Asian-styled city, and then perhaps a medieval city or a dark, Warhammery city. You know, three cities that are wildly different since they are side by side.

Again, that was just thinking aloud...

[Zulgyan]

Mythmere, as you may have noted, many names in Enharza where taken from your excellent CITY ENCOUNTERS game resource. The encounter tables of that product were a bit too huge for my gaming style, but I did mined for ideas in them.

[Mythmere]

Mythmere, as you may have noted, many names in Enharza where taken from your excellent CITY ENCOUNTERS game resource. The encounter tables of that product were a bit too huge for my gaming style, but I did mined for ideas in them.

Zulgyan, would you be interested in shifting the "flavor" of Enharza into an Asian type of setting - or Geordie, doing that with Samurbia? That would give us two very interesting cities... both are currently in the Sword & Sorcery Conan sort of vein, which would be a bit too similar for a magazine spread.

[Zulgyan]

Is that needed?

When I wrote Enharza I purposely avoided referring to the architectural style of the city, so that anyone can better adapt in to his own style: medieval, Asian, roman, etc. I personally went with a slightly Persian feel when running it, but it does not have to be nesseseraly that way.

You don't need to focus the "product". Keep it open! It's better, and more usable by different kinds of DM and settings.

I would love to submit stuff to Knockspell, but I promised Calithena to submit the Enharza stuff to Fight On! If I come up with another city, I will gladly submitt it to knockspell.

[Mythmere]

I promised Calithena to submit the Enharza stuff to Fight On!

Dang it.

[Zulgyan]

the main difference being that I've focused on a single district of the city, so that I can key all of the houses and add a bit more detail

JR Johnson: are you going to detail every building? that would be a huge amount of mundane, non-adventuring relevant information there. You would commit the, IMHO, mistake of Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh. And all that mundane stuff like food shops, tailors, or yet another blacksmith is really, really easy to improvise. And it's fun to do so!

You will also make the final "product" less adaptable and usable by other DMs.

Just a thought! Say NO to one-wayism!

[Geordie Racer]

Zulgyan, would you be interested in shifting the "flavor" of Enharza into an Asian type of setting - or Geordie, doing that with Samurbia?

I'd be more interested in seeing other people's designs rather than remixing Samurbia.

Your 'thinking aloud' ideas are totally sound, a KS version would have to focus more on the pivotal bit, the clashing factions.

It'd also be cool to have a settlement, a wilderness and a dungeon over 3 pages, each page contributed by different people but tied together. A lean, mean Keep on the Borderlands style triptych for the retroclone generation.