Regrets weigh on my mind. I cut a few
sections from the Fever-Dreaming Marlinko manuscript and one
of them I am already rueful about is the Suggested Reading section.
The readings from the gaming product
list (I will post the non-fictional and fictional suggestions if
there is reader interest) are for the most part geared around the
central design challenge that nagged the hell out of me during the
writing and playtesting: how can we do a better job presenting
gameable fantasy cities by minimizing the traditional layering of
boring, not-useful mundanities (the whole “here's a hobbit
bootmaker with 3 hp and two daughters” syndrome) and maximizing
things that either give it more flavor or make for better adventures
at the table?
The products in the list below are all
things that helped me think that framing question through (though
it's up to y'all to decide if Marlinko succeeds).
In-Print Gaming
There's been a good deal of digital ink spilled on this one and for good reason—it is a forceful, articulate partisan of the “can the mundane” way of running large, sprawling cities. Of particular utility at the table are the numerous generators for things such as random streets, neighborhoods, taverns, NPCs (and their quirks and motivations), etc.
In a recent social media exchange WA
author Trey Causey (and for full disclosure, one of my fellow
co-partners in the Hydra Collective) said:“ If you want a
Lankhmar or New Crubozon, it means the city has to be almost a
character. It needs to inhabit mostly a space of content in
players' minds, not as much a place of spatial location."
This seems not only broadly true but
something I found deeply inspiring about WA's centerpiece City (a
1930s-ish fantasy NYC). I
found his general approach of imaging the hell out of the features of
a city that make it unique and memorable coupled with a neighborhood
focus (with sidebars and boxes for unique social features or gameable
charts) to be worth reading for the how to bring out the flavor and
life in a fantasy city. You get a strong whiff of it on
his blog index.
Glorantha produced a wonderfully adventurable city in the
Chaosium-era boxed sets (republished together with a huge expansion
by Moon Design). While I found some of the building entries to be on
the bland side in Pavis, the product makes up for it by having
evocative and interesting factions, distinct neighborhoods (each with
their own street gang), town god cult (Pavis), dwarven undercity and
best of all a massive ruinscrawl in the next-door Big Rubble.
The city write-up section is a flavorful exploration of an Asian-inspired city (and thus a nice departure from the standard more Western-based city books). I love the variant equipment lists and neighborhood encounter charts.
Lesserton
and Mor seems to be
directly inspired by the Big Rubble or at least it's very similar
(ruinscrawl next to small base town). I found Lessertown, as a good
solid example of an interesting adventurer boomtown, to be
surprisingly more interesting than the ruined Mor.
Out of Print Gaming
City adventures run as much or more on
navigating humanity and information as they do on site exploration.
As such Cities by Midkemia Press (and later Chaosium) with
it's massive array of city encounter charts is a huge inspiration for
its breadth and depth (covering everything from a table of accidental
jostlings of and by NPCs to a sub-table for the rare appearance of
gods). The back section of the booklet is an intriguing downtime
system that lets players run a minigame for what happens to them
between adventures.
(Btw Jeremy Duncan's cover for Marlinko is a bit
of an homage to the second edition cover by Richard Becker).
Lankhmar
First
most on any list of suggested readings for fantasy cities just has to
be Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories. TSR's first and second edition
are uneven but have some highly useful urban geomorphs and a
beautiful map (that allows space for said geomorphs).
City State of the Invincible
Overlord
The
granddaddy of all fantasy gameable cities has to make the list even
for all its mundane aspects. I dig the weird little sub-systems such
as the strange and vicious court system.
City State of the World Emperor
Much as above
though I found much of the actual city detail to be weirder, more
evocative and more interesting than its brother CSIO.
Jonril
Loaded down with a heap of mundane
descriptions and some of the worst and blandest character names,
Midkemia's Jonril makes the cut by having a really interesting
expedition sub-system for generating missions in the nearby howling
wilderness of the Sunken Lands.
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