Ok, let’s do some quick and dirty city building to give us a basic structure for gameplay. We don’t have a lot of guidance for city building in Knave, but Maze Rats, Ben’s first game, does. In that game, he suggests building cities with themed districts and connections between them. Taking that idea and pairing it with the Knave city themes table (p. 46) and the Cost of Living Table (p. 38) gives us a place to start.
For my Greyhawk campaign, I need to build a map of Leukish, capital of the Duchy of Urnst. I don’t have any real plans for it yet, and there are some maps of the town floating around on the internet, but I’d rather come up with something on my own. We can use the Cost of Living table to give us a rough idea of what the districts should look like. We’ll make the palace grounds Major Noble, with Minor Noble nearby. Urnst is a rich land, so there should definitely be a Respectable part of town as well as Humble and Poor parts. That gives us five districts. A smaller town might have fewer, and imperial capital would have more.
Using the city themes table we get the following results: Textiles (twice), Bridges, Prisons, and Element. This last led to another table with the result: Dust. So now let’s take those themes and connect them to districts. Two Textiles results suggest that this place really is a manufacturing hub, so let’s say that Urnst is just lousy with sheep. The Humble and Respectable parts of town are associated with wool and cloth making. That’s two down. Dust makes me think of poverty, so let’s make that the theme of the Poor district. That leaves Bridges and Prisons. Let’s make the ducal palace a former prison, because that sounds interesting and since there’s a river leading into a large freshwater lake here, the bridges can be the Minor Noble section. Perhaps the original nobility descended from bridge guardians.
Ok, that’s already a compelling vision for a city, but let’s see if we can build it up a bit more. Let’s start with those bridges. I like the idea of three bridges built over the same river, perhaps the result of an ancient, half-mythical competition between architects. These three bridges became a settlement because they made the crossing easy, and the legend of their creation grew with time. Now, they are the centerpiece of the city.
The ducal palace that was a prison is more difficult, but let’s say that the prison is under the palace and is now barely used. It was a place for political prisoners long ago, but now it is known mostly by rumor to be a storehouse for ancient war machines left over from the great migrations of peoples from out of the West. And now we have our local dungeon. Also, let’s keep with the bridge theme and have the palace be a series of towers with bridges between.
Now for the two textiles areas. These can be divided by the kinds of work going on in each. Perhaps the rough and simple cloth is made in the Humble district, and the intricate weaving and dying takes place in the Respectable part of town. These two sections are probably close by each other and blend into each other somewhat. Right now, these don’t seem to be too generative for adventure content, but when we add some factions in the next step, the cloth merchants may surprise us.
Last, let’s look at the Dust, which I just like as a name for a district. I’m thinking that this is where the sheep are brought in from in-country. It’s dirty, smelly, and rough. Think about it like a cattle town in the Old West: ramshackle and lawless. Perhaps its on the far side of the bridges from the rest of the town. Maybe this explains the wealth of the Bridges, they take tolls off of any traffic across them. The Dust is where the country meets the city and its a more wide open place with broad streets for herd-driving and lots of stray dogs.
Ok, so I have something vague to work with. The next thing to do is create some places in each city section to visit and some factions that are at work in the city. I’ve already got a picture of the place in my head, and it’s fantastical without being otherworldly, which is just the mix I like. Remember, I need this for Sunday, so I’m working against the clock here. More in a couple of days.
OohI can't wait!