Building a Huge City

[Gnomemaster]

So, when designing a huge city, I want to break it out into separate wards. does anyone have any suggestions about what these wards should be?

[Moniker]

I've designed two very large cities (one with a 64k population, another with a 150k population).

If you're looking for inspiration, feel free to steal/borrow/use/whatever:

http://deismaar.pbwiki.com/Kahabro (larger city)
http://deismaar.pbwiki.com/Belegost (smaller city)

[Lmns Crn]

I'm always concerned that when I try the "sections" method of big city building, I'll end up with something that feels very compartmentalized. Instead of one big city (with multiple constituent parts), I worry that I'll end up with a handful of distinct, smaller cities that happen to be crammed next to each other.

I guess I don't have any really great advice. But I'd be interested to see if you have a way to circumvent this problem, and make a city that feels unified.

[Epic Meepo]

Do some research into the neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon. It has strict zoning laws that divide it into district-like sections with very abrupt edges.

[Ivar]

These may be obvious suggestions, but I'm posting them anyways.

First, ask yourself why would the city be warded off into seperate districts?

The first thing that comes to my mind is to seperate the socioeconomic classes:

If I'm a medieval nobleman living in your city, I only want nobleman neighbors.  So first you'll have a "rich" district, which should contain the better eating, drinking, performance arts, brothels, etc.

At the other end of the spectrum, if I'm a street sweeper, I can barely afford rent and struggle to keep food in my stomach.  The high rent of the other wards puts me in the slums with my other fellow poverty stricken people.  Poor people often depend more on natural resources to live, so if your city is near the sea, lake, or mountain, put this district closest to that.

There should also be several other areas for those who do not fit into either of those categories.  Those areas will be your "standard" areas, but could also be differentiated by having certain interesting things in them.  For example, one of the standard areas has a higher number of a certain type of building (restaurants, temples, etc.) and is named for that.  Or a standard area could have the major thoroughfare passing through it, or be built on a major geographical feature (the Aventide Hill area of Rome).

Perhaps you would even divide the city roughly into racial neighborhoods, if multiple races exist.  It's unfortunately a huge factor in real life, and that's based solely on skin color and background.  Imagine racism with 4 foot dwarfs, orcs, etc.

Finally, your huge city will at minimum need one area that includes the governmen., be it a castle, keep, walled in area, courthouses, etc.

But to go back to your initial question, the main reason cities in real life are divided into wards are based on socioeconomic classes...so use that in your huge fantasy city as well.

[Knight of Ravens]

Ivar's points are good ones, but here's another: growth. as a city grows, walls may or may not be built to accommodate new areas and districts (this depends a lot on the threat of wars or invasion). These new areas may start as slums, but as further growth advances (and also depending on the socioeconomic concerns above) they may grow more affluent. But often the 'Old City' tends to take on the most important symbolisms for the wealthy and powerful.

Further, there may be districts huddled at the foot of the walls, both those involved in trade (open markets, dock districts, caravanserai, etc.) and more slums.

My two cents.

[Xeviat]

I recommend you pick up Cityscape for some inspiration, or at least go to Wizards.com/dnd and search for the DMG web enhancement for building cities.

They break cities up into wards; designing a town as a single entity is easy, but cities and larger need to be designed as separate wards. Each ward will be quite different.

Cityscape is a great book, and many of it's elements seem inspired from the DMG web enhancement.

[Bill Volk]

Also consider the terrain your city's built on. If it's heavily compartmentalized, it might be for defensive purposes. The rich build their homes in places that are not just pretty, but easiest to defend in the event of a siege. However, big cities with walls around them attract people who settle outside the wall, and all-around growth can make the old district divisions obsolete and annoying.

And just on a practical note, don't make it so that your PCs (and NPCs) have to hike all over town just to get their day-to-day business done. I've played in cities like that.

[sparkletwist]

Most big cities, especially in the olden days, weren't intentionally planned to be big cities. Of course, some growth was probably accounted for, at various times, but most of the time, they've outgrown their previous boundaries more than a few times.

This means, somewhere in the city, there's probably the "Old Downtown." It might be prestigious, or it might be a bit run down, but here is likely to be a small microcosm of everything to be found in a city. A shopping street, some houses, some industry, and if the neighborhood is still nice, some nobles are likely to have found homes here as well. There's likely to be a market square, but not a very big one.

No, the big market square is more than likely to be found somewhere else, built after the city has expanded further. This is where there's a little more planning, but not much, especially moving away from this new market area. What probably happened is that as more and more people wanted to live in the city, but there were no proper places to house them, slums developed on one or more sides of the Old Downtown area. There might still be a few of them. Eventually, the city authorities had enough, and expanded properly. A growing city would require a greater noble presence, more religious life, and more prestigious shops, so all of these buildings might well be found in the new addition, off the nice new market square.

Then again, if the old city center is still prestigious, they might always tear down a few of the old houses and build a shiny new temple there, too. In that case, the slums might very well continue to expand outward with displaced people.

Initially, the city would likely consist mainly of people from the immediate locality. The core of the city's population would be of the race/ethnic group/whatever that was predominant wherever it was found. This, too, would change as the city expanded. If it's a trade center, it's even more likely to become more cosmopolitan. Of course, not everyone appreciates the newcomers, and with linguistic and cultural differences (something D&D isn't always the greatest at), it's certain that various groups will want to settle in little enclaves of their own kind. If new housing is being built, a certain group may start to move in, effectively "claiming" an area, leading to the rise of different ethnic neighborhoods. The same would go for other social classes that might be more insular, xenophobic, or just plain unwanted.

Disasters can shape how a city develops, too. If a fire swept through most of the northeastern section of the city, then the buildings there are likely to be newer than everywhere else. If it was an unsavory neighborhood, it might actually have a renewing effect, as all of the new construction and more affluent people (the only ones who can afford to rebuild) would keep the bad element confined to some of the more established hovels.

The comment about placing services where the PCs can get them easily is a good one, and not just from a gameplay perspective. There was no mass transit in those days and people aren't going to walk all over town for the things they need, so for most necessities, there's likely to be a shop within walking distance of where most people live. Areas around market squares, for their wide availability, are the most desirable, but on the fringes, little shopping areas will still develop, though more than likely of lower wealth and prestige.

Basically, when you're planning this out, don't start with a big city-- start with a small city, and think about what happpens as it becomes big. Your history will become your city plan, and you'll end up with a much more detailed city.

Playing a few games like SimCity with no real plan in mind and watching how the city develops might be some insight, too. :)

[khyron1144]

Looking at my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan I can see a lot of things about cities:

1) Whether it's lingering effects of something deliberate or just happenstance, there are definitely ethnic neighborhoods.  The northwest side of Grand Rapids is, for instance, what's left of the old Polish and Lithaunian neighborhoods and is starting to turn into more of a Hispanic/ Latino neighborhood.

2) Most cities also have a cool neighborhood.  It's hard to explain, but you know it when you get there.  In Grand Rapids that's East Town.  Home of a few used bookstores, a new age bookstore, an anime and comics store, some galleries, some restaurants.  It's also Grand Rapids's gay neighborhood.  That doesn't mean that there's a gay majority there, just that it's a more prominent minority than in other places.

3) There are neighborhoods that think they are cties, but legally aren't.  Local examples include Comstock Park, Standale, and Cutlerville.  None of them exist as a municipal entity, but most people are unaware that they are named neighborhoods and not actual suburbs.


Now apply this to a fantasy city:
Ethnic neghborhoods are now species-specific neighborhoods, the Elf district and the like.

A cool neighborhood could easily be the stamping ground of local wizards.

If the city is big enough it can be unclear where it actually ends.