sdavies2720 Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Somewhat off-topic for BRP, but of interest to RPGers: Profantasy posted my first two installments of an article on mapping cities. You can find it on their blog at http://www.profantasy.com/rpgmaps/. I have a whole series er um, mapped out, but I'm sure that a few comments or traffic will help them decide to go forward. The articles feature Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer, but a lot of the information is about where cities grow, where to start in laying out a city, that sort of thing, which is useful no matter what you use to make maps. Steve Quote Bathalians, the newest UberVillians! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORtrail Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Just had time for a quick glance, but it looks well worth reading. Building an obscure ancient city of minor religious importance are we? You could call it.... uh, Kerusalem maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalaba Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 That's pretty cool, Steve. Thanks for sharing! Are you using any particular historical model for the designing of cities? What I mean by that is, if we follow your method, will we end up with basicaly a medieval city, a modern city, or neither? Quote "Tell me what you found, not what you lost" Mesopotamian proverb __________________________________ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdavies2720 Posted April 19, 2011 Author Share Posted April 19, 2011 Just had time for a quick glance, but it looks well worth reading. Building an obscure ancient city of minor religious importance are we? You could call it.... uh, Kerusalem maybe. LOL. I hadn't seen the connection, but you're right that it's clear -- especially with the temple mount. I'm using the process (and some maps) I used for one of the cities in my campaign. There's something buried deep and forgotten beneath the city. There's actually a passage that leads down to it, but it is protected by magic that turns away people who are not consciously looking for it. The players haven't picked up the clues to start looking, so the compulsion magic appears to still be working Steve Quote Bathalians, the newest UberVillians! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdavies2720 Posted April 19, 2011 Author Share Posted April 19, 2011 That's pretty cool, Steve. Thanks for sharing! Are you using any particular historical model for the designing of cities? What I mean by that is, if we follow your method, will we end up with basicaly a medieval city, a modern city, or neither?I'm basing this off a city I built for my campaign, which has a mishmash of elements. One of the advantages of writing for gamers instead of a historical journal is you can pick and choose. So, for example, the city is inward-focused, so many of the blocks are full side-to-side with buildings facing a courtyard -- that's more common in the middle east than in say medieval england. But it's a temperate climate, so protection from cold and rain are going to be more important than heat avoidance. There's a big river that periodically floods, more like Sumer or Babylon in design than London. So my hope is to provide a practical "do this, do that" level of tutorial for a fantasy early medieval city, while pointing out alternate decisions and styles along the way...assuming that Profantasy wants me to continue writing these! Steve Quote Bathalians, the newest UberVillians! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdavies2720 Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 The next post of the series is up at http://www.profantasy.com/rpgmaps/?p=559 We're starting to map districts of the city. This one is mostly theory, and the next will be technique. Steve Quote Bathalians, the newest UberVillians! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skunkape Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 I've read through most of the first article, just have to find the time to finish reading it and then continue on with the next one! Congratz! Quote Skunk - 285/420 BRP book You wanna be alright you gotta walk tall Long Beach Dub Allstars & Black Eyed Peas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdavies2720 Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 Thanks. They are getting shorter, my target is now 500 words, so it should get easier to get through them. I'm totally open to suggestions (topic, style, errors, whatever -- I'm thickskinned). Steve Quote Bathalians, the newest UberVillians! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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