Pyre-Archer Posted December 18, 2008 Report Share Posted December 18, 2008 Any advice in putting a city together, from the ground up? How many NPCs should I have handy, how detailed should the general map be, those sorts of questions. This is partly from an upcoming need for the Champions of Vancouver campaign I'm currently GMing, partly from another campaign idea I'm toying with. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted December 18, 2008 Report Share Posted December 18, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... If you have the Champions Genre book (5th Ed) there's a good list of important NPC types in there IIRC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mendou Posted December 18, 2008 Report Share Posted December 18, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... From my experience, you don't need anything overly complex unless/until a plot point depends on the relative geography of the city. Just get a relative idea of the layout of the city (coastal city, by a river, on a plain, in the mountains) and what direction important locations are from each other. You'll probably want detailed descriptions of important locations, but you don't need anything as detailed as a map of New York (for instance) for the entire city. As for NPCs, any that the PCs will interact with on a regular basis are a must, though they don't necessarily need to be fully statted out (unless they're going to be involved in combat on a regular basis). You'll want to have some idea about city officials who are regularly seen in the news (the mayor, police chief, and so forth), though they can be just names and general descriptions unless they find themselves actively threatened/fighting evil on a regular basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinanju Posted December 18, 2008 Report Share Posted December 18, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Any advice in putting a city together, from the ground up? How many NPCs should I have handy, how detailed should the general map be, those sorts of questions. This is partly from an upcoming need for the Champions of Vancouver campaign I'm currently GMing, partly from another campaign idea I'm toying with. Thanks! I'll throw in my two cents: How many NPCs? As many as you have specific plans for. Otherwise, just make them up as the game progresses and you find a need for more. On the other hand, a good long list of names for NPCs you create off-the-cuff is a godsend. I have two lists, one for men and one for women. With several columns for first names and several for last names, and I can mix and match as necessary on the fly. I wouldn't worry about a detailed map. But be sure what sort of city it is--what kind of terrain? What climate? Flat midwestern city? Seaport city like NYC or Los Angeles? More important than creating a detailed map up fron is TRACKING what you introduce. Keep a list of major locations and their relative positions. The city will develop as the game plays and you're not pinned down to a map that may not suit you later on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Certified Posted December 18, 2008 Report Share Posted December 18, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... When working on San Angelo and Arlington for the Metahumans Rising campaign I started on a high level thinking about what I wanted from for the campaign tone and how to reflect that in the setting. This involved location, population size, major business and things along those lines. One thing I decided on early was to build the city in districts so different areas could have drastically different feels. After getting this together I put together some general districts of the city. What is the function of the district? How did each of these areas add flavor to the city? Once I had these high level stuff I went back though and just created some general notes for characters I wanted to have in the city such as the mayor. When this was settled I took a step back and waited for the players to develop their characters. Taking this information I went back in adding details to some districts and other characters that they may encounter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poison Posted December 18, 2008 Report Share Posted December 18, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... I had to face the same thing last year when making my campaign. My advice it to plan in detail what you plan to use that session, and fake anything you didn't plan on. Fill in the holes as you go, and you will find at the end of a year, with a lot of resources built. If you do too much at once you will find you wasted a lot of time on areas you may not use for some time, and did not spend enough time on the stuff your characters are exploring the most. It is working well for me so far. Also don't hesistate to steal what you need. If you need stats for a cop, and someone else did it already, don't hesitate to "use" them... You can tweak them to your liking later if it isn't perfect... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted December 18, 2008 Report Share Posted December 18, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Ok, this was meant for fun and comedy, but play it straight and tweak it (change company names, etc), and this might be of use to you http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33287 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poison Posted December 19, 2008 Report Share Posted December 19, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steamteck Posted December 19, 2008 Report Share Posted December 19, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... I'll throw in my two cents: How many NPCs? As many as you have specific plans for. Otherwise, just make them up as the game progresses and you find a need for more. On the other hand, a good long list of names for NPCs you create off-the-cuff is a godsend. I have two lists, one for men and one for women. With several columns for first names and several for last names, and I can mix and match as necessary on the fly. I wouldn't worry about a detailed map. But be sure what sort of city it is--what kind of terrain? What climate? Flat midwestern city? Seaport city like NYC or Los Angeles? More important than creating a detailed map up fron is TRACKING what you introduce. Keep a list of major locations and their relative positions. The city will develop as the game plays and you're not pinned down to a map that may not suit you later on. Pretty good advice but I'd have some sort of map to give a vague idea of things. Sort of fill in as the campaign developes.What he said for NPCs also applies to landmarks. Make them up as you need them to appear. In both cases after the initial appearance of the NPC, shop. landmark, etc. flesh it out a little and add to your city. Pretty soon you'll have a rich environment which organically grew with your campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkham Posted December 19, 2008 Report Share Posted December 19, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Use your players. Players are usually the best source for ideas. Encourage them to build contacts, hunteds, DNPCs. Use those. Give the villains you plan to use contacts, hunteds and DNPCs. Use those too. That alone should give you plenty of characters for a good long time. If you start to run thin, incidental NPCs can become important. More villains and their associated contacts, hunteds, and DNPCs can come into play. Grow it organically. If you have a villain or NPC hero as part of an organization, figure out a few other members of that organization and who their contacts, hunteds and DNPCs are. For the actual city map, since you are using a real city, I would just use the real city map. Select places on the map and declare that that is where the game-world landmarks are. Check google world view, select what looks like a major building and say "This is where group X is based." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Mackinder Posted December 19, 2008 Report Share Posted December 19, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Keep your city plans fairly open-ended. Yes, always have a GENERAL idea about what different areas are like (slum areas, warehouses, financial, etc.). Other than that, the heroes' base, homes for heroes and key NPCs and the places that a superhero should know about (city hall, police and fire stations, hospitals, major banks, etc.). Keep the other places .... not blank, but have descriptions handy if the PCs find a reason to go there or ask about it. That way, you always have choices about where to put new NPCs, or the HQ of that evil Megacorporation that the PCs suddenly find out about , and so on. Plus, there is always the likelihood that any area fleshed out in major detail will be wrecked in the next super-brawl before you get to do anything with it. Finally, one constant of any campaign is that the PCs will always, always always zero in on the only part of the campaign area that the GM has not done anything with, usually by accident. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheQuestionMan Posted December 20, 2008 Report Share Posted December 20, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Millennium City http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63165 Vibora Bay http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63202 Hudson City: The Urban Abyss http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63163 San Angelo: City of Heroes http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showbook&bookid=3790 San Angelo: City of Heroes - Resources http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1597681#post1597681 Freedom City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_City New Bedlam City http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55497 Champions New Millennium: Bay City http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showbook&bookid=2158 Just a few to start... QM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyre-Archer Posted December 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I'm wondering at ways to get some new life into the New^3 Champs of Vancouver game. Also, I'm thinking of starting up a campaign in my hometown at the newly opened RPG/gaming store. So far, it looks like they just have a 4e game going Sundays, and the shopkeep I spoke to has only heard of the HERO system. Time to spread the word Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adventus Posted December 20, 2008 Report Share Posted December 20, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Here is a great article from a magazine about building a city for superheroes. http://www.mactyre.net/october/ROLEPLAY/CITY.ZIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Mackinder Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Brings to mind another point. It may be stating the incredibly obvious, but always keep careful track of what has been wrecked and where in your city. If the office block on the corner of Main and Fifth has been thoroughly trashed in one session, it should definitely not be open for business as usual a week later (unless of course, there is some special brand of weirdness happening, natch!). "Alterations" to the city should also be incorporated into descriptions and flavour text. If a super-brawl led to a big crater in the city park, perhaps mention to the PCs a session or so later (or when they next visit that area), how the civic authorities are turning it into a duck pond. A stretch of major highway ripped up - perhaps have the subsequent roadworks or the traffic disruptions around that area somehow feature (or be simply mentioned in passing) in a later scenario. That sort of thing will add to the PCs' perception that this is "their" city, and it should make for a better game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poison Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Just add a superhero civil servant who has the power to fix things quickly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Mackinder Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Just add a superhero civil servant who has the power to fix things quickly... There is at least one MAJOR contradiction in terms in that sentence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirgos Posted December 23, 2008 Report Share Posted December 23, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Maybe his name is Oxymoron:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyre-Archer Posted December 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 Re: Building a city for your superheroes... There is at least one MAJOR contradiction in terms in that sentence. That just screams a political corruption scenario ;-) edit: I'm thinking of *starting* with an alien invasion, with the cleanup to follow in subsequent episodes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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