Post/Author/DateTime	Post
He Who Is 01-24-04, 10:44 PM	I'm thinking of an adventure idea where the characters are gated (by a high level NPC) to a cursed City that exists within it's own sub-dimension. 1) The City is unescapable. (Though rumors will circulate that the sewers contain an way out. Though no one has ever gone into the sewers returned with news of escape). This also means no farmland surrounding the City, nor a harbor. 2) There are about three million inhabitants of various classes/races/levels trapped in the city. The inhabitants of the City are basically cursed with immortality. They can not die from starvation, illness, or injury. This means that any feuds between different orginization within the city never get solved by wiping each other out. This specific rule won't apply to the characters (as they arn't part of the curse). So this means the characters can die, and as an added bonus, can kill people off. (Making them vary valuable to the various orginizations as a means to finally eliminate their enemies, if the players are willing. 3) The City inhabitants can still be hurt, lose limbs, ect. Any wound that would be sufficient to kill someone would cause them to rejenerate back to normal health, but with heavy scarring, and (depending on whats done) lose of ability scores. People still need to eat and breath, or suffer from the pain of hunger or suffication (though obviously not death) 4) The City inhabitants are also static in their levels. While the players, can jack up their levels, the city inhabitants stay static. [b]A basic equalibrium has been achieved. Shops run, people go on with their life (as it were). [b]The City will be multiple levels, though not stacked atop of each other. THis means that going up (or down) a set of staircases doesn't necessarily meaning going to a higher (or lower) level. Where each stair leads won't randomly change (thus a stair that leads to a specific place will always lead to that place). So what I'm looking for is some advice, suggestions, questions, anything constructive really.
pipe joint 01-24-04, 11:53 PM	Though rumors will circulate that the sewers contain an way out. Though no one has ever gone into the sewers returned with news of escape. :) That might be a good thing, maybe everyone has escaped... you might add that the few ones that returned are mad and they only talk about a vicious souleater that killed the whole group (the soul eater don't kill the people but instead it absorbs the vital force and make them a living part of it, making it stronger everytime it drains someones soul) Also there could be a twisted sadistic religion that benefits from the curse, so they can torture anyone for eternity (and the cult temple could be made with living people, they could be masters in polymorph spells)
He Who Is 01-25-04, 12:05 AM	That reminds me. Iwas also planning to have it so that Clerics are cut off from their gods in certain respects. That is to say that while the clerics still have access to their normal spells (per the normal rules), they don't have to worry about gods stripping powers if they violate their tenets. So, I'm planning to have the religious leaders of several normally good religions be more twisted and evil then the evil religions. I like the soul eater and church of people ideas. I'm thinking several Artifacts (Maybe a half dozon or so, decided ahead of time, and the amount never changes) that provide additional power to several of the orginizations. I'm also thinking about that a group equal division of races (evil and good) stuck in the City. Human, Goblins, Elfs, and Orcs having to coexist, and never being able to eliminate each other. I'm still not sure how to deal with the supply issue. I don't want everything to just be there, leaving the need for shops to make the items (such as bootmakers still need to make boots, and bakers still need to make bread to eat), but I'm not sure how to get the basic supplies from "nothingness" to the shops. Also, I'm thinking that there might be A wildgrowth park(s) within the city, viciously guarded by Druids, Rangers, and Barbarians. (sort of like Central Park [in NYC] that has been let, and even encouraged, to grow mad.
Crunchy Frog 01-25-04, 04:59 PM	If you're adding artifacts, you could have some of these artifacts produce food, leather, metal, and other raw materials for making bread, boots, etc. Then some of the organizations could have control of these artifacts for a not-quite-monopoly on various commodities. (For example, there could be three different iron-making artifacts, controlled by the Town Watch, the Smith's Guild, and an influential nobleman.) Food could be made by high-enough level clerics and druids, and grown in parks and gardens, so that would be less of an issue, but you could have certain foodstuffs only available this way. If you want your clerics cut off from their gods, but still able to cast spells, you could just temporarily cut off their access to domain spells. You could have a lot of the people in the city held prisoner for specific reasons that vary from person to person (someone wants them out of the way, wants information out of them, wants to protect them) and have others act as agents for the jailors. You might want to watch the TV show The Prisoner for ideas if you want to go this way. You might want to read some of the Riverworld books for ideas about a world where people don't permanently die.
pipe joint 01-25-04, 09:54 PM	Also you could watch the movie "The Experiment" and replace the scientists for mindflayers, and the volunteers for prisioners :) This cursed city could be like an experimental farm built by the mindflayers or some other cosmic horror
He Who Is 01-25-04, 10:37 PM	Actually, I hadn't thought of a really good reason for the City to exist (as of yet). I do want there (like with the sewers) to be rumors floating around as to why it exists. The Mind Flayers is a good one. Others could be a a being even more powerful then the Gods put the City and people there. Something people call Deus ex Machina. Have it that their world was destroyed and the gods brought everyone here to save them. Abduction by demons for the purpose of food. The city has been damned by the all the gods. I was thinking that maybe the city is like Kandor and the creator like Braniac. Just something that amuses the one who did it. For the food stuff/supplies, I really want to keep the shops open, making it so people (creatures) have to buy/barter/trade for everything. I want to make it so that the normal citizens are needed to keep the basic city structures running, otherwise the the various guilds would just keep their own group alive and taken care of and screw the rest. I was thinking of a 5 level society within the City. One - The Guilds. The Guilds are the highest powers in the City. They're the various powers systems. Each guild is trying to gain more land/followers in the city. They office protection the shops in their areas, and, for the most part, they won't go around razing other guilds territory as the by destroying the shops, they destroy the supply shops. Two - The Thieves Guild. I'm thinking of two or three seperate thieves guilds operating throught the city. Each, like the Guilds in one, trying to dominance. I put them at a seperate level, because unlike in most normal cities, the Guilds use the the Thieves to steal supllies, plans, ect from the other guilds. No one tries to destroy them, as each all the guilds use them. Three - Common Citizens. I want it set up so the common citizen is a needed part of the City, to keep everything running. Make it so that if one of these shops are razed to the ground, then what ever that shop produced is gone. Each shop is under the protection, and the thumb of the Guild whose section it inhabits, but keep some of the power in the hands of the commoners. Also, while some of the food and material can be made by artifacts/magic, we are talking about 3 million people. And not everyone is going to give a damn about the citizens. So while create food/water is good in some cases (like the druids for the Wildgrowth parks), its no the solution to the massive food problem. I'm leaning toward each day the needed basic material shows up on the doorstep of the business. So the baker gets enough flower, milk, ect for a days work. Destroy that shop, and those supplies are gone. Same thing with inns, castles, other places that would have their own professionals. They get what they need to runat their doorstep everyday. Sort of like the milkman who delivers to your door, but no one ever sees them. Four - The crazies. The crazies are divided into to two sections. The ones locked up and the ones running free. The locked up ones are tended by the guild that has them (but never killed, since that doesn't work anyways). The ones that are free are the ones that cause problems, cause some of them cause property damage. And like I said, if the property is gone, so is what it makes. Five - The Characters. They're new, and they break the rules that the City has been following for it's existance. They can permentatly kill people. They can gain levels (power/skills). They're be frightening to the common people. The Guilds will pursue them for take out enemies, or to finally be able to permentatly kill for human sacrifices. They have new magics infused into society. They'll be hardpress to find animinity once word of them gets out. (Imagine the look on peoples faces them the characters kill some thugs, and the thugs stay dead. Pure pandomium).
Pyromancer 01-26-04, 12:35 AM	My take on this city: Statis, the city time never touched. Every citizen has their own theory as to why it exists. Some say demons, some deities, some illithids. All that is known is that it simply is. For all everyone knows, it always has been and always will be. It sprawls over several square miles, and rises high. The sewers, and what people have built under them, are deep. Some believe that an escape can be found there, but few wish to leave. It is in several "layers," akin to those of the Beastlands. Some are set in the height of the city, some in its rise, some in its fall (although, IMHO, these are secondary to the primary function of the city). A day's rest functions as a Regenerate and Heal spell. At dawn, everyone who is dead is brought back with a True Ressurection spell, even through Soul Bind, Trap the Soul and similar magic. Regardless, however, this drains 100 EXP per level. Statis has several large harbors, making it appear to be an island town. Anything that tries to leave by sea enters a mist (hanging about 50 feet off shore in all directions, perpetually), and never is more than half a mile from Statis (They can sail away for a year, run out of food, die, and return in Statis, or they can have a mutiny, have those they killed re-appear in Statis, turn around, and sail half a mile through mist and end up in the harbor). The wind in the mist always blows toward Statis. Each harbor has a day of the week, although some harbors share days, where a large ship pulls in, devoid of any crew. When it does, people can board it, leave their craft products, take some stuff from the hold (only what is for them. The rest is completely immovable), and say what they want. What they have asked for, up to the value of what they have given the ship, is brought to them the next week, by the same ship. The ship departs at the end of the day, and any on it are teleported from it. Births are rare in Statis. It seems as though Statis's population is fixed, as pregnancies only occur when people vanish into the lower city, never to be seen again, and there is only one pregnancy per person who vanishes. Further, the total amount of EXP in Statis is fixed. When a magic item is crafted, someone escapes, someone dies, or someone casts a spell with an EXP cost, people become able to gain the newly released EXP at 1% of the normal gain rate (a 300 EXP encounter is worth 3). Spells that bring back the dead with a lost level have the lost level cured the next day, with the penalties as per the natural ressurection. Negative energy levels result in a loss of 100 EXP per level, instead of the normal level loss. What, then, happens to costly material components? Their value is divided among everyone who made a purchase from the ship just before, and divided so that the same percentage of the purchase cost is added to every purchase (If someone spent 30 GP (or something worth 30 GP) on buying something, and the material components used that week had a total value of 10% of all purchases, then that person gets a 33 GP worth of their order. If, on the other hand, they spent 300 GP, they get 330 GP worth of what they had purchased). When this proves impossible (buying two longswords and getting anything less than an extra 15 GP, for instance), they get parts, so that by spending the remainder of the cost of another, they get a whole (in the above 33 GP example, they get two longswords, and enough pieces that they could buy the rest, plus assembly, for 12 GP). If the economy grinds to the point where nothing is exported, and there is nothing to export, the ships will take people to work outside Statis, although they are brought back after one month and have no memories of their work. They recieve 1 GP worth of stuff for that, although, after the first people return, the ships stop taking workers. Deity-proofing (clerics keep spells without deities) is a possibility here. I don't particularly like entropy in stuff that is supposed to last forever, which is the idea I get from this city. That is why there is very little way for it to get in. Besides, if a system has any inherent entropy, it cannot last forever by definition. Power Rankings: The Factions, at the top: These have their own nobility, leaders, etc. They control their parts of the city, and fight at the borders, but it cycles endlessly. One dominates, and then falls from within, or suffers a schism, or some other petty event. The Thieves' Guilds, below them: These live in various sectors of the city, and ply their trade, caring little for factions. The commoners, at the bottom: Most have seen the rule of all factions, and many don't particularly care about which one rules them. They keep the city running, do their work, etc. They are needed to retrieve their stuff from the ships, and the factions generally do little harm to them. The PCs: These don't fit anywhere. They have come to the city. They are not subject to its rules, and they can break them for others. Those they kill stay dead, those they wound do not heal as quickly as they should, those they maim stay that way. They cannot trade with the ships, they can gain EXP without the cap. Costly material components they use do not get recycled. Those they kill do not have their EXP recycled either (any of it), nor do they allow births. Statis having no entropy, except for what the PCs cause, gave me an idea: It was created as a bastion for the concept of law, although it is not itself aligned. The PCs have been put in as agents of chaos, to weaken that bastion, and possibly bring it down from the inside. I'm imagining the look on the face of the player of an LN character who focused entirely on devotion to law, and on bringing it to others, discovering what they've been doing...
He Who Is 01-26-04, 01:03 AM	Thats exactly what I'm looking for. The one thing is how to deal with damage to the structure of the city (say the Cult devoted to the end of life razes a city block), unless the city repairs every day like the people do. Let me know your thoughts.
Enkeli 01-26-04, 06:38 AM	The city could be a living entity of its own. This could lead to interesting meta-plot where the characters end up discovering the true nature of the city.