How to Map/Pace a Ruined City?

[Wik]

Simple question, but one that I've never been able to answer satisfactorily. How do you convey a ruined city to a group of players in a dungeon-crawl type of play? Do you map out each building, each street, and so on, or do you instead leave large areas of "empty buildings" and only mark the main areas of interest?

Do you go for the lame route, and suggest that most of the buildings are rubble, and there are only passageways through the rubble, more or less turning your ruined city into a typical dungeon crawl?

While it's a good, general-purpose question and I'm really interested in hearing responses, I ask for two particular purposes. The first being that there is a ruined city in my campaign's future (levels and levels away, but it's worth considering now), with the second being that I've been considering games like Mutant Future or Omega World d20, and have been wondering how to do a sandbox-style ruined city "dungeon".

 

[Gilladian]

I have a huge semi-ruined city in my campaign world that I've used several times, and will use again, I'm sure.

I have an overall map, just like for a live city. It has major routes marked, and the largest landmarks labeled plainly. The PC's get a copy of it for their own use for planning their expeditions. This map is at about 400' per inch.

I have done a few "region" maps of the city for areas I expect to get high reuse, but not street-level detail. This scale of map is at about 50' per inch. I can show individual buildings, but no real fine detail. This level is where I handle things like street chases, group movement, figuring out what can be seen from where, etc...

Lastly, I have specific encounter areas done at my favorite 10' to the quarter inch scale. So far, I've done portions of the grand cathedral, palace gardens, and several sections of buildings.

I do tend to rely a LOT on just verbal descriptions of the areas. I have numerous short descriptions of partly ruined buildings, totally smashed zones, and buildings that are mostly still standing but plainly unoccupied by much of anything.

Loads of random charts help with that, too. Not just encounters, but tables of minor interesting finds in the rubble, minor accidents, little skill challenge-type scenarios where things go wrong, etc... (like "you're climbing over a pile of rubble and it begins to slide").

Knowing what group(s) of NPCs/monsters control each region of the city helps, and having a list of potential NPC encounters (even if it is just "you see a patrol of yuan-ti coming from several blocks away. Do you hide?") can really make the whole city seem alive.

 

[amnuxoll]

I'm no expert, but I think a ruined city is more like a wilderness than a dungeon crawl. Give the players a map of the city that has only major streets and a few landmarks in it. Let them wander about, getting lost in side streets trying to find their way from place to place. There should be hazards to: a pitfall, a building that was *this* close to collapsing and finally gives way when a PC leans on its wall, etc.

I also think mood is critical here. It has to feel a bit creepy. They should encounter things that aren't quite right: recent tracks of what look like a street vender's cart in the dust but with no footprints behind it of someone pushing it, a building with no doors or windows, etc.

 

[Rel]

I agree with the posters above in that you don't need to map out every detail. I think the big questions you should be asking yourself are things like, "What sort of vibe is this place going to give off?" and "What do I want to have happen here?"

Major landmarks or points of interest are enough to start with. Just flesh in the other bits as they become important.

I definitely agree that a ruined city has a lot of potential as an adventure site and even a rather large chunk of a campaign.

 

[Hussar]

Cartographersguild.org is your friend here. There are tons and tons of fantastic city maps for use that will cover most of your bases.

But, yeah, ruined city is more like a wilderness than a dungeon. After all, the PC's aren't really constrained all that much by where they can go. But, like a wilderness, I'm not about to poke my nose behind every tree I pass and I'm not about to Greyhawk* a city.

I'd highlight the important bits, plus a few dozen sites you can chuck in wherever and away you go.

* To Greyhawk - to explore in excruciating detail an entire dungeon complex. Imagine Taking 20 on Search checks every 5 feet and you get the idea.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Bump.

 

[Celebrim]

I don't think there is any single right answer here. The solution I'd adopt would depend on what I envisioned in my head when I imagined what said ruined city looked like.

Approach #1: Large basically intact cyclopian city. This is a 'wonder of wonders' sort of situation, and probably CR 20ish and deserving of some detail. There might be only one such legendary city on the whole game world. I'd make a broad level street map. Then I'd treat this as several smaller dungeons of 9-40 rooms keyed to areas of interest on the map. Then I'd make a half dozen stock layouts that could be inverted, reversed, kludged together and use them for the majority of buildings. Then I'd make a wandering encounter table. This is a major undertaking, and would probably take me serveral months. Play time would probably be equally long. You could get lost in something of this size for a long time. I'd never improv a location of this importance, although you could do it if the players couldn't fly simply by stalling them out in the emmensity of the place until you had time to create prepared locations between sessions.

Approach #2: Largely ruined large city. Lots of places get swallowed by time. As above, except that I wouldn't need a street map. Instead I'd make a 'random find' table indicating minor hazards and points of interest encountered in the course of movement between major locations. Also, major locations would probably shrink to 3-15 rooms each. This would probably take me several weeks of prep, and would probably be the hardest to improv because the players have so much freedom and can move right to the points of interest. If improving, I'd probably try to delay the players by making the city in an heavily overgrown jungle or in a kelp forest (underwater) so that you could literally be standing right next to something and not see it.

Approach #3: There was a city here once. As #2, but I wouldn't need the dungeons because there aren't really any buildings left. Most encounters are effectively outlines of rooms or former buildings or simply points in the wilderness with ruins jutting out. I'd predetermine the location of several points of interest and random up the rest. I could do this in a week or less. Depending on how clear my ideas where about this city, I could improv this if I had to because the locations are fairly simple and are produced from fairly simple ideas: a statue, the sanctum of a ruined temple, a fallen obelisk, a king's mausoleum, something lairing in the ruins, etc.

Approach #4: Small largely ruined city. As #2 except there is no space between the dungeons so I wouldn't need the street map because the dungeons are the street map. This is basicly a single dungeon of somewhat large size which doesn't have a roof. It would probably take me a couple of weeks. I could improv this only be being pretty random about it.

 

[Silver Moon]

Make grid blocks - I've used 3-inch-square sections representing 15x15 feet. Make 16 total, each with different rubble, walls, etc. You can then randomly arrange them into a square foot representing 60x60 feet, and since they can be turned with no set north, east, south or west you then have a near infinite number of combinations. It's also easy enough to track for the DM's map (listing the number and direction of each piece).

 

[Stoat]

I did this several years ago. I mapped the entire city, down to the buildings, on 17x22 inch graph paper. I think I used a one inch to one hundred feet scale. I put the map down on the table for the players to reference. In my own notes, I divided the city into various zones. Each zone was occupied by different forces, and each had a slightly different encounter table. In addition to monsters, each table included various flavorful, neighborhood specific noncombat encounters. There was one large, set-piece encounter in each neighborhood.

In play, I gave the players a running description of their location and let them show me where they wanted to go on the map. It was an efficient way to play, and I didn't feel like the game lost anything just because the players had a bird's eye view of the whole city.

 

[Celebrim]

Make grid blocks - I've used 3-inch-square sections representing 15x15 feet. Make 16 total, each with different rubble, walls, etc. You can then randomly arrange them into a square foot representing 60x60 feet, and since they can be turned with no set north, east, south or west you then have a near infinite number of combinations. It's also easy enough to track for the DM's map (listing the number and direction of each piece).

Which is a fine approach for a small areas of rubble or terrain, but if your city is a mile or more across, then your overview map is 352x352 to do a direct conversion between your small peices and what's on the overview. That's like 60-70 sheets of graph paper. I'd think I'd want to limit my overview map to something poster sized or smaller.

Also, 60'x60' isn't particularly large scale for an outdoor area. Eighteen of those fit in the area the size of a football field, which is still probably smaller than line of sight in many cases.

I don't think I'd try to run city exteriors with minatures when you might have initial encounter distances (plains, desert, deserted avenues, seashore) in excess of 400', and turns might finish 80' or more from where they started.