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City States Ideas Extravaganza

Started by Rincewind1, February 20, 2014, 07:59:10 PM

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Rincewind1

February 20, 2014, 07:59:10 PM Last Edit: February 20, 2014, 08:17:25 PM by Rincewind1
So I'm preparing a faux fantasy Ancient Greece for my game, and I'm looking for ideas for City States. So I'm looking for inspirations/ideas - anything goes really, any sort of crazy concept. I've thought of the City of Saints from the Malazan side books, and of course, classic Athens democracy and militarocracy of Sparta.
Furthermore, I consider that  This is Why We Don\'t Like You thread should be closed

flyingmice

#1
February 20, 2014, 08:18:31 PM
Sent you something.

-clash
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

Rincewind1

#2
February 20, 2014, 08:29:49 PM
Damn, thanks a lot clash!
Furthermore, I consider that  This is Why We Don\'t Like You thread should be closed

flyingmice

#3
February 20, 2014, 08:59:55 PM
Quote from: Rincewind1;732209Damn, thanks a lot clash!

No problemo, my friend! Hope it helps generate some ideas!

-clash
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

flyingmice

#4
February 20, 2014, 11:34:48 PM
Nobody has any ideas? REALLY?

-clash
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

Dirk Remmecke

#5
February 21, 2014, 04:07:10 AM
Quote from: flyingmice;732236Nobody has any ideas? REALLY?

Apparently you had them all already, and sent them off to Rincewind... so there's nothing left for us.
Swords & Wizardry & Manga ... oh my.
(Beware. This is a Kickstarter link.)

The Ent

#6
February 21, 2014, 06:20:08 AM
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;732255Apparently you had them all already, and sent them off to Rincewind... so there's nothing left for us.

:D

Well there's plenty of Greek city-states besides Athen and Sparta. You got Thebes frex, wich was on the Persian side of things during the Persian Wars (apparently quite by their own free will, too!), were famous for their cavalry (the only state in Greece proper that had good cavalry; the Macedonians learned lots of cav tactics off the Thebans, and there were Theban cav in Alex' army), were also famous for their all-gay* elite infantry unit, and beat Sparta fair and square in an open field hoplite battle thus ending the period of Spartan ascendancy...

*=proper gay too, not like those pervs in Athen and Sparta

flyingmice

#7
February 21, 2014, 09:09:19 AM
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;732255Apparently you had them all already, and sent them off to Rincewind... so there's nothing left for us.

The thing I sent him is just a tool. The game I am currently finishing up has lots of city states in a certain place, and the tool generates them randomly. Like all good tools, it requires some creative interpretation by the GM to be most effective. That process can only be enhanced by varied models from real life or fiction. Of course, he may also not care for the tool, and prefer direct building of his city states rather than generating them. In that case, any examples he gets can be of great benefit.

-clash
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

flyingmice

#8
February 21, 2014, 09:17:30 AM
Some other city states you may use as useful models: Genoa and Venice. Both are great port city states - as was Athens - and flourished on trade. Venice also made superb glass, and produced silk after merchants smuggled silkworms out of China.

City states always had a hinterland made up of villages, farms, forests, mines, pastures, quarries, and other resources. They drew upon these resources in support of their aims. If your city state was a trading port, you would need wood to build your ships, which you would have to import if you had no forest.

-clash
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

Dirk Remmecke

#9
February 21, 2014, 09:33:09 AM
Lands of Lyrion, a small Microlite 20 setting.

The original file can be found here.
The setting gets expanded and explained on the blog Beyond the Black Gate.
Swords & Wizardry & Manga ... oh my.
(Beware. This is a Kickstarter link.)

Rincewind1

#10
February 21, 2014, 11:21:21 AM
Quote from: flyingmice;732236Nobody has any ideas? REALLY?

-clash

Should I be the one doing that, Clash ;)? But thanks for the random table, I'll play around with it once I return from the shop ;).

What I meant to ask (and I should've specified) were fantasy city - states. I was looking for various ideas to stea- riff off from people ;). Here's what I had in mind:

- A city ruled by a giant sentient slug - like creature, who controls the city via a complicated web of intrigues and plots, but can barely move itself.
- A city ruled by a spider - demigod.
- A city where nobody can leave the houses after midnight, except select few, who decide worth of money for tomorrow.

That sort of stuff :).
Furthermore, I consider that  This is Why We Don\'t Like You thread should be closed

One Horse Town

#11
February 21, 2014, 11:34:00 AM
A city-state of clones. They have incarcerated their creator for not measuring up to their physical and mental criteria and hound 'unnaturals' that wander into their territory.

Arkansan

#12
February 21, 2014, 12:05:08 PM
A city state built over an ancient holy site. The city is divided up between a handful of competing mystery cults and ruled by a squabbling council of their high priests. The city is divided into wards each controlled by one of the cults, within their respective wards the intiates of each cult operate more akin to a street gang, extorting business and harassing citizens. The inner circles of these cults are the subject of dark rumors, this is compounded by their refusal to allow citizens or even their own intiates access to the ruins of the holy site the city was founded on.

flyingmice

#13
February 21, 2014, 12:13:35 PM
The city state is ruled by an artificer, whose automata constitute the city guard. He constructs them by binding spirits into his mechanical soldiers, some of whom are the known dear departed of citizens, while others are former criminals publicly executed. The artificer's bindings subjugate the spirits into following his rules and orders but the spirits still dimly remember their former lives, and can speak fairly freely to the citizens who are not breaking the laws. Many beg for release from this servitude, but the automata are efficient at policing the city state, and not subject to bribery, and the majority of citizens are against releasing them.
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

GameDaddy

#14
February 21, 2014, 01:21:57 PM
My notes on the Pyu City States for my Arrows of Indra game originated here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyu_city-states
Blackmoor grew from a single Castle to include, first, several adjacent Castles (with the forces of Evil lying just off the edge of the world to an entire Northern Province of the Castle and Crusade Society's Great Kingdom.

~ Dave Arneson
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