• Ahnion
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Topic: PW Concept: The Golden City

The Golden City

Prague has always been a city of legend and mystery. Even the founding of the city, it is said, was foretold by the Czech princess Libuše.

I have always wanted to make a dark alternate medieval city scenario, and Prague - anno, say around 1500, would be an ideal location choice. The way the immense castle looms over the Old Town and all the stories and legends about what has happened there makes it so ripe as an alternate history scenario that it's almost intimidating.

Obviously, the initial player base, being small, would have to be some kind of connected group, like a group of refugees or, well, anything that keeps the group together.

The city could be built in steps as the group is able to explore. There should be maps to find of how the city looked, and what we cannot find, we can invent. The castle is officially the largest medieval castle in the world. There is a lot here to rouse interest and inspiration.

As for the alternate-history bit, well, I'm thinking along the lines of occultism and supernatural mysteries. We could draw inspiration from what is left of Slavonic mythology and pitch that against the harsh, stark attitude of the medieval church, which was very strong in Prague.

For general information about Prague, have a look at the Wikipedia entry.

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  • Oluf
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

Hm interresting.

The main problem for me with this setting is that i know close to nothing about the history of prague...it would be much more difficult for new players to get a "feel" for the setting i think. But of couse some well-written background story could make up for this.

  • Registered: 2006-10-01
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

Pros:

1) Possibility for a great atmosphere.

2) Stories could be lurking behind any corner of the street.

3) The Ars Magica style mystical forces element as well as the Christian side are intriguing.

4) A city instead of an entire world (like many are trying to build) is a good idea as it allows you to focus your efforts.

Cons:

1) It might be hard to justify why we're seeing only a small part of the city in the beginning. A Prague commoner would likely walk through the entire city quite regularly and there would logically be nothing to stop the players from doing it.

2) It would require a lot of NPCs just to make the city feel as lively as it should, and most of the city life would have to be run by GMs.

3) The city would have to be quite big when finished, which might lead to players scattering.

Last edited by Kryigerof (2006-11-14 22:02:02)

  • Ahnion
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

Kryigerof wrote:

4) A city instead of an entire world (like many are trying to build) is a good idea as it allows you to focus your efforts.

Indeed, but a city also requires a great deal more detail than a natural environment, so the work is probably comparable to any other, physically larger setting.


Kryigerof wrote:

1) It might be hard to justify why we're seeing only a small part of the city in the beginning. A Prague commoner would likely walk through the entire city quite regularly and there would logically be nothing to stop the players from doing it.

Well, yes and no. We're not talking about limiting ourselves to one single area at the outset, here. With a couple of builders, we will easily be able to reconstruct a sizable portion of city for the launch. The scripting will take more time than the building, really.


Kryigerof wrote:

2) It would require a lot of NPCs just to make the city feel as lively as it should, and most of the city life would have to be run by GMs.

Some work, yes. There was a very interesting NPC script engine for NWN. I'm hoping it will be updated for NWN2. It allowed you to do all kinds of nice scheduling for NPCs, and if they haven't botched the script-parser in NWN2 like they did in NWN, hopefully, we'll be able to run rather a lot of arbitrary scripts for NPCs - such as having guards light the streetlights when it gets dark. When necessary, of course, DMs should play NPCs. I'm looking forward to this, whichever scenario we choose in the end. smile


Kryigerof wrote:

3) The city would have to be quite big when finished, which might lead to players scattering.

I might be interpreting you wrong, but wouldn't this be the case with any scenario where the characters can roam? Given that the characters live in the same area of the city, they will probably congregate, rather than scatter. It is a possible issue, but I don't think it's very serious. smile

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  • Norah
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  • Registered: 2006-10-09
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

/me really likes this idea.



But as for gender roles... (j/k  tongue).

-Norah/Liath-
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  • Registered: 2006-10-01
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

One question: what would the gameplay be about in this city? Meaning, what would the players be generally doing when not simply roleplaying and following GM scenarios?

  • Darkhawk
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

I like this idea too. Especially if there are sewers with monsters to kill and loot from!? Ahm. Well, a city like this can feel, gritty and dark, yet still have social gathering places. There can be fights, and there can be a lot of intrigue and politicking too.

It would get my vote for now. Not that I dislike Vinland, but I'm just more of a city person. I also think the RP possibilities are bigger from the outset in such a setting.

  • From: Ottawa, Canada
  • Registered: 2006-10-01
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

Ehem. I've said this to Ahnion, and I'm quite serious. I WILL NEVER put monsters into a city sewer. It's a dumb scenario and it's been overused. Monsters somewhere in the city? Sure. But they'll fit thematically with the place instead of being a cop-out to put a dungeon in.

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  • Oluf
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

A setting like this might not include your traditional monsters.... but there could be different human factions fighting in the city. For example, a few different nobel families and a few different thives guilds.

However... My main concern about this setting is what kryigerof points out... what would the players be doing when not rp'ing or following a gm story?
In the Vinland setting there are more exploration posibilites then there is in this setting imo

  • Registered: 2006-10-02
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

The city idea is a good one, but settings like Vinland, where things can start small, would be easier for the group to implement IMO. It'd be great if it could be pulled off, but I have doubts that it could be. It would take a LOT of work to build a city.

  • Darkhawk
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

What would we do when not RP'ing? Nothing of course smile Anyway yes, pro's and con's, surely.

And I wasn't serious about the sewers. Really. *thinks back fondly to EOB's hyper-realistic sewers*

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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

Darkhawk wrote:

What would we do when not RP'ing? Nothing of course smile Anyway yes, pro's and con's, surely.

I meant, what is the gameplay centered around? Chitty-chatty RP is good but even in Seed we were always looking forward to more gameplay to RP around. Would it be traditional combat quests (interesting ones, of course, with decent background, story, etc) or something else?

Ahnion wrote:

Some work, yes. There was a very interesting NPC script engine for NWN. I'm hoping it will be updated for NWN2. It allowed you to do all kinds of nice scheduling for NPCs, and if they haven't botched the script-parser in NWN2 like they did in NWN, hopefully, we'll be able to run rather a lot of arbitrary scripts for NPCs - such as having guards light the streetlights when it gets dark. When necessary, of course, DMs should play NPCs. I'm looking forward to this, whichever scenario we choose in the end. smile

I tried one of those script engines in NWN, and while it was indeed powerful, it was not trivial to make it work the way you wanted. Although granted, I didn't spend a very long time with it.

  • Registered: 2006-10-01
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Re: PW Concept: The Golden City

Ahnion wrote:
Kryigerof wrote:

3) The city would have to be quite big when finished, which might lead to players scattering.

I might be interpreting you wrong, but wouldn't this be the case with any scenario where the characters can roam? Given that the characters live in the same area of the city, they will probably congregate, rather than scatter. It is a possible issue, but I don't think it's very serious. smile

I think I meant to say that if the city offers as many opportunities as a city logically would, the players might all get involved with different things (like someone joining the city guard, another going for alchemies and third becoming a thief in the dark alleys). Even if they lived in the same district they would be doing very different things.

That's why it would be necessary to decide on a coherent group concept and focus from the beginning, before creating the characters. And to focus the city creation according to that focus. However, that might make the things outside of that focus look plain and minimalistic and reduce the feeling of freedom and realism.

I think this concept would be great with more players and lots and lots of work. If wherever you go in the city there's something interesting to see and other real people to meet. And even with fewer players it would provide a very atmospheric backdrop for any stories we'd want to tell. I just think the possibilities of the city concept would not get properly fullfilled if used as a backdrop in such a way.

Last edited by Kryigerof (2006-11-17 15:06:07)