SPECIAL FEATURES

A given city might have interesting or unique features not encompassed by the previous categories. Below are a few examples, both mundane and mystical. Feel free to augment these with ideas of your own, drawn from both historical and fantasy inspirations.

Aqueducts: Some advanced cities use systems of aqueducts to channel water from distant lakes and rivers. Stone pipelines and tunnels with a gradual slope direct water toward the city and into cisterns or the sewers. A fantasy city might instead use a magic portal to a nearby lake, or even a small gate connecting to the Elemental Plane of Water. (The latter requires guards or magical defenses against potentially hostile creatures that might arrive along with the water.)

Bathhouses: Many large cities feature communal baths, sprawling complexes of plain stone or marble where people can relax and socialize. Some contain nothing more than hot- and cold-water pools. Others are complete recreational facilities, with wine rooms, restaurants, barbers, exercise areas, and other amenities. Unlike most other luxuries, the baths are usually available to all citizens, though the wealthy and powerful might have access to nicer facilities. Generally, only cities with running water can have bathhouses.

Canals: A network of canals running through a city can facilitate transportation and trade, form a sewage and drainage system, or separate city districts. The canals might also be home to strange creatures, which could be allies or enemies of the city’s people.

Communication and News: How do the people of the city learn what’s going on their world? In some areas, people pick up rumors where they can, and travelers are the best source of news. Some cities employ a town crier, a person who walks the streets shouting about recent major events. Even without mass printing, simple broadsheets in the marketplace might announce upcoming events. In a high-magic setting, the city authority might project illusory images at a fixed time and place each day to inform the citizens of the latest news.

Institutions: A sizable or important city likely includes noteworthy institutions, such a wizards’ college, a major library, or a great cathedral. The institutions you include in a city affect the resources available to the citizenry (and the PCs) in a variety of ways.

Interior Walls: Some cities isolate their districts from one another with walls or gates. The presence and nature of such barriers reflect the attitudes of the city government and its upper classes, or might warn of a high crime rate (and the two factors might be connected).

Monstrous Inhabitants: Does the city welcome unusual citizens? If the dominant culture is human, does it allow giants in the army, or bugbears in the city watch? Different cities have varying levels of tolerance for monstrous inhabitants. Some might welcome unusual humanoids but nothing more exotic, while a truly fantastic metropolis might have a mind fl ayer politician or an undead district.

Public Transportation: Does the city provide some means for citizens to travel from one place to another? Depending on the context and the availability of powerful magic, such a service can range from carriages or rickshaws for hire to a publicly maintained system of teleportation spells. For example, in the EBERRON setting, the city of Sharn has fl ying carriages to take citizens to its various towers.

Security: A wealthy city might employ magical protection against attack or crime. Examples include doorways that detect or even disable weapons, and watchtowers that automatically launch fi reball spells against advancing siege engines. If safeguards against crime exist, local criminal organizations probably know where they are and how to circumvent them—until the city improves its defenses.

Sprawl: Depending on its situation, a city might build up or out. Most cities tend toward one direction or the other, but rarely both. Depending on its method of expansion, a city’s buildings might be either tall spires or squat blocks.