The other day, I was listening to James Holloway's Monstrous Cities episode of Monster Man. It was an inspiring dive into how a city of monsters could be run in a game world, and I'm going to lean on it for an upcoming short-arc game of Cairn where the PCs will play bullywugs and lizardmen making common cause against an external threat.
Earlier that day, I was attending a virtual conference and one of the speakers shared the slide above - and I think this is a great idea for a monstrous city. Perhaps the inhabitants (human or otherwise) have come under the power of an ancient intelligence that has molded their culture to serve itself. The roads, canals, and sewers form the alimentary and circulatory systems, "temples" could be the communications systems, perhaps there are a series of watchtowers that serve as the auditory and visual systems. All of these would also be points of interface for the micro-fauna/population.
The populace might trade for "nutrients" or other essentials for the city's health and development, some of which might seem bizarre to neighboring communities.
I think there are a lot of ways you could go with this - and it would work so many different settings as well (sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, fantasy, horror, etc.)
What do you think? Is this something you'd like to build on, or that you're already using? Let me know in the comments, or on my twitter.
I've got a notebook somewhere with some scribblings about 'polterburgs', haunted cities that fought each other. The city vs. city violence was the price some people were willing to pay for living in a semi-automated environment.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember if it was a standalone or meant to be part of something called Ouija World.