This is my best attempt at cataloguing all the sources I've read while trying to learn more about urban gameplay in D&D-like games. This is partly because it may interest you and partly because I don't want people recommending me stuff I've already read. Or if they are recommending me something new, they might read this list and realize "oh, wait, the thing I'm recommending won't actually add much to what this guy already knows." And you might also be interested in these things. A lot of ideas in here I ended up not agreeing with, but you might.
Systems
- Torchbearer, by Thor Olavsrud and Luke Crane
- Maze Rats and Knave 2E, by Ben Milton (very similar contents)
- Blades in the Dark, by John Harper
- Electric Bastionland, by Chris McDowall
- Mausritter, by Isaac Williams
- Demon City, by Zak S
- Look, I backed the Kickstarter literally years ago, I'm sorry. I got a PDF that I paid for, so I read it.
- His Majesty the Worm, by Josh McCrowell
Settings, Adventures, and Supplements
- City State of the Invincible Overlord, by the Judges Guild
- The Tome of Adventure Design by Matt Finch of Frog God Games
- Vornheim, by Zak S
- Yoon Suin, by Noisms
- Augmented Reality, the cyberpunk city kit by Paul D Gallagher
- Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, by... uh... Wizards of the Coast, I guess. Whatever, it really sucked anyway.
- Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, also WotC
- Magical Industrial Revolution, by Skerples
- Oz, by Andrew Kolb
- Barkeep on the Borderlands, by W.F. Smith
- Gulch, by Mindstorm
A book I do not yet have access to is Into the Cess and Citadel, which I expect readers to ask me about. I have a preemptive request: if you have read Cess and you have read this entire blog series and you feel like you understand my arguments well, could you tell me if anything in Cess offers a meaningful counterpoint to any of my claims in this post? Or a worthy addition to the broad advice I offer? Genuinely interested.
Oh, I also don't yet have Cities Without Number by Kevin Crawford. Is that worth it? Like, for learning more about urban gameplay, specifically.
Blogs / other internet resources
- Medieval Demographics Made Easy, by S. John Ross (plus some of the responses to it)
- Layers of London, a website dedicated to preserving the history of London, which has a really good "medieval London map" layer you can apply
- A lot of Wikipedia, but I specifically kept coming back to this article
- Watabou's city generator
- "How I Run Sandboxes in the City" by Monsters and Manuals
- "City Procedure" by Detect Magic
- "5e DMG: Every D&D city should be a metropolis" by Blog of Holding
- The Alexandrian's long, long series on Urbancrawls
- The follow-up by Gnome Stew
- "Street Guide Without Streets" by Roles, Rules, & Rolls
- DIY & Dragon's posts on crawl structures that talks a fair amount about cities
- "The Village of Fishtown" by Swamp of Monsters!
- "How I Run a Citycrawl Campaign" by Bearded Devil
- "Rules for Citycrawling" by Mazirian's Garden
- "Mautbek, a starting town for OSR games" by It's always sunny in Castle Greyhawk
- "On Settlements" by Blog of Forlorn Encystment
- This devlog post from Pathika
- "Cities, fixed at last" by A Billiam Banock for Every System
- "Sandbox Settlements: Prep, Run, and Thrive" by Among Cats and Books
-Dwiz
Posts in this series
You can add these two items to the bibliography. They are summaries of medievalists' research presented in forms convenient for players of role-playing games:
ReplyDeleteLisa J. Steele, Town: A City-Dweller's Look at Thirteenth to Fifteenth Century Europe, Cumberland Games & Diversions, 2010.
Also of interest: Fief: A Look at Medieval Society from Its Lowest Rungs, same publisher 2001 (originally published by White Rose Publishing in 1996)
These both have bibliographies of their own, citing professional historians. Both are available on drivethrurpg, though not for cheap. They are most valuable for gamers who want to make a historically "realistic" medieval European world.