I was daydreaming about what it takes to create a new city, still in the setting but away from Doskovol.
What would I do if someone had a long, 16 piece downtime project that was relocate gang to another city to avoid heat in Duskwall?
That process would be brutal, cut off from all contacts and resources that made the gang possible in the home city.
What are the pieces of a new city needed for BitD?
Districts: Landmarks, Details, Notables, Traits [Wealth/Secruity & Safety/Criminal Influence/Occult Influence]
Factions: Clocks, Turf, NPC’s, Notable Assets, Allies, Enemies, Situation
On Character Playbooks: Friends/Rivals
On Crew Sheet: Contacts
Looking at the map, the Imperial City stood out to me. I’m assuming it is the seat of the Immortal Emperor. I picture it as a strew of 0-1 Tier gangs with no surviving 2 or 3 Tier gangs. The rest are all Tier 4’s looking to go legit and get rid of their Heat.
Heat is more difficult to get rid of in I.C. You always have to spend Coin to get rid of heat during downtime, maybe? The Imperial Special Police are fast to quash up and coming gangs. The Imperial Secret Police only take their foot off of a gang’s throat when they accrue enough power to make some thought towards being legit or having a front powerful enough to make tremendous pay-offs.
Prison is far, far worse. It is possible to be set aside to be the next body for the Imperial Emperor while in Imperial Prison.
Thinking, daydreaming…
Has anyone ever had a game shift to a different city?
No, but this sounds super interesting.
I too was daydreaming about a smugglers crew that moved between U’duasha and Doskvol having a foot in both places and having to deal with the consequences of both.
Special Edition has the shift to U’Duasha: Brief History, Cultures, Languages, Law&Order, Underworld, Names, Landmarks, Districts, Factions, Vice Purveyors.
I like the idea that only 0-1 tier and 4 tier gangs survived in Imperial city. Make the transition/jump from 2 to 4 a bit of a challenge.
Imperial City is gonna get an official take in the hack where you play as assassins trying to kill the Immortal Emperor, same as how Bluecoats is gonna add Lockport. I’d pick another city, or just wait.
I’m just tinkering, haven’t put any hard work in as of yet. Thanks!
South Point and Ilysia are obviously big trade cities. I’ve had thoughts based on my times running Ghost Lines of having Wintercliff be a town where a big part of the income is mining.
In my Ghost Lines games (ran prior to BitD ever being a thing) there was a fuel source called Deadstone Coal which was basically rock solid compressed soulmatter of ancient dead souls found by mining near spirit wells—very dangerous operations! When burned Deadstone coal burns extremely hot and efficiency though it also lets out a plume of smoke that forms shapes out of the corner of your eye that looks like people screaming. Also you didn’t really want to breath that smoke in too long.
It could be fun to run Wintercliff as a town on the decline, still run primarily off of the waning profits of Deadstone coal and normal coal (when the economy is all Leviathan Blood Electroplasm now) with some academically minded people trying to transmute Deadstone coal into a more useable electroplasm.
Alternatively it could be run as if Deadstone coal is a new discovery and that scientists have just discovered how to use it for electroplasmic energy. In which case, Wintercliff would be the equivalent of a Wild West bonanza mining town of people trying to get rich off this new resource no matter how dangerous it was to mine.
I really like the idea of all these different towns having different make-ups. Like some being well set up for certain gangs (Duskwall has tonnes of options for smugglers to get around for example). I also love the OP’s idea about varying the tiers so rather than a pyramid, you get funny shapes.
Potentially some of the other cities might differ ideologically too. A somewhat functional communist city. Another where the severity of crimes is different (murder is a low level offence, but wasting water is punishable by death). Maybe a town where everyone is in cults (in addition to whatever other crew type they might be) and all of them operate in the open.
I ran a short one-shot a few months ago set in the Dagger Isles, in a small city of my own design. Pulling most of my inspiration from New Orleans, with a smattering Salem thrown in for good measure, it was town steeped in a culture of voodoo and witchcraft, relying on the cooperation and rituals of both to keep the spirits of the deathlands at bay despite ever being at odds with one another. Adding to the mix was a culture of and reliance on various festivals (masquerades, Day of the Dead, etc.) and other mask related customs, making it not so uncommon to see everyday citizens bearing personalized or ritualistic masks while walking openly in the streets, with many of the various gangs throughout the city having their own distinctive masks, as well. All this, alongside a few other small details that I threw together with a single game in mind.
It’s something I’ve been wanting to develop further since then, if not for a lack of time. I certainly had fun with the idea and my players said they liked the slight change of tone and setting, ‘though it was still very much Blades at heart.
Sadly I don’t think there’s enough completed cities out there yet to really be able to shift to another one with any meaning – U’duasha aside. When we get more that will change, of course.