Okay a new thread for something for the The Tales of Gravidy's Crossing campaign.

This thread is for the discussion/design of the town/city closet to Gravidy's Crossing, Portsmouth. If you could not tell from the name it is port town.

As we did for the design of Crossing, I will be asking for player input (as well as any member of EMD&D) in the development of the city. Just remember, I am the DM so I get to drive and steer as I like. As they will have to deal with the city, the players get a bit more umph to their suggestions.

For this to work, I would like to direct the questions and the brainstorming so please only respond to the type of input that I am asking for at each stage.

Thanks

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The best place to start...a MAP! And me being a lazy, I mean good DM, I will steal a map, Korvosa should work. This is unless someone has another suggestion. Toby, do you have a map of Krovosa that you could post?

Now a bit of background:

Portsmouth was the the seat of the Duke for the Commonwealth in this area. That meant he ruled the County in the name of the King. The city itself was rule for the Duke by the Governer.

Portsmouth has always been about trade. It has some exports but as one of the nicer harbours on the trade routes and as the end point of a caravan route, it was natural that merchant houses would have their headquarters here.

With the fall of the Commonwealth and the death of the last appointed Duke, the city is now ruled by the Governer.

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Okay that is it for now. So give me a sentance, thought, idea about the politics/ruling of the city.

The governor is corrupt, cares only for his own wealth and debauched needs. Rules with the clergy who have absorbed the local custom of annually feeding a bunch of folks to an ancient sea monster that visits the city once a year.

On the eve of this 'great feast'. there is usually a round up of not so willing sacrifices, these are usually local criminals but not so mysteriously include people that question the regime or have upset the governor or his lackeys. The clergy excuse this travesty as being essential to the fortune and security of the city.

* legend has it that long ago some duke/prince/whatever kicked this monsters butt, however in that absence the monster will make do with a good feed up.

any good ??

Bit more evil tinge then I was going for.

The festival is now more symbolic, in ancient times the sacrifice was real but now it is a burning effigy or a statue or something similar? Rumor has it there are some that still do a sacrifice, and some rumors that the governer (who is like you say) has dealings with some evil church and does it himself to keep in power.

Yes I think your right.

The live sacrifice is pretty dark theme. I just had this idea of a 'points of light' city that operated normally but went mad once a year.

perhaps a carnival tradition of sort some guys dress like a sea monster (like a Chinese dragon) runs through the street and kids emerge from the doorways to smack it with a wooden sword (representing the dukes heroic soldiers), every so often one kids get 'caught' and eaten (but obviously not really) to much frivolity.

but like you say there could be a real secret ritual going on..

The Governor while not a nice man, is not stupid. He has carefully balanced the interests of the various merchant houses so that one doens't become more powerful than others. He enforces strict rules on who the merchant houses can employ. No more than 20 soldiers (to protect their cargo) and only one "Wizard" (a catch all term for Wizards, Sorcerers etc.) and one "Priest" (Cleric, Palaidn etc.). This is to ensure that no merchant house can rise up and overthrow him.

Just some design ideas.

Many port cities are located either at the mouth of large rivers, navigable for some distance inland, or are sited at natural safe harbours or coves.
If located on a river, any bridge across it is an obstacle to navigation upstream, with travel between the two sides requiring a ferry, which may only cross at times when the tide is not too strong. Therefore it is not uncommon to have what amounts to twin cities, one on each side of the river.

On the other hand, a single "high-tech" lift bridge that allowed passage of larger river craft would be a choke point both economically and physically to both the cart and ship trade, and therefore might exact tolls to both river and road travel. One type of traffic paying for it to be opened, the other for it to be closed.


Len

Looking at the map, the city is on a isthamus (sp? and correct term) with a river. It appears that the river grants a place for safe berth for the ships.

There are two bridges across the river, on either end of the harbour area.

What I am thinking is one has to be big enough to allow sailing ships to get under, that I have to deal with. The one that blocks the river going in land can be alot simpler. It is made to block ships. Some barges can get underneath the bridge but most must dock, transfer cargo off the barge and then move it by land to be loaded on to the ocean going ships. A nice racket for the city, tolls, work, etc. And it is the only port around that can normally handle the larger ships. It also means it opens up some nice thoughts for smugglers.

The Governor while not a nice man, is not stupid. He has carefully balanced the interests of the various merchant houses so that one doens't become more powerful than others. He enforces strict rules on who the merchant houses can employ. No more than 20 soldiers (to protect their cargo) and only one "Wizard" (a catch all term for Wizards, Sorcerers etc.) and one "Priest" (Cleric, Palaidn etc.). This is to ensure that no merchant house can rise up and overthrow him.

I like this. Though of course the merchant houses are not to happy about it. And in unrelated comments, there seem to be a large amount of street gangs and pirates/buccuneers in Portsmouth. It usually happens in rough and tumble type areas. And there is no truth in the rumors that alot of the gangs are sponsered by the merchant houses and are usually fighting each other. The governer figures it keeps the pressure down on him and his soldiers are more then a match for thugs.

Sounds like Ventinari to me

From the descriptions here, it sounds like you might find it useful to read up on Westcrown, either in the Council of Thieves players guide or chapter 1 of the AP. There's quite a bit of that kind of flavour in those books.