We built this City. Thoughts on a Fantasy City Game

FREEPORT FEBURAY: Gaming blog.

While I did promised you guys we would be pursuing some older RPG to take a look at and review as the new RPG market is pretty empty these days.

So instead.

I have been running a RPG in the Freeport setting for the past Six years, it has been a very Living-Sandbox Urban Crawl game that everyone has enjoyed playing in.

Freeport is certainly not the first City of scum and villainy in the History of the Role Playing Hobby, there have been “City’s of Adventure” as long has there been a REPG industry. Some of them are amazing (Skullport, City State of the Invincible Overlord) some of them, not so much.
The idea of a Free City filled with Criminals, Thieves and Pirates seems to stand out as an amazing idea, which is why so many have been made over the years.

While I have collected a lot of Fantasy City’s something about Freeport stood out for me. The combination Pirate themed high adventure and ancient Lovecraft Horror made it an interesting place to play, plus Sharks with Guns.

True this will not be the first Blog dedicated to City games, Zack S did an amazing job with his City book Vornheim.

The problem with a Living Sandbox city of “Adventure” is that it would never work and most of them have a lot of stuff that makes no sens. A Casino, next to an Opera House? A Church of Paladins next to the privet mansion of the Lich King?

How does that make sens?

A Monster filled Slum in a city of Thieves, pretty much the whole city would be a low rent Shanty Town wouldn’t it?

Four casinos might work in a small Town but 20 or 30? Plus all those drunken low life Bars, Inn's and Taverns? How do they stay open, how to they get repeat costumers if the visitors are always killed by the Evil Landlord?

A city run by and populated by Thieves, Pirates, Evil cultists and worst of all “Adventurers” like you and me would self destruct in a few years!

There is a reason why Gold rush boom towns failed when the Gold ran out, there is a reason why the Age of Pirates came to an end.

And there is a reason why Las Vegas works, and lets face it Vegas is the closest thing we have in the US to a Waterdeep or a Skullport.

Vegas does not work because of the supposed Mob Connections. It works because it keeps evolving.

If there were as many gun fights (and Monster appearances ?)now as there were in Vegas 50 years ago it would have never become the City it is today.

. If old Casinos had not undergone face lifts or been eliminated to create space for new Casinos, Vegas would have self destructed.
Cheep bars are replaced with 5 Star restaurant. Glitzy ½ naked show girls are replaced with Celina Dion and Cirq Du Soley(SP?).

Las Vegas works because it's job is not to get the visitors to waste money once, it's job is to get the visitors to waste money over and over again Year after Year. It works because there is a whole infrastructure dedicated to keeping the City relevant Because there is a another part of the City off the Strip where normal everyday things happen. Vegas has Homes, Schools, Hospitals and all the other things your Town has. It has evolved to fit the times.

A Fantasy City like Freeport would never work the way it's presented, it had to evolve as the Game evolved. If the Players failed to put out the “Great Green Fire” then I had to calculate how that event effected the City. When they killed the Dire Turkey, I had to calculate how much damage a giant Turkey caused and who prospered from it?

My Freeport Game works because it keeps evolving based on what the players do or do not do and the fact that I assume the City is still working just because the game is over for the week or the Players never even met that NPC.

In order to run a City Game, or any Game for that matter the GM has to embrace the fact that a City is not static. It keeps chugging along even if the PC's are not there.

For example, during One of the very First Sessions of my Freeport Game the players encountered a group of Human Thugs. Insults were exchanged, Swords were drawn, Blood was spilled. When the dust settled Two of the Thugs had escaped.

A session or Two latter the PC's encountered another group of Thugs in the employe of the Big Bad and amongst them were the Two thugs who had survived the previous encounter with the Party and having done do knew what to expect (IE They leveled, because yes NPC's can level)

This cycle continued for almost 2 years. Time and again, the party would run in to those Two guys in some forum and as such those Two guys were now almost the same level as the party and had become legitimate threats in there own right. The story continued to One of the last encounters and the Dynamic Duo now having earned the respect of the Party turned on the Big Bad to further there own ends.

The first freeport Game came to an end but those two guys were still running around in freeport so when the Second freeport game began, I had to consider where they were now.

It's 2015 and I am running my 4^th Freeport game (on Tuesday nights at Seths Games and Anime). Everything that happened in the previous Freeport games has effected the City to help create it's current incarnation and those two Thugs from 6 years ago?

Well they have there own History now and are still around.

Thug number One has become a well known Mercenary by the name of “Pretty Boy” Ty.

Thug number Two has become the owner of a local “Gym” (IE: Fight Club) as well as a respected and feared Mercenary by the name of “Yellow Boxer”

And let's not forgot the still evolving story of “DOMO” the last Kobold on Earth!

All this happened because each event and encounter and whispered conversation the Party interacted with during the past 6 Years helped to shape Freeport as it stands today. As will the events of last weeks Game (You think no One noticed that the Party destroyed the Pale Temple?)

need a starting kernel to get the City game of your Dreams going?

Lets say that The PC's are rewarded with a House at the end of the Scenario? Well what's up with that? Where is it? Who's House was it before the Players? Are the Party using the house? Does any One else in Town know that the Party eats and sleeps in this House? Do there enemies know?

Any GM who wants to run a Sand Box Living City Urban Crawl Scenario has to remember this, the City only works if you edit out the stuff that makes no sens (like an Opera House) and if you keep evolving the City.

So come on by Seths Games and Anime, find your Fantasy City and start creating your own “Freeport “ populated with your own Story and your own First level Thug who grows up to become something else because the PC's let him live?

Till next time...Be excellent

* Freeport, the City of Adventure is Copyright Green Ronin Games.