I'm thinking of running another game of The Riddle of Steel, but am having problems finding a location that fits what I'm looking for. I'm trying to find a large city that is incredibly crime-ridden. I don't care if the government is strong or weak - in fact, I prefer strong, and uncaring - but the city itself is controlled by crime families and thieves, and the streets are full of drugs, vice, prostitutes, and the like.

Any ideas, anyone? I'm actually thinking of using Xanarium, and just making it a bit worse. Looking below that on the map, though, I see "The Free City." Any comments on what that might be, Jake?

ahr

It depends on what "feel" you want culturally. New Cyrithmeir city is run entirely by crime families in my game, with a King that's afraid to leave the castle, but Cyrinthmeir is also pretty generic culturally (that's intentional, btw).

Xanarium could provide some great mafia-esque intrigue, though.

Jake

Jake,

Cool-io. I know it's my game, and I should just figure it out myself, but, again, what's up with "The Free City"? Is it there for GMs to flesh out, or did you have any ideas of what's actually there?

Flesh away, baby. And let us know what you did with it.

Jake

ps. We're gonna try and run Donjon over the break. Thought you'd like to know.

Green Ronins Freeport: City of adventure offers one choice that I actually used. You just have to tone down the magic level a bit but not much though. Excellent sourcebook and it might be what you are looking for. Lotsa opportunies for those duel also.

Having done a lot of reading on Rome lately, I'll try to state the case for the "Seat of the Xanarian Empire". Lonng post.

They're not exactly the same (the Romans were lousy sailors, and usually hired Greeks etc, Xanarians are great sailors) but cut and paste as you will. And I'm reading about pagan Rome, not Catholic.

In ancient Rome, it was relatively safe by day. The Vigiles were eventually established as a police force and fire department. But even they avoided the worst neighborhoods, especially at night.

Gangs of thieves ruled the streets at night. Unless they ran into a band of upper class youths, above the power of civil authorities. They would club anyone they met, break into homes and rape and pillage, and drink.

Even the emperor feared to anger the mob. Rome had a population of over 1 million. Keep in mind, emperors like Caligula were actually loved by the lower classes (the historians tended to be wealthier).

Prostitution was legal in pagan times. Some were desperately poor free women or men, others were slaves 'pimped' by their masters. There were at least 100,000 slaves. I'm sure slavery and prostitution didn't disappear with the coming of the Church.

The patronage system in the rulebook was used by both legitimate and criminal society. All of free society, from the emperor to the beggars, is tied together this way. Keep in mind, a general acts as a 'patron' to his army, and they are his 'clients'. They will be far more loyal to him than to the empire. Apply this same logic to the Church, the courts, the Imperial administration, criminal crews inside a crime family, etc. Corruption abounds.

With the Seat's excellent trade routes, foreign pharmaceuticals (almost all of them legal!) would be easy to find. Combine this with crime, prostitution, mystery cults, and the decadent mega-wealthy, and the fun never ends.

Of course, many countries would have similar situations.

Gene

This could be done in any really, really big city, but these are the ones that I would choose for each sub-continent.

Mainlund: Seat of the Empire, baby. For all the reasons stated above.

Mariah: Ahar, capital of Ahr. Oh yeah.

Tegaarn: Probably the capital of Otamarluk. That would be fitting.