GURPS City Stats a Rabble in Arms
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CITY STATS TM Written by WILLIAM H. STODDARD Edited by NIKOLA VRTIS Editorial Assistance by JASON “PK” LEVINE Illustrated by PAUL DALY, LOKARIAN, and RAY SNYDER An e23 Sourcebook for GURP S® STEVE JACKSON GAMES ® Stock #37-0138 Version 1.0 – May 2010 CONTENTS I NTRODUCTION . 3 CITIES AS ENVIRONMENTS . 11 Notables . 16 Publication History . 3 Long-Term Fighting . 12 Campaigns . 17 About the Author . 3 SAN FRANCISCO . 17 3. EXAMPLES San Francisco, 2010 . 18 1. STATISTICS OF CITIES . 13 Notables . 18 FOR CITIES . 4 Just Add Magic . 13 Campaigns . 18 Lhasa (1850 A.D.) . 4 ATHENS . 13 PAVONIS PORTAL . 19 POPULATION . 4 Athens, 450 B.C. 14 Pavonis Portal, 2240 . 19 Search Modifier . 5 Notables . 14 Notables . 20 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT . 5 Campaigns . 15 Campaigns . 20 Terrain . 5 TREDROY . 15 Appearance . 6 Tredroy, 2010 . 16 INDEX . 21 Hygiene . 6 MAGICAL ENVIRONMENT . 6 Mana Level . 6 Enchantment Level . 6 About GURPS CULTURE . 7 Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of GURPS players. Our Language . 7 address is SJ Games, P.O. Box 18957, Austin, TX 78760. Please include a self- Literacy . 7 addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) any time you write us! We can also be Tech Level . 7 reached by e-mail: [email protected] . Resources include: ECONOMY . 7 New supplements and adventures. GURPS continues to grow – see what’s new Wealth . 7 at www.sjgames.com/gurps . Status . 7 e23. Our e-publishing division offers GURPS adventures, play aids, and sup - Low-Tech Wealth and Status . 8 port in PDF form . digital copies of our books, plus exclusive material available POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT . 8 only on e23! Just head over to e23.sjgames.com . Government . 8 Pyramid (www.sjgames.com/pyramid ). Our monthly PDF magazine Control Rating . 9 includes new rules and articles for GURPS , systemless locations, adventures, and Corruption . 9 much more. Look for each themed issue from e23! MILITARY CAPABILITIES . 9 Internet. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.sjgames.com for errata, Military Resources . 9 updates, Q&A, and much more. To discuss GURPS with our staff and your fel - Defense Bonus . 10 low gamers, visit our forums at forums.sjgames.com . The GURPS City Stats A Rabble in Arms . 10 web page is www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/citystats . NOTES . 10 Bibliographies. Many of our books have extensive bibliographies, and we’re putting them online – with links to let you buy the resources that interest you! 2. CITIES AS Go to each book’s web page and look for the “Bibliography” link. SETTINGS . 11 Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we do our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata pages for all GURPS releases, including this book, are CITIES AS ENCOUNTERS . 11 First Impression . 11 available on our website – see above. Exploring the City . 11 Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the GURPS Basic Set, Fighting the City . 11 Fourth Edition. Page references that begin with B refer to that book, not this one. GURPS System Design T STEVE JACKSON Page Design T PHIL REED and Marketing Director T PAUL CHAPMAN GURPS Line Editor T SEAN PUNCH JUSTIN DE WITT Director of Sales T ROSS JEPSON Managing Editor T PHILIP REED Art Director T WILL SCHOONOVER GURPS FAQ M aintainer T ––––––– e23 Manager T STEVEN MARSH Production Artist & Indexer T NIKOLA VRTIS VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO Prepress Checker T MONICA STEPHENS Additional Material: Alexander von Thorn and Jonathan Woodward GURPS , Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Pyramid , City Stats, e23, and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license. GURPS City Stats is copyright © 2010 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Some art © 2010 JupiterImages Corporation. All rights reserved. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this material via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. CONTENTS 2 I NTRODUCTION “Behold, my father,” said ’Anad, pointing to the eastern horizon. GURPS City Stats provides a way to characterize this: a sys - Zumran raised his eyes from their flock of sheep. They tem of statistics and descriptions that define what a city is like weren’t as young as ’Anad’s, but he could still see things far off and how it affects the activities of residents and visitors, much well enough. He saw what looked like as planetary statistics in GURPS Space the peak of a distant hill, looming on define what a planet is like. To illustrate the horizon. how these work, City Stats presents “My son,” Zumran said, “this may four locations suited for use as cam - be the Mighty Place of which we were paign settings: historical Athens at the told. Qurad the goatherd said that it height of its empire, the fantasy city of was to be seen from far off, like a Tredroy, present-day San Francisco, mountain.” He raised his voice, for his and Pavonis Portal on a future Mars. wives to hear, where they walked This isn’t a design system for cities, behind with his goods on their backs. like that for planets in GURPS Space. “Let us go! The spirits have led us to That would take a much longer supple - our journey’s end!” ment! Rather, City Stats provides a They walked on, with the great river checklist for making up metropolitan on their left, and the sun hot above locales, a list of questions that need to them – shaded from time to time by be answered in creating an urban set - date palms – as it sank toward the hori - ting. Furthermore, this publication zon behind them. To their right, they suggests reasonable answers for vari - began to see fields of wheat. A strange, ous historical eras, and how different sharp smell rode the air. answers affect each other. By putting A little later, they both saw what lay those answers in a standard form, this below the peak, though it puzzled their supplement helps the GM keep track of eyes to know what to call it. Cliff faces the cities that he’s imagined as settings rose on the south bank of the great for adventures or campaigns. river, several times a man’s height, entirely surrounding the high peak; they looked to be gypsum, though PUBLICATION strangely lined. A branch from the river flowed past the cliff that faced them, HISTORY ending in a pool. On that pool floated This is the first edition of GURPS bundles of reeds; a man stood on one City Stats. The world of Yrth, where of them leaning on a pole as the bundle Tredroy is located, goes back to the slid over the water. Beyond the cliffs original GURPS Fantasy, and has was a wide expanse of open water, with appeared in several other GURPS white streaks running across it, from publications since then. The stats right hand to left hand. At the right side presented here for Tredroy are based of the cliffs, many men clustered, more on its description in GURPS than Zumran had seen in one place. Banestorm, by Phil Masters and ’Anad said, “Look, my father, they are Jonathan Woodward; Jon kindly entering that gap in the cliffs.” worked them out for this book. Zumran gathered his courage, and said, “We too must go there. Truly this must be the Mighty Place; no other ABOUT THE could be like it.” AUTHOR Cities are common stages for adven - William H. Stoddard lives in the turers to act on. Many campaigns start city of San Diego in the early 21st cen - out in cities, or pass through them. tury. He has been playing and running Some never leave the city where they roleplaying games for 35 years; his take place. For any such campaign, it’s first book, GURPS Steampunk, helpful to have a clear idea of what appeared in 2000. In his day job, he each city is like – just as, in a science- copyedits scientific and scholarly fiction campaign, it’s helpful to have a publications. clear idea of what each planet is like. INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER ONE STATISTICS FOR CITIES The statistics of a city summarize information about its envi - with a detailed description or map. While reading about each ronment; its population and their way of life; and its capabili - stat, refer to Lhasa (below) for a sample stats block that shows ties as an organization. The GM can expand these highlights how and where that information is listed. Lhasa (1850 A.D.) Population: 55,000 (Search +2) Notes Tibet, including Lhasa, is nominally part of the Chinese Physical and Magical Environment Empire. In practice, there is very little Chinese presence; Terrain: Mountains the Dalai Lama can call upon a small force of Medium Appearance: Attractive (+1) Hygiene: -1 Infantry (effective CR1 for military mobilization). Lhasa Low Mana (Rare Enchantment) has many legends of super - natural forces; it’s treated Culture and Economy here as one of the few low- Language: Tibetan Literacy: Broken mana sites on a mainly no- TL: 4 mana Earth. It also has Wealth: Average (¥1) Status: -2 to 8 very high sanctity for Bud - dhists as the home of the Political Environment Dalai Lama (a Status 8 Government: Theocracy, Subjugated ruler), and +3 to search CR: 3 (Corruption -1) rolls for Buddhist religious Military Resources: $0.2M Defense Bonus: +4 institutions and holy sites.