City Stats: Vordtstadt

Frigid, smokey, urban.

So, since we are working towards a TL6^ style campaign now, I have decided to stat out some areas to develop a bit of a world, and continue creating locations and hopefully make up a setting so I can jump to making organizations via Boardroom and Curia. Today, a cold, industrial, poor city: Vordstadt, the first potential starting point of a campaign.


I'm going to name my city Tonga, which is apparently a sovereign state of Polynesia. Let's get cracking on the metrics.

Population

It seems like a big city during this time was around 100,000 people, and why not make this a big city? So, 100,000 seems fine to me. This gives a search bonus of +3.

Terrain

I am not sure if the terrain would be described as Arctic, because I envision an Eastern European feel, somewhat nordic... so for lack of a better terrain type, I'll instead choose Mountain.

Hygiene

Because of industrialization, and the low wealth of the majority of the population, but being countered by the geography, Hygiene is a -1.

Mana Level

Mana here is normal, it is what attracted factories in the first place. Enchantment is also pretty common. I might need to splurge on Urban Magic to see if Very Common would be appropriate.

Language

I don't have a good name for the empire yet where this story takes place, so I'll say the language is imperial. A melange of languages and different districts of the town exist where communities might speak traditional languages still as they naturalize.

Literacy

Literacy is accented; there is a lot of immigration here and a lot of not especially wealthy people, but illiteracy is not especially bad here.

Tech Level

Tech level is TL6^ in this very mechanized city tinged with magical influence.

Wealth

There are a lot of poor factory workers here. Some rich moguls are found here and there, and some middle of the road travellers and merchants, but the vast majority is not especially wealthy.

Status

No especially important royal families live here, but some insanely wealthy tycoons do exist. Status ranges from -2 to 5.

Government

The rich and businesses are in charge, so, although it is technically something like a Representative Democracy, it is also a kind of  Oligarchy special situation.

Control Rating

Control Rating of 3 is about right. The law isn't really actively oppressing anyone, but every mention of freedom, upward mobility, or democracy is all pretension.

Corruption

Society is incredibly corrupt and money can open lots of doors. -3. All politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.

Military Resources

This is a straight calculation. Using Basic Set to find the numbers listed, and looking at some other numbers I made up or calculated earlier, I have a military budget of $3.2 million

Defense Bonus

This, again is a list of yes/no questions, and after looking at it, the Defense Bonus comes out to +2.

Final Stat Block

So, now that we have all these things plotted out, here's what it looks like as a City Stats block.

Vordtstadt (1820 A.D.)
Population: 20,000 (Search +3)
Physical and Magical Environment
Terrain: Mountains
Appearance: Unattractive (-1)	Hygiene: -1
Normal Mana(Common Enchantment)
Culture and Economy
Language: Imperial	Literacy: Accented
TL: 6^
Wealth: Poor (x1/5)	Status: -2 to 5
Political Environment
Government: Representative Democracy and Oligarchy
CR: 3 (Corruption -3)
Military Resources: $3.2M	Defense Bonus: +2
Notes
In terms of natural sources of magic, this place is about as desecrated as a place can be considered. Money is heavily concentrated in the hands of the wealthy while the masses have mostly sold their souls to the company store. Streets are built of impressively sturdy cobblestones owing to the natural resource rich environments, and red brick buildings are caked with oil and grime pumped from smoke stacks that proliferate the skyline.

Other Thoughts

I think this is a good city to hang my coat from, and to begin creating some NPCs. I'll probably begin mapping from here, using this as the anchor of the far flung north and work south from here.