Prompted by the Guvnor at the Tavern, today, I'm starting Dungeon23!

A 365-room mega dungeon is the general idea - but I decided that the utility of the mega dungeon is too limited for me to invest all that time in. 

Instead, I'm going to do a city. With a city, I can cover points of interest and adventure, have lots of variety, have locations that are legitimately unconnected - whatever I'm feeling like on the day. Also, the districts and buildings I come up with should be useful to drag'n'drop into other games - which is always a bonus.

The city I'll be creating is Katravia, from a Pathfinder shared world I was GMing in a couple of years ago - I've got some basic layout and themes already drafted, so that'll be the framework for the project.

The format suggested is in a journal, so I'll be working on paper, and posting photos of the work, with comments. And rather than spamming this blog daily with updates, I'll collate things weekly.

Katravia outline

Katravia, City State of the Isthmus

The lush and properous city of Katravia in the Kalidian Isthmus bustles with commerce and rumour. It is a nexus of trade - and magic! Around the Well of Eyes, the Academy Arcanum clusters in dreaming spires and cloisters; industrious dwarves delve a new canal to breach the Isthmus; sweet gardens and avenues abound - and the Drax Presidium, the Courts of the Dragon King, Karaktakas Princeps, rule over all...

I've used the Pathfinder Gamesmastery Guide format for settlements to establish things like prosperity, crime rate, and other qualities - but it's my intent to keep things system agnostic, so those numbers from my old draft will need some explanation!

• "NN Metropolis": Katravia is a truly neutral place in terms of moral and philosophical outlook. Individuals of course have their own agendas, but collectively, there's only the market forces of trade and reaching for prosperity to guide.
• Corruption: The officials of the city are on the whole well paid, and slightly less easily bribed
• Crime: Petty crime is common-place
• Economy: Katravia is rich, so folk will pay well for your services and goods
• Law: Officials are slightly more inclined to stick to the rules and ignore appeals, but conversely, the Watch is slightly less primed to respond to calls to alarm
• Lore: With major academic institutions here, Katravia is a perfect place to do research and gather information
• Society: Katravians think themselves simply better than outsiders, and this makes them a little stuffy and suspicious
• Danger: With arcane experiments, fields of powerful magical flux, and a wealth of travellers, the city can be a hazardous place. If your random encounter tables are ordered by challenge, add about 20 % to the rolls to increase the danger.
• Base value / Purchase limit: Any item costing less than a family home can be readily purchased in the city without much fuss. Only the most rare and power magical items are unavailable to purchase.
• Spellcasting: There is no practical limit on the spell services one can find in Katravia - only the size of your coin purse.