LogFAQs > #882528227

See in a lot of ways, all that sounds like a lawful oriented city. Lawful evil is defined more or less defined as a criminal who lives by a code, whether that code is to never kill, only steal from the rich or only kill the worthless. And it seems like the entire city of Ankh-Morpork functions off of strict codes like that, and those who fail to follow pay a steep price.

There's always going to be conflict, that doesn't mean they are chaotic. It simply means that, conflict. There's still going to be conflict between lawful good and lawful evil. There will also be conflict between lawful evil and another lawful evil creature or organization. I mean, it can even happen between two lawful good creatures with different point of views or are trying to protect different things that may have to put the other at risk.

That same conflict will certainly exist in my city, but probably not to the same extent. And thanks to your replies, I have a much better idea of how it will exist and how to better implement it all. And at times, the city may even look chaotic in a way, (I liked the idea of someone being attacked in an alley and the players would have to make a choice about going against someone who told them not to intervene if they see anything like that, or to try and save the person. And if they do, they may have to face the guilds.) but it will ultimately come back to laws and agreements that keep the city running the way it does.

The guilds in my city will certainly out for themselves, but they'll be careful about how they do it making sure not to anger the others. You wouldn't exactly want to get caught in a 1 versus 6 fight, would you? If the players stick around, I might consider having some of those guilds be in alliances with each other to try and overthrow the other guilds or maintain their position on the city council, as well as potentially making one or two of the guilds puppets to another guild.

This could let me slowly throw the city into chaos in a way that makes sense unless the players decide to intervene in some way. Or even if they fail to intervene, as I was talking about before, another organization may step in and take control of the politics in the city.

Before that though, I'll need to figure out exactly how the guilds all function with each other. It's likely that they would strike up deals with each other, as they are the controlling forces of the city. So the merchant's guild may have a deal to buy things from the thieve's guild. Meanwhile, as a part of the deal, the thieve's guild would avoid stealing from any shops that are a part of the merchant's guild. Things like that.

Though, thinking about it right now, it all comes back to trading. So it seems like the merchant's guild would likely be the major force of the city, perhaps unless I split it up up into several smaller guilds. Either that or not have merchant's guild. Certainly something I would have to work out.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

As Pratchett once put it, when you're building a fake city, you should start by figuring out how they get rid of the sewage and then work your way up from there, rather than starting with the king and working your way down.

I really like that. I'll have to keep that in mind for the next city I make for sure.
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