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Inserting A City into People

It's real important to me that games that I gm-ing have some kind of feel to them. Like you remember this city or
this swamp or this cave, it's not just a part of game, there is reality to it somehow.
The game alone is not really enough to keep me interested.
I've realized this from playing playtests and some g+ games , and running a dungeon contest, when there has
been not enough thematic context I've struggled to enjoy it.
So as a g.m how to do I get my kicks without taking away from what everyone else needs to get their kicks?
Like if you sit the players down through epically long descriptions when they just wanna buy a crossbow, you are
being dumb and punishing.
(One common way to get people to pay attention or remember stuff is to have it try and kill them all the time.
That's not always that great either. Well your mileage is going to vary on this one I think. I don't really dig at as a
player, feels like there is no progression if there is no-where you get a break or you are always in the same
amount of danger.)
My conclusion on this was try and put the setting on all the moving parts. The stuff that the players can
immediately interact with for consequences etc.
And put as much setting on a moving part as the player ask about. So having a brief way of describing said
setting on the thing and then if they ask more , give more.
THIS ALL SEEMS PRETTY OBVIOUS
ACTUALLY BUT THEN I TRIED TO APPLY THIS THINKING TO A CITY WRITEUP
(
A decent encounter table is a good way to bring a city to life too, hopefully the below description can be used to
reskin a generic/other city encounter table )
and have descriptions , specific information, usefully adjectives , and adjectives to sprinkle in.

Day Of The
Lords:
long, florid:
A sudden
emergence of lazy
curves from a
wetlands but the
begins of it are
vague as water
way and irrigation
languid turn into
canal and park
lake. Bridges end
in third story roof
top markets and
streets wide
around into alleys
and parks.
The languid sweet
air seems to
inform the
temperament of the
people, with the
occasionally hint of
the decaying slurry
ponds of the pig
eels, also mirrored
in the callous
decadence that is
a subnote here.

Short/pretty much:
Like Venice but people kept trying to build Sindbad the Sailor sets everywhere and took their time doing it.

Buying Stuff:
markets, street
sellers, people in
cafes, private
saloons, clubs.
A combination of
an absurdly
complicated
money system
(more or less like a
series of tarot
cards with value
that shifts depend
on the moon and
river tides) and
fondness of
haggling mean you
will pay 50% more
for anything if you
fail your choice of a
wisdom/int/or
charisma check.
No real shortages
of conventionally
goods. Fine quality
. Things from
everywhere find
there way here. A
good market for
selling exotic items
, especially
jewellery and
animal parts. Less
so for
conventionally
weapons and
armour
Social Hubs:
Garden parks with
polite wandering
sales people, cafes
which sometimes a
just a guy with a
pot and a rug and
other times are
mostly in a
building. People
here tend to not
really bother with
clear boundrys with Though if you have spent the time sourcing pictures all of this is freaking redundant because you can go "hey look at
streets,
throughfares, homes and places of business .

this"

Every field of knowledge, interest and activity will have a multitude of clubs tending and competing in various
social strata niches.
If you want to buy anything more expensive or rare than a chapbook you will need to leave a calling card at the
relevant club and then come back later to see if you have been invited to someones private saloon, where they
will entertain you and display their wares.
Food And Drink:
Cardamom infused coffee, ginger candys, ginger pickled eels, crabs , lobsters, especially wrapped in river
grasses. Slow cooked pigeel. Often sudden bursts of flavour from pepper corns or cloves of spice.
Drugs include a variety of bitter herb based liquors with a swirl of sweet syrup, elaborate water pipes with a range
of smoking herbs , sometimes more chosen for their colour of smoke and flavour than effect.
Any food , drink or drug seemingly has to be appealing on more than one level (flavour, effect, aesthetics,
contrasting flavour) to be popular or even used at all here.
Security/military:
Day to day disputes will handled by a government arbitator, who have a small boat based office liberally drifting
around the city. Sometimes these are symbolically boats in a ceremonially pond. They empowered like a judge
able to set sentences , ranging from work details, poetic punishments , fines and death warrents. They will sub
contract out to a "Scholars" of one of the Schools of Pragmatic Discourse (voluntary gladiators) , occasionally
leading a small group of a relevant club members. (treat as a fighter level 1-3 with one combat trick , treat club
members as zero level people) .
Other more specialized people maybe employed , included detective philosophy, justice poets, snipers,
poisoners, impersonators or military units
.
The military is lightly armed skirmishers and air rifle platoons with lobotomized brutes as muscle/shock troops.
Elite troops are supplied by the various competing Schools of Pragmatic Discourse.
Schools of Pragmatic Discourse are like gladiator schools or martial art schools, and compete extensively but
more or less fairly , with a moderate amount of fatalitys in a variety of tournaments , games and competitions.

Who runs this place/ Factions:

"Day of the Lords" is the clan which gives the city its name. No government or high level administrator position
can be held by anyone not a member, though it is possible to marry into the family, and many marriages are
arranged in order to give a talented person a office. Numerous branches of the family compete , and while
assassinations are rare, they are not without occurrence. The current head of the clan is the seemingly undying
Moon's Moon's Lake, a old cunning spider of a great grandma. Other factions include the Schools of Pragmatic
Discourse, alchemist and other clubs most needful for the cities infrastructure. The Tenders of the Slurry have
considerable sway, controlling both the largest pigeel farms, the sewage system and the methane gas production
which lights the city at night. No one can make a body disappear like the Tenders of The Slurry

What do these people Look like?

Dark , golden features , not given to hairyness, broad lipped and languid eyed.
Dress is seemingly casual and indifferent but with subtle details and flourishes.
Nose chains and various body piercings are common especially multiple upper ear rings. Clothing is wraps, loose
shirts and saris. While which outfits are appropriate for men's and which outfit's are appropriate womens outfits is
obvious to a native of the city of New Day of The Lord, an outsider will be constant figure of fun for failing to tell a
mans scarf from a womans scarf.

The same goes for what parts of the body it is appropriate to expose and for what context (including time, place,
social position, holiday, weather and presence of cinnamon essence) . A good rule of thumb is don't get naked
just because everyone else is. They are properly wearing a formal fragrance and hairpins and it's early summers
eve and forgoing the customary lace glove and sandals to be scandalous.
adjectives to use in descriptions :
languid, worn, secretly smiling, humid, intricate, haphazard, contrasting, discrete, teeming, timeless .
Okay that was pretty long and I skipped building descriptions. I caught up in describing the place. Next time I'll try
doing like a dozen distinctive cities in a paragraph each or something.