d20 Skirmisher Game Development Group City Builder Volume 11 Underworld Places.pdf

City Builder Volume 11:

City Builder V

olume 11:

City Builder Volume 11:

City Builder V

City Builder V olume 11:

olume 11:

City Builder V

olume 11:

U NDER

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U NDER

P P

U NDER

WORLD P

P P

WORLD P

ACES

NDER

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NDERWORLD

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By Michael J. V

By Michael J. Varhola, Jim Clunie,

By Michael J. V arhola, Jim Clunie,

arhola, Jim Clunie,

and the Skirmisher Game Development Group

By Michael J. Varhola, Jim Clunie,

By Michael J. V

arhola, Jim Clunie,

and the Skirmisher Game Development Group

City Builder Volume 11:

City Builder V

olume 11:

U NDER

P P

WORLD P

ACES

NDER

NDERWORLD

WORLD

CES

arhola, Jim Clunie,

and the Skirmisher Game Development Group

By Michael J. V

By Michael J. Varhola, Jim Clunie,

arhola, Jim Clunie,

and the Skirmisher Game Development Group

City Builder Volume 11:

City Builder V

olume 11:

U NDER

P P

WORLD P

ACES

NDER

NDERWORLD

WORLD

CES

Skirmisher Publishing LLC

P.O. Box 150006

Alexandria, VA 22315

ebsite: http://www.skirmisher.com

Game Stor

W ebsite:

ebsite:

Game Stor e:

e: http://skirmisher.cerizmo.com

Email:

Game Stor

Email: d20@skirmisher.com

Email:

Authors:

Authors: Michael J. Varhola, Jim Clunie, and the Skirmisher Game Development Group

Authors:

Publishers: Robert “Mac” McLaughlin, Michael J. Varhola, and Geoff Weber

Publishers:

Editor -in-Chief/Layout and Design:

-in-Chief/Layout and Design: Michael J. Varhola

Editor

-in-Chief/Layout and Design:

PDF Publications Manager: Jessica McDevitt

PDF Publications Manager:

Images in this book are variously courtesy of Geoff Weber

(page 15), from the Dover Pictorial Archive Series (pag-

es 1, 2, 5, 10, 16, 17, 20) and used by permission of

Dover Publications Inc., the property of Skirmisher Pub-

lishing LLC (pages 18, 19), or in the public domain.

All contents of this book, regardless of other desig-

rights reserved. Reproduction of material contained in

this work by any means without written permission

from the publisher is expressly forbidden except for

purposes of review. This book is protected under inter-

national treaties and the copyright laws of the United States

of America. Mention or reference to any company, prod-

uct, or other copyrighted or trademarked material in

no way constitutes a challenge to the respective copy-

right or trademark concerned.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance

of its contents to actual people, organizations, places,

or events is purely coincidental.

First publication:

First publication: December 2008; SKP E 0837.

Cover Images:

First publication:

Cover Images: Front, Cheater with the Ace of Dia-

monds, by Georges de La Tour (1620-1640). Back, The

End of the Game of Cards, by Jean-Louis Ernest Meis-

sonier (1856).

Cover Images:

Viewing This Book

iewing This Book

This book has been designed to be as

user-friendly as possible from both the

perspectives of printing out for use in

hard copy and viewing on a comput-

er screen. It has been laid out like a

traditional print book with the idea

that each even-numbered page com-

plements the odd-numbered page that

it should face (e.g., the illustration of

the brothel denizens on page 7 is set

up to face and illustrate the Brothel en-

try on page 6).

iewing This Book

With the above in mind, the optimal

way to view and enjoy this book would

be to print it out and organize it in a

binder so that the pages are arranged

as described above. This is by no

means necessary, however, for using

and fully benefiting from City Builder

Volume 11: Underworld Places and its

contents.

T able of Contents

able of Contents

Introduction

About This Series..............................................................................................................................................4

Using This Book................................................................................................................................................5

Brothel

Gambling Den

Pit-F

it-F

it-Fighting Ring

ighting Ring

112

ThievesÔ Guild

114

Sidebar: Assassins’ and Beggars’ Guilds................................................................................................................16

114

Introduction

U nderworld places of various sorts cater to the unsavory or illegal needs and desires of a society’s

members. Adventurers might have any number of reasons for visiting such places, from taking a walk

on the wild side to conducting business with the sorts of people who frequent them. Indeed, characters

with certain occupations — or inclinations toward criminal or immoral activities — might even spend a signifi-

cant amount of their non-adventuring time in such places. Roleplaying some of the activities associated with

underworld places can contribute to a lively game, add a new dimension to scenarios, and allow for some

interesting and lively interactions. Such episodes can also allow characters to utilize skills that they might not

routinely have the opportunity to use in the field (e.g., sensing the motives of others, deceiving or intimidating

them, or excelling in nefarious contests such as games of chance).

Various kinds of underworld places are likely to be found

in communities ranging in size from hamlets to mega-

lopolises; where people congregate in groups of any

size, it is likely that some will cater to the illicit needs

of the others.

While many underworld places are devoted to ac-

tivities that are actually illegal, some are venues for

practices that are merely considered sleazy or immor-

al. Some underworld places of these sorts might be

suffered to exist only in designated areas or be limited

in to whom they can provide their services (e.g., broth-

els in a particular port city might be prohibited from

serving anyone but non-residents).

Underworld places that characters might visit in the

course of their inter-adventure activities include broth-

els, gambling dens, pit-fighting arenas, and thieves’

and assassins’ guilds, all of which are described in

this volume.

Many of the legitimate businesses described else-

where in the City Builder series might also have un-

lawful underworld counterparts, operate in conjunc-

tion with criminal activities, or serve as fronts for them.

In societies where intoxicants are prohibited, for ex-

ample, any existing taverns would necessarily be illic-

it and secretive. Other underworld institutions might

essentially conform to the characteristics of legal coun-

terparts, e.g., fences, a likely destination for characters

of a larcenous nature, tend to operate pretty much like

Brokerages and Pawnbrokerages, as described in City

Builder Volume 6: Mercantile Places; criminals some-

times patronize hidden fanes to deities whose teach-

ings favor their activities; particularly well-established

power groups of the underworld, such as thieves’

guilds, might gather in meeting-places that resemble

the legislatures or audience chambers of legitimate

government.

Underworld places, by definition, are often run by

criminals of various sorts — depending on the enter-

prise in question, these might include thugs, thieves,

assassins, pimps, and prostitutes. Characters of any

background or vocation, however, might be associated

with underworld places of specific types or under par-

ticular circumstances (e.g., a scofflaw brewer might be

the proprietor of a bootleg tavern, cashiered officers or

deserters from the military might serve as enforcers at

any such institutions).

Depending on the goods, services, or functions they

provide — along with whether those are actually ille-

gal or merely unsavory — underworld places can vary

widely in size, construction, and appearance. Many

will be established in structures similar to those de-

scribed under “Buildings” in City Builder Volume 1:

Communities (e.g., a brothel in a city might operate

out of a townhouse, while one in a village might be run

out of a wattle-and-daub longhouse).

Furnishings at underworld places will be appropri-

ate to their functions, such as beds or couches in a

brothel. Other items might include equipment of the

sorts used at the places in question, such as appropri-

ate sorts of weapons or protective gear at a pit-fighting

arena, gaming tables in a gambling den, and the like.

What such places usually do not include, especially if

they are actually illegal in nature, are records or other

things that could prove a connection between them

and their owners or clients (and, to the extent that such

records do exist, they are often to the detriment of those

they implicate and are thus likely to be encoded or

well hidden).

Security at underworld places, particularly from the

legal or moral forces opposed to them, is paramount.

The first line of defense at many such locations is that

their existence is not obvious or that they are disguised

to look like — or make a plausible case in a court to be

— something other than what they really are (e.g., to

passersby, a particular brothel might look like nothing

more than a members-only bathhouse, or its function

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