So I use Traveller to intermix with my other planet-hopping scifi RPGs, and I love the UWP/UPP concept and function. One of the things I find often happens though is exploring new cities on planets. That next city over, what’s it like? It’s, say, a 2 day journey to the next big city. What do we use for flavor?
I have a hard time worldbuilding an entire city on the fly, without it just being “space Chicago” or “space Sydney.” So what about using the UWP as a UCP? I’m thinking of these less as socioeconomic descriptors, and more as what the city would feel like to a visitor, compared to other cities.
I was reading this blog about bending the UWP as a Universal Hex Profile: https://www.bastionland.com/2022/09/universal-hex-profile.html
It got me brainstorming, and this is what I came up with. Using the Hex Profile as a basis, here are D6 values for the city profile:
1-little
2-some
3-lots
N-null, empty, possibly by design
H-hazardous/experimental/questionable
E-extreme/bigger than big
And here are an initial set of descriptors I’m thinking about for cities:
S size (scale and population)
P pace (lethargic to bustling)
M modernity (traditional to hyper modern)
A affluence (dirt poor to wealthy)
F friendliness (disinterested to welcoming)
R restrictiveness (liberal to martial law)
D diversity (monoculture to melting pot)
C cultural specificity (generic to iconic)
In the case of Scale, I specifically put it down as:
1 - hundreds of people (town)
2 - thousands of people (city)
3 - millions of people (major city)
N - empty
H - population/city bounds in dispute or flux
E - multiple millions, (megacity or world capitol)
With the following as binary “trade codes:”
Ca capitol
Pl planned layout
Po port
Hc high crime
Hi historical
Td major trade route
In industrial
Tu tourist
Va vacation spot
Ap airport
Ai international airport
Tl high speed transit line
Tr rail line
Wr water - River
Wo water - ocean
Wi water - lake/inland
Ag - agricultural
So with this in mind, I might have the following earth cities listed:
San Fransisco
3-2232233 Po Td Tu Ai Tr Wo
New York
E-322223E Hc Po Td Tu Ai Tr Wo
ETA - it has been noted that NYC is NOT high crime. In fact, NYC violent crime is similar to San Fran and currently on the decline!
How does this sit with people? It might take me a moment to parse the string of numbers, but I’m thinking if I see it on a map it could at least be a descriptor of the city’s overall flavor, and at the very least it would keep me from making yet another boring generic town.