“Commencing forthwith, the gates of the city are open”

The City is a compact and densely populated place. It is an array of things to the people living here - seat of the King's government, port, marketplace and also a religious center. From here, the King's writ expands to cover all of the kingdom, however it is only within the walls of the City itself that the Watch truly remains and maintains a semblance of order.

The City presents boundless opportunities for those who are quick enough of mind to seize them and strong enough of arm to hold them. Whether it is employment, trading, or financial assistance - all of these and many more can be found within the City gates.

Some people are born in the City. Some come to the city less through choice than as the result of their earlier adventures. Some people are brought in chains. For all who seek a place to grow and to earn some valuables, the City serves as a great place to do so. But don't expect to just find magical objects lying around in the street. However, for all those who believe in gold serving as an aid to their passage, the City is their goal. Opportunities exist there to make fortunes - and/or to lose them.

Just as importantly, the City offers lucrative posts to those who prove to show themselves as the most able. The path to each of them is different, but all of them will bring the same reward. Greater power to challenge the outside world with.

By approaching the officers of the Royal Castle, you might receive the rank of Sheriff . As well as free movement within the City walls, this post entitles you to discounts on arms and armor.

If you can find the present holder of the post, you can become the Master Thief . Money will come freely to you, but you will most likely be trapped within the City until you can obtain your release by more subtle means than the heavy city gates.

The post of the High Mage is also vacant. The Wizards’ Guild awaits the first Mage who can bring them a significant new magic item for their repository.

Finally, rumor has it that your Majesty himself walks the streets, seeking for a benevolent soul who can be knighted by the King as the King's Champion .

But mostly, the City is about money. The chance to buy and sell, and the chance to gamble. If you can leave the City with a suit of armor, a warhorse and a purse full of gold, your time will indeed have been well spent.

The City's Locations-Which of them will pe paid a visit first?

The City Gate: The Gate of the City serves as the main entrance point into the city.

The Town Square: A hive of activity. The watch is particularly active in this area, checking people going in or out of the City. A normal entry fee is supposed to be levied on all transit to and from the City, but the watch lets many pass through the Square unmolested, preferring those who are rather prone to linger.

The Stables: Run by honesty and security, the stables are a safe haven for pack animals and riding beasts. The owners also run a trading operation, even though they do not always have riding animals in stock.

The Armory: The finest repair workshop in all the land and the only source of high quality armor and weapons. If pushed, the owners will buy your cast offs.

Doctor's Surgery: The City's most prominent physician, doing a roaring trade in treating adventurers in pursuit of their quest.

The Anarchist's Guild: A guild for those who follow the precept of balance in all things. The Guild has its own physicians, who provide free medical attention.

The 6 Fates Inn: Most famous of the City's taverns, handy for the port and an adventurer’s paradise. Every night, players sit in one of the biggest games of Six cards Snakebite in the Kingdom. But pay attention to not lose.

The Wharf:Gateway to the world. It is from here that ships ply their trade - occasionally with cargo they are unaware of. A cargo that carries a warrant with them.

The Bank: Wanna get yourself a lot of money for your adventure? The Bank is the place to get it. Loans are available just like the possibility of becoming rich. Just don't try to leave without paying your loan back, unless you want to become a slimy toad.

Magic Emporium: Where else can you find a shop that will sell you off-the-scroll magic for such a cheap price? Connoisseurs may browse for particular, premium priced items.

The Enchantress: A unique enterprise. Visit the Enchantress to be transported to new worlds, or to seek your fortune in this. Does she foretell fortunes? Or create them?

The High Temple: The center of religious observance. You will be given every opportunity to make a donation to the Roof fund. The people who are seen as favored, may even see earthly reward for their prayers.

The Apothecary:The owner is a tetchy devil, but a renowned collector and potion brewer. He will buy just about anything you have for good gold, which you can then spend on his marvelous brews. But stay away from Grimwood's Old throat burn. It's a killer.

The Royal Castle: A magnificent residence and house of government. Come here as a tourist and leave marveling at the architecture. Come as a supplicant and leave with your enemies charged. Come with talent and you may leave as an officer of the King. Come as a prisoner and you will probably not leave at all.

Designer's notes:

Designing the City Adventures model was on one side connected with a lot of fun, yet also a plethora of sketching and coming up with the core idea of the set. My rough plan was to make some sort of city and with all my ambitions and sketches too large and heavily exceeding the maximum piece count of 4000 pieces, I decided on a design standing on a 48x32 base, which is 1.5 baseplates. When I build own creations in private, I built all of my buildings regardless of size on baseplates in order for everything to be compatible.

The hardest part about having the model on a confined space of 48 by 32 studs was fitting all the locations I wanted to fit inside the model. So I came up with making small shops and the Royal castle as the center of the city. The castle was the first part I designed so I could be equipped with the knowledge of how much space I had available for the remaining buildings. With that, I built the perimeters of all buldings and knew where everything would ultimately be.

For the color scheme, I intentionally kept it as colorful as possible due to the variety of colors making the build look a lot more appealing compared to having just tan and/or white buildings. Even though I still didn't add too many flashy colors, I still managed to make the design look cohesive and everything align the way it should.

Every single building is modular, including the castle, adding another level of details to the set and also to the storytelling. I like it when you can the floors off and look into the interior details and discover nice details like all the magic artifacts in the magic emporium. Or the haystacks in the stables. Have fun finding all the details:)

The cobblestone was added as a nice detail to make the city more alive and let's say living. I don't like a perfectly clean look, especially in cities. They live from imperfections beacuse imperfections make a city interesting and tell stories. One example of that is found within the broken bottles near the 6 Fates inn tavern. The cobblestone itself was designed using 2x2 Light gray round tiles as the rough outline and Light gray, Dark gray and Olive green round studs and tiles to fill in the tiny gaps. The olive green was added, because it would be a nice pop of color on the otherwise grey floor. And I personally like olive green :)

Storytelling was another interesting part of designing the set because giving each of the characters a backstory was so fun and I personally developed a lore for my personal campaign of those characters. I went for a variety of male and female characters and a variety of visuals and appearances. I also decided to add fun traits to the characters, like the King for example always needing his hair perfectly brushed to look presentable. Or the Sherrif being short grown and being on the watch at all times, especially around the area of the 6 Fates inn.

Two other characters I want to highlight are the younger watch man who has lost a leg during a city riot, yet he became an excellent nimble fighter and the female archer, who is a master of disguise and always wanders around the City, handing criminals over to either the watch or the sheriff.

All in all, it took me a total of 1.5 months and roughly 100 hours of work designing this set. I had 3 unused sketches before I went with the final and ultimate one. It was not always easy because I never designed a model this large and was sometimes overwhelmed by creating something this large and mighty. This design kicked off my passion for designing big and ambitious projects and I will design a lot more sets coming in the future.