Developing a New Campaign Setting: Tagentium Map Finished

Finalized my map of the starting town for my DCC campaign. It was interesting how I began finding a story to match the map.

The west side of the map is the older part of the city and the one where the patrician families are most likely to be found. The buildings are made of brick and concrete, the streets are all paved, and there are many pleasant garden areas to be found. One can see the palace of the administrator of the island, the Comes Fraterculus. Nearby is the old market, still in use where one can find more luxury goods.



The eastern half of the town is the newer part though it is also not in as good shape. A century ago the town was sacked by barbarians and the walls were breached with much of the town destroyed. It was rebuilt, though many of the eastern half of Tagentium consists of wooden buildings and dirt streets. There's a lot less planning to be found on this side of the river as well, with nice back alleys for cutpurses. We've also got the main market and church to the monotheistic deity (in development).

The southeast part of the city is the most rundown, used primarily by fishermen and slaves for the fields to the east of the city. Instead of the solid stone wall protecting the rest of the city it is protected by a "temporary" wooden palisade. There are plans to fully extend the wall but nothing has come of that save a gatehouse and towers which look absurd rising above the rotting palisade.

The island at the mouth of the river has a temple to the former patron of the city, the god Neptune. Though the old religion is no longer the state religion it is still highly revered with a significant minority clinging to the old gods.

I eyeballed the population to be 3,600. This is on the low side for the number of buildings but I wanted to stay in keeping with the urban depopulation that the western half of the Roman Empire experienced in real history. It makes for some ancient abandoned houses that can be used for a quick adventure. I tried to have a compromise between the more planned cities that the Romans built with the more chaotic cities of the Middle Ages. One problem with a lot of gaming maps of pseudo-medieval cities is the amount of open space they have - buildings tended to be crammed as tight together as possible. Streets weren't really planned but were more just a default use of the space between buildings, some main thoroughfares excluded - and often that required enforcement to stop buildings from creeping onto main streets. Even the slums to the southeast are probably a bit more open than a medieval town or city would be.

I'm not certain how much adventure I'll be having in this town - my plan has been to move to the larger Kraken Isle with its Venice-like city but this seemed a useful practice exercise for practicing my urban map-making abilities.