I just started working my way through Max Gladstones pretty excellent craft series, and what really pulls me in is how the cities are living, breathing beings that play a part in the plot. This post might have spoilers.
In three parts dead, as well as in two serpents rise, the city is in peril, but the never just feels like a passive part of the story. Different parts of the city fulfill different needs of the books events, while still being largely stereotypical and letting the reader populate the places by themselves. There is the parts of the city that are for pleasures, there are the parts for manufacturing, the slums, the middle class areas and the upper class areas. There are religious areas and office areas. There are run down piers with warehouses and there are ways to transport yourself between all these places.
A highly efficient system of driver-less carriages drawn by horses seem to be a staple in the cities, as well as other means of transportation like airbuses or more expensive one-person fliers. Having the entire city being accessible lets the story flow through the different parts without being overly forced. Compared to something like the Mistborn books, travel in the cities is available for most people, and not just the protagonists. (I might remember Mistborn wrong, do correct me if I so.)
How about moving between different parts of a city in a ttrpg then? Is it necessary? Is it fun? For adventures in a city, the city needs to be an interesting backdrop. A city without a meta plot of some sort might as well be something else. Part of the point of adventures in a city is the people, otherwise why adventure there at all? A dungeon or a wood or some other place can just as easily or easier be filled with encounters.
Playing out a ride on a tram in Waterdeep or some other fantasy city might not be what most people consider fun though, they can do that any day on the way to work. It can be used as a background fee to drain resources from the players, but if the transport is cheap enough, that can feel a bit like a spreadsheet exercise, specially if the players have enough funds to not really care. Or they’ll just start moving everywhere on their own.
Public transit feels more natural when used in a wild west, a more contemporary or futuristic settings, with different trains, taxis, what have you. Those transports, or similar versions that fits the technological and magical level of the setting can easily be inserted.
A reasonable approach could be to introduce the public transport at some point when the players arrive in the city, making sure that they know that some versions of it is available. This can then be used in a chase, when they need to be at a certain place at a certain time, or in other ways that adds stakes to the story.
I look forward to my players trying to convince a canal boat driver to go faster or else the dark lord will succeed with his plan, no really, can’t you cross this river any faster I’ll pay you double!
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