Fogsford: Neighborhoods (Patreon)

I love making imaginary cities.

It's something that comes up surprisingly often in the ttRPG career. I worked on the original Guide to Absalom for Paizo, the EverQuest Freeport book for the EverGuest ttRPG, and the awesome and huge Pathfinder edition of Freeport: City of Adventure for Green Ronin, along with numerous smaller town and village entries in various products.

I also have numerous cities, town, and villages I have begun work on in various genres, including the huge fantasy city of Solstice, frosty Icehold, the Free City of Delve, the City of Hoard, PF2 campaign-start-point Tidegate, the weird modern urban areas including The Armitage and the Underground States of America, Badlands City for my Really Wild West setting, and a tiny bit on some scifi Megaruins.

But even all the things I have published on my blog, and my old Livejornal, and various social media, only scratch the surface of municipalities I've begun work on. One of the unseen cities I have done the most work on is Fogsford, a fictional US city that I have both used in campaigns of mine (sometimes under other names, such as Angel's Harbor and Anyport), and considered turning into a stand-alone product more than once. It's designed to cover games in the noir, pulp, urban fantasy, and street-level heroes genres.

This is one of the sections I have worked on the longest--neighborhoods--though it's still far from finished.

FOGSFORD

Blackthorn - One of the oldest (and most expensive) sections of the city, with large manors and legacy businesses that have stayed popular and well-maintained. While Blackthorn itself is not a gated community, in several cases small collections of manors (generally 3 to 5) have crenellated stone walls with gatehouses that make their grounds genuinely difficult to sneak in to.

The Bricks - Build to contain and support a booming middle class in the 20th century. Many brick homes, some in better shape than others, but also has the city's official zoo, performance amphitheater, the most parks, and largest library. Was affordable to buy a house there until the past 20 years.

Bounds - Officially the Fogford Lighthouse City Park, and home to the still-operating lighthouse for which the city took its name, the Bounds is a 421-acre forested public park. The name comes from the fact that while it is public property and free to access, at one time it was declared "out of bounds" for various minorities. Has a single light rail stop, the only light rail stop outside of Sommerfield.

Carn Rock - An insular fishing community that is technically within Fogford city limits, but has its own police force, sanitation department, town council, and so on.

Calico Heights - Converted from a run-down factory and warehouse district, Calico Heights is a quirky and young-family oriented, vibrant community with the fastest growing population, but also a growing problem with drugs and scams.

Greenback District: Adjacent to the Spires, the Greenback District has numerous financial and service companies and corporations, but no buildings above 10 stories. Many are large neoclassical buildings that were original banks or trading firms, with a small number retaining that function for the last 100 years. A number of unions and fraternal organizations have chapterhouses here, including the Loyal and Dedicated Order of the Free Folks.

Hatchville - Older neighborhood that ha gone through several phases of decline, renaissance, gentrification, and back to decline. Currently has a street-by-street mix, with ongoing local political fights trying to "save" it... and all disagreeing about how.

Knightsbridge - Home of Knightsbridge university, catering to the students and professors who want o live nearby.

Newgate - Developed in the 1980s-90s as high-end, expensive homes. Home of Newgate Mall, which has just 1 anchor store left.

Portstone - The commercial area of the city's small harbor, which is mostly warehouses and transportation-linked businesses. Within Portstone is the Terminal, a fenced-off multi-use port terminal for handling and storing commericial goods.

The Quays - A small section of the harbor reserved for noncommerical boots, but that also allows fishing and expedition boats for family-owned 1-ship operations.

Redmont - An older neighborhood of 75-150-year old homes, small parks, and tiny local businesses. Most Fogsford residents say "Nothing ever happens in Redmont," and equal numbers mean it as a complete or an insult.

Ridgeside - The "poor" side of the main stretch of the river, with most of the neighborhood unable to access the riverfront thanks to a natural ridge. What little riverfront property there is generally contains businesses catering to Silk Row, such as boat piers and repair, restaurants walled off so as to have only river access, and private gardens.

Satan's Holler - The lowest part of the city, with some sections below sea level. Basements are dampy, streets often flood, and "temporay" retaining walls that have been in place since th 1960s keep both water and residents from easily reaching the rest of the city. Crime-ridden and dangerous.

Shacks (Downshacks/Upshacks) - With neighborhood rules forbidding multifamily housing, multistory buildings, multiuse commercial buildings, roads more than 2-lanes wide, and all forms of mobile sales venues (forbidding everything from ice cream trucks and hot dog vendors to street vendors and paperboys), it has evolved in a twisted warren of tiny buildings and homes. The section of the neighborhood that has remained relatively successful and safe is sometimes called Upshacks, with the rest of the area dismissed as 'Downshacks' or "Slum Shacks."

Silk Row - The "rich" side of the main stretch of the river, with the best houses having beautiful private riverside property.

Sommerfield - A mixed-use neighborhood unique in Fogford for outlawing chain businesses, having 1/4 of all streets be single lane "engineless" streets (allowing only pedestrians, bicycles, skates, and so on), and for its small but popular light rail that connects several secluded parking lots to the most popular residential and commercial centers of the district. Has a steady but not particularly large tourist influx.

Spires - Also sometimes called "New Oldtown," this is the center of the original Forgsford township center. Has the only genuinely tall modern skyscrapers in the city, but they are scattered among older, shorter stone and brick buildings.

Storm Tunnels - Numerous older sections of Fogford are connected by largely-abandoned tunnels that were designed to allow shipping magnates and their staff to move from offices to warehouses to the Pier during stormy or thickly foggy weather without being seen. Some also connect to the city's extensive series of storm drains, though all such doors are supposed to be well-secured.

Vendémiaire - Originally its own town founded by French-speaking settlers, has a few colorful streets popular with tourists, then quickly devolves to decaying mansions surrounded by smaller houses and old, local shops. Sometimes dismissively called "Little Bordeaux," "Frenchtown," or even "Frogtown."

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