ruined cities

[its_all_ogre]

in my campaign there are several ruined cities that have been destroyed and laid to waste by powerful magic-using attackers, the cities were never looted and so loads of stuff is lying around. over the last 300 years they have been looted a number of times by groups of bold adventurers, and now my group of pcs have decided they want to go there.
so my question to you all is this: how should i go about doing this?
the ruin will be partially inhabited by vermin, monsters and maybe a small barbarian tribe who have moved in. the surrounding area is full of dangerous beasts (dire animals, dinosaurs and some large vermin)

should i map out an entire city and fill it with treasure, guardian beasties etc, or just map out certain parts and leave the rest as shattered shells, already looted etc?
i am likely to do the latter to be honest, but i have not done this since i played 2nd ed in dark sun, so hints tips etc would be much appreciated.

[BardicDuelist]

Map out what you would like the players to explore, the rest is just destroyed. Mapping out an entire city is very tedious. If you play here for a while, the city will take shape anyway as you map out each adventure or dungeon. Stock it with the monsters you want, and any treasure you would really like them to have, but sometimes random tables help a lot when it comes to treasure. Just re-roll when it is somthing you don't like.

[SoulCatcher78]

Take a pregen city map (from just about any source), photocopy it, go nuts with either white out or a sharpie marker. Insta destruction with a city look. After that you can populate what you want and you still have a better visual representation to explain to the players (it's about x distance from what remains of the outer wall to the leaning tower of blah blah blah). Most of these maps will include some sewer information (a map if you're lucky) to build upon as well (barbarian tribe members getting kidnapped by something in the old city sewers maybe?).

[Matthew]

Yeah, this is often a problem, as it looks to entail a lot of work. What I have done in the past is to create several generic 'Mini Dungeons' and use them whenever the Players want to explore a certain part of the unmapped city. Also create several key areas that they are most likely to explore.

Possibly the easiest method, though, is to hand them a map of the city prior to the adventure and ask them which parts they want to explore. Then prepare those areas in advance.

[BardicDuelist]

Taking a pre-made map is a good idea. If you were to do that and then hand it to the players (as their characters planning their way into this city ofcourse), and have them say what they would like to explore, it would save you quite a bit of work, as well as giving it a real feel.

The added bonus of players feeling like they have control over the events in their character's lives is great too.

[the_tick_rules]

d&d magazines have a bunch.