http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/city_of_adventures.jpg
[[caption-width:350: CCC City, The City of Opportunities]]
-->'''Narrator''': ''The City... of Townsville!''\\
- ''The PowerpuffGirls''

No need for AdventureTowns; all the weirdness necessary for the protagonists to do their thing just happens to be right in their own city. Unlike [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]] and [[BigApplesauce New York]], this city is usually [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed fictional]].

The place to go to get easy HeroInsurance, judging by the massive collateral damage they can sustain.

Taken to the logical extreme, you get {{Xanadu}}.

There may be a MagneticPlotDevice hidden somewhere around here. Try to find one.

See also GeographicFlexibility and NewNeighboursAsThePlotDemands. Contrast NothingExcitingEverHappensHere.

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* It is extremely common in solo SuperHero series for the hero to have a specific city that they are known to patrol as "their territory":
** Gotham ({{Batman}})
** Metropolis ({{Superman}})
** Central City/Keystone City (TheFlash)
** Opal City ({{Starman}})
** Fawcett City/Fairfield (CaptainMarvel)
** Ivy Town (The Atom)
** Blüdhaven (Nightwing)
** Coast City (Hal Jordan's GreenLantern)
** Gateway City (Mr. Terrific / Spectre/ WonderWoman for a time)
** Boston (WonderWoman)
*** ...or Washington DC at other times.
** Hub City (The Question)
** Midway City/St. Roch (Hawkman/Doom Patrol)
** Sub Diego (Aquaman/Aquagirl)
** Star City/Seattle (GreenArrow)
** Viceroy, South Carolina (Resurrection Man)
** The Comicbook/TeenTitans' Titans Tower is generally accepted to be in the San Francisco Bay.
***Earlier on, it was on an island in New York's East River
** Middleton/Denver (Martian Manhunter)
** Park City/Seattle (Black Canary)
** El Paso (Jaime Reyes's BlueBeetle)
** Chicago (Ted Kord's Blue Beetle)
** New York City (IronMan/Comicbook/FantasticFour/Comicbook/TheAvengers/Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}... specifically the fictional Empire State University)
*** Salem Center, Westchester County, just north of NYC (Home of the Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'s Mansion)
*** Hell's Kitchen, NYC ({{Daredevil}})
** Dakota (the city, not the state) - StaticShock, Icon, Hardware, Blood Syndicate and other Dakotaverse characters.
** Citrusville, FL (Man-Thing)
** Parodied in ''TheTick'' with "The City".
** Used straight in ''{{Runaways}}'' with Los Angeles, with a justification: after the kids [[spoiler: take out the Pride, there's a power vacuum and supervillains try to make their niche.]] But also deconstructed somewhat with regards to New York City, the CityOfAdventure for the rest of the Marvel Universe - superpowers are seen as something that mostly happens far away from our heroes; then they visit NYC and are awed at seeing superheroes in the streets, and one character comments "here, we're not so special".
** This troper will never understand why Washington, D.C., was not this for {{Captain America}}.
* JudgeDredd's Mega-City-One from the British comic ''2000AD''.
* Neopolis, the Science Hero ghetto that the police of ''TopTen'' patrol.
* Kurt Busiek's AstroCity; much of the plot hinges on subverting and lampshadehanging this very trope.
*The City in ''{{Transmetropolitan}}'', home to Spider Jerusalem and every vice there is.
* Bugtown, in Matt Howarth's various comics, including ThoseAnnoyingPostBrothers and SavageHenry. Notable for being infinite in size, and having such screwed-up laws of physics that entropy works in reverse--dead people inevitably come back to life after some time.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* The TV series ''TeenTitans'' has the Titans Tower in "Jump City," and "Steel City" as the location of Titans East.
* The City... of Townsville in ''PowerpuffGirls''.
** and the Town... of Citysville.
** It's an actual city, but it's in Australia, [[SoYeah so...]]
* Saint Canard in ''DarkwingDuck''.
* In ''DuckTales'' and the comics it's based on, many of Uncle Scrooge's adventures take place "[[EarWorm here in...Duckburg!]]"
* Heatherfield in ''[[{{WITCH}} W.I.T.C.H.]]'' (it's where all the portals are, and it's where all the Guardians live.)
* Not exactly a city, but the Middle of Nowhere in ''CourageTheCowardlyDog'' seems to be some sort of nexus for "creepy stuff", to the point where it takes obvious danger to get anyone but Courage to take notice. Talking animals, aliens, deities, and supernatural entities (not to mention Courage's own sapience and abilities) are all treated as normal until the big pointy teeth come out.
** What are you talking about? Of course it's a city. Nowhere, Kansas.
* Springfield in ''TheSimpsons'' is a deliberate parody of this (at one point Our Favorite Family suddenly notices that they live across the street from an expensive mansion that wasn't there before and was created for that episode so that George Bush could move in). See SeparateSimpsonsGeographyThing.
** Capital City is one of these in some early episodes. In "Dancin' Homer", it's even given its own theme song (sung by Tony Bennett, no less) which overtly invokes the trope in its lyrics.
*''DannyPhantom'' has Amity Park, a town with ghost/occult-related names for obvious reasons.
* Megakat City, of ''SwatKats''.
* Porkbelly in ''JohnnyTest''.
* Cape Suzette in ''TaleSpin''.
* Single Town in ''MonsterBusterClub''.
* ''TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'' is set entirely in Orchid Bay, an FictionalCounterpart of SanFrancisco. This is a JustifiedTrope because Juniper is [[BlessedWithSuck magically prevented from leaving the city]] as long as she's the Te Xuan Ze.
* {{EarthwormJim}}'s town of Terlawk. Lampshaded in ''Upholstered Peril''.
* The [[CityWithNoName unnamed]] yet [[GeographicFlexibility strangely familiar]] hometown of the [[ChipAndDaleRescueRangers Rescue Rangers]].
* The "city-planet" of Acmetropolis in ''LoonaticsUnleashed'.
* Detroit in ''TransformersAnimated'', which seems to have had a reasonable population of supervillains even before the Transformers came along. Some of it can be explained by being the centerpoint of the robotic revolution created by Isaac Sumdac.
* [[{{Disney/Aladdin}} Agrabah]] was a fairly normal Middle Eastern city (with a vizier problem) in the movie. In the series it became a full-on CityOfAdventure, with {{EvilSorcerer}}s, [[SadlyMythtaken Sekhmet ripoffs]], and [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons giant flying snakes]] attacking seemingly every week.
* [[RollBots Flip City]] provides adventure for all its citizens simply because the roads are all autobahns designed by an extreme sport enthusiast for robots that turn into high-speed spheres.
* Do not forget ''SouthPark''! It can all be summed up in one quote...
-->'''Reporter:''' And so just weeks after the devastating attack of mutant genetic creatures, zombies and thanksgiving turkey's, the town of South Park has managed to rebuilt itself once again ''(see's giant robotic Barbara Streisand destroying the town)'' oh, God damn it, not again!

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* The town of Smallville in ''{{Smallville}}''. The [[MagneticPlotDevice explanation]] for the large number of unusual occurrences is the presence of a significant amount of [[GreenRocks Kryptonite]] in the area, which in this case causes humans in its presence to gain powers varying from individual to individual.
* Eerie, Indiana, ''Eerie, Indiana'', [[TheMusicMan Eerie]], [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Indiana]]...
* ''[[{{Monk}} Monk's]]'' San Francisco
** And ''[[{{Charmed}} Charmed's]]'' San Francisco
* ''[[{{CSI}} CSI's]]'' Las Vegas
**And obviously ''[[{{CSI}} CSI:NY's]]'' New York and ''[[{{CSI}} CSI: Miami's]]'' Miami.
** Played with in one episode when a Vegas-based rapper claimed it was "the new New York". A certain New York rapper took offense, and a "beef" started.
* ''{{Forever Knight}}'''s Toronto, with a serial killer for every day of the year.
* Cabot Cove in ''MurderSheWrote.'' They do get Jessica out and about regularly, but there are still an ''awful lot'' of murders in her small hometown -- it's a wonder there's anyone left. After Sheriff Tupper left, his replacement in Cabot Cove (an ex-New Yorker) [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this.
* Aliens in ''DoctorWho'' like to invade from the Home Counties.
** In ''{{Torchwood}}'', Cardiff is located on an interdimensional rift, which results in plenty of weird things ending up there.
** The inhabitants of London eventually turn GenreSavvy about this, and start evacuating the city at Christmas time, as each Doctor Who Christmas Special bring AlienInvaders to it.
* The town of Sunnydale in ''{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'', being set upon a "Hellmouth," is very much a town of this sort. The Hellmouth is described as a portal which leaks mystical energy, both drawing demons towards it and affecting things in supernatural ways: e.g., a girl becomes invisible because she feels invisible, and later we see various kinds of MadScience that might not work elsewhere. Thus, there is [[MagneticPlotDevice an automatic answer]] for so many supernatural things all occurring in this one town. The town [[GeographicFlexibility transformed at need]] so that in one episode it was small enough to be taken over by a dozen bikers and in others it became a major University town with international sea and air hubs.
** Xander jokes about this at the end of season 3, asking "Why do people still move here?"
* In ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'', GenreBlind terrorists always make a point of attacking LosAngeles, despite the fact that it is the one city in America that has the indestructible Jack Bauer in it.
** In the seventh season, they finally wise up and attack Washington, D.C. But their timing really sucks...
* ''PowerRangers'' usually follows this trope, with the occasional side trip. To date: Angel Grove, Terra Venture, Mariner Bay, Silver Hills, Turtle Cove, Blue Bay Harbor, Reefside, Newtech City, Briarwood, Ocean Bluff, and Corinth. Subverted in ''PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'', where the characters are based in San Angeles, but travel [[CaliforniaDoubling all over the world]]. Justified in ''PowerRangersLostGalaxy'', as Terra Venture is actually a traveling space colony and there's nothing outside the city but the empty expanse of space. (But Mike could still breathe out there, so...)
** Also Justified in PowerRangersRPM, where Corinth is ''the only city left on earth'', the rest of the planet being a bombed-out wasteland.
** ''SuperSentai'' and ''KamenRider'' work on the same principle, but the events of both series apparently happen in the ''exact same'' (unnamed) ''city'' every single year. An avid fan will quickly be able to spot reused locations, and come to pity the people who live there.
* The city of Cascade in ''TheSentinel''. Ebola virus threats? Uranium smuggling? Yakuza gang wars? Paramilitary terrorists taking whole buildings hostage? Just another day in Cascade.
* "Seacouver" in ''{{Highlander the Series}}''.
* Lampshaded in the ''{{In The Heat of the Night}}'' TV series, set in the fictional Missisippi town of Sparta. "I should join the Marines...I'd see less dead bodies."
* In ''BigWolfOnCampus'', Pleasantville is beset by an astonishing number of bizarre supernatural occurrences; a few of them are connected to the heroes, but mainly it's just a place where weird things happen.
* ''BabylonFive'' justifies this trope by having the station be a crossroads for many different space-farign races.
* Averted in ''LieToMe'', as WashingtonDC is just too small.
* [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Wherever]] ''PushingDaisies'' takes place seems to attract really, ''really'' odd murders.
** The town was called Coeur d'Coeurs, in keeping with the quirky naming conventions of the businesses within it.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* St Mary Mead, where AgathaChristie's [[LittleOldLadyInvestigates little old lady/amateur detective]] Miss Marple lives. Given her advanced age, the events described in the books starring her must take place over the space of a few years, so it seems that mysterious murders occur in her village with alarming frequency.
* Trantor in several IsaacAsimov stories, which is in fact a city covering the entire surface of a planet. (Timothy Zahn would later adapt this idea to the planet Coruscant in the ''StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse; it would later appear in the prequels.) A 47th century New York City is used to the same effect in his novel "The Caves of Steel". Such a world city is known as an Ecumenopolis.
* Popular in fantasy settings. Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar from his {{Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser}} stories is probably the archetype, but its parody Ankh-Morpork from the {{Discworld}} novels is [[WeirdAlEffect now much better known]].
* Hogboro in several stories by DanielPinkwater. In ''Alan Mendelssohn, Boy from Mars'', Alan and Leonard remark on their luck finding that one of the dozen places in the world listed as suitable for interplanar contact is right in Hogboro (though tracking down the exact spot proves troublesome). The next closest spot on the list is in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, Canada.
* Chicago in DresdenFiles
* The fictional English town of Blackbury in TerryPratchett's ''JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy''. It's also the location of The Store in ''Truckers''.
* "The Sprawl" in William Gibson's {{cyberpunk}} fiction. Officially known as Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis (BAMA), it is essentially one huge megapolis covering most of the east coast of the USA.
* Thousands of British juvenile adventure novels were published by the pulp presses, and an overwhelming number - somewhere in the hundreds - were set in Calgary. This troper suspects the writers wanted to show exciting things like cowboys and Indians, ranches, mountain climbers, and hunting (popular subjects of American juvenile literature) but in an Empire setting, and Calgary fit the bill. Many of these books were also translated into German; this troper knew an elderly man who immigrated to Canada specifically because as a child he'd immured himself in these novels and thought Calgary was Tombstone with Union Jacks.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Paragon City, Rhode Island in ''CityOfHeroes''.
** And the Rogue Isles in ''[[CityOfHeroes City Of Villains]]''.
* Sigil of ''Planescape'' fame, being the foremost crossroads of the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' multiverse.
* MegaTen's ''Persona'' series has Mikage-cho in ''{{Persona}}'', Sumaru City in ''{{Persona 2}}'', Port Island in ''{{Persona 3}}'' and Inaba in ''{{Persona 4}}''.
**MegaTen in general seems to love this trope, mainly due to it's UrbanFantasy stylings. In fact, many of the games take place in [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]] (or [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt what's left of it anyway]]). Games that don't take place in a city are the exception rather than the norm.
* DungeonsAndDragons Online in Stormreach.
* The ''GrandTheftAuto'' series consistently gives us three of this kind of city since the first game: Liberty City (an {{expy}} of New York City), San Andreas (an expy of California and Nevada), and Vice City (an expy of Miami). ''[=GTA=] 2'' also gives us "Anywhere, USA", though it's [[SequelDisplacement almost forgotten]]''.
* Befitting that its borrows a lot from GrandTheftAuto (as listed directly above), {{Crackdown}} takes place in 'Pacific City', and seems to be either inspired by, or borrows the idea of a multi-island approach, for geography.
* ''[[UrbanChaos Urban Chaos]]'' takes place in Union City.
* SouthTown is a focal point for events in the FatalFury and ArtOfFighting series, and also gets a mention in the KingOfFighters series. Appears to be quite a multicultural place, possibily justifying how so many people there master several martial arts from around the world.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

* The beach town in ''MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'', although it's ''because'' the protagonists live there that things keep happening.
* The importance of Karakura Town, a fictional district of Tokyo, to various spiritual entities in the anime ''{{Bleach}}'' is explained by an area of "high spiritual density" (a phenomenon which occurs more or less randomly across the world) coinciding with an area of high population. A notably high population of former Shinigami and other spiritually-attuned beings doesn't hurt, either. Plus, {{Tokyo Is The Center Of The Universe}}.
** Would the Soul Society count?
* ''[[MadanSenkiRyukendo Ryukendo]]'''s city of Akebono is a hot spot for the Power Spot located conveniently beneath the city.
* All the weirdness in ''ElfenLied'' takes place in Kamakura, a small city 50 km away from Tokyo.
* Uminari City in the first two seasons of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. This trait was passed to Mid-Childa when the heroes officially joined TheFederation, but then again, it ''is'' the [[CapitalCity Capital World]] of TheMultiverse.
* The City from {{Blame}} is the epitome of this trope.
* The first half or so of MahouSenseiNegima takes place in Mahora, which is nominally a school, [[ElaborateUniversityHigh but looks to be roughly one half the size of Manhattan]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* Sigil of ''Planescape'' fame, being the foremost crossroads of the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' multiverse.
* Any tabletopg [=RPG=] supplement devoted to filling out the details of a single city in a setting counts, though this is relatively rare. For example, ''Sharn, City of Towers''
** Someone hasn't played their WorldOfDarkness. Half the Vampire supplements are "Boston by Night," or "Mexico City by Night."
** The island city of Al-Amarja is the setting for all the weirdness in ''Over The Edge''.
** TSR did an entire box set on the city of Huzuz for the [[DungeonsAndDragons Al-Qadim]] setting.
* Ravinca, of the Magic: The Gathering multi-verse. Ravnica covers that entire world.
* In Monte Cook's ''Ptolus'', a setting revolving entirely around the titular city (and, incidentally, one of the fattest roleplaying books ever published, at 672 pages).
** The city is built around SealedEvilInACan and on top of multiple layers of SealedEvilInACan, and (mostly unrelatedly) is home to several men who are, or can at least get away with claiming to be, emperor. The evil is leaking, the cans have become something of a tourist industry, and the political tensions are on the rise. Yes, there are some explanations.
* {{Warhammer}} has Mordheim, a warband setting that takes place in the titular City of Adventure and puts [[BlackAndGreyMorality its]] [[CrapsackWorld own]] [[GallowsHumor unique]] [[LowFantasy perspective]] on it. The city was levelled by a meteorite of Warpstone, a substance that has tremendous value for magical experiments and is a vital ingredient in the Philosopher's Stone- that is, an alchemical concoction that can change "base" metals into pure gold. So, naturally, the city is swarming with violent, opportunistic mercenaries and treasure hunters. Of course, Warpstone is also {{Toxic Phlebotinum}}, or perhaps {{Psycho Serum}} would be a better descriptor, as it causes physical, mental and spiritual corruption. So, naturally, the city is also teeming with all manner of horrific monsters...
* In the ''{{Champions}}'' Universe, Millennium City gets far more superhuman action than you would expect for Detroit Redux. Partly justified due to its The City Of The Future meme.
* Similar to the {{Warhammer}} example above, Warhammer40000 has Necromunda, its equivalent of Mordheim. Taking place on the [[SingleBiomePlanet Hive World]] of the same name, it's justified in that, like all Hive Worlds, the actual planet has been polluted so terribly by eons of industrial production that humans now live in tremendous ant-hive like buildings that serve as the new equivalent of ''continents''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* ''GunnerkriggCourt'''s eponymous boarding school.
* ''TemplarArizona'' the comic is about this kind of city.
* ''LastRes0rt'' has its reality show in its very own space station built expressly for this purpose; it houses the show, the arena, and everything else you need for a world-class tourist resort to house and host all the spectators coming to watch.
** And in fact, there IS a named city built into the space station, known as the City of... [[http://www.lastres0rt.com/2009/09/work-play-and-die-where-you-live/ Wonder.]] Since we're talking about a city manufactured into the space station, it's not that surprising of a name.
* ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' has the "pleasantly innocuous hamlet" of Generictown, which has become a CityOfAdventure purely because Bob the WeirdnessMagnet lives there. Presumably, it would quiet down again if he moved, but he shows no signs of doing so.
* Whatever unnamed city the ''SluggyFreelance'' crew lives in seems to have an unusually large number of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], [[TalkingAnimal talking animals]], [[MadScientist mad scientists]], [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]], [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghosts]], [[CIAEvilFBIGood FBI agents]], and [[DemonicPossession demonic possessions]], not to mention some really ''weird'' stuff.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Animation ]]

* Picture on top: [[http://vinnieveritas.com/flash/ccc/ CCC City]], the 'City of Opportunities' in the popular flash video series, in which literally every day in and around the city (so large it renders maps pointless) involves countless adventures of many different levels.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Ylelon, the city-state setting of [[http://thelonelywinds.com/library.php The Lonely Winds]]. No set explanation has yet been given, but the place comes off as a cross between Hong Kong and a [[BuffytheVampireSlayer Hellmouth.]]
* TheTown

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* According to Dave Barry, [[OnlyInFlorida South Florida]] is a RealLife example.
** It is. It really is. I live here.
* Baghdad. Enough said.

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