I was prompted to write this by an article about world building
(https://ofdiceanddragons.com/rpg-carnival-world-building/). One of the challenges of a
gamemaster (GM) is spending time building things that are useful in play. From that
point of view, after sketching out the world in thirty words, it seems more productive
to me to focus on the places the player characters are most likely to go.
Generally, for a sandbox style exploration game in the West Marches style, I want it to
be some sort of town or small city. A village is too small to do more than provide food
and fodder, and maybe shelter in a farmer’s barn. A large city can be an interesting
setting, but is probably a little too large for a new GM to start with, even though it
basically extrapolates on what’s outlined here.
Why?
In our elf games, we typically focus on going to wild or hostile places to bring
something back or handle a threat. We don’t really spend much time in town.
So why do I bother doing this? Here are my thoughts on this:
The town is usually the contrast with the dangerous places the player
characters always go. This isn’t to say that civilization is always safe,
but there’s an expectation that you can generally find places of safety
within the town, even if it isn’t safe as a whole.It’s often considered the place where characters can develop, because
they can secure their hauls and trade loot for training or equipment.
Concepts
The first thing you need to have to generate a town and setting base quickly is some
sort of concept. The concept should be divided into two parts, which I call “the
practical” and “the fantastic”.
The Practical
“The practical” is the part of the concept that we’re taking from the real world, like
“viking trade town”, “high desert caravanserai”, “site of miracle”, “fabric milling town”,
or “mountain mining town”. Generally, it should be two or three words that suggest the
geography the settlement is in, its original purpose–which is what drew people to live
there, and by extension, which people tended to choose to live there–and just how big it’s
likely to be. We’ll go into more detail about fleshing this out below.
A Note on Cultural Appropriation
We live in the real world, and so our concepts of how things work come from what
we’re exposed to in that world. Some of that includes cultures that are not our own.
When I’m working with material from cultures I’m not really familiar with, I try to
do two things:
Treat everything that I’m getting with the utmost respect, and
I try to blend things from three or four non-neighboring cultures.
The first part, treating source cultures with the utmost respect, means treating the
people as their values as real, three-dimensional ideas with complexity and understanding.
I try to research my source materials as much as I can, even if I don’t end up using 90%
of it in my writing. At the table, this usually means that if I have to improvise, I’ve got
the fallback to treat my improvisation in a real way, rather than as one dimensional
stereotypes.
The second part, blending multiple cultures together, is to try to come up with
something new, and to try to make the source cultures that are my inspiration less
obvious, so that if I extrapolate in a way that members of a particular culture might
find offensive, those members are less likely to see themselves in it.
As a bonus, studying how different cultures work is a good way to understand
people beyond one's immediate neighbors a bit better, and reflect on one’s own
unconscious default life choices.
The Fantastic
The second part of your concept–“the fantastic”--should be something that
differentiates this place from similar places in the real world. Examples of this might
be “near mountain griffin eyries”, “around a portal to another world”, “on top of a
cloud”, or “in the ear of a sleeping kaiju”. These might be a bit longer, because they
won’t evoke as many immediate images on their own, but should have some obvious
immediate implications.
So taken together, you may end up with “viking trade town near mountain griffin
eyries”, or fabric milling town in the ear of a sleeping kaiju”. Putting the two pieces
together should make some additional implications obvious, but also raise some
questions.
Step 1: Quick Outlining
The first thing you’ll want to think about is the geography of the town you’re
making. I’m just going to say “town” from here on out because I don’t want to
type out “town or city” over and over again. If you’re creating this out of the blue,
just pick something. If you’re inserting this town into an existing setting, you’ll need
to understand the area the town is going into. This might be as simple as “looking at
a map”, or require a deep lore dive, but you’ll have to figure that out before you can
continue.
Most towns in our real world were started near water for two reasons: 1. People and
animals need it to survive, and 2. Historically, it was easier to move things by water than
over land. Unless you have a good reason for why this isn’t the case, I suggest the town be
placed on a river, or on the coast of a lake or sea. A non-exhaustive list of good reasons
includes: the town is in the elemental plane of water, so it’s literally surrounded by it; it’s in
the ear of a kaiju (but then you’ll need to explain how they get drinking water); it’s on top
of a glacier (and they somehow have heat to melt the ice into drinkable water). You don’t
have to have all the reasons rigorously detailed, but you need to have the germ of an idea
for why you don’t have more details.
Once you’ve got water down, you’ll need to figure out the following things. Don’t write
an essay to start with, just a sentence or bullet list for each:
How do people, food, and goods get here or leave?
Our viking trade town probably exists on the coast of a sea, so transport and
shipping are probably primarily via ships. Our kaiju ear town requires more thought.
Does the kaiju move significantly in its sleep? Is its ear close to the ground? Maybe
there’s a ramp leading from the ground to the ear, or maybe they have to use airships
or fixed teleportation portals to get in and out of town. The right answer here just
depends on how fantastic you want to make this world, and what resources most
people tend to have access to.
There are some goods that are so lucrative to transport, that secondary routes will
be used if primary trade routes are blocked. These goods are usually “value dense”,
in that much of this good can be transported with little mass or volume taken up.What does this town import? What does it export?
Our fabric milling town obviously makes some type of material in large quantities,
but it’s probably going to need wood and wire to make looms, and maybe animals
(such as goats, horses, or dogs) to power the looms.What services does it excel at providing? What services does it generally provide
poorly or not at all?
This includes schooling, crafting equipment and clothing, security (policing and
military defense), and internal transport.
Step 2: Detailing
With the general concept sketched out, I now focus on detailing what’s going to go into it.
The Districts
A town is large enough that it will probably have class distinctions of some sort, and that
implies different districts of the town. A small town will only have one of each of these districts,
but as a town grows and diversifies its economy, multiple such districts may grow over time.
Every district should serve a purpose. Here are the most common ones.
The Commercial District
There should be a commercial district which focuses on transshipping (if it’s a trade town) or
manufacturing (if it’s an industrial or agricultural town). This means this district will be on an
edge of the town to make it easy for shipping to occur, there will be significant traffic compared
to the other districts, and the police or militia will prioritize law and order in this district, because
it’s the major income stream and reason for existence of the town.
There will be markets for export goods here, to demonstrate products to buyers. This may
literally be something like a farmer’s market or a market of manufactured goods, or may be more
like merchant offices, with the goods demonstrated, and upscale restaurants or taverns for wining
and dining prospective clients.
The vast majority of foreigners will be located here. Most will be transient, and so will be
staying at hostels or inns, all located in this district.
Some of the families of the workers who keep this district running will also live here, as will a
great deal of single people, who can live in tighter quarters without sharing with others.
These districts also tend to be the focus of organized crime, because they are the focus of
commerce, and hence money.
The Worker’s District
This is an area where housing is relatively cheap, but the industry is fairly light, and service
oriented: cobblers, tailors, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. Almost everything made
here will be consumed here.
These districts will frequently have markets, but the markets will represent the local industry,
and not the export industry. The locals know where to go for the exports, but have to live on
much more than that. In addition to the light industry, there will also be cottage industries such
as jams and pies, home-brewed food and drink, used clothing and tools, and catches from
fisherman or huntsmen. Art may be shared here, in the form of music and dance, paintings, or
other traditions, such as painted eggs, artistically arranged taxidermy, or tooth filers.
This all assumes the local economy is market oriented. In some cultures, the goods are
more freely shared. In some cultures, those in power will be expected to provide for their town
to some extent. The internal economy of the town locals might not be obvious to outsiders, and
won’t apply to them.
The District of the Elites
In all but the smallest towns, the community leaders will be living with the common people.
In a town of any size and wealth, the leaders will live set aside from the others, to better deal
with outsiders by impressing them with their wealth, amongst other reasons. The homes here
will be larger, and more reflective of foreign tastes as they are in turn influenced by the elites
of other places from their own trips. How subtle or tasteful this appears will vary from town
to town.
Who the elites are will also vary. The families of mayors and councilmen, leaders of the
police and military, and the most successful merchant families will all be located here. The
district will likely be broken down into neighborhoods focusing on particular groups, so the
merchants are all neighbors, but separate from the police and military leaders, who in turn are
separate from the political leaders.
Common people will also live here, acting in service to those elites. They will either live with
those they serve, or in nearby apartments.
The College District
Old towns will likely have some sort of school, college, or university established, usually
focusing on a particular area of learning. These districts will predominantly be populated by
students, although one or two neighborhoods may be dominated by the staff and faculty of that
institution.
The older the town, the more diverse the fields of study that are served, either by one school,
or several.
These areas tend to be a touch more rowdy than worker’s districts, due to the much higher
number of young single people, but generally not as rough as the commercial districts, where
people tend to be more physically active from day to day.
Temple District
In some towns, the major religions tend to be centered in a particular district, often adjacent
to the district of the elites.
The tone of these districts is strongly influenced by the sect(s) there, and how tolerantly they
interact with each other.
The Bankers District
In larger towns, the money handlers work in an area adjacent to but distinct from the
commerce district. As the town diversifies, other commercial districts tend to grow adjacent to
this district as well.
This district will have few families living here, but will have large numbers of bankers,
computers, scribes, and accountants to track the flow of money, and who owes whom how much.
Like the commercial district, this district will have a notable police presence to discourage
violent crime.
Societal Staples
Every society will have some things in common, which shape how they are perceived: food,
worship, symbols, and family structure.
Food
The hamburger was originally a kind of sandwich identified with the town of Hamburg, in
Germany. Prosecco in Italy is known for its sparkling white wine. Tangerines are associated
with the city of Tangier, in Morocco.
Every nation and ethnic group has its staples of foods, but many cities have their own
unique regional twists. Spend a minute thinking about what food everyone in town eats, from
the mayor or governor to the lowliest street urchin. If you have another minute, think about a
common beverage, as well.
These probably won’t have a mechanical impact on your game, but when your players start
traveling from city to city, you’ll know it’s made an impact when one of your players says “I
can’t remember the name of the city–the one where they ate the egg sandwiches”.
Worship
If you’re playing a fantasy system which includes a mechanical system for clerics or priests,
there will have to be some aspect of religion in your setting. Each town will have certain
dominant sects or pantheons, but will also have some unique twists. Spend some time thinking
about what religions your town has, and how they differ in its representation compared to the
typical representation–unless this town is the seat of that religion, in which case it probably also
represents that typical representation, but with more pomp and ceremony than elsewhere.
Spend a few minutes thinking about which sects have particularly strong footholds in this
town, and in which district(s) they are based. Then spend a minute on each thinking about how
they meet the needs and expectations of the locals.
Symbols
Hamelin, Germany, is associated with the Pied Piper. New Orleans is associated with the
fleur-de-lis. Tokyo’s symbol is the monshō, a six-rayed sun with a dot in the center.
Every town has a symbol, with a name or saying associated with it. Some have a phrase
or an entire story associated with it. The meaning of the symbol doesn’t have to be
immediately obvious, but it should show up over and over again.
Take a moment to think about the symbol(s) of your town, and where they might have
come from.
Family Structure
In our modern world, most Western countries have families based on the nuclear model,
where each couple has a home, sometimes with children, and occasionally with a parent
living with them.
This hasn’t always been the case. In the past, different cultures tended to have different
living arrangements, but they often had multiple generations of family living directly with
each other, or at least in the same compound.
Think about how this is typically done in your town. Consider class differences, and
how this is reflected by that. This is important, because the dominant family structure will
impact the dominant style of housing.
Secrets
This is stolen from my memories of a column that in Dragon magazine, “Dungeoncraft”,
by Ray Winninger. It’s this: every person, place, and thing in your world should have a
secret. Most of these secrets are probably merely embarrassing, but all should further enrich
the fabric of your world when they are revealed.
They should only be revealed after determined investigation by your players. That drive
to find out about something is a bid on their part which shows what they are interested in
learning from your world, which is why it shouldn’t just be completely revealed after just
one step.
You don’t need to know every secret at the start, but you should come up with a secret for
at least one to three things for each session of preparation you do. These again should start as
short one liners, like:
The town was founded after a prophecy was given to the High Priest of Thoth that
required it.The district is named after the homestead of the family who first lived in this area.
They were all killed in a feud with the family of the mayor, over one hundred and
twenty years ago.The temple houses a crypt to a son of Tyr’s with a local woman. It is rumored that
in the town’s hour of need, that son will rise again to smite any who threaten to
destroy the town.
Dangling References
In programming, a dangling reference is a reference to a logical object that no longer
exists in the computer’s memory. The way I use this in RPGs is slightly different: a
dangling reference is some part of the world that I haven’t completed yet, or maybe even
thought out. Most of the time, these come up while I’m brainstorming something else. For
instance, it’s fine to refer to a neighboring barony without having it fleshed out, or the king’s
champion, Sir Porthos, a man who was not born in this kingdom.
Make sure you make notes of your dangling references, and just write notes about them
as you think on things during downtime. Don’t flesh it all out at once, just thirty words or
so. If players state they want to investigate this, you’ll be warned that you have to flesh it
out further.
If there’s interest in this, I can flesh it out further in a later article.
Step 3: Game Considerations
Demographics and logistics are great, but there’s another thing that needs to be considered:
what is the need of the game that this town is serving? In some games, town is the one place
in the world where the players don’t have to worry about being attacked or having their things
stolen. This is often the case in hex crawls and mega-dungeon oriented campaigns, where the
dangers are “outside of civilization” that is featured in computer games like Diablo or
Torchlight. The other possibility is that the city, while less dangerous than the wilderness, is
still a place where they are not completely safe.
There is no “objectively wrong” choice to make here, but the choice you make changes the
way the game at your table will play.
Step 4: Putting It All Together
Once I’ve thought about these various aspects, I try to put it together into something easy
to deal with.
For each district, I’ll consider a certain look and theme that’s typical of the district. In the
interest of appealing to the five senses, I’ll try to have particular sounds, odors, and tastes as
well.
I’ll make a list of 3-6 services or organizations that help keep the place running smoothly.
I’ll have a simple description for each, no more than three sentences, initially.
I’ll come up with at least one “stereotypical” representative for each organization, and sum
up their appearance and behavior in one or two lines.
This gives me a “random encounter table” of notable NPCs for each neighborhood, and a
list of names to drop as contacts, if the player characters are looking for certain people to
provide services.
I’ll similarly make a list of 3-6 groups of different types of people frequenting the area, for
non-NPC encounters. In safer communities, this may include children and the elderly. In
rougher areas, this may include groups looking for a fight, or at least money. Ironically, in
these latter areas, law enforcement patrols are more concentrated and forceful.
In each district, I try to include the presence of at least two businesses and two religious
institutions, and two other establishments representative of the district, as landmarks of
places to go. Not all of them might be obvious to passers by, but all should be places PCs
might want to go visit, even if the reason why isn’t immediately obvious to them.
Everything I’m stating here I’m also incorporating in a Google Sheets spreadsheet to
generate all of this with the click of a button, and to allow GMs to modify the content of
the spreadsheet to suit their world. You can see it evolve here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1udmXXW237TakRaEZtDJ6VWK8zIyIBpC0ICURIn3iEvk/edit?usp=sharing
Google Doc version of this document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CeGGFtQO0whpIqnsCcpuDm78XjY-90COpWXpMWQAZTc/edit?usp=sharing
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