D&D General Preparing Towns in a Sandbox

[Baldurs_Underdark]

I'm running a sandbox game. The PCs accepted a plot hook where they must travel a pretty big distance, and I don't know yet which route they will take.

I want to prepare some towns along the route (at first I'm thinking to prepare 3 towns). I'm trying to keep a balance between making these towns memorable, while not spending too much time writing them because it is not my intention that these towns are destinations in their own right. (Also, I'm not sure that the party will even visit the towns - they may choose to avoid towns altogether).

I am hoping that the players (and their PCs) will either love or hate the towns, but at least not experience indifference or boredom ("Meh"). The towns must not all look & feel alike, and must give the party some roleplay opportunities. However, the story itself has enough plot hooks already so I am not looking for side-quests or new plot hooks.

What basic elements would you put into a town to make them memorable, to give the party enough opportunities for memorable roleplay for a single session?

So far, I have a few towns that I can pick up and place along the route with:
1. A catchy and distinct name
2. A basic description of the looks of the town (palisade or wall, towers, made of wood/stone, rich or poor)
3. A few pubs & inns (of course), inhabited with a few NPCs with pre-written characters (with flaws)
4. A few stores, also with some pre-written NPCs (details of the NPC is just 1-2 lines of text)
5. A wandering weird guy
6. A landmark feature of the town
7. A temple, either to the wrong gods (the cleric will have an opinion), or the right gods (happy cleric)

Maybe I am aiming too high, but I'm hoping for answers that teach how to fish, rather than feed the hungry (i.e. generic answers over good examples).

 

[AnotherGuy]

8. Interesting history of
(a) The formation of the town,
(b) Some of the residents, and
(c) A particular building or landmark

9. Gossip and Hearsay
10. Opposing faiths/religions/sects
11. Guilds and organisations
12. Surrounding threats/allies
13. Political governance
14. Trade - what does the town make in abundance? what type of goods are delivered? is it a coastal town? if yes, how large is the harbour?

 

[Lyxen]

Have you tried this to seed ideas ?

Honestly, for a sandbox, don't do too much work in advance, you are not even sure how many times/towns they will visit...

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

Have you tried this to seed ideas ?

Honestly, for a sandbox, don't do too much work in advance, you are not even sure how many times/towns they will visit...

Yes, I know those tools. There are multiple tools to generate towns on the interwebs available. They make maps with rivers, buildings and walls, give names of the various wards, etc. But I think that's just a bit too generic (read: boring).

I have world maps. If for example I prepare towns A and B, and the party skips towns A, B and C, but does visit D, then I don't mind to pick up the entire description of A and plug it into town D, claiming to the players that I had prepared it like that all along. This is especially easy if the surroundings don't change (it's harder to pick up an arctic port town and put it in a desert). This is why I just want to prepare a few towns, certainly not all of the towns on the map.

 

[Bupp]

My method is to not make things from scratch, but instead build upon what others started.

For me, I'd go through a bunch of short town descriptions. Raging Swan Press has a whole series of their free "At a Glance" series.

Each of these has a map, a few notable locations, and a few interesting NPCs. If you really like the town, you can purchase longer write ups from their store or DriveThruRPG for under $5, or they have plenty of bundles.

I've run many sessions using just one of there free ones, but wanted one for use as a "starting town", so I bought a bundle that had the town I wanted, plus a few nearby towns that have a couple of connected links.

 

[BookTenTiger]

One way to quickly generate a unique town may be to focus on its past and present. This town used to be _____, and now it's _____.

You can plug in Backgrounds from the PHB for quick ideas:

This town used to be Acolytes, and now it's Guild Artisans.

Honeyhall started as a monastery producing honey and mead, but as its products became well known it grew into a wealthy town of beekeeping merchants.

This town used to be Outlanders, and now it's Criminals.

Toad Hollow was a camp occupied every season by hunters, but over time criminals seeking refuge built up permanent residences until it grew into a ramshackle town.

This town used to be Entertainers, and now it's Soldiers.

Silvervale, built at a crossroads, was famous for its rowdy taverns full of traveling musicians and entertainers, until it became occupied by an army that now uses it as a headquarters to control the local area.

From there, it should be easy to fill in any checklists you want to use. I would focus on ways the town will meaningfully interact with the characters:

1) who will ask the characters for help?

2) who doesn't want the characters to be there?

3) what can the characters buy?

4) where can the characters stay?

5) how can the characters make money?

So if I take one of those examples...

Honeyhall:

1) An Elf Acolyte named Ombrose will ask the characters to protect the temple from mooks working for a merchant to whom the temple owes money.

2) A powerful mead merchant named Vitra "Queen Bee" Quinn doesn't want the characters there because she has been breeding dangerous fiendish bees.

3) The characters can buy delicious mead and honey, as well as very sweet common and rare potions.

4) The characters will be invited to stay at the Temple to Gond, the former humble monastery that is now built up into a lavish house of worship.

5) The characters can be hired to guard the apiaries from local honey thieves or dangerous wildlife.

For my own playstyle, this would produce a memorable town the players would have fun interacting with.

I hope that's useful for you!

 

[DEFCON 1]

If it was me, I'd just grab any three of my old modules from any of the editions and yank out the starting towns from each, seeing as how almost every one had a starting town in it. Heck from even the 5E adventure books you could just pull out and rename Greenest, Phandalin, Goldenfields, Triboar or Saltmarsh and have plenty of stuff at hand.

Granted, if you've already played any of those adventures you might not want to possibly make things seem too similar... but even older stuff like Fallcrest or Winterhaven from 4E's Nentir Vale, the Village of Hommlet, Orlane from Against the Cult of the Reptile God, Restenford from The Secret of Bone Hill, Phlan from any of the Adventurer's League material, etc. could easily give you a lot of material already written and you just need to rename and maybe reflavor it.

 

[LordEntrails]

Too much detail.
All I would do is; Name, Map, Notable.
Where the Notable is something like its a mining town, or it started as a wizard tower, or its the sight where a dragon was slayed, etc.

Then generate 3 taverns, 3 stores, 5 random NPCs and you can use those in whatever town you need them in. Odds are the party is only going to need 1 or 2 of any of those in a given town so you will have spares you can use in the next town and before the next session you can create replacement spares for whatever you need.

Don't build what you don't need. Build a few things that you may need, but allow their placement to vary. That will also help give the town flavor when you need it. i.e. They get to town #2 and they go to a tavern so now this town is the one that has the tavern run by the wizard and his unseen servants.

 

[CubicsRube]

Sometimes i'll use or reuse towns from other modules as mentioned.

If i do create from scratch the first thing i do is write down the towns economic reason. I do this before name. Then everything falls from that.

So for example if you know the areas around are rich with woods heading towards plains, then i might make a town that revolves around lumber, another around furs and another around wheat.

These towns i'll try to give a name that suits the nation they are in. For a generic southern english set, i might choose something like Crosset, Cruffborough and Fair Millings respectively.

Cruffborough is a bit tough, the majority of the town are hunter trappers or somehow involved in the trade. It stinks of hide nearly all hours of the day. The buildings are rustic and airy despite the town being set in the cold deep forest. There is however a massive cosy longhouse that is the centre of the town. They welcome gold, but to earn their trust and respect actions speak louder than words. And if you gain their support, you have it for life.

Crosset is a larger town that handles the lumber brought in and cuts and adjusts it into dowels and planks and other useful items. There is more trade here and people are used to strangers. Many of the houses are built in a swiss chalet style and seem luxurious in a rustic way. The town boasts a few restaurants to cater to travellers and locals, people are used to eating out here. The restaurants have brought flavours from other nations which can be samples here. News and rumours are the favourite pasttimes of Crosset.

A river runs through Fair Millings and it is used to power the many mills in the town. The town is on top of a hill and surrounded by acres of farmland, mostly wheat. It is often bright and sunny and the disposition of people match it. The house roofs are made of straw thatching and there is the constant sound of running water, the creaking of the mill wheels and the smell of warm bread.


So i'll start with something like that and then i'll often improv a lot only if needed. Say if the party skip crosset and go straight to fair milling. Maybe they are looking for information on the local evil wizard(tm). Well i might decide at that point, actually there is a retired adventurer (who happens to have a facial scar) in the town who might know something. Half of my towns and even worlds have come about through what players suggest. I get to leverage their brain power and I also know that it'll get used.

 

[aco175]

If they travel through the same terrain and only for several days, then the towns may look very similar in terms of style and design. If you cross oceans and a desert, then you need to vary things.

Towns tend to have smaller villages around them for a few miles and the villages bring things to town for market. You may have what you need as villages and not full towns, but either way you only need some things planned out. You do not need a map for a one-night town or village.

One of the old rules of the Dungeoncraft articles was that for every detail you plan ,you need a secret or two. If you detail the inn or innkeeper have a secret that may tie into a larger plot or not. A future secret that may come back in a few levels or nothing the PCs will be interested in. Maybe the group finds out that the innkeepers son ran away with the miller's girl. Maybe the innkeeper did not like it but the PCs have nothing to do with it until they find two young people held captive or dead or something else.

Towns and villages are placed in places of importance. A river, an oasis, a mine, a fertile plain- something that makes people want to settle there. A town secret may be needed like a set of standing stones in a cave near the town that does weird things on full moons or heals disease. Maybe it is just a waterfall like Fallcrest in the 4e DMG, or near a mine that makes magic items like Phandalin in 5e- even if the original things is not there or broken. A holy site brings people.

Why the town is there also affects who is there. A holy site has more pilgrims and priests. A mountain border fort has more soldiers and so forth.

Lastly you need a list of names to keep handy for when the PCs suddenly go to the blacksmith or talk to the shepherd boy bringing his flock in.