D&D General Preparing Towns in a Sandbox

[Scott Christian]

It sounds as if you are treating the "town" as a character. One the PCs may or may not encounter. If this is the case, then I would shoot for thematic towns. They should all revolve around the same theme. Like literally everything. This will make them different from one another and memorable. Here is an example:

Bellour - the town has six bell towers. Each one rings in a different key, and one will ring each ten minutes. The hour mark is comprised of a tune that uses them all. The people of the town are almost all musically inclined. Instruments strewn about, maybe even an old piano underneath a weatherproof roof in town square. People are always singing. You can write a few lyrics that might hint at a nearby clockwork dungeon.

Sift - the town that packs up every year. So everything in the town is portable. This makes for strange accommodations like inns being tents. The townsfolk all talk about all the places they visit. Their bazaar is full of just that, bazaar stuff from all their travels. They are all oddly dressed, yet none of them match each other either. They wear clothes from their travels. Maybe they hint of rumors that the PCs might find way in the future.

I guess that is one way to approach it. Not too much work, but still creating a small impact and adding to the mystique of the realm they are adventuring in.

 

[teitan]

I get books of random charts for these things. Several are on Amazon very cheaply and you support a small content creator trying to provide for himself and his family.

 

[J.Quondam]

I find it simpler and more useful to tailor atmosphere rather than details on locales that likely wont get much air time. I usually just write down two or three prevalent descriptors or qualities (and maybe a single major feature, if there is one) to give a town a particular "look & feel." Then I aim to repeatedly use variations on those descriptors for as long as the PCs are in the vicinity.

These phrases effectively serve as "personality traits". As long as those few superficial themes are consistently emphasized, the rest of the place can remain pretty generic.*

edit to add a few examples:

• "stray dogs, heaps of trash, rickety"
• "execution notices, bustling but paranoid citizenry"
• "dusty, red sandstone buildings, quiet by day"
• "scent of brewing tea, flowers in windows, narrow streets"

* Always helps to have lists of names and/or random generators at the ready, though!

 

[el-remmen]

Raging Swan Press has a whole series of their free "At a Glance" series.

Thanks for sharing this resource!

 

[S'mon]

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).

Good, but I think that is too much. I would do:

1. A catchy and distinct name
2. A catchy, distinct description of the feel of the town - eg "sunny, red brick houses on ridgelines overlook the blue sea" or "chill and foggy, rain-sodden granite streets"; with any notable landmarks. Edit: J.Quondam's ones above are great!
3. An inn, maybe two, inhabited with a few NPCs all with names and pictures (I can riff off name & pic to add personality as needed). D&D PCs interact with inns far more than anything else.
4. One or two destination stores, like a smith who can work mithril, or a potion seller.
7. At least one church/temple, with one+ NPC priests.
8. Who rules the town.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Don't build what you don't need.

This. You'll have a page-long writeup of a town that you spent an hour making with NPCs and the party will pass it by or only inquire if it has a place to sleep for the night.

If you're providing an adventure hook, then build what you need because then it will matter. Finally, if PCs pass up something really cool like a PC or hook or your cool Inn menu, remove it from Town X and insert in Town Y.

 

[Bupp]

"Just in time" world building is your friend here.

 

[Mordhau]

What meaningful decision points will there be for the PCs in each town?

What differentiates the town from being a series of DM descriptions? - in which case you probably need about a paragraph's worth of notes.

The trouble with travelling through places is that you need to decide how to break up an action that has already been decided. Either the town is a destination it it's own right, or it' an encounter and really needs to be prepped as an encounter.

So the same prep needs to be made as for any other encounter. What interesting issue or problem or situation does this encounter present the PCs with?

The way you use this to make a town memorable is to link the encounter to some memorable feature of the town.

• A town has an annual festival of masks where townsmen wear monster masks. The PCs arrive in the middle of it, however some actual monsters have arrived and are using the masks to murder towns men.
• A town on a river relies on it's fishing to survive, however, the PCs arrive just after the river has ceased running because some hill giants in the nearby hills have dammed it for their own reasons.
• A town with a famous monastery has just lost it's abbot. The whole town is in mourning because the abbot was well respected. The vote for his successor is split 50/50, perhaps the PC cleric can break the tie?