What buildings are a MUST for any town?

[Oryan77]

The PCs enter a new town. It's far away from any major cities but close enough to a well traveled road. The town sees its fair share of visitors, but there is no reason for any to stay long. It has a modest population that mostly takes care of themselves.

What buildings/professions does a town need in order to sustain itself?

I'm just curious what a bare bones town would need as a minimum in order to support itself and be referred to as a "town". So, what should every town at least consist of?

 

[jonesy]

General merchandise.
Blacksmith/arrowmaker/armorer.
Woodcutter.
Healer.
Someone growing vegetables, maybe a proper farm.
Someone growing livestock, or hunters/fishermen. Shepherd, swineherd, cowherd, horse trainer.
Tanner.
Candlemaker.
Tailor/seamstress.
Shoemaker.
Baker/cook/butcher.

Depending on the makeup of the town many professions can be combined into one. The farmer might handle all food production with her family. The shoemaker could be the tanner. The woodcutter might be the one handling general merchandise. The healer could be making candles and arrows. The hunter could be the butcher.

 

[Gilladian]

I think it is simpler than that: each village needs residents who produce enough food crop to feed the town and have enough left over to feed some animals. There need to be some people who raise/care for those animals. There needs to be a place where these people meet and exchange their goods. If they produce enough extra food, they will then need a few other things, such as a metalworker/blacksmith, a person collecting taxes and administering the law of the land, a meeting hall which could also serve as a temple or place of worship, and a drinking hall, which again can be the same building. A mill, if the local grain requires grinding, a community well if there is no running source of water (or even if there is), a communal burial ground, a communal oven, and you're pretty much set. Formal places of business don't develop until there's a need for trade with outsiders; if the community IS a trade center, then it will have many inns, a few taverns, a place for the poorest travelers to seek refuge (ie a church-run hostel), shrines or places for travelers to make offerings, and some sort of law-enforcement facility, whether that's a feudal keep for the Lord and his knights, or the Army, or some other variant.

General merchandise shop would be the LAST thing; you'd have a LOT of individuals plying their own specific trade from their homes long before you'd have real shops.

 

[jonesy]

When I said general merchandise I didn't mean a dedicated shop, I meant someone handling miscellaneous stuff. Which is why I would combine it with someone who already produces stuff like that, like a woodcutter who can make miscellaneous wood products.

Chairs, tables, mugs, spoons, a hat/coat stand, etc. all falls under general merchandise I think.

 

[Nellisir]

Most people would be in "agriculture". Farmers, herdsmen, etc. There's a lot of ways to break that down - goatherd, swineherd, shepherd, etc, but in a small town you're likely to have a lot of mixing. Anyone growing grain (which is almost everyone) needs a mill, though. A priest.

In Paris in 1292, the most common occupations (more than 100 practitioners) were: shoemaker (366), furrier (214), tailor (197), jeweler (131), pasterycook (106), mason (104). I don't think every small town needs a furrier, pastry cook, or jeweler, but the next down the list are carpenter, weaver, chandler (candlemaker), cooper, baker.

More specialized professions were probably possible on a manor, where there was a lord to employ beekeepers, etc, etc, as opposed to residents of a free village or town. A lord or lords also allow for service occupations - maidservant, groom, etc.

http://www.svincent.com/MagicJar/Economics/MedievalOccupations.html

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

If they're on the frontier, probably some sort of holdfast that the villagers can retreat to ... which would probably serve as a meeting place.

If the town wants to encourage trade, it will need an inn/tavern, to encourage traders to stop. That will mean stables with sufficient extra room to care for travellers' mounts. If the town is the center of a large agricultural area, there will probably also be a large area to serve as a fairground or farmer's market (probably not a building, but I suppose there could be a stall-like structure for farmers on market days).

 

[Derren]

Its impossible to have a self sustaining town of any substantial size.

 

[howandwhy99]

I think you're going about this differently than I would. For me, need or want determines use. If the culture builds, then the building(s) will be optimized for a single use, or multiple in a more complex culture. Of course, a lot of early simple fortifications are used for stuff like protection, sleeping, eating, mating, and storing. Newcomers may only be provisionally accepted and have a place of their own to sleep. Travellers may have a special place.

It's important to note that buildings do not need to be enclosures. The assigned use of the example structures above do not need to apply to a town, but also to sections of a city, rooms in a home, or locations in a forested territory. There are elephant graveyards, grazing lands, washing and drinking areas, and probably more. Buildings specifically refer to constructed fortifications by "building creatures" (like ants, bees, foxes, and humans).

Fences or penned in areas count as fortifications. So do pits and tree stands and all kinds of earth works. Builders usually have usage reasons. Creatures which pillage and raid usually appropriate and use up other creature's fortifications as they also need or desire. They may use a kitchen as sauna and great hall as a group bedroom. It depends upon the culture of the creatures currently lairing within.

What should every town at least consist of? A territory broad enough for the population with an environment capable of sustaining it. Food, water, and some sort of shelter.

In OD&D a new fort took control and patrolled the land around it to a specific radius. For a 1000 person town I'd say about a 20 mile 1:1 travel radius. ~but the environment must support this. A town in alpine mountains is far smaller in square mileage. A "town" in the Sahara is more a collection or clan of large travelling families within a vast territory.

 

[Bluenose]

Medieval Demographics Made Easy appears to be reasonably welll researched, and includes a list of common trades. The Medieval History Sourcebook has a lot of information, though it's also quite hard to find it if you aren't familiar with the content. And I remember that the excellent Magical Medieval Economy series had information about this, though I can't really get at my books right now owing to a bit of building work I've got going on.

 

[delericho]

The Medieval History Sourcebook has a lot of information, though it's also

unfinished?