Mapping the Town - What should a Fantasy Town look like?

Jeremy E Grenemyer · Sunday at 6:27 AM

Zaukrie said:
I think most towns and cities and worlds are boringly realistic, and not fantastic enough.

Same here!

A little bit of the fantastic and magical goes a long way. Especially since magic often goes awry and creates dangerous situations that require adventurers to resolve.

Celebrim · Sunday at 7:26 AM

kigmatzomat said:
Something that 3e did well that has been lost: demographics as a GM tool. Most people didn't like the exact algorithm in 3e RAW but once you understood the algorithm it was simple to change. 5e lost that kind of support.
3e RAW demographics (which were considered "overmagicked" by many) had all PC classes account for 1% of the population, and 50% of all classed individuals were 1st level. I vaguely recall Eberron was made the way it was based on applying the 3e demographics and realizing how many casters that put in the world.

I say that because the demographics in this village are pretty comparable to what the 3.x DMG could produce.

I don't use either 1e AD&D or 3e D&D demographics exactly, but I do tend to have the majority of NPCs very much in the gritty tier.

However, the 3e RAW demographics, which are just 1e AD&D demographics translated forward, have several problems in my opinion, one of which is they make the PCs a bit too special. They don't explain how NPCs survive when the PCs aren't around.

On the other hand, Forgotten Realms goes so far the other way that it doesn't explain why the PCs are ever special.

TheSword · Sunday at 9:26 AM

I was always taught that fortifications were usually offensive in nature and about creating a secure base from which to extend offensive power into an area.

Secondly a town wall or palisade limits growth. Towns aren’t one and done. They grow organically over time - usually without thought of later building a wall. I can see a garrison being walled, or a border town but not a regular settlement.

Lastly why build a time consuming and expensive wall when you can have a militia. Why would bandits or owl bears for the that matter attack a settlement off 50-100 adults, many of which might be armed, but many of whom likely doesn’t have much to take.

Paul Farquhar · Sunday at 11:10 AM

There are quite a lot of medieval and older villages in Surrey, that still retain much of their original form. A cluster of buildings around a village green (which would have been used for grazing, but is now used for cricket). There is a blacksmith, a church, and an inn, all adjacent. There is generally a patch of woodland nearby, and a water source.

But Surrey has always been a relatively safe area. If you go up to the Scottish Borders you will see a lot of Tower Houses. Basically mini-castles that would have housed a family or clan, and protected them from reavers.

GrimCo · Sunday at 4:07 PM

Simple wooden palisade has lot of sense, even if we look at casters as artillery. For most smaller towns and villages, main dangers are small bandit groups, local wildlife, occasional thief, or in fantasy settings, single or small group of wandering monsters.

In real world, palisades were used well into mid 19th century. Only in late 19th, early 20th century, we started switching from walls and forts to trenches. But if you look at FOBs from GWOT era, they were built with modern version of palisade walls, just different materials. Purpose was same. Stop low level threats and control flow of people.

Fenris-77 · Monday at 6:49 AM

A lot of fantasy worlds have town and villages in much more isolated places, places which would mitigate for things like palisades and patrols. Adventurers tend to be in those places, in the wilds and on the frontier, more than they are found poking about the bucolic villages and fields of peaceful Surrey.