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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 4752078" data-attributes="member: 8863">Well, it is a suppliement for the 3.5 DMG, and some of that stuff is in that book.  That's why the suppliement doesn't cover that stuff.  It does place NPC classes by district, the DM has to figure out the levels himself when actually placing the NPCs.  Personality and alignment are really things the DM should determine when he or she creates the NPC, and NPCs should generally be statted out only when needed.  Basically, I use the NPC numbers as a sort of NPC pool, if a district lists say 10 wizards, then I create up to 10 wizards to put there.  I come up with just the levels for the wizards, and design them as needed, I don't stat out ever 1st and 2nd level wizard beforehand.I haven't gotten that detailed with ideas on city design.  And some of that I intended to cover on the kingdom level, with some rules I cobbled together from what I know of Birthright, and a number of Dragon articles.  It's very clunky and needs a lot of refinement, and it's largely meant to sort of generate plots hooks and campaign events for the PC, rather than a realistic economic system.  Most players are generally more concerned about where they can buy and sell stuff, so generally I'm just focusing on whether or not they can do so in the town.I do set up equipment lists in particular for smaller towns and cities.  Usually, it's lists showing which merchants/shops carry which items.  A bigger city, like the big capital I'm working on with 150 districts, is big enough to conceivably have just about anything, so I wing it if needed.Just kind of make it up as I go along, and encourage players to make PC backgrounds that I can use.  For example in one of my campaigns, one player created a character with Craft (black/armor/weaponsmith) or mentioned his father was a blacksmith, I don't remember which.  In any case, I had his father running the smithy that would be the initial place for the PCs to buy armor and weapons.  Another player who was running the party cleric said his grandfather was also a cleric of the same god, so I made the grandfather the highest-ranking cleric of that god's church in the city, since I hadn't developed it previously.  The player of this cleric also mentioned his father was in the city watch, so when the PC got into serious trouble with a local guildmaster, and the guild called the watch, it was his father who showed up on the scene (as a sort of "Get out of Jail Free" card).  The PCs involved in the trouble later found out that the guild had blackballed them, though. I do that for a major city I'm doing active development on. So for Zazirabe, the capital I mentioned earlier, I'm designing the capital of an old and decadent empire where the nobility is only concerned with their underhanded political maneuvering, while unrest seethes among the commoners.  I'm using the Roman Empire and Renaisance Italy as inspiration here, so the city's built on a number of hills and has a network of canals in the low lying areas, and Resist Poison is available as a regional feat.That's one of the reasons why I put a lot of thought into trade goods and industries in the city.I don't use circles, but I make a rough map of where the neighborhoods are to aid in the development process.Oh yes, urban adventuring isn' the same without slums.Yes, I do come up with the leaders in town and some of the other prominent NPCs.  Using the city generation tables from the 3e DMG generates several high-level NPCs for a big city, so I distribute them around the neighborhoods and make them into the various power in town, the rulers and aristocracy, the wealthy and powerful merchants, religious leaders, crime lords, wizards and so on.  5. Give the PCs a potential base and a friendly NPC. Let them get to know, and love, a neighborhood. It makes them care about the town.</blockquote>Usually I create an inn to be their initial base, and set up several "adventurer friendly" businesses nearby like a smith, arms/armor merchants, merchants who sell adventuring gear, moneychangers, maybe even someone who deals in magic.    And like I said above, I may even set up semi-important NPCs as family members when the players give me a useful background to work with.[/QUOTE]

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