Actually that’s interesting.
General question:
When building a city do you go for an aesthetic first approach and then populate on an as-needed basis? Or do you put in what’s relevant to that city (or adventure) first and then add an aesthetic as a flourish?
Fantasy or Function first?
I've done both, I guess. Pretty even split.
I had an idea that I wanted one of the truly powerful mages in the world's make-up/history to have a floating tower/complex upon a chunk of floating rock. Stationary, but a few hundred feet up in the air. It occurred in ancient times. Its existence is tied to an "artifact level" item and has historic relevance for the setting. A city basically built up around/in view of it over centuries of legend of the mage's apparent power (and goodly nature) and a supposition that being in proximity to such a clearly powerful wizard granted a degree of protection from some of the more wild and unmanageable (at the time) dangers of the land.
As example of the other, I needed, well, "wanted"...none of this is "needed"... a "jump off" city for campaigns. Some place that was large enough to allow/have characters of whatever races and classes the players came up with make sense and be immediately congruent with internal consistency of the campaign setting. So, I made it a port city. Some place where all different goods, and the peoples that produced them, would be in and out of. A guild tower from the nearby wizard lands. A few various-sized temples of the realm's major religions/deities. Clearly, a well-organized thieves' guild with fingers in many pies (probably agents -if not an entire guild-hall/base- of an assassin's guild if that ever became needed for a plot). An established Guard/watch, plenty of bar brawls, plenty of merchants and nobles and aristocrats in need of bodyguards, scouts and riders for patrols beyond the walls. So loads of places for warrior types to come from. Removed enough from other population centers that the more "wild/rural" classes were easily explained as being from the city's surroundings/outside the walls, farmlands/food production of the region, or traveling from afar.
A central keep/castle because the city sits at the entrance to/watches over a large "bay" body of water that separates two distinct nations. Wharf/port side shanty towns, "uptown" shops and inns, a "Market Street" for most of your basic "beginning to middling play" goods and materials. Surrounding farming villages and hamlets. POOF! Moderately sized, reasonably secured, "city" region for player to be introduced to the setting.
So, "floating wizard's island/tower" led to "put a small city/large town in the surrounding vicinity." Find a place for it in the relevant realm/countryside, if such a specific detail is needed, as the case of "Towerton," it was. Otherwise, just pick somewhere that makes sense and plop it in. Thus the free-city/surrounding region of "Hawkview" came to be.
Alternatively, and maybe it's a bit selfish - as I find it the most fun part of "city[town/village/region]-making" - I start with a Population.
From Population, you then get to come up with the number of "classed" NPCs that would be "in town." And from there the fun begins. Does the settlement have a small shrine or grand temple? Multiple shrines/competing religions? Is there a guild -loose or organized? large or small? influential or a joke?- or fledgling "gang," local bandits or even a few unaffiliated individuals typically responsible for the local crime/thieving? A local mage or witch, maybe a skilled apothecary or "genial but a bit weird" shopkeeper who seems to know a little bit about a strange array of "oddities?" A mysterious potion-maker outside of town that only the truly desperate seek out? What is the size and general skill of the settlement's defenses? High level fighters? Trained and well-equipped cavaliers? A Middling-level "sergeant" or "sheriff" with a few low-level deputies? Is there a local lord who is more than just a rich/arrogant/cruel/beloved fop? A cult that the town's officials don't even know is there? Or DO?! Are there merchants? Dealing in what? What defenses/protections do they keep in service or have access to? How much traffic is coming and going through this settlement (thus how many inns and/or taverns would be necessary or reasonable for a settlement of this size?)?
From population comes the NPCs of particular interest. From there, a number of other factors of the community can come into focus.
