Making Cities and Towns Unique

[Ravilah]

I always GM with sandboxy, homebrewed worlds, but I'm starting to feel that my cities are getting rather stale. I have no problem statting out government types, populations, shops and taverns, political factions and such, but the cities are all starting to feel the same. What are some ideas for cities with interesting, unique character? I need some nice human cities, but I am open to ideas for villages and towns, or settlements of dwarfs, orcs, lizardmen, myconids, whatever.

I am sure there is already a thread, blog, 3-part article, or somesuch on this topic, so if anyone would prefer to direct me thither rather than make suggestions here please feel welcome!

R

P.S. And can I just say that I love having all the best GM minds all in one place? It dawned on me the other day how much my campaigns of the last ten-years owe to ENWorld. Thanks, everyone!

 

[was]

try cities with a unique physical feature..such as on a cliff, a huge red boulder in the middle of it or maybe a river running through it.

 

[Gilladian]

Actually, this is a question I want to see answers to, myself. I tend to fall back on the same patterns when I create towns and regions.

geographic features are one thing to use. Also try specific resources; I'm building a town now with a salt mine. I'm hoping it makes an interesting community feature.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Invariably, the best source of inspiration is the real world. Depending on the tone you're looking for, you might google up some lists of the world's ten weirdest places, or simply read up on wikipedia articles for towns in a region you're not familiar with. In either case, you're just trying to grab a few details to influence your in-game thinking.

 

[RedGalaxy00]

If your looking for a way to give a town/city/metropolis more personality outside of it's features, try running a couple of larger adventures in a single city. Sure, it may be a little work, but after a few of them, you'll have a solid reservoir of quirks you can give to your cities on a moments notice.

Like in my last campaign, the party started in, and ended up staying in the starting town (after a bit of miscommunication between me and them, that I just rolled with) and while I hadn't planned on it, they came across a guild dedicated to wiping away the local chapter of the thieves guild. They learned that the mayor was a were-rat, who lived in the sewers at night, because he couldn't control the animal inside, and that a silver dragon had taken residence in the mountains nearby, hundreds of years prior, and chose to protect the town from harm because he felt that it was his duty.

Basically, what I'm saying is... it isn't the local that makes a city what it is, it's the characters there. Sure, change up the local now and then. They can't all be small hunting villages, or large capitals. I mean, a world works only because of all the pieces in it. So, mining towns and port cities will be needed to provide a resource that others need, but really, unless a large landmark rock, or pit, or wall holds something significant to both the world and players, than at the end of the day, it's nothing more then a rock, pit, or wall, a bit of description for when you first introduce the location, and most likely won't be mentioned again afterwards.

Even then, when I introduce a new city/town/village/etc to the group, I talk more about the people that make it up. How they act, how they dress, if they notice the new fellas in town. You know, things of that nature.

Anyways, I hope that helped.

 

[GX.Sigma]

@RedGalaxy00 is right. Any feature that doesn't self-evidently answer the question "why should we care?" is quickly ignored and forgotten by players. No one cares that the bartender is named Ostyluth Brandyguts or that there's a big glass sculpture in the center of town, because it doesn't affect how the players act or what they encounter. It's just fluff. I think most towns don't even need names. If there's nothing interesting going on, why not just call it "a small fishing village" and move on to the fun part?

Now, a city where vampires live among humans and kill someone every night? That sounds cool, but it only matters if there's a chance of the players fighting some vampires (or being unable to bring a certain artifact into town, or becoming engaged in espionage for one side or the other, etc). If it's just a background event that the characters don't need to care about, it's just fluff.

 

[dd.stevenson]

I don't write my own cities very often, as both my players and I vastly prefer published settings. But, the same problems still apply IME. How do I quickly give the players a good sense of the city? The key, I've found, is a good premise. I use:

1. CITY is a SUCH-AND-SUCH KIND OF CITY BUILT IN SUCH-AND-SUCH A LOCATION.

Where:

*CITY is the name of the city
*SUCH-AND-SUCH KIND OF CITY is the theme of the city
*BUILT IN SUCH-AND-SUCH A LOCATION is the unique physical property of the city, which should absolutely support the theme

Beyond this, I make sure and craft good district descriptions. I do it like this:

2. THEMATIC DISTRICT'S NAME-->BIRD'S EYE VIEW-->STREET VIEW
(ALSO: BORING DISTRICT LIST)

Where:
THEMATIC DISTRICT'S NAME is the name of the district that is unique to the city
BIRD'S EYE VIEW is some flavor text that describes what a bird might see flying over the district. I use this when I describe the district to players looking at the city map.
STREET VIEW is the flavor text I use when players actually decide to enter the district.
BORING DISTRICT LIST is the list of other districts that are obligatory, but don't really pertain to the theme. I don't bother fleshing these out with flavor text.

Here's an example from my AQ campaign.

1. Rogosto is a mecca for magicians, built beneath a cluster of ancient bronze spires gleaming atop a hill.


2. ***OLD CITY (GOVT DISTRICT)***Alien bronze towers gleaming against the blue sky ; Ministry of Secrets, capped with a fat golden minaret; three towers linked by a beefy bronze wall penning in a web of serpentine walkways and lofty structures***scholars and apprentices hustling; wagons of archeological treasures rolling uphill toward the ministry; occasional litter borne by bell-clad porters


***JUNGLE-FACING SLUMS***A brown, dirty ring around the outskirts of the city***steam rising from the waste in the street; brown mud brick with the whitewash worn away; occasional cries and shouts from the thin-walled tenements; children dressed in rough garments playing with sticks and other crude toys


***BAZAAR***Enclosed, partially roofed public building three-quarters of the way up the hill; colorful cloth against whitewashed brick***Alley of the booksellers, small shops packed with scrolls and books from all over the world; Street of the Glassblowers, ringing and glittering with lab glassware; Metalsmith Way, noticeably empty of wares but filled with turbaned merchants haggling with customers.


***MERCHANT'S QUARTER***Bleached white buildings at the feet of the towers, interspersed with blue-watered public baths and palm lined avenues; The Mosque of the Venerable Kor, white washed and glass mosaics glittering in the morning sun; The Mosque of the New Moon, a trio of graceful minarets which echo the royal palace's; Zann's Mosque of the Visionary Spring, imposing marble pillars with visitors thronging in and out***subdued noise of garden restaurants; small crowds gathering to hear tales from a barber


***DOCKS***Squat gray and tan warehouses beside a brown and blue river***amid the creak of cargo nets, smallish crates marked "fragile" or "valuable"

 

[Savage Wombat]

Invariably, the best source of inspiration is the real world. Depending on the tone you're looking for, you might google up some lists of the world's ten weirdest places, or simply read up on wikipedia articles for towns in a region you're not familiar with. In either case, you're just trying to grab a few details to influence your in-game thinking.

Wanted to second this. When considering ideas for unusual cities, never forget we live in a world with a major city almost completely devoid of roads, and most major traffic goes by water. A town where small children use zip lines to cross the canyon just to get to school and back. A city where the locals avoided invasion by turning themselves in to an island. Etc.

 

[Derren]

What often happens is that cities and societies in RPGs often resemble modern ones because of familarity, lack of interest or "rule of cool" gamplay. And as modern cities all over the world become more and more uniform it is no surprise that the cities in the game lack character.

So my suggestion would be that instead of using "unique and weird" features (gets old fast) that you focus more on (real world) history, not only of the cities themselves but also politics and religion.

 

[ExploderWizard]

When creating a city or any settlement really, think about why it exists in that particular location. Was it built for defense? Is there a natural resource nearby that fuels a particular industry? Communities will generally spring up near good fresh water sources, absent other reasons.

In my own campaign, which is set in a borderland freehold, there is only one actual 'town' which is actually more of a glorified village. Across the region, a few miles apart are numerous thorps which are really small, and feature only a town hall and maybe a tiny alehouse in addition to residential dwellings.

There are many of these little communities, so I individualized them a bit. There are several which support typical field farms, others are home to herdsmen of cattle or sheep. There is one thorp to the extreme North that has a perpetual stink about it because it is a hog raising community. Another community, built near a large lake keeps flocks of ducks. Other small communities are located near important geographical features such as natural fords in rivers.

Aside from purpose or industry, the personalities of important inhabitants can make a community memorable. Village elders and wise women, tavern keepers, and other prominent citizens can make an otherwise drab location memorable.

Local lore, customs, holidays, and celebrations can also set a community apart. Having different communities celebrate the region-wide spring festival according to a variety of local customs can assist in making a location stand out. Don't forget local laws too. There are a lot of ridiculous laws still on the books in many communities here in the real world, many of them completely forgotten by even by people living there. Think about the kinds of crazy laws that might exist given the dangers of a typical D&D realm.

Imagine a small town that had bad experiences with necromancers. In an old game many years ago, we had a necromancer in our party who had created a zombie out of a slain foe. We encountered some trouble when attempting to bring his servant into town! It was quite a fun Tombstone spoof:

" Hold on there! Yer gonna have to leave that zombie outside town limits."

" Why?"

" Look. No ones sayin you can't raise a zombie. No ones sayin you can't command a zombie. All we're sayin is that you can't command a zombie IN TOWN"