Making Cities and Towns Unique

[howandwhy99]

Ask yourself: What is a City or Town?
For some it will be the buildings or structures. For others the populace. Maybe for others everything that makes up a city. So both the location, people, their stuff, how they live when there, all of it.

I'd suggest a Ruin is a city that has been abandoned, so it doesn't have to strictly be called such. But it has a history revealed in its ruins of what happened there (and thereafter).

Meerkat burrows could be a town. A wasp nest could be a city. Armies build cities in an evening and leave few remains behind the next morning.
IOW, a dungeon may be a city too. And a city a dungeon.

If you want an interesting city, take inspiration from what interests you.
You liked Lion King? That was a veritable kingdom made up of animals.
Maybe you prefer Downton Abbey? A self-contained hamlet near a small town.
Or Bartertown, post-apocalyptic survival where "electricity, vehicles, and functioning technology depend on a crude methane refinery fueled by pig feces."

I'm sure you and your players have some favorites of your own.

 

[Ryujin]

Don't go too overboard in making towns unique. A lot of towns are pretty much the same, no matter where you go.

For a town/village, I would figure out the main industry. Is it farming, mining, logging, etc.?

Then the next question is who is the main landowner in the area? Very often, the town/village will take it's cue from the landowner. As well, the main landowner is often the person the PCs will interact with.

Those two quick answers are enough to give a town a sketch of personality, while still keeping it realistic and low key.

For example, take Bedford Falls from It's a Wonderful Life. It's a mill town (which means the main industry is a single factory or mill). The main landowner is Mr. Potter, a mean old curmudgeon trying to increase his control over the town. That's enough for a simple sketch of the place.

I tend to agree with this. Not every little dorf and hamlet needs to be a unique, stand out encounter. In fact most will be anything but. You'll have a blacksmith who might or might not make/repair weapons, a carpenter who might act as a combination barrel wright/wainwright, etc.. All of the usual trappings that a small village can't do without. Save the special stuff for when it's truly special. There's no harm in naming the key players in every given village, but to go further than that burns creative resources that can better be used elsewhere. If the players want to dig deeper just wing it, and keep good notes regarding what you create off the cuff.

Larger towns and actual cities are where you need to consider topology, industry, trade partners, religious/magical institutions, and the like. The larger they are and the more individual the topology, and resources, the more unique is the town. Consider the land first; it will shape how the place grows and what it becomes. In a high magic society truly severe topology might not be tamed, but actively reshaped to suit the inhabitants. I would suggest that this only be done with large cities or seats of temporal/religious/magical power though.