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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shallown" data-source="post: 1276972" data-attributes="member: 1368">What I do to make my cities live is not worry about half the stuff people above have mentioned, except for the one mention of people. People make all my cities unique. The main city is not all that exciting especiialy compared to what the players do while adventuring. What is exciting is the characters touching base at a Home of sorts. I make sure my city is alive mostly through change. I change things things happen while the characters areoff adventuring and mpost the time these events are sort of mundane but the characters like to hear that so and so got married or whatever. Example - I have a magic shop (or the closest thing to it) at the university which is the only structured school in the country. the train mages and such as well as healers etc. Well the Gnome that runs the shop has a Toad Familar as does the Dwarf mage in the party. Well they had met and got along and thier familiars even more so. The Gnome mentioned "hey We should breed our toads and sell them to the apprentices around here" The Player was like yeah sure. Well when he came back like 3 months later the gnome was excited to see him and paid him the 50gp spilt from selling all the two familiars offspring. realize the player had like 10,000 gold to spend at the time but that 50 was the best money he made and what he remembered.  The City goes on while the players are gone. Burn down a building build  a nkew one. Kill off a merchant (not to often unless their is a plague) But make things change. this is one reason I keep an accurate calender so I have a perspective in what has changed.Another city my players hate is the port city. Were a recent ruler is trying to break away from the main nation after a recent war. This city taxed the crap out of the characters. They hated all the rules and people watching them all the time. A real level of paranioa arose about the town. The worst part is the real king of the nation is a character. he is king incognito right now and doesn't want the job (the best kind of king) So he is just seething at a chance to bring them under his nation once again.The city was hated as much as any big bad evil guy with taxes, secret police, and a growing army on the border it is a presentthreat that the players can do little about since they are busy saving the world from abigger threat but I know they can't waitto get done and get back to these guys.A city has to be given personality good or bad and the same ways you illistrate that to players you do with a city. Is the city paraniod, gloomy whatever then show that through the average common people they meet. And once in a while throw someone in to contrast that as well. Not everyone is gllom and doom since there is always one optimist and that one helps show how gloom and doom the other people are.hope this helpslater</blockquote>

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